Today’s edition of quick hits. * Have I mentioned lately that Bush’s approach to signing statements is sheer madness? “President Bush yesterday signed the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act after initially rejecting Congress’s first version because it would have allegedly opened the Iraqi government to ‘expensive lawsuits.’ Even though he forced Congress to change its […]
I read a lot of far-right blogs for one of my other gigs, and it occurs to me once in a while that most readers of progressive blogs probably don’t have a good sense of how the “other side” thinks. How do they perceive the same events that we see? How do they endorse ideas […]
There’s a very good reason John McCain and Mitt Romney have been fighting like crazy for every last ounce of support in Florida: today’s Republican presidential primary has the potential to fundamentally change the nature of the race. Josh Marshall notes today: [A] largely unremarked factor here is how the Republicans have chosen to structure […]
Certain campaign narratives develop for presidential candidates during the primaries, and end up sticking through the general election. Regrettably, the Dems have their hands full with both a competitive primary of their own and a large Republican field, and as such, no one’s been laying the groundwork for these narratives when it comes to John […]
When I saw an email yesterday with a statement purporting to be from the New York State chapter of the National Organization of Women, I dismissed it as a poor attempt at humor. The statement, claiming to be in response to Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama, was so over the top, and so hyperbolic […]
Over the last month or so, pollsters gauging support in presidential contests have a mixed record. In Iowa, pollsters got the Republicans’ top two right, but everyone except the Des Moines Register underestimated Barack Obama’s support. In New Hampshire, the polls got the GOP race almost exactly right, but wasn’t even close in predicting Hillary […]
Granted, I already mentioned this just a couple of posts ago, but upon further reflection (and upon seeing a bunch of other good posts about this elsewhere), it probably deserves an item of its own. In his State of the Union address last night, Bush boasted, “We are grateful that there has not been another […]
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: * Today is the day for the Republicans’ closely-watched Florida primary, and with the polls tight, McCain and Romney didn’t hold back yesterday: “Mitt Romney branded John McCain a closet liberal Monday, an […]
The president’s State of the Union was effectively divided into two halves: domestic concerns and foreign policy. If Bush’s body language and tone of voice are any indication of his personal interests, he went through the motions on the first part, and seemed a little more engaged on the second. Of course, engagement and coherence […]
In 2001, when the White House decided it would work with congressional Dems on No Child Left Behind legislation, Dems made one thing perfectly clear: no vouchers. Plenty of ideas were on the table, but there was simply no way Dems would support a national plan that used public funds to subsidize tuition at religious […]