July 03, 2008
Personally I can think of few things more important to a president's success than his ability to manage his decision-making team. Hilzoy appears to similarly prioritze that attribute, and here discusses (drawing from the Rolling Stone article) what we know...
July 02, 2008
Or at least arguments - but probably a pretty effective one too....
I rarely have anything good to say about Carville, so I suppose I should give him credit for a good line: If being a fighter pilot qualifies you to be president, then somebody get Randy 'Duke' Cunningham out of jail,...
If the co-host of a big Obama fundraiser did this I think it's safe to say it'd be a story for weeks. I haven't heard a peep about this though in the "mainstream" press - or of course from Rush,...
July 01, 2008
I live in the most socially conservative state in the country. Goody for me....
So just to go on the record about it, of late I'm annoyed by the senator from Illinois (since I know some people, like my younger brother, sometimes accuse us of never saying negative things about leading Democrats). I'm annoyed...
June 30, 2008
Oh please. As if. That's what Andrew Sullivan is calling General Clark's patently obvious assertion that getting shot down during the Vietnam War doesn't qualify you for the presidency. The media has blasted Clark, similarly clueless and seemingly unable to...
Here. Romney's the favorite, though McCain doesn't like him. Also in the first tier are Portman and Thune (talk about your empty suit, though I guess he is a relatively hunky empty suit - and far right). Second tier? That'd...
From a story in today's WaPo: On the television in his living room, Peterman has watched enough news and campaign advertisements to hear the truth: Sen. Barack Obama, born in Hawaii, is a Christian family man with a track record...
June 29, 2008
So far this year 3 members of the House have lost their bids for renomination to another term in Congress (2 in Maryland, 1 in Utah). Here CQ runs down more intra-party campaigns that could derail the hopes of several...
June 27, 2008
I'm most of the way through Nixonland, and happened upon this paragraph: (Part of a section describing Nixon's non-public actions to help secure his re-election in 1972) "Meanwhile there were the broadcast networks to flay - four of them, now...
Gotta agree with Hilzoy here. Kicking Russia out would be dumb. Trying to kick Russia out when you can't even make good on your word adds a whole new layer of dumbness. When it would anger someone were you to...
June 26, 2008
His initial thoughts conclude with this observation: All in all, not a great day for those who believe, as I do, that "there is no good reason to allow disparities in wealth to be translated into disparities in political power....
June 24, 2008
This is a nice article on what goes into how a presidential campaign selects a vice presidential nominee. And if you read all the way to the end, there are some educated guesses about who seems to be on the...
New York's #1 obstructionist is out of office, apparently immediately. If you know anything about Albany you know the head of the Senate has enormous power, and Bruno has used it to block a lot of stuff progressives have sought...
June 22, 2008
Can you imagine the sheer amount of data? And how tempting it would be to crack the security? And the burden on small business? Washington, DC - Hidden deep in Senator Christopher Dodd's 630-page Senate housing legislation is a sweeping...
June 20, 2008
I'm partway through Nixonland, and am liking it. Perlstein is trying to wind together a bunch of different strands (social, political, economic, generational, foreign policy, etc.) into a cohesive telling of the seismic shifts in American politics between 1966 and...
June 19, 2008
Don't know if anyone else noticed this: the US Air Force is having a great deal of difficultly buying airplanes. The Air Force needs some new air-to-air tankers. These are the boring, unglamorous planes that are necessary. They are big...
June 18, 2008
I so like this guy, and he's a great face for the party. It's good to see him finally get some attention. And yes, he should be on the Veep short-list....
June 17, 2008
I hadn't thought of it as a battleground state for the fall, but 538 makes a good case. And I agree it'd make more sense to prioritize that state than it does to prioritize Georgia....
I noted earlier that the biggest bit of drama at the state's Democratic convention last week was the defeat of the state party's treasurer. That fight (which the incumbent treasurer lost decisively at in the state party's executive committee, though...
June 16, 2008
How else could you accumulate that much credit card debt? Senators John McCain and Barack Obama released their Senate financial disclosure statements on Friday, revealing that Mr. McCain and his wife had at least $225,000 in credit card debt and...
June 15, 2008
From the NYT: Four years after Massachusetts became the first state to allow gay couples to marry, there have been blissful unions, painful divorces and everything in between. Some same-sex couples say being married has made a big difference, and...
June 14, 2008
So I am back from attending the state party convention in Charleston (my apologies for taking so long to approve the comments - didn't touch a computer while I was away). I might have more to say about it tomorrow....
