As the dates for the first presidential campaign contests settle down, the state that traditionally goes first worries that others may usurp that spot
2012 Election
Herman Cain Somehow Misses 40 Years of Abortion Debate
I have to spend some time unpacking Herman Cain’s description of his position on abortion because it’s a good illustration of why straight-talkin’, complicated-problem-solvin’ politicians succeed only in movies. In real life, it turns out that candidates who think they have a simple position that appeals to everyone don’t actually …
Huntsman Praises ‘More Sweeping’ Financial Sector Regulation
Jon Huntsman’s op-ed on financial reform in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal is bookended by some Republican boilerplate on rolling back Democrat’s 2010 overhaul, but there’s some interesting stuff in there. Here’s the crux of his …
Can a Flat Tax Boost Rick Perry’s Flagging Candidacy?
Herman Cain isn’t the only candidate vowing to junk the unwieldy federal tax code and replace it with a simpler structure. On Wednesday, speaking to attendees at the Western Leadership Conference in Las Vegas, Rick Perry …
Scary Perry Isn’t a Winning Strategy
As a child in Paint Creek, Texas, Rick Perry was not great at clod fights, the rural Texas version of snowball fights that involve throwing clumps of dirt at one another. “He couldn’t hit the side of a barn,” his fellow Boy Scout Riley Couch told the San Antonio Express-News in 2001. But, “Tricky Ricky,” as he was often called in …
Where Obama’s Hurting: In Piedmont and the Polls
President Obama wraps up his three-day bus tour of North Carolina and Virginia on Wednesday, a jaunt designed to sell his $447 billion jobs bill to voters in two swing states he wrested from the GOP in 2008. The trip’s route has been telling. Repeating his victories in these pivotal Southern battlegrounds will be a challenge for Obama. …
The Debate in Vegas: BAM! POW!! OOOF!!!
I am just loving these Republican debates. There was a moment last night, when Mitt Romney put his hand on Rick Perry’s shoulder and Perry gave him a cowboy glare and it seemed that it might come to fisticuffs. The moment was averted when Perry froze in catatonic anger, as is his wont, and Romney retreated into smartest-kid-in-class …
What You Missed While Not Watching the Las Vegas GOP Debate
-1 minutes. There are two Anderson Coopers. The soft and fuzzy Anderson, who gets flu shots before a live studio audience during the day, and the hard charging Anderson, who gets indignant and outraged via satellite at night. Now …
Why Occupy Wall Street and the Tea Party Are Comparable
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 …
Tonight’s GOP Debate: Cain’s Test, Another Chance for Perry
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 …
How the 2012 Republicans Are Faring with Latino Voters
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, …
Three Things Rick Perry Can Learn From Sarah Palin
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 …
Inside the Ludicrous Donald Trump Primary
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.