Last week, Rand Paul turned on Rachel Maddow. After Maddow invited him on her show, and painted his libertarian views as a proxy support for private sector segregation, Paul announced that he had been attacked by the “Looney Left.” So it goes. Politics ain’t T-ball. Yet we can all still hope that one day Maddow and Paul find a way to …
Media
“Any Plans For A Real Press Conference?”
Those words were shouted by a member of the U.S. press corps, as President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderón left the Rose Garden this afternoon. The official White House press schedule for Tuesday had announced, “The President will hold a joint press conference with President Calderón in the Rose Garden.” But when it was all …
The Christie Model
Taking on the media is always something that endears Republicans to their base, and this from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has just the right mix of unapologetic directness, snark and indignation to make conservatives swoon.
NerdProm
The red carpet at the Hinckley Hilton (as it’s dubbed inside the Beltway) is all laid out and this year not only C-SPAN will be covering the celebrity arrivals but CNN as well. Washington is gearing up for the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, also known as nerdprom – I believe the name is fairly self explanatory. This year …
And the Winners Are…
The deadtree cover this week is TIME’s annual 100 most influential people of the year. Who’d we miss? Who shouldn’t be on this list? Let the debate begin.
Update:
Even better: TIME’s least influential list. Hysterical.
Some Reflections on Being Stranded (Twice) in London
I finally head home tomorrow but before I do, here are some reflections about being stranded in London. Nearly the exact some thing happened to me nine years ago during 9/11, though there are some marked differences.
Clinton’s Critique of Overheated Rhetoric
With the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing approaching on Monday, former president Bill Clinton gave an eloquent speech this morning at the Center for American Progress. Clinton compares the poisonous political climate that sent Timothy McVeigh to the Murrah building and the debates raging today. He warned political …
Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn: Don’t Be “Biased By Fox News”
The Fox News playbook calls for the promotion and evisceration of its critics. If the White House bad mouths the network, Glenn Beck adds a red phone to his set so its staff can call in. If LL Cool J objects to Sarah Palin rehashing an old interview of him for her show, a Fox spokesperson wishes Cool J “the best with his fledgling acting …
House Votes to Investigate Dem Leaders
Taking a page from Nancy Pelosi’s own playbook, House Republican leaders today introduced a privileged resolution demanding that the Ethics Committee investigate what the Democratic leaders knew about former Rep. Eric Massa’s alleged groping of males interns and staff and when they found out. The resolution was almost identically worded …
Free The White House Press Corps!
When I go to political events, I generally like to talk to people who attend them. You learn a lot that way.
Not today. I arrived at the President’s health care speech at Arcadia University in Glenside, Pa., about 45 minutes early, hoping I might chat with some of the Pennsylvanians who were here. No such luck. The press was stuck …
How The White House Does P.R.: Forget The News Cycle, Face The Swirl
I have a new piece in this week’s magazine about how the White House is handling the evolving media landscape:
The news cycle that once defined the day at the White House has given way to a more ferocious beast. Call it the news cyclone, a massive force without beginning or end that churns constantly and seems almost impervious to
…
The Vanishing Barack Obama
Have you been suffering from a vague sense of loss? As if something that was once ubiquitous in your life has gone missing, and you are not quite sure what it is? That Miley Cyrus song suddenly out of rotation on the radio? A friend who stopped updating on Facebook? The magazine that stopped coming every week in the mail? CBS News’ Mark …
Morning Must Reads
–A new Washington Post/ABC News poll out this morning suggests Sarah Palin’s public image has taken a serious hit. A 55 percent majority say they have an unfavorable view of the former governor and a devastating 71 percent say she is unqualified to be president, up ten points from November. David Broder seems to fall somewhere in that …