Mark Hosenball notes that the 3 top Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, all former presidential candidates, are "running" for Secretary of State - John Kerry, Joe Biden, and Chris Dodd. While Bill Richardson and others should certainly be...
June 12, 2008
From the NYT story on the Supreme Court rulings that struck down most of the Bush Administration's attempts to keep Al Qaeda out of our courts, comes this wonderful quote by our fearless Chief Justice of the Supreme Court: And...
So I see that the national press is picking up on this story. Will it be enough to knock the governor of Louisiana off the list of vice presidential prospects?...
June 11, 2008
Obviously those who want low turnout won't like it, but we really should vote on a Saturday.Well, we should probably vote by mail, or have the ability to vote over several days, but if there has to be an "election...
June 10, 2008
I'd just like to go on record as saying that whoever wins in November should keep Bob Gates around as SecDef. He's trying bring the Air Force in line, he's supported attempts to expand the Army, and he's making the...
MSNBC's Todd and Montanaro have this report on the long short list that has been discussed on Capitol Hill. They report 16 names have been discussed - Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards, Evan Bayh, Kathleen Sebelius, Ted Strickland, Mark...
This is probably the best short piece Mark Halperin has put together in a long time. It's a short list, but there's a lot of truth in it....
This is dumb. E.J. Dionne makes the case for Joe Biden because he's a "happy warrior", who's "ready on day 1", and knows a ton about foreign policy.To which I respond - duh, what?How in the hell is Obama supposed...
June 05, 2008
I think this is an excellent strategy - and the name for it that Ben Smith uses is great too....
Ambinder runs down the pluses and minuses of Tom Ridge as a possible running-mate for John McCain. Personally, I think he's one of the strongest choices McCain could make....
Via Yglesias I ran across this, which would indeed seem to make an Obama-Clinton ticket extremely difficult. I mean Obama just banned the DNC from taking PAC money. Is he really going to cover for the Clintons on this stuff?...
June 04, 2008
Can the candidate of change put a Clinton on his ticket? Can a candidate who's going to have to argue judgment matters more than experience (especially on foreign policy) put a person who voted for the Iraq war on his...
June 03, 2008
Matt Stoller makes his case for the retired general. Mark Kleiman generally likes the idea, but he has a few concerns....
June 02, 2008
Poblano helps you figure it out, with a spread sheet in which you too can decide which votes count and which votes don't - just like the Clintons do!...
June 01, 2008
It will surprise no one that I agree with this: And yet, there's Terry McAuliffe bloviating on CNN about how this adds to Clinton's popular vote "victory" - a victory only if you count states that violated party rules (Florida),...
Lowell at Raising Kaine runs down the pros and cons of the 3 Virginians people mention as possible running mates for Sen. Obama. Mark Kleiman also touts Mark Warner, and has some questions about a Warner candidacy....
May 31, 2008
I think Publius is absolutely right. What the DNC decides today doesn't matter at all. How Sen. Clinton responds to it, that will be the important news of the day. And it could well reverberate all the way to November.In...
May 30, 2008
Our congressman has come out for the Illinois senator. That makes all 4 of the state's congressional Democrats for Obama - which of course stands in contrast to the preferences of the state's voters that were prominently displayed in the...
May 29, 2008
Well, of course it's a political stunt. But it's a damn clever one. Score one for the McCain campaign....
May 28, 2008
I've said it before, and I'll say it again - Jim Webb should not be Sen. Obama's choice for Vice President. On the other hand, infuriating Bob Novak is often a good thing, so that's one more reason to put...
May 22, 2008
Ever since last summer I've been starting to think that Rhode Island might now have the best delegation in the US Senate. Today I noted more evidence supporting that thought. Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse were the only two Democrats...
Ambinder also has a post up on the start of the Obama campaign's search for a vice presidential nominee. He hits on the basic political issues involved, and he has a list of possibilities. Some of them are appalling (Nunn,...
That's who he's quite publicly meeting with this weekend. I think Crist could be an excellent choice - Jindal (who's getting hammered in the Louisiana press of late, something the national press might want to look at) and Romney, not...
May 21, 2008
Kos notes something I was unaware of - Puerto Rico gets to send more delegates to the Democratic National Convention than 26 states (including those Appalachian areas that have been much discussed of late, Kentucky and West Virginia)....
May 20, 2008
So SUSA has polled Pennsylvania and shows that in a head-to-head Obama leads McCain 48-40. They also polled a variety of tickets involving the two senators. Is this really all that helpful? I mean I don't find it at all...
