It’s taken me far too long, but I think I’m starting to understand how the right thinks about government during the Bush years. Ideas that are wrong should be implemented over and over again; ideas that are correct must be rejected immediately. People who are proven right but off-message must be removed from office, while […]
I’ve always thought it was a mistake for the Bush administration to emphasize state-sponsorship of terrorism over recognition of a broader insurgency throughout the Middle East. Going after networks like Al Queda is not, as Spencer Ackerman recently explained, “state-centric.” But as it turns out, Bush can’t even get his mistake right. Despite the Bush […]
In literally all of the campaign cycles of my lifetime, the candidate who comes up short effectively disappears. None of them, however, had a Senate seat to go back to after the election was over. With this in mind, John Kerry plan to use his stature and national standing to do what he’s been doing […]
The LA Times caused a minor ruckus last week with an editorial touting Bill Clinton as a possible head of the Democratic National Committee. This almost certainly won’t happen. On the other hand, Marshall Whitman (aka the Bull Moose) has a better idea that I’d be happy to get behind. Bill Clinton possesses a profound […]
Long-time readers may recall that I had a few, shall we say, “concerns” about Howard Dean’s presidential campaign. It wasn’t that the man was without strengths; it was that those qualities were not well suited for a presidential candidate. Those traits are, however, terrific for a party chairman. Former presidential candidate Howard Dean is considering […]
Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.) was sounding as if he was all but through with the Republican Party. He ruled out support for Bush in the campaign, he couldn’t think of a single area of agreement with the Bush administration, he admitted that he went to bed at night wondering how he could remain a Republican, […]
Just to follow up on an earlier post, another reason to be very skeptical of the results of the exit poll data — showing “moral values” as voters’ alleged top concern this election — is how inconsistent it is with all the other data. For example, the AP conducted a national poll Nov. 3-5, asking […]
Tim Russert could have asked Karl Rove anything yesterday on Meet the Press, but for a man who’s built a reputation as a tough interviewer, Russert managed to spend more than 20 minutes with the president’s top political advisor without asking what role Rove played in the Plame Game scandal. I realize that Rove was […]
After a campaign dominated by discussions on terrorism, war, employment, health care, and Social Security, the National Election Pool’s exit polls threw everyone a curve ball. What was the number one issue cited by voters as the most important issue of the campaign? “Moral values” came in first with 22%, followed by the economy (20%), […]
It’s bad when 377 tons of deadly explosives go missing in Iraq. It seems just about as bad when we can’t find thousands of missile antiaircraft missiles, either. Several thousand shoulder-fired missiles — the kind that could be used to shoot down aircraft — are missing in Iraq, and their disappearance has prompted U.S. military […]