Newsweek’s Michael Hirsh has an interesting item today on Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) becoming an “attack dog” and a “major consigliore” to Barack Obama, which apparently includes “relentlessly attacking and counterattacking the Republicans on the campaign trail, especially on national-security issues.” In an interview, Biden said that he and other leading Democrats are “absolutely, thoroughly, […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * There was a little movement in superdelegate news this morning, with Obama picking up two new supporters from Congress, Reps. Jim Costa and Dennis Cardoza, both of California. This is actually a […]
CNN is reporting, based on word from Hillary Clinton’s “inner circle” is pushing for some kind of “compromise,” and that “preliminary … formal talks” have begun about a Clinton exit strategy. TPM’s David Kurtz posted this video from CNN this morning: Listening to the report, CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux reports that the Clinton campaign is outlining […]
There’s been a casual agreement in recent campaign cycles that presidential candidates with military backgrounds tout their service, but they don’t necessarily denigrate their rivals for not wearing a uniform. In each of the last five races, one presidential hopeful had considerably more military experience than his rival, and in each instance, the one who […]
After months of delays, a handful of carefully-selected reporters will have access this morning to 400 pages of John McCain’s medical records. By all appearances, the McCain campaign is rather panicky about what journalists might find, and have gone to almost comical lengths to make this process as ridiculous as humanly possible. At the outset, […]
For months, John McCain has faced questions about his associations with radical religious televangelists like John Hagee and Rod Parsley. And for months, McCain refused to disassociate himself from the extremists, even going so far as to defend the hate-filled rhetoric (McCain said Hagee had been “taken out of context”) and repeatedly say he was […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * I’ll have a much more detailed report on this first thing in the morning: “In the face of mounting controversy over headline-grabbing statements from Pastor John Hagee, CNN has learned presumptive Republican nominee John McCain has decided to reject his endorsement.” * The news out of China continues to […]
A week ago, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) casually told some associates, when he thought no one else was listening, “We’re closing in on Rove. Someone’s got to kick his ass.” And what was it, specifically, that warranted this ass-kicking? Conyers said the committee wants Rove to testify about his role in the […]
In Republican foreign policy circles, you can’t really get more “serious” than former Secretary of State James Baker. His record for partisanship is unquestioned — Baker did, after all, oversee the 2000 Florida recount on behalf of George W. Bush — but after serving as Secretary of State and chairman of the Iraq Study Group, […]
Regular readers are, by now, all too familiar with John McCain’s inexplicable association with radical preacher Rod Parsley, but it’s encouraging that at least a couple of news outlets are starting to pick up on the significance of this. Today, ABC News is on the case. You’ll notice, of course, that despite Parsley’s record of […]