The presidential nominees delivered statements and held dueling (and brief) press conferences this afternoon to discuss the Bush Administration’s bailout plan. Both candidates spoke about the need to do something, and to do it quickly. And both said similar things about the the need for the plan to provide more oversight and to prevent …
McCain has a new ad (see below) attacking Obama “and his liberal allies” for failing to lead in the midst of the current financial markets crisis. As many have noted, including George Will and the Wall Street Journal, McCain’s own handling of the crisis has hardly been a profile in leadership. But what’s important about this ad is not …
It’s not quite one of Ross Perot’s 30-minute infomercials from the 1992 campaign, but Obama’s new, two-minute ad featuring just him talking directly into the camera seems like a bow in the direction of those who argue that voters want to hear the candidates talk about what they would do as president rather than what grief would befall …
Glen Johnson, AP veteran and no-bull reporter par excellence, takes advantage of the new ethos over at the venerable wire service in a piece examining how John McCain promotes himself as a both an experienced Washington insider and a reform-minded outsider — in nearly the same breath.
The Wall Street Journal today reports out all the evidence showing that Sarah Palin was very much for the infamous “Bridge to Nowhere” before she was against it. And she turned on it only when it became politically untenable to be for it. And Alaska got the bridge money anyway. Writes the Journal:
But Gov. Palin’s claim comes with a
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In 2007 the federal budget deficit shrank to $163 billion, which the Bush Administration hailed as proof of the wisdom of its economic policies. The President even promised a balanced budget by 2012. Today we learn that the deficit has ballooned by 150% in just one year, to $407. And next year is likely to be just as bad.
David Frum, conservative author and former Bush speechwriter, weighs in over at NRO on the question of why we should care whether or not Sarah Palin should be subjected to taking questions from the press. His answer: it was the same contempt for elites, both in the media and more broadly, that caused the Bush communications effort to …
A mixed performance. The ending worked, though in the hall I doubt anyone could hear him very well as he spoke through the crowd’s applause. The final peroration — “We’re Americans. We don’t hide from history. We make history” — was strong stuff.
The difference when he’s talking about something that truly animates him is startling.
He’s struggling, as he sometimes does — misplacing the emphasis on words, sounding at times like he’s reading the speech for the first time, losing energy during the sections on issues he’s never been particularly passionate about, buring applause lines in a string of sentences. It’s as if he can’t bring himself to pretend he’s not …
Not sure what the protesters’ goal is — unless it’s to elicit sympathy for McCain among the viewers who tuned in to hear his speech. His response — telling the audience to ignore the “static” and that “Americans want us to stop shouting at each other” — let him come across as reasonable and cool-headed.
According to Nicole Wallace of the McCain campaign, the American people don’t care whether Sarah Palin can answer specific questions about foreign and domestic policy. According to Wallace — in an appearance I did with her this morning on Joe Scarborough’s show — the American people will learn all they need to know (and all they …
Maybe it won’t help them win. Maybe it will turn out to have been too negative and sarcastic for the current public mood, especially coming after Giuliani. But two things are clear after Sarah Palin made her do-or-die debut before 20-plus million people tonight. She is amazingly self-confident. And she knows how to nail a speech.
