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October 2012 Archives
Yeah, starting to get that chronic head-ache and buzzing in the ears I associate with the late stages of a close election. That makes three out of the last four...
Charles Pierce looks at the latest outrageous utterance by U.S. Rep. Steve King, and just can't take it any more: Really, Iowans, if you do nothing else, please force the...
If you want to read a well-reasoned, well-written, comprehensive case for voting against Mitt Romney for president, Jonathan Chait has penned a fine essay appearing today. I am particularly fond...
Like a lot of progressives writers, I had some good clean fun this morning with the hastily contrived and poorly executed "storm relief event" Mitt Romney put on in Ohio...
Just taped an interview with NPR's Julie Rovner on the relatively high visibility of the abortion issue in this campaign; unclear when or on what show it will appear, but...
If Mitt Romney loses, and if Republicans fail to take advantage of an extraordinary opportunity to take control of the Senate, there will be a lot of justifiable talk about...
I know, I know: everybody knows Dick Morris is a lying, spin-mad hack, so why would I pay any attention to what he's saying? Here's why: everybody does not know...
Yesterday I talked about Romney doubling-down on the Jeep-Jobs-to-China fable, in the teeth of every known fact. Turns out that in the same state (Ohio) and elsewhere, Team Mitt's just...
The steadily increasing likelihood (which Nate Silver currently pegs as a 90.9% probability) of Democrats hanging onto control of the Senate is the great underreported national political story of the...
This morning's most amusing read by far is McKay Coppins' BuzzFeed account of the Romney campaign hastily transforming a "victory rally" in Dayton, Ohio, into a "storm relief event." One...
The most interesting things to come across my screen early this morning were two separate pieces by two well-regarded number-crunchers from two different ideological orientations on the same subject: the...
Just felt the need for a jolt of energy this morning, aside from the caffeine. Here's the Cars performing "Let's Go" in 1979....
Sandy is reportedly leaving the country by tomorrow. Good riddance. Here's some political-news remainders of the day: * Unsurprisingly, Sandy will slow down the collection of polling data at precisely...
The Washington Monthly's media consultant asked me earlier today if I wanted to go on radio to talk about Sandy's impact on the election, and I responded that I was...
Watching the slow but steady decline of Michael Barone into partisan hackdom has been one of the sadder phenomena of my career in politics (certainly since 1976, when I bought...
So Mitt Romney's crabwise retreat from his primary campaign suggestion of just dumping emergency management responsibilities on the states is this: Asked Monday whether Romney held the same position he...
As part of the general discussion of the Myth of Moderate Mitt, it's often taken for granted that if Romney does win and has to deal with a Democratic Senate,...
Hope everyone made it through the night okay. I realize Sandy's still wreaking havoc--in some places where no one was much expecting it--but it appears DC was spared the worst,...
In a display of chutzpah that would be remarkable coming from just about anywhere else, the Romney campaign, caught making a completely erroneous charge about Jeep moving jobs from Ohio...
If you are into nightmare scenarios for next Tuesday, there are plenty available at the moment, ranging from Sandy-enabled delays in voting and/or changes in polling procedures to voter intimidation...
Speaking of Moderate Mitt and his mendacity, a lot of folk are gazing in awe today at the latest David Brooks column, which, predictably, offers the American Beauty Rose of...
It takes a lot of little fables to add up to the big fat myth of Moderate Mitt From Massachusetts. And one of the fables currently circulating, with an active...
If you need a break from the Weather Channel, you could check out how Sandy is being reported in unfriendly countries abroad, via The Atlantic's John Hudson. It's the perpetual...
Don't know how many regular readers have power today, but we'll forge ahead, hoping everyone's safe and dry and fed. And a big shout-out to first responders! Here's Lena Horne...
Sandy approaching landfall. Praying for all you folk in her path. Here, for those of you able to pay attention, or seeking distraction, or out of harm's way, are some...
You don't have to be a meteorologist or a scientist of any sort to understand that violent weather patterns are increasing in frequency, and that there are all sorts of...
