Voting difficulties in Florida have reached a point in which parody is no longer possible. Palm Beach in particular, home to the infamous “butterfly ballot,” apparently wants to be the subject of ridicule. It started two weeks ago, when voters received absentee ballots with outdated instructions telling them their signatures must be witnessed or their […]
The Bush campaign hasn’t done much in telling voters what the president would do with another term — just vote for him, they’ll tell us why afterwards — but his platform is not without ideas. Of course, whether those ideas are any good is another matter. Almost four year ago, at the second presidential debate, […]
It’s a shame democracy is dependent on an informed electorate, because the public is still terribly confused about pretty basic facts. More than half of Americans, 54 percent, continue to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or a program to develop them before the United States invaded last year, according to a poll released […]
Salon’s Eric Boehlert had a terrific item recently noting how national media attention on Iraq shifted in late June due to the so-called “handoff” of “sovereignty.” Boehlert noted that conditions in Iraq haven’t improved at all, but perceptions changed about the “end” of our occupation. The hand-over marked a turning point in the level and […]
It’s bad enough that the Bush campaign will go to extraordinary lengths to keep critics away from the president, but it’s worse when those who do get to share criticism get punished for it. A man who heckled President Bush at a political rally was fired from his job at an advertising and design company […]
I can appreciate that we can’t let fear of terrorism run our lives, but I have to admit, I’d seriously reconsider going to the GOP convention if I heard about this: [US News & World Report hears] that some conventiongoers are being asked to carry next-of-kin phone numbers on their persons, should emergency workers need […]
If there’s such a thing as outrage overload, I’m there. The Swiftboat story has reached ubiquity and after watching yesterday’s morning shows, the con started causing me actual, physical pain. A group of partisan hacks, who have spread nothing but lies for months, is smearing a war hero and has single-handedly driven this campaign’s news […]
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan at today’s gaggle: “You know, I had seen some of [John Kerry’s] comments yesterday before I briefed, and then, when I saw him last night on TV, he just appeared to be angry and lose his cool.” Vice President Dick Cheney on the Senate floor in June, after Sen. […]
If you’re a Carpetbagger regular, you know the deal. It’s time for my weekly round-up of statewide presidential polls released over the last seven days. This week includes a pretty long list, but there’s plenty of encouraging data worth checking out. Pay particular attention to “red” states that are surprisingly competitive (Colorado, Missouri, North Carolina) […]
Though it didn’t generate significant fanfare, last week was the 20th anniversary of the creation of an indefensible public policy: Reagan’s “global gag rule.” It’s often called the “Mexico City policy” because it was developed at an international family planning conference in Mexico City in August 1984. Naturally, its biggest fan is occupying the Oval […]