As recently as the weekend, Barack Obama insisted he was still the underdog in the race for the nomination. Today, his campaign is trying out a new message: inevitability. On a conference call this morning, Obama advisers sounded as confident a note as they ever have, arguing that yesterday’s victories have left them with an […]
Another chance for senators — including McCain — to take a stand against torture [Updated]
Between the presidential campaign and yesterday’s votes on telecom immunity and surveillance powers, it’s hard for other issues to gain traction, but there’s an interesting measure poised for a Senate vote today that’s worth considering. A spending bill to finance the nation’s intelligence efforts went to conference after the House and Senate versions were slightly […]
McCain thinks it’s ‘insulting’ to care about the length of the occupation
It doesn’t get mentioned nearly enough, but one of the factors that may help the Democrats this fall is that John McCain, when he talks about Iraq policy, tends to fly off the handle and say things that don’t make a lot of sense. Here he is on Monday, campaigning in Virginia. For those of […]
The end of the asterisks
For the past couple of weeks, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has been relying on what I call the “asterisk strategy.” Every Clinton victory is a sign of strength and long-term success, but every Obama victory doesn’t really count because it comes with an asterisk. Obama won Washington? That doesn’t count; it’s a caucus state. Obama […]
Obama sweeps Chesapeake Primary, looks like a frontrunner
Most of the political world expected Barack Obama to have a good day yesterday, when Democrats in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia went to the polls. But it’s fair to say that few expected him to do this well. With just about all the precincts reporting from all three contests, the final results […]
The Chesapeake Primary — Overnight Open-Thread
Results from Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. were supposed to be available by now, but inclement weather led local officials to keep the polls open in Maryland for an extra 90 minutes. We do know, however, that Barack Obama will win the Virginia primary fairly easily. With about three-quarters of the precincts reporting, Obama leads Hillary […]
Tuesday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * AP: “Homeowners threatened with foreclosure would in some instances get a 30-day reprieve under an initiative the Bush administration announced Tuesday. Dubbed ‘Project Lifeline,’ the program will be available to people who have taken out all types of mortgages, not just the high-cost subprime loans that have been the […]
How the right explains the left’s online dominance
The last I heard, the right was feeling quite pleased with itself because there was some evidence to suggest the traffic for the top liberal blogs was trending down, while the traffic for the top conservative blogs was trending up. This item, relying on SiteMeter data from the end of December, argued, “It has long […]
Key Clinton backer says some whites ‘not ready’ for black president
Looking back over the last couple of months, it seems every controversial remark from the Clinton campaign has come by way of one of her surrogates, not the candidate. Hillary Clinton, to her enormous credit, is extraordinarily disciplined, very bright, and loath to commit dangerous gaffes on the campaign trail. But those speaking for her, […]
Of all the things to criticize Obama on…
In recent months, conservative criticisms of Barack Obama have become fairly predictable. He’s “too liberal”; his 12 years in elected office make him “too inexperienced”; his opposition to the Bush administration foreign policy makes him “too weak”; etc. What I didn’t expect was to see the right take on Obama over his ability to give […]