If you’re a Carpetbagger regular, you know the drill. If you’re new, welcome; we do this every Friday. It’s time for my round-up of statewide presidential polls released over the last seven days. As you may have noticed, as we get closer to the election, we get more data. This week’s data can best be […]
The fact that the South has become increasingly Republican over the last decade is well known. The fact that Democratic women may be helping to turn the tide back the other way is not. Alexandra Starr has a great item in this month’s issue of The Atlantic about “the Democrats’ salvation in the South,” whom […]
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has railed against unspecified “special interests” since entering politics about a year ago. It’s his stock line as governor, just as it was during his campaign. “I do not have to bow to any special interests,” he said. “I have plenty of money.” Wealthy or not, the governor can’t seem to […]
Let me acknowledge from the outset that I’m not one for conspiracy theories. In fact, I’ve never particularly cared for the idea that there’s a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” because that suggests the network of conservatives that drive political discourse and the GOP agenda are somehow acting in secret. They’re not. That said, there is something […]
As part of my ongoing fascination with Bush’s weakened position with south Florida’s Cuban-American community — and how his faltering support could end up costing him the election — there have been a few interesting developments this week. First, the St. Petersburg Times picked up on the “backlash” angle, noting that the Bush administration’s harsh […]
His timing couldn’t be worse. Just as the Republican National Convention is about to kick off in New York City — which isn’t exactly a GOP stronghold to begin with — House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) has managed to seriously offend his party’s host city. The controversy kicked off on Wednesday when the conservative New […]
In advance of the Republican convention, Bush is raising his media profile, doing some interviews with a few national papers today. A discussion with the New York Times produced several interesting tidbits, but two in particular stood out. First, Bush came awfully close to admitting that he was sorta, kinda, almost wrong about post-war Iraq. […]
My friend Tom Schaller raised a point yesterday that should be emphasized far and wide. It happened this week almost without notice: The number of Americans killed in Iraq during 2004 now exceeds the number killed in 2003. More remarkably, the 488 killed thus far this year died in just 239 days (2.04 daily average), […]
No wonder the White House was so anxious to hide the data; the results are a national disgrace. Census data released today show that the number and percentage of Americans living below the poverty line increased for the third consecutive year in 2003, and the number and percentage of people without health insurance also climbed […]
Bush, to USA Today yesterday: “I am not going to come in second.” Doesn’t he mean, he doesn’t plan on coming in second again?