Watching McCain’s credibility go up in smoke

John McCain’s efforts in opposition to the tobacco industry have come up quite a bit lately. A McCain campaign ad unveiled last week noted that he “has taken on big tobacco.” A few days later, the campaign released another ad, featuring Democratic praise for McCain’s work against Big Tobacco. McCain even boasted of his efforts […]

Lieberman hopes to buy some Democratic goodwill

Joe Lieberman, whose recent partisan conduct has been wearing on the nerves of congressional Democrats, no doubt realizes that he’s burnt some bridges with his former party. Lieberman is also no doubt aware of the fact that if the Senate Democratic caucus grows next year, which is likely, the chances of him remaining as a […]

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: * The schedule for the Democratic National Convention is coming together, and according to a press release sent out yesterday, Michelle Obama will speak on Monday night, and Hillary Clinton will speak on […]

McCain cozies up to … Ralph Reed?

As part of his new-found interest in appearing independent again, John McCain and his aides like to remind folks about his role in taking on Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist. It’s not an entirely unreasonable pitch; McCain did some decent work on the scandal in the Senate. McCain is bragging about his role now, […]

Neocons still love that Cold War mentality

When Robert Kagan… The details of who did what to precipitate Russia’s war against Georgia are not very important. Do you recall the precise details of the Sudeten Crisis that led to Nazi Germany’s invasion of Czechoslovakia? Of course not Koupit Lioresal v Praze , because that morally ambiguous dispute is rightly remembered as a […]

Obama campaign email stirs VP buzz

We still don’t know who Barack Obama will choose as a running mate, and with the senator on vacation with family this week, it’s probably safe to assume we’re not going to hear any announcements until next week. But because of the considerable interest in the looming news — the convention begins in two weeks, […]

McCain campaign manager was for McCain’s record before he was against it

Of all the various interviews on the Sunday morning shows, McCain campaign manager Rick Davis’ appearance on “Fox News Sunday” was likely to be the least interesting. The head of the Republican campaign on the Republican network? Not exactly must-see TV. But FNC’s Chris Wallace was actually at the top of his game yesterday, and […]

Two can play the ‘celebrity’ game

With Barack Obama taking the time off to spend time with his family before the convention, one might have thought we wouldn’t be hearing much from the Obama team this week. Not so — the candidate may be taking a break, but his operation has decided to start the week with a new ad that’s […]