It would be a gross exaggeration to suggest that every person to ever run for president in U.S. history has been a wealthy white Protestant male. We’ve had some Catholic candidates (Al Smith, Kennedy, Kerry), some Mormon candidates (George Romney, Hatch), some Jewish candidates (Lieberman, Specter), some African-American candidates (Jackson, Sharpton), and some women candidates […]
Back in August, we learned from former Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith that the president, shortly before he ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003, did not understand the religious differences at the heart of Iraqi society. As Galbraith explained, Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, who quickly realized that the president was unfamiliar with […]
There’s just something perfect about this. After 12 months of naked partisanship on Capitol Hill, on cable TV and in the blogosphere, the word of the year for 2006 is … “truthiness.” The word — if one can call it that — best summed up 2006, according to an online survey by dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster. […]
US News reported yesterday that the H.W. Bush gang, sent in to give Bush 43 a hand, are feeling a little dejected. Apparently, they expected the president to take the Iraq Study Group a little more seriously. They consider him rather dismissive of the group’s conclusions…. “We have a classic case of circling the wagons,” […]
A little more than a week ago, the administration leaked word that some Bush administration officials support something called the “80 percent solution” in Iraq. Basically, the plan is to take sides in the civil war, and back the Shiite majority over the Sunni minority. By any reasonable estimation, it’s a very bad idea. For […]
The president has done some post-election tinkering, but the public isn’t impressed. His support, which was low before, keeps dropping further. The national job approval rating of President Bush has plummeted to 30%, an all–time low in the latest Zogby International telephone poll, sinking below the 31% approval rating he dropped to in early June. […]
First up from the God machine this week is a portion of an interview Bush did with Fox News’ Brit Hume that didn’t seem to generate much in the way of attention. Hume noted that he’s spoken with a number of people who consider themselves Bush allies, but believe that his presidency has “run aground […]
The Hill reported this week that the president would host a meeting with leaders of the conservative Blue Dog and New Democrat coalitions, in order to discuss areas of “mutual cooperation.” The get-together, which happened yesterday at the White House, hasn’t generated much in the way of media attention, but I found one local news […]
Morbo is on a top-secret mission today and won’t be able to share any words of wisdom, but were he were around, I’m pretty sure this story would drive him nuts. On game days, football fan Tracy French pulls his SUV into a reserved parking spot and rides an elevator to a stadium suite outfitted […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Quote of the Day #1: Republican Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon has offered tacit support for the war in Iraq for years, but he’s done. Smith said he is at, “the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same […]