So now, predictably, the Romney campaign is backtracking on his primary campaign suggestion that emergency management needs to be taken over by the states (implying in turn that FEMA should...
There's lots and lots of gabbing today over the Des Moines Register's endorsement of Mitt Romney. It's the paper's first Republican presidential endorsement since Nixon (fitting), though it's worth remembering...
I've done a couple of posts on California ballot initiatives already, but wanted to mention the public opinion research that is showing all but one of the eleven ballot measures...
I'm sure more than a few readers are getting in what may be their last guaranteed hot meal for a bit, so here are a few warm side dishes: *...
Near the end of a transcript of a Mitt Romney speech to donors revealed by MoJo's David Corn (who brought the famous Boca Moment to our attention), Romney makes this...
Since a big part of the background noise of political talk about the elections has to do with undecided voters--who they are, how many there are, which way they are...
In his latest New York Times column, Paul Krugman makes an argument near and dear to my heart and familiar to regular readers here: the two parties' approach to the...
A very good catch by Ryan Grim at HuffPost last night: During a CNN debate at the height of the GOP primary, Mitt Romney was asked, in the context of...
It's obviously impossible to judge the physical and economic--must less the psychological and political--effect of an event like Sandy. But pundits have their jobs and their obsessions, and such a...
For obvious reasons, here's Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris performing Dylan's "Shelter From the Storm." Stay safe....
In a week, if President Obama is re-elected, the amount of attention the national press bestows upon the Mormon faith will decrease by roughly 100 percent. What better time, then,...
When it comes to attacking Mitt Romney, team Obama has shuffled between two portrayals. On one hand, it paints him as a radical hell-bent on rolling back reproductive rights, financial...
...Temporarily, so that readers can get news about Hurricane Sandy. Which raises a question: Is it unethical for non-subscribers who've eclipsed their monthly NYT reading limits to ingest news items...
In today's Sunday Review, David Leonhardt suggests that the way the economy is going (up), either candidate will get to take credit for the recovery should he take office in...
John Sununu recently told CNN that Colin Powell only endorsed President Obama out of racial solidarity. Implied in his comments is the conservative trope that Obama is something of an...
While we're on the topic of football, some news from the darker side of the sport. A brand new survey out of Massachusetts, prompted by a 2010 state law, found...
On Thursday, Kevin Drum pointed to a recent study (via Tyler Cowen) that found that college football games taking place 10 days before the election had the power to sway...
During President Obama’s off-again, on-again, interview relationship with the Des Moines Register this week, I couldn’t help but wonder why the brouhaha was making news. (Well, one reason was clear:...
Born in 1942 to a middle-class Jewish household, he earned an Ivy League degree in 1966, and rose to prominence in the mid-80s, transforming an industry from his New York...
Continuing my habit of blogging about trials taking place on the Italian mainland, let us all now have mixed feelings about yesterday’s news that former Prime Minister Silvio “Bunga Bunga”...
What do Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, Maryland Congressman John Sarbanes, Walmart Foundation President Sylvia Mathews Burwell, and Washington Monthly Editor-in-Chief Paul Glastris have in common? They're all Greek Americans...
Forget momentum. Forget polling averages. Heck, forget Nate Silver for a minute of your lives. (I'm asking you to do a lot of forgetting today.) Just think about odds for...
There's a whiff of a possibility that in ten days President Obama wins the electoral college but loses the popular vote, as George W. Bush did in 2000. If he...
"Oh Sandy the aurora is risin' behind us The pier lights our carnival life on the water"...
I'm knocking off a bit early today (though with the usual number of posts in the can!) to head out for a brief weekend trip, but will obviously be alert...
I don't want to obsess about Hurricane Sandy, but since its effects could become serious before I get back to blogging on Monday, just wanted to mention the ever-increasing probability...
As habitual consumers of political talk know, one of the most ancient arguments of American politics involves the relative emphasis campaigns should pay to persuasion and mobilization--to "base voters" and...
For the candidate afflicted with "Romnesia," you never know when you hear that he's making his "closing argument" if that is indeed the case, or he's got three or four...
