Since the expiration of the poorly-named Protect America Act, the White House and its allies have gone to great lengths to argue that we should be absolutely terrified. Those mean ol’ Democrats in Congress have refused to give the president everything he wants, and the consequences, they’ve claimed, will likely be catastrophic. Congressional Republicans even […]
Kristol recommends the ‘politics of fear’
Because some things are as predictable as the sunrise. This morning on Fox News Sunday, New York Times columnist Bill Kristol recommended that Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) employ the “politics of fear” to attack Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL): “[Obama’s] riding a wave of euphoria. She [Clinton] needs to puncture it. The way you puncture euphoria […]
GOP lawmaker hops on the Right-Wing Smear Train
I used to think, years ago, that there was a difference between right-wing lawmakers and right-wing activists. They shared common goals and worldviews, but those who were actually elected to public office had to be, by virtue of their professional duties, a little responsible. When they spoke, they were speaking for hundreds of thousands of […]
The Clinton campaign’s morale problem
As yesterday’s spirited offensive should have made clear, Hillary Clinton is not about to fade away. The race for the Democratic nomination clearly isn’t going her way right now, and her overall chances may be slipping, but there’s no way in the world the senator is going to just fade away. The NYT notes today, […]
An odd judge of Barack Obama’s patriotism
From email smears to misleading pictures making the rounds, Barack Obama’s critics have tried, with varying degrees of subtlety, to argue that the Illinois senator somehow lacks the requisite patriotism to be president. Yesterday, the AP’s Nedra Pickler tackled the charges. Sen. Barack Obama’s refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin along with a […]
Nader launches fourth unsuccessful presidential bid
As expected, a certain third party candidate announced his fourth presidential campaign this morning on “Meet the Press.” (Apparently, the results of the first three weren’t quite clear enough.) Ralph Nader is launching a third-party campaign for president. The consumer advocate made the announcement Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He says most Americans are […]
Clinton unloads over Obama mailings — but is she vulnerable?
Hillary Clinton, hoping to utilize an untapped area of attack, unloaded on Barack Obama today. The subject: a couple of direct-mail pieces. In one of her sharpest attacks of the 2008 race, Clinton blasted two mailings Obama’s campaign has put out criticizing Clinton’s views on health care and trade, accusing him of “using tactics that […]
Armstrong Williams sticks up for media ‘credibility’
I usually don’t care for conservative humor, but I have to admit, Armstrong Williams had me with this one: On the February 22 edition of MSNBC Live, conservative radio host and columnist Armstrong Williams said of a February 21 New York Times article about Sen. John McCain’s relationship with a telecommunications lobbyist, “I think what […]
Lobbying, influence peddling aboard the ‘Straight Talk Express’
John McCain’s website tells visitors, “Too often the special interest lobbyists with the fattest wallets and best access carry the day.” That, apparently, is especially true of the lobbyists who dominate McCain’s campaign staff, at least one of whom does lobbying work directly from McCain’s bus. Of all the lobbyists involved in the McCain campaign, […]
Obama and the Army captain — Day Two
This looked like it had all the makings of a one-day story. At Thursday night’s debate, Barack Obama talked about an Army captain serving in Afghanistan who found that, thanks to the war in Iraq, he or she didn’t have the support, ammunition, or resources necessary. The right went nuts, insisting Obama’s story was bogus. […]