In the ArenaUncategorized
Pete Wehner, former chief White House propagandist for the Iraq war, has taken me to task for claiming that liberalism is more optimistic and therefore inherently more patriotic than conservatism. That takes some nerve. He would compare my statement to the constant drumbeat of right-wingnutters questioning the patriotism of those who do …
In the ArenaUncategorized
This, from Obama’s speech at the Montana Democratic Party dinner last night, is a fine statement:
I love this country not because it’s perfect, but because we’ve always been able to move it closer to perfection. Because through revolution and slavery; war and depression; great battles for civil rights and women’s rights and
…
I’ve heard Hillary Clinton tell the story many times in speeches, and it rarely fails to bring a horrified gasp from the crowd: An uninsured and pregnant Ohio woman, working for minimum wage at a pizza parlor, is turned away from a hospital because she can’t come up with $100. The baby dies, and so does the woman. Clinton talks about how …
Just in time for your weekend downloading enjoyment (and probably a tad too late for the network news to do much with them), Bill and Hillary Clinton present THEIR 2000-2006 TAX RETURNS.
(Reporters will be poring over them for weeks, but I wanted to make sure Swampland readers got a jump on tomorrow’s headlines today. And if you see …
A Pew Research Center poll out today attests once again to an interesting phenomenon. While everyone and everything around her is sinking into the mire, the Secretary of State continues to hold a place of high regard with the American people, scoring 56% approval in the poll.
Consider this:
Her boss is at 28%; Dick Cheney’s ratings are …
Jay:
All this gloomy talk about jobs is interesting, considering how Hillary Clinton’s most high-profile supporter in the state–Governor Ed Rendell–sees the situation in Pennsylvania. He suggests that the economic picture there is somewhat more complex than either of the candidates would have us believe.
In an interview a few weeks …
On Time.com, I just posted a piece on some of the known details of John McCain’s misspent youth, which the candidate has made central to his biographical argument for the White House this week. McCain tells a story of redemption and discovery, of a wild, rebellious kid who grew to discover the power of service and country. But along the …
Commentators on my AFL-CIO posts earlier this week (this is for you, Elvis) asked what Obama and Clinton were saying on the trail in Pennsylvania. Most of the talk was about jobs, creating them, bringing them back or preventing them from leaving. I just posted this story on time.com about how Obama and Clinton may sound different — he …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Two of the talking points regurgitated by Bush Administration–and neoconservative–spokespeople over the past year have been: Muqtada al-Sadr’s strength is waning and the Iraqi Security Forces are getting stronger. As with almost everything that involves U.S. Iraq analysis, those projections have proved to be equal parts wishful …
In the ArenaUncategorized
On Obama.
In the ArenaUncategorized
Forty years ago Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in Memphis.
A few hours later, Robert Kennedy delivered this brief speech to an African-American audience in Indianapolis. He spoke without notes, without consulting his aides. He quoted Aeschylus. I can’t listen to it without feeling shivers, fighting back tears, even now.
If you …
The good people of NBC News, where political coverage is led by Chuck Todd, the old Hotline handicapper, have put out a must-read sketch of the coming electoral map. If anything else, the predictions give some credence to the arguments of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. They certainly do appear to have different strengths against …
