Before the political world moves on from the controversy surrounding the Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama’s stirring speech on race in America, it’s worth taking a moment to consider Michael Gerson’s WaPo column today, which I believe is misguided, but is largely representative of the conservative response to the week’s news. Unlike the cartoonish, […]
Wednesday’s campaign round-up
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: * It looks like the Obama campaign has effectively ruled out the idea of a Michigan revote, making it unlikely the state will host a second primary. In a campaign memo, Obama aides […]
McCain advisor rips the religious right, calls movement a ‘serious problem’
John McCain’s relationship with the religious right has been, shall we say, a little awkward since he denounced the movement’s top leaders as “agents of intolerance” eight years ago. I have a hunch the tensions are about to get a little bit worse. Yesterday, representatives of the Clinton, Obama and McCain campaigns spoke before the […]
How about a ‘superdelegate primary’?
By now, everyone can see the advantages of ending the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. Reasonable people can disagree about whether or not this prolonged process is a disaster for the party, but if we’re making lists of pros and cons, I think it’s clear that the latter would be longer than the prior. […]
Could delegate flap cost Dems Florida in November?
At first blush it sounds pretty silly. Realistically, it seems foolish to think there are voters in Florida who think, “I prefer Democrats to John McCain on Iraq, the economy, the environment, and taxes, but I’m not going to vote for them in November because of a dispute over convention delegates.” Sure, people can base […]
Al Qaeda gaffe dogs McCain, undermines campaign rationale
During a press conference yesterday, John McCain, a self-described expert on matters of national security and international affairs, made a very high-profile screw-up — he falsely insisted that al Qaeda terrorists are being trained in Iran to fight in Iraq. What’s more, he asserted without hesitation that this is “common knowledge.” Of course, McCain’s claim […]
Obama aims for a more perfect union, but will the media fall short of perfection?
Barack Obama wrote his speech on race in America himself. He worked on it for a couple of days, and stayed up until 2 a.m. Tuesday to finish it. The senator conceded on “Nightline” that he couldn’t predict how the address would be perceived: “You know, you throw a rock into a pond and those […]
Tuesday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * The band-aid: “The Federal Reserve slashed a key interest rate by three-quarters of a percentage point Tuesday, in the central bank’s continued effort to restore confidence in the economy and battered financial markets. Although some experts cautioned that the cut may lead to more inflation, stocks soared as Wall […]
About Paterson’s ‘affair’…
Perhaps I should revise my earlier comments. We learned yesterday that New York Gov. David Paterson, several years ago, went through a rough patch in his marriage, and both he and his wife had affairs. They went to counseling, worked things out, and everything’s fine. I suggested that this really doesn’t, and shouldn’t, amount to […]
Judge gives White House a deadline on emails
This case seems to be a never-ending source of entertainment. The White House has three days to explain why it shouldn’t be required to copy its computer hard drives to ensure no further e-mails are lost, a federal judge ordered Tuesday. Already, e-mails between March and October 2003 appear to have been lost, Judge John […]