Rudy Giuliani’s “strategy” (I use the word loosely) of blowing off all of the early contests and betting the farm on Florida was always a rather transparent sham. He tried to compete in Iowa, but voters rejected him en masse. He campaigned heavily in New Hampshire, and found the same result. It was only then, […]
McCain gets his day in the Sunshine (State)
One way or another, Florida’s Republican presidential primary was going to answer some key questions. Who’s the GOP frontrunner? Can John McCain win in a state with a primary that excludes independents? Could Mitt Romney capitalize on voters’ economic fears? Would Rudy Giuliani’s fiasco come to a merciful end? All of these questions and more […]
Tuesday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Have I mentioned lately that Bush’s approach to signing statements is sheer madness? “President Bush yesterday signed the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act after initially rejecting Congress’s first version because it would have allegedly opened the Iraqi government to ‘expensive lawsuits.’ Even though he forced Congress to change its […]
How the other side thinks
I read a lot of far-right blogs for one of my other gigs, and it occurs to me once in a while that most readers of progressive blogs probably don’t have a good sense of how the “other side” thinks. How do they perceive the same events that we see? How do they endorse ideas […]
Florida poised to be the Republican game-changer
There’s a very good reason John McCain and Mitt Romney have been fighting like crazy for every last ounce of support in Florida: today’s Republican presidential primary has the potential to fundamentally change the nature of the race. Josh Marshall notes today: [A] largely unremarked factor here is how the Republicans have chosen to structure […]
McCain and the ‘presidential temperament’ question
Certain campaign narratives develop for presidential candidates during the primaries, and end up sticking through the general election. Regrettably, the Dems have their hands full with both a competitive primary of their own and a large Republican field, and as such, no one’s been laying the groundwork for these narratives when it comes to John […]
NY NOW raises eyebrows with talk of ‘ultimate betrayal’
When I saw an email yesterday with a statement purporting to be from the New York State chapter of the National Organization of Women, I dismissed it as a poor attempt at humor. The statement, claiming to be in response to Ted Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama, was so over the top, and so hyperbolic […]
Gaps between polls and results don’t point to fraud
Over the last month or so, pollsters gauging support in presidential contests have a mixed record. In Iowa, pollsters got the Republicans’ top two right, but everyone except the Des Moines Register underestimated Barack Obama’s support. In New Hampshire, the polls got the GOP race almost exactly right, but wasn’t even close in predicting Hillary […]
That other terrorist attack on U.S. soil
Granted, I already mentioned this just a couple of posts ago, but upon further reflection (and upon seeing a bunch of other good posts about this elsewhere), it probably deserves an item of its own. In his State of the Union address last night, Bush boasted, “We are grateful that there has not been another […]
Tuesday’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: * Today is the day for the Republicans’ closely-watched Florida primary, and with the polls tight, McCain and Romney didn’t hold back yesterday: “Mitt Romney branded John McCain a closet liberal Monday, an […]