Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s claim that he deserves “a lot of credit” for saving the auto industry prompted an immediate reaction from critics — and they have a point. While Romney is right that the vehicle for Detroit’s ultimate rebound was a “managed bankruptcy” of the car companies — which he called …
2012 Election
Richard Lugar: A Moderate Republican Senator Falls in Indiana
It’s a cliche to say that Washington moderates are a dying breed, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Voters sent a pack of Blue Dogs to the proverbial farm in 2010. Rockefeller Republicans have been going the way of, well, …
Can Romney Close the Gap with Latinos? His Campaign Is Trying
For months, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, the influential head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, complained that the Republican primary was alienating conservative Latino voters. “They don’t want us,” he told me …
Michelle Obama on the Campaign Trail
The First Lady has been hard at work from Berkeley to Bethesda drumming up support for her “Let’s Move” exercise initiative, as well as her husband’s re-election campaign. TIME’s photo editors bring you her best moments from the trail.
Obama Launches His 2012 Campaign With Nostalgic Tribute to 2008
Barack Obama branded his 2012 campaign kickoff speech Saturday in Ohio a “Ready to Go Rally.” For the uninitiated, this is a reference to something that happened five years ago in Greenwood, South Carolina. A retired nurse named Edith S. Childs began an unprompted chant that interrupted then-candidate Obama. “Fired up, Ready to …
The View from One Prudential Plaza: Why the Obama Campaign Is So Confident About Beating Romney
Chicago
Barack Obama’s decision to base his re-election campaign outside of Washington seems to be working pretty darn well. The campaign’s massive, high-rise headquarters in Chicago’s Loop achieves a fine balance between …
Bad News for Obama: Democrats Have a Registration Problem
Demographics will doom Republicans in the out years, Democrats like to say. A coalition of Black and Latino voters along with the socially moderate youth bloc is quickly becoming the left’s safety net, even in tight elections. But as the Washington Post reported Friday, there’s a problem:
Roland Sledge Opens Ridiculous Ad Season With Man Peeing on Electric Fence
[youtube=http://youtu.be/wCpBibIt10o]
Someone had to go first, so why not Texas oilman (natch) Rolly Sledge, who’s running for Human Game Commissioner (OK, Railroad Commissioner) in the Lone Star State? In an effort to promote a candidacy with zero national importance, Sledge has followed trail blazers like Frankenstein’s coroner and …
Voters Beware: What the Obama Campaign Doesn’t Tell Julia
The Obama campaign came out with a nifty, interactive online graphic Thursday that guides America through the life of Julia, a hypothetical young web designer who appears to have been drawn by Chris Ware or Dan Clowes. She has …
Most Ridiculous Campaign Issue. Evah.
The estimable Elizabeth Warren is running for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts against the incumbent Scott Brown. It turns out that Warren used to list herself as “Native American” in law school directories when she was teaching at Georgetown, Penn and Harvard. This has now become a campaign issue, the implication being that Warren, who …
With a Final Flourish, Gingrich Ends His Campaign the Newt Way
Only Newt Gingrich could turn the rote task of suspending a presidential campaign into riveting theater. Gingrich wrapped up a “truly wild ride” Wednesday the same way he conducted it, delivering an overly long (23 minutes), …
Rewinding Romney on Counterterrorism: ‘Dr. Strangelove’ and ‘Attacks on America’
By now everyone knows that Mitt Romney doubted back in 2007 whether killing Osama bin Laden was really worth the trouble. The Romney camp has dredged up a more bloodthirsty quote that muddies the issue, but if we’re going to rewind the tape, a couple of other interesting quotes turn up. Like the way that, in August 2007, Romney responded …
Republicans Against Markets
There was a time, about thirty years ago, when I worked as a freelance writer. The work was plentiful, but the peripherals were lousy–especially when it came to health insurance. I had to buy it on my own and it was expensive. That’s one of the reasons I was so enthused when Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation developed his …