Month: November 2007
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Strangest campaign delay ever
The New York Times blog The Caucus reports on a bizarre delay in an Obama rally in Iowa: It turns out that Mr. Obama apparently was flying in from Chicago, and blustery winds in Cedar Rapids delayed his plane. But that explanation was of little solace to Mr. Lammer, who seemed far angrier than his
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Bill defends Hillary on driver’s license issue
Yesterday, Bill Clinton finally entered the fray directly on behalf of his wife: “We listened to people make snide comments about whether Vice President Gore was too stiff,” Mr. Clinton said, “and when they made dishonest claims about the things that he said that he’d done in his life. When that scandalous Swift boat ad
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John Edwards vs. the Constitution
When is a reporter going to point out that John Edwards is making a campaign promise that is probably unconstitutional? To appeal to Democrats infuriated by Washington, Mr. Edwards is employing unusual approaches. While he was the first candidate to present a health care plan, he no longer dwells on details of his proposal. Instead,
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Russert misleads on Thompson & WMD
During yesterday’s interview with GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson, NBC “Meet the Press” host Tim Russert repeated the myth that Thompson claimed Iraq had WMD immediately before the US invasion. Here’s what Russert said: RUSSERT: You were in Iowa, and you’re talking about Saddam Hussein, and you said, it was, “He was certain former Iraqi
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Deborah Solomon’s new disclosure
Clark Hoyt gets results! A few weeks ago the New York Times public editor revealed that Deborah Solomon’s impossibly witty (and harsh) interviews in the Times Magazine are the result of heavy edits that have included changing the order and wording of the questions. And in yesterday’s Times Magazine, Solomon’s interview of former UN ambassador
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The Cleland ad myth
The 2002 Saxby Chambliss ad criticizing Max Cleland has been become a standard talking point in liberal critiques of post-9/11 GOP demagoguery. The latest figure to exaggerate its viciousness is former American Prospect editor Michael Tomasky, who wrote the following in a review of Paul Krugman’s The Conscience of a Liberal: Difficult as it is
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McClatchy: Iran evidence lacking
There’s a reason I keep touting the McClatchy Washington bureau — they keep writing excellent stories like this one, which states unequivocally in its lede that “experts in and out of government say there’s no conclusive evidence that Tehran has an active nuclear-weapons program.” (The accompanying FAQ is also very useful.) There’s a reason these
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Obama takes goo-goo to new levels?
I’ve repeatedly bashed Barack Obama’s goo-goo tendencies, but this is ridiculous. An email (PDF) sent to supporters on Friday contains this bizarre promise (my emphasis): Barack believes that when the government makes a decision that affects your life, you deserve to know about it. When government officials meet with corporate lobbyists, you should be able
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The WSJ’s obsession with scare quotes
As TNR’s Jon Chait has noted, the Wall Street Journal editorial board has an amusing penchant for putting terms it questions in scare quotes even when doing so makes no sense. Here’s Chait on the WSJ back in 2003 (via TNR’s Isaac Chotiner): “President Bush’s tax cut is running into trouble in the Senate, with
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Obama on cousin Cheney
This was Obama’s best line from his speech in Durham: “It doesn’t help when my cousin Dick Cheney is put in charge of energy policy,” he said, laughing. “I’ve been hiding this for a long time. Everybody’s got a black sheep in the family…. But I’m not going on that family hunting trip anytime soon.”