May 19, 2008
The country's top political donor promised the leaders of Young Democrats of America $1 million if they wouldn't back Sen. Obama. The Young Democrats though stood with their pro-Obama membership and turned down the $1 million. While this race looks...
May 14, 2008
Racially, educationally, in terms of its economy, in terms of the age of its population, it is an outlier. Something that you'd think more people might have brought up on tv last night when interpreting the supposed larger meanings of...
Seriously, is there anyone on tv who's more perfect for today's political media environment than Chris Matthews? It's like they popped him out of a network talking head machine.And, more broadly, why won't the networks say poor white people? That's...
May 13, 2008
The governor of Washington state took time out of her busy schedule today to write a diary on Daily Kos in which she attacks Sen. McCain for leading the fight that allowed for a major air tanker contract to be...
And happily some of them actually have a sense of humor (predictably, some don't).Ted Stevens: "No. I've got too many things that I still want to do as a senator. And I don't like the idea of a job where...
Marc Ambinder is arguing that today's important election isn't in West Virginia, it's in Mississippi. And indeed, if the Democrats manage to win a blood-red seat in the Deep South that President Bush won by 25 points in 2004 that'll...
May 11, 2008
So since earlier today I brought up the question of McCain's running-mate, I figure I might as well open a thread for any thoughts anyone has about who Sen. Obama should choose. My top choices? Gov. Bill Richardson of New...
He was at it again today in Mingo county. He told them his wife represented "people like you, in places like this", and urged voters to turn out in record numbers on Tuesday to send a message to the "higher-type...
It might be a little hard to imagine, but as recent polling shows Senators Smith (OR), Cornyn (TX) and Dole (NC) to be in trouble, it's starting to look possible. In contrast, the Republicans are really only contesting 1 Democratic...
So last night Ryan and I were once again talking about who McCain might run with. And I was having trouble thinking of many possibilities. Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah seem like good possibilities,...
May 10, 2008
He makes a pretty good case....
May 08, 2008
I'm a lot less worried about the racial tinge to what she said than the fact that what she said flies in the face of reality. Over time Obama's been becoming more and more popular in those voting blocs that...
May 05, 2008
Some of these are repeating from comments, but these are the relevant stories covering the WVU Faculty Senate vote that recommended that WVU President Garrison resign: The basic news blurb from our local AM talk radio station. Commentary from one...
If Obama has to apologize for Ayers that is. The answer is of course abundantly obvious. The media likes McCain, has decided his character is not campaign issue, and has told the public how great McCain is for a good...
May 04, 2008
Yup, that headline is sure to piss some off, including perhaps some of the other members of the Coup. But when she insists on restating her threats against Iran and her call for a gas tax holiday ... well, c'mon....
Yup, that headline is sure to piss some off, including perhaps some of the other members of the Coup. But when she insists on restating her threats against Iran and her call for a gas tax holiday ... well, c'mon....
May 03, 2008
The least important contest of the primary cycle? Perhaps. But at this point both campaigns want every delegate they can get. There's still 1 precinct (out of 19) outstanding, but his lead should be secure as he's up by 6-7%...
Ari Berman investigates what it does, and how it connects Obama and Ayers (this link goes out to Morris, given his Ayers fixation - and to the Clinton campaign which keeps pushing the Obama-n-Ayers smears)....
Ari Berman investigates what it does, and how it connects Obama and Ayers (this link goes out to Morris, given his Ayers fixation - and to the Clinton campaign which keeps pushing the Obama-n-Ayers smears)....
Charles Blow points out some interesting data. Despite all the pundits' analysis and hyperbole, over the course of the presidential campaign (since last July) white Democrats' opinions of Barack Obama haven't changed much - both his favorables and his unfavorables...
Oh please. "The great divide in this country is not by race or even income, it's by those who think they are better than everyone else and think they should play by a different set of rules," he said. "In...
May 02, 2008
And Labour takes a beating all over....
Well, at least according to the Oklahoma Statutes on forcible sodomy, and forcible sodomy being what they have legislated. And given that they have just proposed to "[force] another person to engage in the detestable and abominable crime against nature"...
May 01, 2008
North Carolina is the most populous state voting on Tuesday, but the perception seems to be that Indiana is the swingiest. So with that in mind, FiveThirtyEight projects the likely outcome here....
Joe Andrew tears it to shreds, arguing it's cheap Rovian "old politics" that the country needs to rise above in this moving letter that explains why he's jumping ship and backing Sen. Obama.And also via Ben Smith, I see this...