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: * A new CNN poll of Dems in New Hampshire shows Hillary Clinton with a double-digit lead, but by a shrinking margin. In a September poll from CNN, Clinton was cruising in New […]
Way back in January, the Washington Post ran a front-page piece documenting Barack Obama’s admitted experimentation with drugs as a teenager. The 1,300-word piece didn’t exactly break new ground, but the article concluded that Obama’s “bad choices, including drug use starting in high school and ending in college … are sure to receive new scrutiny.” […]
When the “Conservapedia” was launched, I was convinced it was some kind of joke. Billed as a conservative rival to Wikipedia, Conservapedia would be an ideologically pure, right-wing online collaborative encyclopedia. Of course, the site was so laughably right-wing, and so intentionally devoid of diversity of thought, it seemed obvious that this was some Onion-like […]
The political crisis in Pakistan has been rather humiliating for the Bush White House. A president who claims to cherish a “freedom agenda” has been backing an undemocratic military dictatorship. For seven years, Bush simply misjudged Pervez Musharraf and his government. The U.S. president saw a democracy where there wasn’t one, and embraced a dictator […]
For practically the entire year, Hillary Clinton has had the benefit of being the Democratic frontrunner, and staying above the fray. Aside from a few random spats here and there, Clinton hasn’t felt the need to go after her primary rivals at all. Why should she? Going on the offensive raises the profile of your […]
Yesterday’s announced breakthrough on stem-cell research is obviously good news for medicine, public health, and scientific advancements. Scientists from the United States and Japan have successfully been able to reprogram skin cells to act like embryonic stem cells. If the promise of these results is true, experts can move forward on embryonic stem-cell research without […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * So much for political reconciliation in Iraq: “Iraq’s prime minister lashed out at the country’s Sunni Arab vice president in an interview published Tuesday, drawing attention to a bitter rift between two key politicians from rival sects at a time the U.S. is pressing for Iraqi unity…. In the […]
It’s hard to believe that after over two centuries, the Supreme Court has never definitively ruled on whether the 2nd Amendment protects an individual’s right to “keep and bear arms.” But that’s about to change. The Supreme Court announced this morning that it will hear a DC case that will probably settle the question, at […]
When the Plame leak scandal broke, and Americans first began to learn that the White House has outed an undercover CIA agent during a war, it was then-press secretary Scott McClellan who had to lie. He told reporters (and the nation) that leaks of classified information just wasn’t “how this White House operates,” and more […]
In his first six years in office, the president has made little mention of Thanksgiving, beyond the ceremonial turkey pardons, but yesterday Bush traveled to Charles City, Virginia, for his first speech devoted specifically to the holiday. “[O]ur nation’s greatest strength is the decency and compassion of our people,” he said. “As we count our […]