I can’t write about politics without actually hitting the trail and seeing the candidates work, and I’ve learned a lot these past few days in Iowa. (Actually, over the years, I’ve found that I’m better off writing about anything–from inner city schools to the war in Afghanistan–when I go out and experience it directly.) But [...]
Obama won a tactical victory on the payroll tax cut, if not a particularly substantive one. Charles Krauthammer thinks Republicans got played. The House is poised to pass the two-month deal today. Vice President Biden counters Romney in a Des Moines op-ed, implicitly ties him to Bush 43.
The never-ending negotiations between the 50 state attorneys general (minus a few big ones) and five major banks over penalties and standards for past, present and future mortgage servicing are finally ending, and some details are beginning to emerge from sources familiar with the deal.
When a 17-term Republican congressman and former chair of the House Judiciary Committee says the First Lady has a “big butt,” there’s only one way to respond. So with apologies to Seth Myers (and Amy Poehler)… Really, Jim Sensenbrenner? Really?! While speaking to a constituent–and one who has just expressed her admiration for Michelle Obama [...]
Updated: 10:13 a.m. Friday On the fifth day since rank-and-file Republicans bucked a two-month extension of the payroll tax cut, the House GOP finally gave way under pressure. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell gave the last push Thursday, calling on his House colleagues to pass a short-term measure and move on to separately negotiating a [...]
One of Mitt Romney’s challenges in running for President, both in 2008 and this cycle, is that he’s not exactly the most relatable guy. He’s fabulously wealthy, belongs to a religion that less than 2% of Americans share and is essentially selling himself as a technocratic captain of industry, not a share-your-beer-and-your-pain regular guy. As [...]
House Republicans are in a right pickle. Romney’s PAC continues its bombing campaign against everyone but Paul in Iowa: Ron Paul walks out of CNN interview after being questioned on racist newsletters from the ’90s.
Ron Paul can sum up his philosophy in a paragraph: “[The Washington Establishment] believes that if you have the freedom to keep what you earn and take care of yourself, you won’t do it. They want to do it for you–and they’ve been trying for the past 70 years, since the Great Depression. But we’ve learned that government can’t do it, either.” This is a bit too neat for my taste, but it has far more resonance now than it has had in the past.
The Super PAC supporting Rick Perry is airing a new ad bashing Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich in familiar terms. But it does so through a whimsical, old-timey newsreel device which I assume is meant to make the message feel less nasty. The Perry camp is probably mindful of the double-edged sword of going negative–namely [...]
