Uncategorized
-
Worrying too much about debates
Based on his performance in last night’s slugfest (which I skipped but caught up on this morning), Josh Marshall worries about Barack Obama’s ability to defend himself in the general election: One observation stands out to me from this debate. Hillary can be relentless and like a sledgehammer delivering tendentious but probably effective attacks. But
-
Rudy Giuliani’s obsession with payback
It’s a good thing Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign is collapsing. In addition to his contempt for democratic checks and balances and crazy foreign policy advisers, he has a shameful record of using the powers of government to punish his political enemies, as the New York Times reports today: Rudolph W. Giuliani likens himself to a
-
Mitt Romney makes America cringe
Things that make me uncomfortable — Mitt Romney dropping some hip-hop knowledge in Florida: Mitt Romney, whose 1950s manner and celebratory drink of choice call to mind a milkshake man more than a rap singer, gave a shout out Monday that left no doubt that he had spent little time listening to hip-hop. Mr. Romney,
-
Dog bites man: Earmarks will continue
This has to be one of the most mundane political headlines ever: “Earmarks Seen Likely to Continue”. Yes. For me, it’s right up there with Michael Kinsley’s favorites “Worthwhile Canadian Initiative” and “Debate Goes on Over the Nature of Reality.”
-
An Obama ceiling in white support?
The pundits are trying to figure out if or when John Edwards will drop out of the Democratic race and which candidate would benefit if he did so. Given his apparent leanings toward Obama, one reason for Edwards to stay in, as the New York Times notes today, is that he splits the white vote
-
Why Tom Brokaw makes the big bucks
Tom Brokaw on Meet the Press this morning: I’ve just gotten back from Florida. Rudy Giuliani’s ads on the air don’t mention terrorism. He’s the man who reduced the corporate taxes in the city of New York, created new jobs, reduced crime and also took a lot of people off the welfare rolls. Rudy’s new
-
Obama: I actually have a weakness
This riff by Barack Obama on the Democratic debate in Nevada is great stuff: But there’s nothing subtle about Las Vegas. With a high-stakes match on the line Saturday, Obama embraced local traditions by debuting a biting political standup routine Thursday night that mocked his rival. Obama began by recalling a moment in Tuesday night’s
-
The racist/panderer distinction
Kevin Drum quotes from the Reason article delving further into Ron Paul’s ugly past: Ron Paul may not be a racist, but he became complicit in a strategy of pandering to racists — and taking “moral responsibility” for that now means more than just uttering the phrase. It means openly grappling with his own past
-
Draft Bloomberg has 817 signatures!
As expected, two co-founders of the Unity ’08 debacle launched another ill-fated movement yesterday — a committee to draft Michael Bloomberg, the one man who can purchase the third party infrastructure they failed to create, into the presidential race. And it’s already setting the world on fire — 817 signatures on their petition so far!
-
Ron Paul’s defense falls apart
TNR’s Jamie Kirchik summarizes the collapse of elite support for Ron Paul in the wake of his story documenting the racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, and conspiratorial content contained in decades of newsletters put out under Paul’s name. Most devastating to Paul, though, is this post from Matt Welch, the editor-in-chief of Reason magazine (the flagship libertarian