I really wish the president wouldn’t say things like this. In a videoconference, Bush heard from U.S. military and civilian personnel [in Afghanistan] about the challenges ranging from fighting local government and police corruption to persuading farmers to abandon a lucrative poppy drug trade for other crops. […] “I must say, I’m a little envious,” […]
Bush overrides EPA science team, steps up to protect smog
Before we get too caught up in choosing the next president, it’s probably worth keeping in mind that the current president continues to make startlingly bad decisions that affect us all. The Environmental Protection Agency weakened one part of its new limits on smog-forming ozone after an unusual last-minute intervention by President Bush, according to […]
House Republicans show how to lose $1 million without really trying
The National Republican Congressional Committee’s accounting scandal has been percolating for a couple of weeks, but given the scope of the controversy, it’s now front-page news. What started as an embarrassing criminal controversy involving one staffer has become something of an election-year crisis for the GOP’s House campaign committee. The former treasurer for the National […]
John Gibson’s big story: he’s been cancelled
It hasn’t been a good week for conservative hosts of unwatchable cable talk shows with poor ratings. Earlier this week, MSNBC yanked Tucker Carlson off the air. The next day, Fox News gave up on notorious blowhard John Gibson. Fox News Channel, tinkering for the first time in eight years with its popular early evening […]
Top Clinton strategist says Obama ‘can’t win the general election’
I thought it had become clear in recent weeks that the Clinton campaign is much better off when Mark Penn, Clinton’s pollster and campaign strategist, isn’t talking to reporters. Indeed, over the last week or so, I’ve noticed that Penn’s name seems to be showing up in print quite a bit less. But, alas, Penn […]
Thursday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Bloodshed in Baghdad: “An explosion killed at least 11 people and wounded dozens on Thursday after a car bomb detonated in a commercial district of central Baghdad, adding to a recent upsurge in Iraq’s violence. Explosives in the parked car went off just outside the heavily fortified Green Zone. […]
Let’s all say it together: there is no ‘freedom agenda’
I know Kevin and Matt already tackled this one, but this NYT piece from yesterday really annoyed me, too. On Tuesday, Mr. Bush cast the stakes in stark terms, repeatedly invoking his desire to spread freedom and democracy, the central themes of his foreign policy. Those themes are hardly new to American presidents. Woodrow Wilson […]
The debate over the Democratic popular vote
As pretty much every campaign observer knows by now, Barack Obama not only leads Hillary Clinton among pledged delegates, his margin is big enough that everyone (including the Clinton campaign) is confident that he’ll go to the convention with a comfortable delegate lead. With that in mind, it doesn’t take long to reach the question […]
When it’s not race, it’s religion
In the new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll (.pdf), respondents were asked, “Do you know what Barack Obama’s religion is?” About 37% got it right, and said Obama’s a Protestant. The more discouraging news was that 13% said they know Obama’s faith, and identified him as a Muslim. (It was the second most common response […]
Obama takes on McCain over taxes
It’s been a long while since one of the Democratic presidential candidates when after the Republican presidential candidate, so this was a very welcome development. Democratic Sen. Barack Obama said Thursday that Sen. John McCain reversed his position on President Bush’s deep tax cuts in order to win the Republican presidential nomination, one of his […]