Considering all that I wrote over the summer regarding this year’s record-high deficits, I thought it only fair to post the final numbers for the 2003 fiscal year. This week, the Treasury Department announced the final tally on the deficit: $374 billion. Administration critics noted that this is the biggest deficit in American history. The […]
Yesterday, in my “Polls, polls, and more polls” post, I quoted a Suffolk University survey of Dems in New Hampshire pegging John Kerry’s support at 19 percent, but I said that number was down from 20 percent in late-September. It turns out this was incorrect. As I learned in a very nice email from a […]
Presidential endorsements from members of Congress may not usually lead directly to voter support, but I nevertheless believe it’s worth paying attention to how many endorsements the Dem candidates pick up as the campaign moves on. The process I call the Endorsement Primary is obviously helpful in demonstrating what kind of support a presidential candidate […]
I can appreciate that no administration enjoys negative publicity. Particularly when things are going poorly overseas, the White House hates to see disheartening images every night on the evening news. That being said, the public deserves unfiltered news. An informed electorate relies on good and bad news to help reach judgments about their government and […]
Way back in February, while the United Nations was still debating the appropriate course of action in Iraq, the Bush administration was making it clear to our allies that this was our show and we weren’t particularly interested in anyone else’s opinion. A senior diplomat from a country on the Security Council quoted a U.S. […]
National polls are interesting, but the race for the Dem nomination remains a state-by-state battle. Last week, I went over the latest polls out of Pennsylvania and California, so today I thought I’d update you on recent data from a number of other key states — Arizona, New Hampshire, Iowa, Michigan, and Alabama. First up […]
Speaking of Clark and Lieberman (see below), both have announced that they will not compete in January’s Iowa Caucuses. I think this makes perfect sense for both campaigns. Lieberman has found almost no support in Iowa, where voters have largely disliked his hawk-like approach to foreign policy and his ultra-moderate domestic policy priorities. Had Lieberman […]
Maybe it’s something about the Far East. Last year, Bush was in Japan meeting with Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. At a press conference to express his support for Koizumi’s economic policies, Bush said he appreciated the fact that the prime minister had placed equal emphasis on “non-performing loans, the devaluation issue and regulatory reform.” It […]
Because I’m a political junkie who is easily obsessed with such silly things, I sometimes wonder about 2008. Yes, I know, the 2004 election is next year and it will be incredibly important. At this point, no one knows if Bush can beat the Democratic nominee, nor for that matter who in the world the […]
I can appreciate the fact that Joe Lieberman is in a difficult position. By any reasonable measure, his campaign is failing. Just three years ago, Lieberman was on a Democratic ticket that generated more votes than any Dem ticket in U.S. history. Now he’s struggling to persuade anyone to vote for him. Outside of his […]