My TIME colleague Ishaan Tharoor has done the interwebbing proud by writing a blog post that tries to counterspin the growing political spin–most recently from President Obama–describing the liberal Occupy Wall Street movement as similar in kind to the conservative Tea Party movement. Provocative, no doubt, and just what the moment ordered. But since I [...]
Another day, another Republican presidential debate. (And Mike Allen catalogues the announcement of three more since Sunday, so help us.) As the GOP candidates gather in Las Vegas tonight for a CNN debate, I see three key dynamics to watch:
Last weekend in Tennessee, Herman Cain boasted that as President, he’d build a fence along the U.S.-Mexican border “20-feet high, with barbed wire, and electrified.” The crowd applauded, and in an interview a day later, Cain shrugged the whole thing off as “a joke.” He might come to regret being so cavalier about immigration, which [...]
Hillary Clinton landed in Tripoli on Tuesday morning on an unannounced visit, the first to Libya by a U.S. cabinet official since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Shifting from her regular State Department plane to a C-17 in Malta for security reasons, Clinton and her staff are taking the trip as a combination of victory [...]
Rick Perry’s awkward courtship of the Republican party reminds me a lot of the jig Sarah Palin performed right after the 2008 campaign. Unsure of whether to go the establishment route, Palin made overtures inside the Beltway before finally breaking with them and going with Tea Party. So, I thought it might be instructive to [...]
Team Obama says Wall Street will be “one of the central elements of the campaign.” Doug Schoen thinks it’s a bad idea. Greg Sargent disagrees. Twice as many Americans blame Washington for the bad economy than blame Wall Street.
With her poll numbers sagging, her political organization dwindling and prognosticators declaring her moment to have passed, Michele Bachmann called in a big gun Monday night: Donald Trump.
It’s sort of fun to watch as the right-wing press attempts to handle the phenomenally unprepared and unworthy Herman Cain with kid gloves. Here, for example, is the neoconservative Weekly Standard, explaining Cain’s cluelessness about neoconservatism on Meet the Press: ”Would you describe yourself as a neoconservative then?” [David] Gregory asked. Like any good Socratic [...]
Arizona Senator and 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain took to the Senate floor Monday to lambast the President’s listening tour this week on jobs. From his remarks: The president is now on his listening, quote, listening tour, at taxpayers’ expense the president made these remarks on a taxpayer-paid-for, riding in a Canadian bus, visit for the next [...]
The number of Cabinet departments Ron Paul would eliminate if elected President, as outlined in a policy plan released Monday. Paul would scrap the Departments of Commerce, Education, Energy, Interior, and Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Transportation Security Administration.
