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I always get a kick out of watching someone ignore or subvert ridiculous political traditions. So I chuckled yesterday envisioning the panic of my colleagues in the press corps desperately trying to figure out whether to cancel their Iowa reservations and book flights to South Carolina, and the curses of GOP campaign staffers who have [...]
In a memo to his House Republican caucus released after Obama spoke on Monday afternoon, Majority Leader Eric Cantor doubled down on his insistence that there be no tax increases included in the next round of deficit negotiations. Though this position ignores the fact that taxes are set to go up automatically in 2013 if [...]
Over the weekend, the New York Times reported on the latest innovation in Washington’s shameful influence-peddling industry. Read the story for details, which involve former Democratic Congressman Earl Pomeroy, who supported the health care industry in Congress and then, after losing his seat last fall, went right into a job promoting the industry’s interests in [...]
The emotional highpoint of the disastrous debt-limit negotiations last month may have come in the Oval Office, after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor offered a proposal that left the President displeased. “Eric, don’t call my bluff,” Obama said, according to Cantor. “I’m going to take this to the American people.” On Monday, with the country’s [...]
–President Obama on the Standard & Poor’s downgrade.
Gallup is out with a useful, if not timely, snapshot of presidential approval by state culled from its tracking data in the first half of the year:
It’s a little hard to summarize succinctly, but Jon Chait’s response to the much-forwarded Drew Westen New York Times essay is well worth a read. Chait’s conclusion: Obama took office at the cusp of a massive worldwide financial crisis that was bound to inflict severe damage on himself and his party. That he faced such [...]
I’ve been trying to figure out how best to celebrate and mourn the members of Seal Team Six and our Afghan allies who were shot down in a Chinook helicopter last week. Hugh Hewitt does it well here. And I would add: those who would see this tragedy as another opportunity to make political points, on [...]
Get ready for a big week in Iowa. The Stribune takes a hefty whack at Pawlenty’s health care record. The New York Times, in effect, chronicles Huntsman nepotism. Ryan Lizza does his thing with a long and excellent profile of Michele Bachmann, focusing in large part on her Christian political philosophy. There’s also this, which warrants a few follow-ups:
August is always Barack Obama’s darkest month. Whether it’s a faltering campaign (2007), Paris Hilton comparisons (2008), town hall rebellions (2009), or an inability to stay on message just weeks before a midterm wipeout (2010), nothing good ever seems to happen in the weeks immediately following his birthday. And this year is shaping up worse [...]
