Month: August 2008
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APSA blog slowdown
FYI Posting will be slow (or nonexistent) through Saturday — I’m at the American Political Science Association conference in Boston.
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Myth of Casey 1992 non-speech everywhere
Given that Bob Casey spoke at the Democratic convention tonight, it’s worth noting once again that his father was not barred from speaking in 1992 because he had pro-life views. Since I posted about this, Media Matters has been tracking this myth all over the press, including NPR, CNN, New York Times, Los Angeles Times,
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The abyss of cable news convention coverage
John Sides of The Monkey Cage has my favorite post so far on news coverage of the convention: I turned on the CNN’s coverage of the Democratic National Convention for the first time, and within 6 seconds I heard Carl Bernstein refer to the “national Clinton psychodrama.” Shoot me now. That’s why I keep them
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Jacob Weisberg hypes Obama landslide myth
Slate editor Jacob Weisberg is the latest journalist to suggest that Barack Obama should be winning by a large margin (via Andrew Sullivan): What with the Bush legacy of reckless war and economic mismanagement, 2008 is a year that favors the generic Democratic candidate over the generic Republican one. Yet Barack Obama, with every natural
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Richard Cohen and his critics
Matthew Yglesias mocks Richard Cohen for comparing his liberal critics to Communists: It’s extraordinary how commonplace these kind of sentiments are among prominent media figures. Cohen clearly relishes his self-conception as an independent thinker. And presumably the whole reason he’s glad to be a Washington Post columnist in part because that gives him a large
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Kevin Drum’s new blog
If you haven’t heard, Kevin Drum, who used to blog for Washington Monthly, is now blogging for Mother Jones. Steve Benen of The Carpetbagger Report has taken over as head blogger for the Monthly. Congratulations to both.
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Charles Blow’s homophobic slur of Obama
Charles Blow, a “visual Op-Ed columnist” for the New York Times, offered an ugly homophobic slur of Barack Obama in his column yesterday, calling Obama’s response to the crisis in Georgia “tepid and swishy” (links in online edition): Lately, you’ve demonstrated an unsettling penchant for overly nuanced statements that meander into the cerebral. Earth to
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Rove pushes “Obama is lazy” meme again
Karl Rove is again pushing the suggestion that Barack Obama is lazy, a claim that connotes ugly racial stereotypes about African Americans. Back in September of last year, a “senior White House official” (apparently Rove) accused Obama of “intellectual laziness” in an interview with Bill Sammon of The Examiner: As for Obama, a senior White
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How liberal are Obama and Biden?
In the wake of Joe Biden’s nomination, Fred Barnes drags out the National Journal 2007 Senate ratings to argue that Obama and Biden are the first and third most liberal sentors: Once regarded as a centrist, Mr. Biden was rated by the National Journal in 2007 as the third most liberal member of the Senate.
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Things to remember Friday and Saturday
A handy clip ‘n’ save guide: 1. Vice presidential selections rarely affect election outcomes.* 2. The selection is therefore only likely to be important insofar as the VP choice (a) helps or hurts the president they serve during his time in office and (b) becomes more likely to be a future president. 3. The selection