On the eve of Obama's convention speech, I was asked by NPR's Neil Conan what the president's most important task was. Here’s what I said: GLASTRIS: Neal, well, the most...
Not trying to rub it in to East Coasters who are staring at Sandy's progress, but it's a really beautiful day on the Central Coast. Almost worth the cost-of-living differential....
At The Fix, Chris Cillizza draws attention to the information in the new ABC/WaPo poll (which shows Romney up 50-47 among LVs) detailing campaign contacts with voters in battleground states:...
E.J. Dionne is getting a lot of attention for a provocative column suggesting that whatever happens on November 6, the Right has lost this election cycle because its presidential champion...
Here in California, everyone lives with the subconscious fear of The Big One, the earthquake that will finally, biblically, consume us. I'm certainly aware of it, living not that many...
Last week I did a post offering some thoughts on California ballot initiatives, which have a way of influencing developments beyond the Golden State. But today I see my esteemed...
Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's just the inevitable tone surrounding the end-game of a long, vicious, closely fought election cycle. But there seems to be a bit of...
A little note to pundits from the people? Nah, just pure pop magic: Tracey Ullmann peforming "They Don't Know" on Top of the Pops in 1983....
Long day's journey into a nice Central California afternoon, it transpires, so I can't complain. Here's what's left: * Big batch o' state polls from PPP, which has been belying...
As you may have heard by now, Rolling Stone has just published an interview (with essay) of the president by historian Douglas Brinkley, and like most Rolling Stone interviews with...
TNR's Nate Cohn has a close-up analysis of where the presidential race stands in Ohio today, and uses as his starting point the last election where the Buckeye State was...
Before getting into the issue of the insufferable egocentrism of Michael Bloomberg, let me confess something: I've spent my whole adult life in a state of chronic annoyance with Gotham...
It's easy to assume that presidential campaigns are flawless machines whose directors cooly deploy and shift resources like Field Marshals, based on the very latest accurate data and finely honed...
Another un-newsy day, to put it mildly. One campaign story is entitled "Obama Goes To Krispy Kreme," and that's about all it said. Here's some scraps I've found here and...
In what reads like a first draft of a post-election "Why Obama Lost" piece, the New York Times' Matt Bai suggests that the president took bad advice from Bill Clinton...
I've already registered some initial thoughts about Paul Ryan's "poverty speech" at Cleveland State yesterday. It's not getting a lot of attention. Charles Pierce, not a big fan of the...
Unfortunately, I've heard nothing but crickets in response to my request the other day for evidence that media horse-race perceptions of "the lead" or "momentum" in a close presidential race...
So in a development that delights many Democrats, we're into the second full day of pondering the hammer-headed views of Indiana Treasurer and Senate nominee Richard Mourdock on exactly which...
You'd figure the way the presidential election is shaping up, Colin Powell would be the quintessential "disappointed Obama supporter" from 2008--you know, a long-time Republican who supported Obama's "historic" candidacy...
Need a dose of inspired silliness? Here's Southern Culture on the Skids performing "Walk Like a Camel" on Australian television. Oh, Little Debbie, Little Debbie!...
Made it through the entire day without having to write about gripping saga of Obama campaign taking interview with Des Moines Register off and then on the record! Who cares?...
I can't find prepared remarks or a transcript just yet for Paul Ryan's big "poverty" speech in Ohio today, but an account from The Hill probably tells you pretty much...
Mark Halperin of Time sometimes epitomizes the things that make me crazy about the MSM; he was, after all, founder of The Note back when it defined the self-referential Beltway...
It was dispiriting for me yesterday to write a post defending the MSM from accusations they were throwing the election to Mitt Romney with their excitement over the story/narrative/arc of...
As someone who has for years half-seriously proposed a constitutional amendment banning public mention of the families of politicians (or alternatively, the establishment of a constitutional monarchy so that we...
Waiting for the landlord's minions to show up for some needed repairs, so I may disappear for a bit when that happens. But for now, here are some mid-day news...
