|
|
Finally, Republicans and Democrats have something they can agree on: The GOP presidential nomination race is a mess. ”It’s the most unfathomable Republican race of our lifetime,” a senior aide to Barack Obama’s reelection effort told me last week. Back in February, Ralph Reed, the lifetime GOP activist, told me, “It’s the most wide open since [...]
You know it’s a Friday afternoon if the White House sends out the latest list of presidential pardons. Here are today’s lucky winners, all of whom were convicted of non-violent crimes. Some swing states represented, but no campaign contributors.
Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu continued their icy relationship in front of the cameras Friday after what the President somewhat ruefully called “prolonged” talks, suggesting that Bibi had delivered one of his trademark multi-part lectures on the requirements of Israeli security. The two were correct and diplomatic, but as they have at previous [...]
Mary Kaye Huntsman surveyed the crowd of 60+ people spilled across Juliana Bergeron’s lawn on Main Street in Keene, New Hampshire. Her husband, Jon, had just finished his first event of the day and the couple lingered to chat with voters and reporters. The event had been so packed, not everyone’s hands had been shaken [...]
In the more-fun-to-read, newsstand magazine this week, I have a piece about White House efforts to be more online, including a scene from last week (pictured above, courtesy of the White House) when message man David Plouffe (pointing) watched Twitter, while President Obama spoke in Texas about immigration. Here are some more thoughts on how [...]
In a speech at the National Press Club on Friday, AFL-CIO head Richard Trumka drew predictable contrasts between the mega-union’s members and its political enemies (e.g. firefighters running into burning buildings vs. the Scott Walkers of the world), but he also took aim at Washington’s behavior on the whole—suggesting that Democrats better step up if [...]
John Lithgow does it justice:
Tim Pawlenty has already been running for President for weeks and even months now. But candidates nowadays stretch out the process of announcing their candidacies into as many incremental steps as possible, including the establishment of a “leadership” PAC and an exploratory committee. Pawlenty even had to take back an unintentional declaration of his candidacy [...]
There’s plenty to chew over in Jon Huntsman’s first interviews as a proto-presidential candidate, but perhaps the most substantial position he staked out today is a foreign policy one. Earlier this year, when Haley Barbour was flirting with a run, he made quite the splash by breaking from mainstream GOP orthodoxy and espousing skepticism over [...]
