Month: August 2007
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Blogging synergies
Yes, yes, there are a lot of Hillary posts. That’s what happens when you listen to a Democratic debate in the car. More on Karl Rove and other subjects soon…
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Why Hillary’s unfavorables aren’t like Bill’s
I’ve repeatedly pointed out that Hillary Clinton’s high unfavorables make her a weak general election candidate. But I didn’t know that her husband started his general election campaign with similarly awful numbers: When Karl Rove said yesterday that Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s unfavorable rating was in the “high 40s,” maybe he hadn’t seen the most
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Hillary: Still not a “winner”
During the long drive from Philly back to North Carolina, I subjected my family to the C-SPAN Radio broadcast of the latest Democratic debate. I don’t have anything to add about the substance of the debate itself, which sounded more or less same as all the previous ones, but I was again annoyed by Hillary
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When acronyms attack: Hillary’s “yo-yo” line
Kill me now: CLINTON: We have a very fundamental philosophical difference with the Republicans. They believe in a society that is basically you’re on your own. And if you listen carefully to “you’re on your own,” the first letters of those words spell “yo-yo.” Think about it — somebody else is holding the string and
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Light blogging alert
We’re heading north to see friends and family in Philly, so posting may be light through the weekend…
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Karl Rove: Still wrong on realignment
While Karl Rove is still touting the prospect of a GOP realignment, he seems to have finally abandoned the prospect of his white whale — a realignment election: The Rove retrospectives that dotted the media Tuesday bashed him for his cocky past prediction that Bush would help build an enduring Republican majority. But despite the
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Rove and Bush’s fart jokes
The New York Times article on Karl Rove’s departure today highlights his jocularity (“Rove has been a gregarious figure who … regularly used a Secret Service radio to announce his presence in presidential motorcades jokingly”), which reminds me of a classic from the archives: Maureen Dowd highlights the maturity of the Bush White House in
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The problem with anecdotes
Jamison Foser of Media Matters has a useful takedown of what Time’s Jay Carney calls “the telling anecdote — the seemingly small story that reveals a broader truth about a politician or other subject.” As Foser points out, the anecdotes that journalists choose to highlight are frequently untrue, misleading, irrelevant, or trivial. He suggests this
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Harriet Miers: Policy wonk
One aspect of the Josh Green Atlantic article that hasn’t attracted much notice is this passage about the administration’s dysfunctional policy process, which was run by erstwhile Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers: [A]nother important misjudgment by Bush, prodded by Rove, was giving Rove too much power within the administration. This was partly a function of
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Karl Rove: Wrong on realignment
Josh Green’s fascinating Atlantic Monthly article on Karl Rove highlights the outgoing presidential adviser’s obsession with creating an electoral realignment. But as Matthew Yglesias points out, realignment theory is an antiquated approach that is no longer taken seriously in modern political science: I will, however, note that what I found most fascinating about it was