Most of the stories on the "ground game" of the two presidential campaigns and their parties are a matter of dueling quotes, with Team Obama touting its sterling 2008 reputation...
What is potentially the most dramatic of all electoral subplots seems to be building with virtually no public comment: even as Mitt Romney postures to swing voters as the newly...
Remember my post from Monday suggesting that "mistakes" made by local Republican election officials in places like Ohio might be worth watching? Get a load of this, from the New...
Just as his movement-conservative-activist comrade Richard Mourdock was getting himself into hot water by quite literally attributing to God his views on the compulsory child-bearing obligations of rape victims, Missouri's...
So what bad luck, eh? In a second close and crucial U.S. Senate race, the Republican nominee says something shocking about the law and ethics of abortion in cases of...
Feeling the weight of weltzschmerz this morning, so here's Howlin' Wolf performing "How Many More Years."...
Dreadfully slow news day, for this close to an election. But you never know what minor item will prove to be important later. Here are a few: * Paul Ryan's...
One of the underlying topics of political discussion this year has been the irreducible minimum of white voters Barack Obama needed to be re-elected. TNR's invaluable Nate Cohn has the...
When the president delivered his sardonic lines last night reminding Mitt Romney that we don't have as many Navy ships as we used to because the military's changed, he famously...
Since we're all doomed to be transfixed by polls for the next two weeks, it's well worth paying attention to this protest from Latino Decisions' Matt Baretto: In 1998 Harry...
When my esteemed friend Mike Tomasky writes, "Today may be the most important single day of the campaign," it gets my attention. It does so particularly when he seems to...
So in what's already another slow news day (unless you enjoy endless post-debate spin), the political world has ground to a halt in anticipation of the daily release of the...
I understand fully why the Obama campaign is releasing a 20-page booklet advertised as a "plan for jobs and middle-class security," to be heavily distributed and then flourished at campaign...
I found it very odd in the debate last night that in talking about how he'd pay for a defense spending increase (along with his tax cut) Mitt Romney singled...
You wouldn't figure conservative activists had found too much to get them excited in Mitt Romney's performance last night. But these birds are hungry for any crumbs, as illustrated by...
Every election cycle, some national political reporters get the easy assignment of writing up some ludicrous candidate for statewide office who got on the general election ballot by a fluke...
Having read much of the spin and post-debate assessment, it seems reasonably clear that Mitt Romney basically took a pass on directly challenging the president's foreign policy record and views...
Guess you could call this the Undecided Voter Blues: Muddy Waters performing "Got My Mojo Working," at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960....
The MSM reaction is similar to though a bit stronger than in the second debate: Obama won, but Mitt got another high-profile chance to repeat his "economic referendum" rap and...
* Obama coasts on Af/Pak, transitions to freeing up money for vets. * Mitt gets direct question on cutting off Pakistan, gets wonky and responsible. Even credits Obama for right...
* Supposedly new segment, but Mitt goes right back into Economy plus Defense Spending rap. * Mitt now building pretty big time-of-possession gap. * Obama says "we're still strongest country;"...
* Back to the original red-tie-Romney blue-tie-Obama arrangement. * Schieffer remembers Cuban missile crisis, as do I, but how many swing voters do? Certainly sets up Mitt on Iran. *...
I hadn't really focused until today on the fact that this debate is being held in the same city as Romney's infamous "47%" fundraiser. So Mitt gets a second "Boca...
For the last time (except maybe for Election Day itself, when I figure I'll do a live-blogging marathon), I'm shortening the blogging day just a bit in order to prepare...
Towards the end of a grumpy preview of tonight's debate as likely to be "vacuous," TAP's Paul Waldman mentions a historical precedent for Mitt Romney's overwhelming emphasis on the Importance...
At TNR, Alec MacGinnis has a fine overview of the various efforts by Republicans--particularly in Ohio--to limit the franchise by various means. He chronicles the battles over voter ID laws...
At the risk of paying too much attention to a phoned-in op-ed, I'd note Joe Scarborough's pandering argument at Politico that the Tea Party Movement has been good for the...
