Normally friendly, Wisconsin has been anything but in the past few months. Statewide, the question of whether to keep Governor Scott Walker or kick him out for slashing collective bargaining for most public employees has set …
2012 Election
C’Mon Man: Why Joe Biden Is Starring in Obama’s Reelection Campaign
“I love Joe,” Michelle Obama said Tuesday on The Daily Show. It had come to that point in the evening—which happens on just about every late night program, just about every night when politics comes up—when the comedian …
Mitt Romney’s Ads: Still Wrong on the Stimulus
I’ve been on leave writing a book about the stimulus, so I’ve let others judge the Pants-on-Fire ads and Four-Pinocchio attacks and Solyndra-related nonsense that Republicans have been peddling about the stimulus. It’s …
Ouster of a Texas Democrat Casts Light on U.S. Drug War
Romney, Obama and Syria as a ‘Leadership’ Issue
The latest massacre in Syria, this one featuring the horrific execution of dozens of children, has done little to change American policy toward the brutal regime in Damascus. But it may have escalated Syria as an issue in the presidential campaign, with unpredictable results.
In a statement yesterday, Mitt Romney accused Barack Obama …
Joe Coors Is Not a Beer, May Be a Witch
Another great innovation in political advertising, which we can credit to Fred Davis. The I-Am-Not-A-Blank Ad. Joe Coors, heir to the eponymous beer brand in Colorado, delivers this first ad in his congressional race:
[youtube=http://youtu.be/r6OVvs2Ft98]
The problem with the Not-A strategy is that it raises all sorts of questions. …
The End of Political Polling
Pack it up. Pack it in. It’s over. Political polling has reached its end point. Thanks to the good people at Public Policy Polling, who thought to ask voters in Michigan if they agreed with Mitt Romney’s claim that the state has trees that are the right height. Drum roll, please.
But that’s just the warmup. Check out the crosstabs:
A Tale of Two Economies: Mitt Romney vs. Republican Governors
The great recession has left the state of Ohio battered and bruised–and Mitt Romney would have you believe it’s Barack Obama’s fault. Writing in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer on May 4, Romney advised Ohioans that the President has …
The Phony War: Obama and Romney Are Debating Character, Not Policy
More than five months from Election Day, the back-and-forth about Mitt Romney’s record at Bain already feels played out. Unfortunately, there’s good reason to expect the campaign continues in this vein indefinitely. Neither …
Obama Stumbles? Why the President’s Right to Talk About Bain
The meme of the day in journo-world is that President Obama has stumbled at the outset of the general election campaign. The evidence for this? Well, uh, there isn’t very much, really–except that a few Democrats have criticized …
On Education, Romney Seeks Distance from Obama — and Bush
In a speech at the Latino Coalition’s annual economic summit in Washington on Wednesday, May 23, Mitt Romney called the U.S. education system a failure. Every child deserves a quality education, he said, particularly minority …
Cherokee Zero
Apparently, Massachusetts voters don’t mind that Elizabeth Warren foolishly identified herself as a Native American early in her academic career–it was, apparently, a case of family pride and wishful thinking about a Cherokee ancestor. That’s good. Warren may be the best public figure when it comes to explaining the depredations of the …
Romney Defends Bain Record, Hits Obama on Economy: ‘He Just Doesn’t Have a Clue’
Mitt Romney lashed President Obama’s economic stewardship in an interview with TIME’s Mark Halperin on Wednesday, deflecting attacks on his years as a private equity executive and laying out how he hopes to take control of the …