The Supreme Court ruled yesterday, in a narrow 5-4 decision, to extend access to the federal courts to detainees at Guantanamo Bay. When reporters asked John McCain for his reaction a few hours later, he struck a disappointed note, but seemed pretty level-headed about the case. “[I]t is a decision that the Supreme Court has […]
Following up on an item from this morning, there’s already video proof that John McCain supports privatizing Social Security, just as Bush attempted to do in 2005. Realizing the pressure’s on, today McCain attempted to, well, lie about it. For those who can’t watch clips online, McCain told voters at an event in New Jersey, […]
For the last 10 days or so, the McCain campaign has been pretty aggressive in pushing its desire to have a series of town-hall debates with Barack Obama, with neutral audiences asking questions. Obama has publicly expressed some interest in the idea, prompting McCain to announce he’d like to see a total of 10 events, […]
I have to say, I’ve had quite enough economist-bashing for one campaign cycle. A month ago, defending her silly gas-tax holiday proposal, Hillary Clinton said it didn’t matter than every professional economist in the country insisted the idea was ridiculous. “I’m not going to put my lot in with economists,” Clinton said, adding that economists […]
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: * More intra-party reconciliation: “As we first reported here, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe wooed top Clinton donors at a private presentation in Manhattan yesterday, and the early indications are that such efforts […]
A couple of days ago, the NYT’s Thomas Friedman sounded a slightly hyperbolic note about Barack Obama’s popularity on the global stage: “It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Democrats’ nomination of Obama as their candidate for president has done more to improve America’s image abroad … than the entire Bush public […]
Following up on an item from earlier this week, it’s bad enough when the Bush administration awards tax dollars to abstinence-only programs that don’t work. It’s worse when our money goes to far-right abstinence groups based on their political connections. And it’s even worse still when these same abstinence groups get more money than they […]
In the latest NBC/WSJ poll, released yesterday, there was a noticeable trend when it came to age groups — the younger the voter, the more likely he/she was to support Barack Obama. The only age group in which John McCain excelled was with those over 65 (who prefer McCain to Obama, 48% to 41%). How […]
For a few weeks in May, there was considerable focus on John McCain’s campaign staff, stacked with corporate lobbyists, many of whom had some very unsavory characters (read: tyrannical dictators) as clients. In June, McCain hopes to turn the tables, going after some advisors Barack Obama picked to work on his VP search committee. It’s […]
To hear his campaign tell it, John McCain is in his element when he hosts town-hall forums. Give him a podium and a teleprompter, and he’s lost. Give him a microphone and a floor, and he’s fine. With that in mind, McCain, hoping to erase some of the lingering memories of last week’s speech debacle […]