Uncategorized
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Julie Rovner fails civics 101
How do you make a political scientist mad? Screw up the basics of the legislative process. Julie Rovner’s NPR report on some governors’ opposition to a Bush administration ruling that would restrict eligibility for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program concluded with this infuriatingly obvious misstatement: Congressional Democrats are sympathetic to the governor’s pleas, but
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Flying Newt Gingrich: Techno-savvy!
Newt Gingrich’s think tank sent out a press release about its decision to open a Silicon Valley office that cites this bit of evidence of their techno-savviness: An example of American Solutions’ dedication to using new technology occurred when Newt Gingrich made an appearance in the virtual world of Second Life for a Solutions Day
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FL and MI disenfranchised long ago
I hate arguments like this one from Geraldine Ferraro: But if [superdelegates switching to support Barack Obama] are actually upset over the diminished clout of rank-and-file Democrats in the presidential nominating process, then I would love to see them agitating to force the party to seat the delegates elected by the voters in Florida and
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Bill Kristol goes negative on Obama
Bill Kristol trots out the buzzwords of 2000 and 2004 in an attempt to link Barack Obama to negative stereotypes of Al Gore and John Kerry: Barack Obama is an awfully talented politician. But could the American people, by November, decide that for all his impressive qualities, Obama tends too much toward the preening self-regard
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Blaming Hillary’s campaign
Newsweek’s Jon Alter has joined the chorus of criticism of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, calling it “one of the worst run campaigns in modern political history.” But how do we know that? Mostly because she seems to losing the race for the nomination. I want to believe Hillary’s campaign is not well run — that’s certainly
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Yglesias reads McCain’s mind again
Matthew Yglesias, who backed off the last time he claimed to read John McCain’s mind, is again stretching it with the claim that McCain “doesn’t even care about the economic challenges facing the country”: If reporters start judging McCain by their usual rules, then he’ll have to turn himself into in just another carefully-hedging pol.
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NYT admits perceptions of bias
One interesting aspect of the controversy over John McCain’s possible/alleged affair with a lobbyist is that it’s forced the New York Times to admit that the newspaper is loathed by many conservatives: Later in the day, one of Mr. McCain’s senior advisers directed strong criticism at The Times in what appeared to be a deliberate
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Frank Luntz’s “make love” comment
The Republican pollster Frank Luntz needs to keep his weird fantasies to himself: On Hannity & Colmes, while conducting a focus group analysis of the February 21 Democratic presidential debate, Frank Luntz asked the focus group participants: “How many of you want [Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton] to really argue? Raise your hands.” Luntz
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Mark Penn: Still absurd
The Politico’s Ben Smith quotes more silly Mark Penn spin: “It would be hard to imagine a nominee from this party who didn’t win” any of a series of big states — New York, Massachusetts, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. (I’m not sure whether he mentioned California, but obviously that’s on the list.) But
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Bill Richardson’s campaign debt
Can Bill Richardson possibly expect to raise much money with this email? I am writing to you today because we still have a substantial debt left from the campaign. It is my firm intention to meet every obligation we incurred. But I need your help. Will you make one more contribution to help us zero