For all the discussion we’ve seen (and participated in) over the political trivia that dominated last week’s Democratic debate, let’s not forget that even when ABC’s Charlie Gibson was willing to ask a substantive question, he was still getting his facts wrong. Now that John McCain is repeating Gibson’s mistakes, it’s worth keeping reality in […]
Following up on an earlier item, one of the more interesting exchanges on John McCain’s appearance on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” yesterday came when McCain was confronted with a quote from Elizabeth Edwards. “The truth is, a health care policy that covers everything but cancer doesn’t exactly do me a lot of good,” […]
Oh, Rick. You were supposed to be the lone holdout. All of those other far-right Republicans swallowed hard and endorsed John McCain, but not Rick Santorum. You wouldn’t even consider it. No sirreebob. You called the prospects of a McCain presidency “very dangerous.” Just last month, even after McCain had wrapped up the nomination, you […]
The Clinton campaign is starting to develop an m.o. — unveil a provocative new ad in the 11th hour, right before an important contest. We saw it with the “3 a.m.” ad, which sparked considerable discussion, and we’re seeing it again today, with this new ad, called, “Kitchen.” As Chris Cillizza explained, “The ad hits […]
I haven’t followed college football in quite a while, but I remember that when I was a fan, the sport’s post-season system — known as the “Bowl Championship Series” — was thoroughly annoying. Playoff systems are utilized in college baseball, basketball, hockey, and Divisions II and III football, but Division IA college football relies on […]
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: * So, what do the latest polls in Pennsylvania say about tomorrow’s primary? Quinnipiac has Clinton up by seven (51-44); Strategic Vision (R) also has her up by seven (48-41); Mason-Dixon has her […]
I’ve been trying to keep up, at least passively, with the various back-and-forth attacks from the Clinton and Obama campaigns in Pennsylvania yesterday; as far as I can tell, it’s about as ugly as we’ve seen it since the first few days in March. Worse, Obama’s campaign has been far more negative than usual, which […]
John McCain’s hurdles are obvious: he’s running as a conservative Republican at a time when most Americans are anxious to break with conservative Republicanism. He doesn’t know anything about economics; his foreign policy vision has been completely discredited; his campaign platform includes almost nothing in the way of new ideas; and he probably won’t have […]
A top advisor to John McCain recently described his sense of what the media’s role should be in the presidential campaign — the press, the advisor said, should “play referee on what is a bogus claim and what isn’t.” That sounds about right to me. Clearly, news outlets have broader responsibilities, but at a minimum, […]
Dear New York Times, Word has it that the Times’ publisher, Arthur Sulzberger Jr., decided last fall that it was time to add another Republican columnist to the paper’s op-ed page, and the decision early on was to find a “lightning-rod conservative.” For reasons that I’ve never entirely understood, you picked the Weekly Standard’s Bill […]