In the Arena

Five Years After

Here is the column I wrote five years ago as the war began. In retrospect, I made several obvious mistakes–namely, the assumption that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. The most regrettable sentence in the piece is this one: Hans Blix’s inspection regime wasn’t nearly as muscular as it needed to be. That was wrong. [...]

John McCain’s Foreign Policy

John McCain’s visit this week to Europe and the Middle East will include a number of meetings with world leaders, who will be using those sessions to reacquaint themselves with the GOP nominee and to get a sense of what international relations would be like in a McCain Administration. At the Los Angeles Times, Paul [...]

Underplayed Story of the Day

On A2 of my dead-tree edition of the Washington Post and all the way back on A13 of the Washington Edition of the New York Times are the stories of the House vote yesterday to defy the President on terrorist surveillance legislation, and specifically, Bush’s insistence that the telecommunications companies that participated in the program [...]

So Who Won Texas?

Good question. And we’re not going to know the answer for a while, as Michael Duffy and Hilary Hylton explain here. P.S. Note to the High Sheriffs: Thanks for changing that Swampland banner, though I kind of miss seeing Mike Gravel up there.

This Reporter Does Not Endorse These Messages

But since it is Friday afternoon, he must admit that the ones he has seen are pretty funny. (Click the links, and then click the text.) John McCain Wears Sneakers With Velcro. Barack Obama Left A Comment On Your Blog. Hillary Clinton Is Sticking Her Finger In The Peanut Butter. (Apologies if you have seen [...]

Another Week, Another McCain Web Video

This one is about McCain’s time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. There are, perhaps regrettably, no nebulae or Teddy Roosevelt quotes like in the last one.

Hillary’s Santorum-like Numbers

Some of you were asking about where the poll numbers that put Hillary’s PA popularity on par with ousted Sen. Rick Santorum. Here they are: A Franklin & Marshall/Times-Shamrock Newspapers poll in mid-February showed 43 percent of voters had an unfavorable opinion of Mrs. Clinton, the same as a month ago and three percentage points [...]

Clinton Conference Call 3/13/08; Notes and Audio

Sorry so late with this. Had a bunch of things to do away from the computer yesterday. Call was with Howard Wolfson, Mark Penn, PA Gov. Ed Rendell and Philadelphia Mayor Nutter. Direct audio link here. Highlights: Olbermann says campaign is awash in filth? HW: We obviously vigorously disagree tho many of remain fans of [...]

McCain Campaign Returns To Solid Ground

In the post below, I raised the question of whether or not the McCain campaign made a mistake by sending out an attack article on Obama to reporters this morning. I published the post before a McCain aide was able to get back to me to answer that question. (Such are the perils of the [...]

McCain Campaign Walks A Fine Line On Obama Attacks

Three weeks ago, John McCain took a strong public stand against those of his allies who would attack Barack Obama for his middle name. “I want to disassociate myself with any disparaging remarks,” McCain told the press, after a radio talk show host distastefully used Obama’s middle name Hussein. Then this week, McCain’s campaign manager, [...]