The Carpetbagger Report

In a bizarre ruling, a narrow Supreme Court majority decided last year that Americans who face wage discrimination only have 180 days to challenge the initial discrimination in court. In other words, if your employer is paying you less money for equal work, and you don’t find about the discrepancy until seven months after the […]

Today’s edition of quick hits. * The Clinton campaign will still trail Obama’s fundraising totals by quite a bit, but this is an extraordinarily impressive one-day haul: “Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) campaign said Wednesday afternoon it was “on track” to raise $10 million in online donations in the 24 hours since the Pennsylvania primary […]

Paul Waldman had a great item yesterday on a subject that never ceases to amaze me: how political reporters choose to cover the presidential candidates and their campaigns. Reporters will choose to write about flag pins. They will choose to write about whether some catastrophic, heretofore hidden character flaw has been revealed by a comment […]

Looking at the Gallup Daily Tracking Polls every day, as some of us do, we see two sets of numbers — Clinton vs. Obama among Dems, and McCain vs. both Dems among all voters. The prior is volatile and unpredictable; the latter is so steady, it’s hardly worth watching. Take a look at today’s report, […]

Since Democrats began complaining about (and the media kept ignoring) the controversial relationship between John McCain and radical televangelist John Hagee, the Texas megachurch pastor has kept a fairly low profile. It’s hardly surprising — McCain probably encouraged him to avoid major media attention, and Hagee, anxious to help his political ally, obliged. In fact, […]

I tend to think it’s pretty obvious that prolonging the Democratic nomination fight is an awful development, which is why I find it odd when I find items arguing the opposite. In the Wall Street Journal today, for example, Gerald Seib argues, “Toughness and resilience are important attributes, and that is what a long campaign […]

The next time John McCain says he’ll let Gen. David Petraeus dictate troop deployments to Afghanistan, it won’t be so embarrassing. Gen. David H. Petraeus, who has commanded United States troops in Iraq for the past year, will be nominated to head the United States Central Command, which oversees military operations across a wide swath […]

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: * Whether you liked the outcome of the Pennsylvania primary or not, the turnout rates were pretty impressive: “Pennsylvania’s primary day turnout approached general election levels this year, state officials said Tuesday night. […]

In a televised speech in Indiana last night, Barack Obama, who had been challenging Hillary Clinton very aggressively of late in Pennsylvania, mentioned her name just once, and that was to congratulate her for her Keystone State victory. In contrast, Obama mentioned John McCain’s name seven times, in each instance, in a negative light. The […]

After waiting for the Pennsylvania primary for six weeks — it seemed like longer, didn’t it? — it seems a little awkward, 12 hours after learning the results of the contest, to say, “Pennsylvania, schmensylvania; what’s next?” Barring intervention by uncommitted superdelegates, here’s what we have to look forward to: Saturday, May 3: Guam Tuesday, […]