Guest Post by Morbo The United States entered World War II after Pearl Harbor was attacked on Dec. 7, 1941. Victory in Europe Day was celebrated in May of 1945, and Victory in Japan Day occurred the following August. We can safely say that World War II, at least as far as the United States’ […]
Friday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Economic news is more than just a little discouraging: “With the latest numbers on jobs growth showing the U.S. economy deteriorating more rapidly than expected, the threat of a recession – and the measures needed to revive growth – has taken on a larger political profile. Friday’s jobs report […]
Can Obamaism work?
One of the questions surrounding Barack Obama’s style is whether it actually works to “bring people together.” Charles Peters, founder of the Washington Monthly, takes a closer look at how Obama operated as a state legislator, seeing how his tack is applied to real-life example. Consider a bill into which Obama clearly put his heart […]
Has the media picked its man?
Last year, Fred Barnes, the prominent conservative pundit and executive editor of The Weekly Standard, noted, “In 2000, his aides joked that McCain’s base was the media. In truth, it was.” I rarely agree with Barnes, but he’s unfortunately right about this. Back in 2000, McCain was an outsider insurgent candidate taking on a party […]
Swift Boat Liars aren’t gone, they’ve just changed candidates
Over the last three years, the group of organized, well-financed liars ironically named the “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth,” have come to be synonymous with vicious smears and mendacity. Most honorable people, who have any decency at all, look back at the group’s bogus attacks with disgust and disappointment. These clowns smeared a war hero […]
The limits of faith-based politics
As impressive as Mike Huckabee’s nine-point win in the Iowa caucuses was last night, in the minds of most of the political world, it seems to come with something of an asterisk — he won because religious right voters have a huge influence in Iowa, an influence that doesn’t exist everywhere else. Huckabee succeeded, but […]
What does Clinton do to become the ‘comeback kid’?
This morning, Bill Clinton told ABC News that New Hampshire can make Hillary Clinton the “comeback kid,” just as it did for him 16 years ago. He sounded an optimistic note: “She’s got a better profile here. They know more about her now than they did about me then. And I think she’ll be fine. […]
He has us right where he wants us
We’ve finally reached a point in the nominating process in which we can stop talking about Rudy Giuliani, right? After all, he came in a distant sixth in Iowa — after having led the field as recently as the summer — and Ron Paul nearly tripled his support. For a candidate who was once labeled […]
Friday’s political 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: * Hoping to capitalize on his success in Iowa, Barack Obama arrived in New Hampshire this morning (at 4:30am), and talked briefly about his intention to take his model nationally: “We felt good […]
Before McCain gets the GOP nomination…
It’s not at all unusual for high-profile Republicans, including most of the party’s presidential candidates, to insist that we simply “stay the course” in Iraq. There have been some encouraging trends in violence in recent months, and if we just stick with it, political reconciliation will catch up and the policy will pay dividends. If […]