Barack Obama’s efforts to reach out to religious voters have been well documented in recent months, and there’s ample evidence that the efforts are paying off. Mark DeMoss recently suggested Obama was positioned to win about 40% of the evangelical vote, and the Obama campaign has unveiled the “Matthew 25 Network“, a religious outreach initiative […]
The futile search for an expert who supports the Bush/McCain drilling plan
When John McCain (among others) began pushing for a “gas-tax holiday” a couple of months ago, economists widely panned the idea as a rather obvious way of boosting oil company profits, without offering consumers much of anything. And I don’t just mean “economists” in the general sense — the Huffington Post tried to find an […]
No, really, the Supreme Court matters in this election
By historical standards, Democrats have been very lucky when it comes to George W. Bush and the Supreme Court. In the modern political era, two-term presidents generally get to leave quite a mark on the high court. Truman named four justices to the court; Eisenhower had five; Kennedy/Johnson had four; Nixon had four; and Reagan […]
Reporter labels Obama ‘much more white than black’
In 2004, in his keynote address to the Democratic National Convention, Barack Obama briefly touched on the scourge of racial stereotypes: “The people I meet in small towns and big cities, in diners and office parks, they don’t expect government to solve all their problems…. They know that parents have to parent, that children can’t […]
Obama, McCain, and the ‘enthusiasm gap’
The notion of an “enthusiasm gap” between Democrats and Republicans this year is not new. In fact, it’s been a staple of the political landscape for most of the year. Democratic voters were excited about their presidential choices; Republicans kept wondering if someone new might throw their hat into the ring. Democratic turnout broke records; […]
Monday’s Mini-Report
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Conditions in Zimbabwe are spiraling quickly: “Police on Monday raided the offices of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change party, arresting about 60 people — including women and children — on a day that world leaders condemned the actions of Zimbabwe’s government in increasingly strong terms.” * […]
McCain ‘strenuously disagrees’ with top strategist over the upside of terrorism
Following up on an earlier item, Charlie Black, the lobbyist who now serves as the McCain campaign’s top strategist, told Fortune magazine with “startling candor,” that a terrorist attack on U.S. soil before the election would help give his candidate a boost. “Certainly it would be a big advantage to [McCain],” Black said. It was […]
Rove picks the wrong metaphor to slam Obama
Karl Rove has made it clear on multiple occasions that he actively dislikes Barack Obama — if there’s a more helpful testament to the strength of Obama’s character, it doesn’t come to mind — and he continues to make his criticisms of the Democratic candidate more and more personal. ABC News’ Christianne Klein reports that […]
Not that there’s anything wrong with that
Most of the country has probably heard bogus talk about Barack Obama’s religion, and his campaign has had to work aggressively to set the record straight — with varying degrees of success. But the drive to explain that Obama is not a Muslim has left some actual Muslims feeling slighted. The WSJ reported today: It […]
I still believe in a place called ‘Unity’
We learned last week that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton would campaign together, for the first time, on Friday, marking something of a milestone after the longest, closest nominating fight in presidential campaign history. The next question, of course, was where. Go to Michigan again? Or how about a swing state like New Mexico? Or […]