Following up on an item from the weekend, Justin Rood explained that the Government Accountability Office tracks the number of per-months attacks in Iraq, based on Pentagon data, and creates a chart. For some reason the latest GAO chart stopped in August 2006, despite the fact that the report having been produced in December. Asked […]
Newsweek has an interesting cover story this week on Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and their chances in the 2008 presidential election. It’s a lengthy, 4,000-word piece that pulls together nearly all of the major elements of where the race is and where it might go. No real surprises or earth-shattering news, but a generally solid […]
That’s it; I’m officially convinced that Tony Snow is just in his job for laughs. I’ve been on the fence for months about whether Snow actually believes what he says, but I’m finally convinced — he doesn’t. White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said Monday that no “big disagreement” exists between President Bush and Colin […]
Michael Gerson, best known for being Bush’s former top speechwriter, has a new piece in Newsweek suggesting that the Republican Party is going to have to settle its internal ideological divide once and for all. It’s not necessarily about the center vs. the right, Gerson said, but rather about “big government” Republicans vs. “small government” […]
I keep hearing rumors that Bush has changed. All of a sudden, he’s open to “listening mode.” Former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, told the WaPo, “I think George W. Bush is a totally pragmatic politician. He’s going to do outreach. … He is a total realist. He […]
I mentioned in passing a couple of weeks ago that the official White House holiday card has started reaching mailboxes, and much to some conservatives’ chagrin, the card doesn’t mention the name of a certain winter holiday. Though it quotes the book of Psalms, the card’s text reads, “May the light of the season shine […]
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: * As expected, former vice presidential nominee John Edwards has finalized plans to launch another presidential campaign. Insiders close to the Edwards campaign acknowledged over the weekend that the former senator is to […]
What a pleasure it must be to be John McCain’s press secretary. McCain has apparently reached a point in which major media personalities believe he’s right, even after having been proven wrong. It’s not only stunning, it must leave his press operation terribly bored. Why bother spinning when talking heads do your job for you? […]
When incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told George Stephanopoulos yesterday that he’d support a temporary increase in troops sent to Iraq, it sounded, at first blush, that Reid had strayed from the party line. Many Dems were under the impression that he’d given his tacit endorsement of the McCain-backed plan for thousands of […]
As you no doubt heard over the weekend, Time magazine chose its person of the year for 2006 and picked … all of us. The “Great Man” theory of history is usually attributed to the Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who wrote that “the history of the world is but the biography of great men.” He […]