As everyone no doubt heard last week, FEMA held a press conference on Tuesday about the agency’s response to the wildfires in Southern California. Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson, the deputy administrator of FEMA, fielded one softball question after another, not because the reporters were lazy, but because the questions didn’t come from reporters at all […]
Clinton wins some unwelcome support
Not all endorsements are welcome. A couple of weeks ago, the WaPo’s Charles Krauthammer suggested Hillary Clinton, unlike the other Democratic presidential candidates, is someone he “could live with,” in part because she is “always leaving room for expediency over ideology.” Given Krauthammer’s far-right bent, Clinton wasn’t trying to win him over, and his back-handed […]
George Will on abortion’s ‘so-what’ factor
The WaPo’s George Will argues in his latest column that Americans need not base their presidential vote on Supreme Court justices and upholding Roe v. Wade. Will concedes, of course, that the “next president probably will have an opportunity to significantly shape the court,” but concludes it doesn’t really matter when it comes to reproductive […]
Monday’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: * News consumers who feel like Hillary Clinton is dominating the media’s coverage of the presidential campaign happen to be right: “Hillary Clinton has drawn nearly twice as much media coverage as any […]
You can’t appeal to independents with a non-existent healthcare plan
Maybe it was just me, but I thought this WaPo article, which ran on page A2 yesterday, was a good example of what’s wrong with most campaign coverage. Independents will make all the difference in New Hampshire. That bloc, which encompasses more than 40 percent of registered voters in the state, exercises huge influence in […]
Hawkeye poll shows Edwards slipping, Huckabee surging
One can make a very reasonable case that Iowa’s unique role in the presidential nominating process is excessive and unwarranted. Indeed, Paul Waldman recently did just that. The state has too much power and too much influence, and as Kevin Drum noted not too long ago, it’s actually getting worse. That said, given the media’s […]
We won’t have Tancredo to kick around anymore
The exodus continues. The latest House Republican incumbent to announce his or her retirement is none other than everyone’s favorite far-right xenophobe, Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.). Even if he loses his long-shot bid for the White House, Rep. Tom Tancredo will be leaving the U.S. House of Representatives at the end of 2008. Tancredo, 61 […]
Giuliani is many things, but ‘moderate’ isn’t one of them
On the one hand, it seems like the obvious way to derail Rudy Giuliani’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination is to point out how far out of the GOP mainstream he is on key domestic issues. There are five main areas of disagreement: abortion rights, gay rights, gun control, immigration, and personal mores. Given […]
Laura Bush goes below the fray, accuses Dems of demagoguery
As a rule, Laura Bush’s policy opinions aren’t particularly relevant. That’s not intended to be an insult, it’s just that she’s not an elected official, she has no obvious power to speak of, and her comments are rarely of any consequence. But that apparently doesn’t stop her from trying to mix it up quite a […]
Presidential candidates believe the truth is out there
If the weather-balloon incident in Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 is a big issue for you, Bill Richardson is your presidential candidate. The New Mexico governor hosted a town-hall meeting the other day when a voter asked Richardson whether he’d be willing to get to the bottom of the “mystery.” Not only did Richardson take […]