Howard Dean and the DNC are all excited about Fox News Channel Shepard Smith’s admission after last night’s New York “town hall” that tickets to the event had been distributed by the McCain campaign, the New York Mayor’s office and some independent groups. For the DNC outrage factory this was, um, outrageous. [Note to media bias hunters: …
McCain Slams The Supreme Court’s Habeas Decision
PEMBERTON, N.J.–I am still sitting in a John McCain town hall, so have not had time to transcribe the full quotes, but wanted to post this quick. After a day of consideration, the McCain Campaign has decided to come out hard against yesterday’s 5 to 4 decision to grant more rights to court review for enemy combatants held at Guantanamo …
Cross Posting: The Media Sexism Question
TIME’s own James Poniewozik, a self-described “dude,” lays out the “archipelago” of charges of media sexism in the coverage of Hillary Clinton. Worth the read. An excerpt:
The critique is a kind of rhetorical island-hopping, trying to connect the demonstrable to the arguable to the unprovable to the far-fetched. To wit:
* Many
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In the ArenaUncategorized
The Other War
Brussels
Defense Secretary Robert Gates made a striking point at the NATO ministerial conference here last night: In May, for the first time, there were more coalition deaths in Afghanistan (18, including 13 Americans) than there were in Iraq (16, including 14 Americans).
He used this to urge our European allies to start meeting their …
In the ArenaUncategorized
Today in Iraq
Interesting statement today from Iraq’s prime minister Nouri al-Maliki. The Status of Forces Agreement with the U.S. seems to be in some trouble:
“We can’t extend the U.S. forces permission to arrest Iraqis or to undertake the responsibility of fighting terrorism in an independent way, or to keep Iraqi skies and waters open for
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Big Problems for Sens. Dodd and Conrad (Updated With Conrad Response)
The endless and insufferable presidential candidate guilt-by-association game may have finally led to a big story. Appropriately enough, the story has little to do with either of the campaigns. The business magazine Portfolio is reporting today that Jim Johnson, the former VP vetter for Barack Obama, was not the only person of note who …
Picking a Running Mate
In this week’s dead-tree TIME, I have a story on how it is usually done.
Keeping Score: The Two Tax Plans
The reputable and non-partisan Tax Policy Center has done a preliminary evaluation of the Obama and McCain tax plans. Some highlights:
1. Both cut revenue significantly. “Although both candidates have at times stressed fiscal responsibility, their specific non-health tax proposals would reduce tax revenues by $3.7 trillion (McCain) and …
Answer: “Cocaine Blues”
Question: What is Meghan McCain’s sixth favorite country western song? By Johnny Cash, of course.
In the ArenaUncategorized
Latest Column
On Jim Webb’s prescription for the Democratic Party.
Barack Obama and All Those Rumors
The campaign has a new and far more aggressive strategy for dealing with them, which you can read about here. So what do you think? By confronting and exposing it more directly, will the Obama campaign fix the problem–or make it worse?
Jindal’s Exorcism
Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal has been mentioned as a potential veep for McCain, and he may bring some, um, interesting talents to the table — such as excorism. This 1994 New Oxford Review article authored by Jindal, who converted to Catholicism in high school and is known for being very devout, has been kicking around the …
Outrageous Umbrage
Michael Scherer has a must-read story on the gotcha game that got Jim Johnson today. So much righteous indignation to express, so little time before Election Day to express it all. The McCain camp’s statement reacting to Johnson’s resignation is a classic of the genre:
“Jim Johnson’s resignation raises serious questions about Barack
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