UPDATE: TIME’s Nathan Thornburgh analyzes the Troopergate report, with this conclusion: “[T]he Branchflower report still makes for good reading, if only because it convincingly answers a question nobody had even thought to ask: Is the Palin administration shockingly amateurish? Yes, it is. Disturbingly so. The 263 pages of the report show a coordinated application of [...]
On Friday morning, The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, whom I count among the cycle’s indispensable campaign reporters, wrote a blog post arguing that John McCain was not serious about his William Ayers attacks. On Friday afternoon, I responded with a post saying that McCain was serious, to the extent that serious is a thing that matters. [...]
Yes, there are other races going on outside of the presidential campaign. Here’s a rolling package that will update daily of the top congressional races (I did the Warner/Gilmore race which is not exactly a nail biter but is the Dems most likely pick up in the Senate). And for the trifecta: will Schumer get [...]
Here in Lakeville, the traveling press was pretty sure we’d see more of the kind of vicious anti-Obama attitude that’s becoming a hallmark of McCain rallies of late. As the town hall started, McCain was off with more pep than usual. Making the same old jokes, but with energy that reminded us of “the old [...]
Justin Fox takes a look at the latest idea that John McCain has unveiled to grapple with the financial crisis–lifting the requirement that seniors withdraw a certain amount of their retirement account each year. McCain argues that investors shouldn’t be forced to sell their stocks when the market is taking a beating. But Justin notes [...]
Marc Ambinder has written a post arguing that McCain is not serious about the William Ayers attacks his campaign has been launching all week. The argument goes like this: To truly drive Ayers into the public conversation, to trick what they consider an irredeemably biased press corps into biting, McCain has three vehicles gassed up [...]
Fred Kaplan has, as usual, a smart account of David Petraeus’s recent speech at the Heritage Foundation, in which the general talked about the need to negotiate with enemies. Kaplan points out the crucial difference between preparations and preconditions when you’re about to talk to your foes: Asked about a British officer’s recent statement that [...]
The Hartford Courant reports: Same-sex couples won the right to marry in Connecticut in an historic ruling by the Supreme Court today. Citing the equal protection clause of the state constitution, the justices ruled that civil unions were discriminatory. In a 4-3 decision released at 11:30 a.m., the majority wrote that the state’s “understanding of [...]
According to a new 30-second spot from the McCain campaign and the RNC, there is a connection between Barack Obama’s association with domestic-terrorist-turned-professor-turned-Chicago-citizen-of-the-year Bill Ayers and the collapse of the housing, financial and credit markets. The connection is so obvious, the ad doesn’t bother to explain it — it just jumps from talking ominously about [...]
