A commander-in-chief moment that Kristol missed

It’s Monday, and that can only mean one thing: highlighting the errors of fact and judgment in Bill Kristol’s latest New York Times column. Today, Kristol argues — get this — that the surge policy in Iraq was a great idea, and he prefers John McCain to Barack Obama because of it. Discussing the surge […]

When ‘nutpicking’ reaches the presidential campaign level

For quite a while, conservatives have embraced an annoying strategy — trawl through liberal blogs’ comments sections in the hopes of finding intemperate remarks. The right then takes these comments to “prove” that the left is made up of unhinged radicals. The practice has always been rather self-defeating. In fact, about a year ago, Kevin […]

Meet John McCain’s wife — no, not that one

Long-time readers may recall that I wrote a Washington Monthly piece two years ago about the apparent double standard the media applies to politicians’ marital difficulties. Bill Clinton’s personal difficulties dominated the media landscape for more than a decade — indeed, in some instances, his alleged proclivities are still of interest, 16 years after reporters […]

Monday’s campaign round-up

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: * A new two-week tour kicks off today: “Sen. Barack Obama will kick off a two-week ‘Change That Works for You’ tour to highlight his economic plans. ‘The middle class has always been […]

The drive to downplay differences between Obama, McCain

Just a few days ago, Paul Krugman had an interesting item on his blog on the media’s coverage of the presidential campaign as the dominant story shifts from a heated primary race to the general election. When the focus was on Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, it was in the media’s interest to exaggerate differences […]

McCain plays media critic — and then forgets what he said

Newsweek sat down with John McCain on Friday morning, just two-and-a-half days after delivering his widely-panned “lime Jell-O” speech near New Orleans, and asked him about some of his media criticism. Newsweek: Want to back up a little bit and talk about press coverage. One of the things that you mentioned in your speech in […]

McCain’s ‘evangelical problem’

Late last week, Mark DeMoss, arguably “the most prominent public relations executive in the evangelical world,” raised a few eyebrows when he told BeliefNet that many evangelicals have a “fascination with Barack Obama.” DeMoss concluded, “…I will not be surprised if he gets one third of the evangelical vote. I wouldn’t be surprised if it […]

GOP insider: ‘I think we’ve got a world of problems’

Just two weeks ago, the Politico ran an item about the enormous confidence the Republican establishment has about John McCain’s chances in November. As the piece put it, “[M]any top GOP strategists believe he can defeat Barack Obama — and by a margin exceeding President Bush’s Electoral College victory in 2004.” In some Republican circles, […]