The Carpetbagger Report

Every time John McCain aims low in his increasingly belligerent campaign rhetoric, I think about an item Time’s Joe Klein wrote about a month ago. Klein, a McCain admirer, predicted that McCain would avoid the cheap and pathetic style of campaigning we’re seeing now. McCain, Klein said, “sees the tawdry ceremonies of politics — the […]

It is with a heavy heart that I mention that Ed Stephan, one of the Carpetbagger community’s most trusted and admired friends, died over the weekend. Ed first emailed me four years ago, letting me know about a fascinating report on war casualties. He quickly became someone I turned to for advice, insights, and a […]

It looks like the column of the day comes by way of the NYT’s Paul Krugman, at least with regard to the piece everyone is talking about. There are plenty of competing opinions out there, but I thought I’d add my two cents. Krugman gets started arguing that Hillary Clinton got a raw deal on […]

There’s been quite a bit of buzz about Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), and the likelihood that she would be considered for Barack Obama’s shortlist of running mates. As a rule, I think Sebelius would make a fine choice. Not perfect, of course, but her positives easily outweigh her negatives. One of the catches, though, […]

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: * Over the last 72 hours, there’s been quite a bit of delegate movement. Unless I missed some, Barack Obama has picked up seven since Friday at noon — Oregon’s Jenny Greenleaf, Georgia’s […]

A friend of mine asked me yesterday whether I planned to watch HBO’s “Recount,” a movie about the 2000 election fiasco in Florida. I admitted that I would not. It’s not that it doesn’t look like a good movie. In fact, I’m sure it’s great — the cast is terrific, and it was directed by […]

We’ve been hearing for about a generation now about “Reagan Democrats” — white, working-class voters who voted Republican in the 1980s, and who pundits believe Democrats have to get back if they hope to be competitive on the national level again. (That the Democratic candidate has won more votes than the Republican candidate in three […]

When former Republican Rep. Bob Barr announced that he would seek the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination, many assumed he’d get the party’s nod. After all, he’s a fairly high-profile figure who’d be in a position to help Libertarians raise their profile and win some votes. But Barr wasn’t about to get the nomination without a […]

There’s obviously been considerable discussion of late about Hillary Clinton’s reference on Friday to Bobby Kennedy’s assassination in June 1968, with some suggesting that Clinton is continuing to campaign just in case tragedy strikes. (I, for what it’s worth, don’t buy into this interpretation.) But yesterday, when scrutinizing the controversy, Fox News aired the kind […]

The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Karl Rove this week, in order to get his side of the story on, among other things, his possible role in the imprisonment of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman. This morning, George Stephanopoulos asked Rove directly if he had been in communication with the Justice Department about the prosecution. Rove […]