In Matt Yglesias’ book, “Heads in the Sand,” which I can’t recommend enough, there’s an especially depressing chapter that explores the extraordinary opportunity the United States had in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. From Chapter Three: Nations around the world, including ones with long-standing tense relations with the United States, felt their interests […]
McCain claims to ‘know how to win wars’
John McCain hasn’t spent much time talking about Afghanistan during the presidential campaign, but now that “other” war is deteriorating, the Republican candidate has discovered his new-found interest in the conflict. Republican John McCain said Tuesday he knows “how to win wars” and that the strategy of increasing troop levels in Iraq should also be […]
McCain isn’t sure what to think about gay adoption
John McCain sat down with the New York Times the other day for a wide-ranging interview that covered quite a bit of ground. The NYT brought up a culture-war subject that we haven’t heard too much about lately. Q: President Bush believes that gay couples should not be permitted to adopt children. Do you agree […]
Bush still committed to ‘changing the psychology’
After Phil Gramm’s recent comments about a “mental recession,” and the notion that we make up a “nation of whiners,” I expected leading Republicans to stop talking so much about psychology and the economy. No such luck. Here’s the president this morning, during a White House press conference, in response to a question about whether […]
McCain still sees success in ‘surge’
Following on the heels of Barack Obama’s speech in DC on national security, John McCain appeared in Albuquerque to make a very different case. “Over the last year, Senator Obama and I were part of a great debate about the war in Iraq. Both of us agreed the Bush administration had pursued a failed strategy […]
Americans support withdrawal from Iraq, don’t they?
The latest WaPo/ABC poll included some unexpected results. A new Washington Post-ABC News poll finds the country split down the middle between those backing Sen. Barack Obama’s 16-month timeline for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq and those agreeing with Sen. John McCain’s position that events, not timetables, should dictate when forces come home. […] […]
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: * The Obama campaign unveiled its first new TV ad in a while, called, “America’s Leadership.” The spot focuses on Obama’s bipartisan work on counter-proliferation, with Obama explaining, “The single most important national […]
‘The central front in the war on terror is not Iraq, and it never was’
Barack Obama’s NYT op-ed yesterday was the first part of a two-pronged strategy. The second is an address, billed by the Obama campaign as a “major speech,” on Iraq, Afghanistan, and national security. (It’s streaming live now, if you’re inclined to tune in.) Contending that the U.S. is not pursuing a sound strategy for keeping […]
A story that may be a major ‘Payne’ for the Bush gang
It may be a little late in the game for a massive new White House scandal — Bush leaves office in 188 days — but selling access to leading administration officials in exchange for foreign contributions to Bush’s library may prove to be a very awkward controversy for the president. We covered this on Sunday, […]
Conservative confusion over oil spills and hurricanes
For a while, Republicans were defending their call for coastal drilling by claiming that the Chinese were drilling in Cuban waters. This proved to be false (though many on the right repeat the claim anyway). So, conservatives have moved onto a new talking point: coastal drilling is safe for the environment, because recent hurricanes didn’t […]