McCain can’t stop hitting the wrong note

Years ago, I was having a conversation with a jazz pianist who told me, “When I hit a wrong note, I keep hitting it — so the audience will think it’s intentional.” To move away from the wrong note would be a subtle admission of a mistake. John McCain seems to apply the same standard […]

So much for the media’s ‘Obama love’

There are a couple of reasons the McCain campaign’s new-found obsession with attacking the political media establishment as “biased” is annoying. The first, and most obvious, problem is that reporters covering the campaign adore McCain, and go to almost comical lengths to help him. (CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin noted this week, “[I]f there is […]

McCain rediscovers his fondness for putting terrorists on trial

Following up on Adam’s reference from yesterday, Barack Obama raised the ire of the far-right a month ago when he described how he’d like to see Osama bin Laden brought to justice. As Obama explained it, if bin Laden were captured alive (an unlikely scenario in its own right), Obama would want a deliberate, transparent […]

Pentagon blocked Obama’s access to injured U.S. troops

I can appreciate the fact that Republicans aren’t quite sure how to criticize Barack Obama’s international travel over the last week. It has, after all, been an usually successful trip, which the McCain campaign practically goaded Obama into taking. They’ve tried out a few angles, but the attacks have either been foolish, contradictory, or both. […]

McCain thinks Obama/Maliki policy sounds like ‘a pretty good timetable’

Remember the first two weeks of July, when the “big story” of the presidential campaign was that Barack Obama moved (or was about to move) towards John McCain’s position on Iraq policy? The story was a fantasy, based on literally nothing, but it dominated the political discourse for weeks. The McCain campaign went so far […]

Housekeeping note

Just to let readers know, I’m back and had a good day off. There was some speculation about what I did with my day, so here’s the scoop: Saturday contributor Morbo and his family (the Morbosons) came for a visit. It was good to see them, even though this means he won’t contribute any posts […]

Republican Tax Scares

Guest post by Ron Chusid Republicans try to win elections by using fear. Fear of terrorism has been their major act for the past several years, and before that they used fear of Communism. If that’s not enough, they’ll scare voters by saying Democrats will take way their guns or bibles. Then there’s their old […]

Friday’s Mini-Report

Guest Post by Adam This time I promise asterisks. Er, bullet points. Zbigniew Brzezinski doesn’t think more troops in Afghanistan are the answer. Both candidates now essentially favor an increase in troops in the area. McCain now likes the idea of a Nuremberg style trial for Osama Bin Laden. Weeks ago McCain mocked Obama for […]

Libertarian Support for Barack Obama

Guest Post by Ron Chusid When I was guest blogging at The Carpetbagger Report in January I wrote a post on Ron Paul which demonstrated (especially from the comments many wrote in response to the post) that there is a lot of irrationality in the libertarian movement. Fortunately the Paul supporters represent only one segment […]

In the fascist spin room

Guest post by Steve M. A couple of days ago, in a post about Jonah Goldberg’s intellectually bankrupt but disturbingly influential Liberal Fascism, Jesse Taylor made a good point about what’s going on in politics now: … what Goldberg has done is provide intellectual cover for a growing meme: Obama is the leader of a […]