ual
The White House sends this shot, by photographer Pete Souza, capturing the moment when Senator Arlen Specter told President Obama that he was switching parties: Interestingly, we hear Specter tried to tell Vice President Joe Biden first. For years, Biden had been trying to convince Specter that he should become a Democrat. The two are [...]
How long has it been? You have to go all the way back to 1937 to find the last American President who enjoyed what was, in practice, a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, according to Senate Associate Historian Donald Ritchie. That was when Franklin D. Roosevelt, having just won what was then the biggest re-election [...]
Per PoliticsPa
Michael Crowley at TNR is reporting that Arlen Specter is about to either change parties or caucus with Democrats. Huge, if true. It’s true. I don’t think I have to explain the importance of a 60-vote super-majority for the Democrats in the Senate (assuming that Al Franken is allowed to serve sometime before his 6-year [...]
Assorted wingnuts have begun to refer to President Obama’s travels abroad as his “Global Apology Tour,” which demonstrates how entirely out of touch they are with the (a) the actual practice of diplomacy and (b) reality. Obama’s overseas excursions have been extremely popular with Americans–and, more important, they’ve laid the groundwork for the long-term work [...]
You say yes, I say no You say stop and I say go, go, go Oh, no You say goodbye and I say hello Hello, hello I don’t know why you say goodbye I say hello Hello, hello I don’t know why you say goodbye I say hello I say high, you say low You [...]
So reports Jim Poniewozik, who also wonders: It will if nothing else be an interesting test, both of the drawing power of the President and of network TV. Will Lie to Me get an uptick in viewers as a result, or in an era with so many cable options, does one more channel airing something [...]
One update to my earlier comments on Obama’s science address this morning: I just interviewed Francis Collins, the former director of the Human Genome Project, on an unrelated topic and we talked a bit about the speech, which Collins attended. He had jotted down the same quote I noted–about the undermining of scientists by “predetermined [...]
Juan Cole offers some reasoned thoughts on Pakistan, bringing some needed balance to the conversation. I would add a few caveats, though: 1. The Taliban are a small minority, but they nearly blew up the entire Zardari cabinet at the Marriott Hotel last September. They(Add: Their first-cousin jihadis, Lashkar-e-taiba) also nearly brought Pakistan to war [...]
