Realistically, it’s not at all fair to keep expecting Barack Obama to deliver stirring, powerful addresses. And yet, he keeps managing to exceed expectations. It’s striking that there’s a universality to Obama’s message. He sees a nation at a crossroads here at home, but Obama also sees a world facing a turning point. When he […]
Chatting with reporters last night, Barack Obama was asked if he expected a million screaming Germans to greet him in Berlin today. “I doubt we are going to have a million screaming Germans,” Obama said. “Let’s tamp down expectations.” That’s probably a very good idea, but it’s hard to deny the international interest in the […]
Recognizing the interest in Barack Obama’s speech in Germany today, the McCain campaign came up with a photo-op that would have captured at least some attention — John McCain would hop on a helicopter and give a speech from an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico, off the Louisiana coast. The campaign knows how […]
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: * Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) came pretty close to ruling himself out as John McCain’s running mate yesterday. “I’m not going to be the vice presidential nominee or vice president,” Jindal told […]
On the advice of more than 50 retired generals and admirals, the House Armed Services Committee agreed yesterday to revisit the utility of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The discriminatory standard, which has led to the discharge of thousands of capable troops serving in the midst of two wars, has already been rejected by […]
At the risk of belaboring the point, one last thought on John McCain’s decision to redefine what the “surge” policy actually means. Up until yesterday afternoon, everyone, everywhere, knew exactly what the “surge” was. In fact, the White House communications office came up with the word in January 2007, because “troop escalation” didn’t poll well. […]
In June, the McCain campaign started running web ads with pictures of Barack Obama and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad side by side. Under the pictures, the ad’s caption read, “Is it OK to unconditionally meet with anti-American foreign leaders?” The point of connecting Obama to Ahmadinejad was a little ham-fisted, but it’s not as if the […]
I was reading an interview with a Republican insider the other day — I can’t remember where — and he was asked whether he had any optimism at all about the presidential election this year. He said if the race was about John McCain, the GOP had no chance. If the race was about Barack […]
In late May, John McCain announced his belief that U.S. troops in Iraq “have drawn down to pre-surge levels.” That was clearly not the case. But instead of simply acknowledging the error, the McCain campaign insisted the senator was actually right, just so long as we overlook “the tense of the verb.” The same folks […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Dolly made landfall: “Hurricane Dolly was downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane Wednesday afternoon, about an hour after it made landfall on South Padre Island, Texas, the National Hurricane Center said. Dolly’s sustained winds decreased to about 95 miles an hour.” * On a related note, because the weather […]