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 — a little something I call “Poll Day.” As much as I enjoy going over the data, this week’s numbers are all, […]
Long-time readers will no doubt recall the fun we’ve had with Rep. Nick Smith (R-Mich.). He’s the conservative Republican lawmaker who was offered, by his own account, $100,000 in campaign support for his son in exchange for his vote on Bush’s Medicare scheme last November. (For the record, Smith declined the bribe and voted against […]
The apparent fact that Iraqi interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s speech was written by Bush campaign and White House aides, isn’t going away quietly. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said in a letter to Bush that the report in Thursday’s Washington Post raised doubts about Allawi’s optimistic assertions on Iraqi reconstruction efforts and the […]
It’s a shame this is coming out the day after the big debate, because it deserves broader attention. The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general, in a pair of critical reports, said the agency has exaggerated the nation’s air quality and undermined court cases against big electric utilities by devising a rule change that lets them […]
OK, two more points about the debate before I move on to other news. First was Bush’s reaction to Kerry’s criticism of the Iraqi “coalition.” Kerry: “[W]hen we went in, there were three countries: Great Britain, Australia and the United States. That’s not a grand coalition. We can do better.” Bush: “Well, actually, he forgot […]
The most frustrating part of watching Bush last night wasn’t his tendency to roll his eyes, or his smirk, or his over-reliance on talking points. It was his inclination to say things that just aren’t true. It started early and never let up. Whopper #1: “We pursued al Qaeda wherever al Qaeda tries to hide. […]
Go watch the “Faces of Frustration” video the DNC put together. No dialog, just 51 seconds of great Bush facial expressions from last night. And on a side note, kudos to the DNC team for putting the video together so quickly.
You know those little lights Kerry and Bush had on their podiums last night? Kerry’s campaign, at least publicly, acted like they were going to cause a problem for their candidate. As it turns out, the opposite was true. Yesterday afternoon, the AP reported that this had become a major point of last-minute contention. Democratic […]
The polls show Americans were impressed by John Kerry last night, but many of those same Americans will be swayed by what the media say about the debate and the candidates’ performances. Fortunately, the opinions were pretty consistent here, too. Here’s a telling anecdote from The New Republic’s Ryan Lizza: The first inkling that the […]
ABC News poll: Who won the debate? Kerry 45%, Bush 36%, Tie 17% (Among self-identified independents: Kerry 48%, Bush 28%, Tie 24%) CBS News poll: Kerry 43%, Bush 28%, Tie 29% USA Today/CNN/Gallup: Regardless of which candidate you happen to support, who do you think did the better job in the debate? Kerry 53%, Bush […]