Bill Kristol, the gift that keeps on giving

In the print edition of the New York Times this morning, Bill Kristol’s column noted the talk that John McCain may not have been in “the cone of silence” during Saturday night’s event at the Saddleback Church, and may have heard some of the questions before he took the stage. Kristol dismissed the talk out […]

One-in-three Americans struggle badly with current events

The latest Pew Survey on News Consumption, which is conducted every other year, was released yesterday, and is chock full of interesting tidbits and results. Most notably, there was a great section of the report on news-consumer knowledge and sophistication. About half of Americans (53%) can correctly identify the Democrats as the party that has […]

McCain tells a tall tale?

In December, when most of the leading presidential candidates were releasing holiday-themed ads, John McCain — who’s “reluctant” to talk about his service during Vietnam — was able to combine two messages in a single campaign commercial: “One night, after being mistreated as a POW, a guard loosened the ropes binding me, easing my pain. […]

The dearth of ‘new big ideas’

I have to assume the McCain campaign helps prepare its surrogates before they appear on the talking-head shows. And yet, it’s amazing how unprepared they are. For those who can’t watch clips online, NBC’s David Gregory, guest-hosting “Meet the Press,” asked Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R), “You’ve talked about the crisis within the Republican Party, […]

McCain’s ‘cone of silence’

Before the candidate forum at the Saddleback Church got underway on Saturday night, the Rev. Rick Warren explained that both candidates would get the exact same questions. Barack Obama would go first, and John McCain had been “safely placed … in a cone of silence.” As it turns out, that’s not quite right. Members of […]

Sunday Night Open Thread

So, what’s on your mind? Got any links you want to share? Stories that need a plug? Requests to make? Is Russia really prepared to withdraw from Georgia? Will Blackwater guards really face justice? Is Jon Stewart really the most trusted man in America? The floor is yours…. ohne-rezeptkaufen.com

McCain, judgment, and a response to the attacks of 9/11

The NYT’s David Kirkpatrick has a very strong piece today on John McCain’s foreign policy worldview, his embrace of neoconservatism, and his response to the attacks of 9/11. It applies a little more scrutiny than McCain is probably accustomed to receiving. [By the afternoon of Sept. 11, 2001], Mr. McCain, the Vietnam War hero and […]

Dean accidentally speaks his mind on the Republican Party

I’ve noticed that Howard Dean caused a stir this weekend with some relatively innocuous remarks, but I’m not sure what all the fuss is over. In an interview with National Public Radio on Friday, Howard Dean, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, referred to the Republican Party as the white party, seemingly accidental. “If […]

One explanation for why Obama’s lead isn’t even bigger

The handwringing over Barack Obama’s modest lead in the polls is already rather tiresome — “Why isn’t Obama up by double digits?” the political world demands to know — and there’s no shortage of competing rationales to explain it. But the NYT’s Frank Rich offers one of the more compelling explanations I’ve seen: “[T]he public […]

The candidates define ‘rich’

At last night’s forum at Saddleback Church, the Rev. Rick Warren asked a nearly identical set of questions to Barack Obama and John McCain, but one of the more memorable inquiries was just two words: “Define rich.” Obama started with a joke at Warren’s expense — “You know, if you’ve got book sales of 25 […]