To help kick-off a new Capitol Hill newspaper, The Politico, Roger Simon interviewed John McCain (R-Ariz.) about his take on the war in Iraq. Given McCain’s countless recent comments on the subject, you’d assume this is well-tread ground, but Simon caught a few gems. With his presidential hopes tied to an administration whose Iraq policy […]
Just two weeks ago, in his national address announcing a troop escalation in Iraq, the president hinted that [tag]Iran[/tag] may be our next target. Specifically, Bush said, “Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces.” The wording may have been open to some interpretation, but […]
I promised a while back not to publish regular polls about the president — most of which simply reinforce the obvious fact that Bush is unpopular — unless he reached new lows. In this respect, I think the new CBS poll qualifies as noteworthy. Mr. Bush’s overall approval rating has fallen to just 28 percent, […]
To date, the traditional media’s coverage of the Democratic presidential candidates has been discouraging, to put it mildly. CNN ran a segment comparing Obama to Ahmadinejad because the senator wasn’t wearing a tie in New Hampshire. The Washington Post ran a bizarre front-page story about John Edwards selling his house. Reports about Hillary Clinton have […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Here’s an unexpected twist from House Minority Leader John Boehner: “[Boehner] and other key House Republican leaders who support the president’s proposal for a surge, will demand that the president report every 30 days to Congress the progress that the Iraqi government and the administration is making in the […]
GOP pollster Frank Luntz has been advising conservative Republicans for years on how to exploit language to smear Dems and win elections. It was Luntz, for example, who teamed up with Newt Gingrich to shape the Contract with America in 1994. And now, Luntz has taken to the pages of the Huffington Post to offer […]
We’ve noted several times of late that the Republican coalition, particularly in Washington, is slowly splintering over the war in Iraq. Particularly those who are concerned about their short-term futures are suddenly discovering that standing with Bush is a losing proposition. Whereas the president demanded and could depend on unflinching support for his policies from […]
After the president used his first-ever veto to block federal funding on stem-cell research, the issue lost some of its political saliency. Nevertheless, the broader debate remains as important as ever — the public approved several statewide measures on the research, Dems included funding as part of their 100 Hour agenda, and polls continue to […]
Readers no doubt heard about the series of attacks in Iraq over the weekend that led to 27 U.S. deaths on Saturday, the third-deadliest day for United States forces since the war here began nearly four years ago. But if you haven’t seen the details about how the attacks unfolded, they’re worth reading. New details […]
In October, then-Senate Armed Forces Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) said, “In two or three months, if this thing hasn’t come to fruition and if this level of violence is not under control … I think it’s the responsibility of our government, internally, to determine: Is there a change of course that we should take? […]