I am, as you may have noticed, a bit behind the curve today, partly by design (it's the final Debate Live Blogging day and night, so I'm taking it a...
Josh Marshall saw a front-page headline on the CNN site this morning that freaked him out: "Obama the 'wrong' kind of Christian?" I’ll note that the piece itself is not...
So fifteen days out, there seem to be three big strategic questions about the presidential contest that are still very much up in the air, aside from the impact of...
Ryan Cooper took note of the passing of George McGovern over the weekend. But as a 1972 precinct chairman for McGovern who also spent a lot of time over the...
As many observers have noted, the focus of the third and last presidential candidates' debate on foreign policy is not particularly fortunate for Mitt Romney. Best anyone can tell, his...
Ah, fifteen days to go until November 6. But could feel like an eternity. Here's Alice Cooper performing "Long Way To Go" in Greece in 2007....
That's it for me today. As always, thanks for reading and commenting. Here are some links for this afternoon: 1. Iraq records huge increase in birth defects. Apparently linked to...
I was talking to a colleague in the office the other day, critiquing the first presidential debate. He was talking about how Romney's responses were all organized around the theme...
The Times: George McGovern, the United States senator who won the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1972 as an opponent of the war in Vietnam and a champion of liberal...
This came out yesterday, but in case you missed it, some important pieces of the Benghazi puzzle came to light yesterday. The first, from David Ignatius, somewhat exonerates UN Ambassador...
A rare mild spot of good news from the Middle East: The United States and Iran have agreed in principle for the first time to one-on-one negotiations over Iran’s nuclear...
Ever since the Federal Reserve started its latest round of monetary stimulus, the scold brigade has struggled for something to find wrong with it. The latest entry comes from Henny...
David Dayen provides the following chart of unemployment in the Northeast region: As he says, this is is something of a mystery: I haven’t seen a legitimate explanation for this,...
When Lyndon Johnson took power as Minority Leader in the Senate in 1953, he reasoned that the way back to the majority was to accumulate a good record of accomplishment...
I've been dutifully working my way through the first videos in the Marginal Revolution University course on development economics, and so far I'm rather pleased. The videos are quick, low-budget,...
For your morning coffee today, check out this remix/mashup I made of a David Roberts TEDx climate talk. It's best on HD, fullscreen, with some decent speakers: Any technical/aesthetic recommendations...
Why if we are getting so close to Election Day does it still seem so eternally far away? A question for psychologists, to be sure. Here's what I have left...
It will have zero effect on a certain Romney landslide in Utah, but the particular wording and reasoning of the Salt Lake Tribune's editorial endorsing Barack Obama will resonate far...
Strangely enough, Mitt Romney's ever-slippery position on abortion policy, one of the enduringly shameful features of his entire public career, is at the center of an argument that the mean...
Big national events apparently aren't complete until Peggy Noonan pontificates about them--particularly if they involve The Presidency, the institution she invariably presumes to be protecting because Ronald Reagan--ah! the very...
At Daily Beast today, John Avlon and Michael Keller attempt to assess the quality of the two presidential campaigns' GOTV "ground games," but immediately run into different theories of how...
More backbiting arguments (and some sheer pettifoggery) today than any real news. Here are a few items for your nourishment: * Gallup Tracking has Romney LV lead down one to...
So WaPo's Chris Cillizza is out with The Fix's list of the 60 House seats most likely to flip (36 currently held by Rs, 24 by Ds), and you don't...
There's a vast article by George Condon up at the National Journal site today offering the first detailed handicapping I've seen about the staffing of a second Obama term if...
The Pew has published a major new survey of American Hispanics correlating religious affiliation with political views and voting tendencies. And it tells you a lot about the great lost...
One of the most alarming trends in a generally alarming landscape for campaign finance is the recent realization of many rich-as-Croesus conservatives how much fun they can have dumping huge...
It's safe to say that yesterday's Gallup Tracking Poll showing Mitt Romney opening up a 7-point lead among likely voters produced a serious freakout amongst the chattering classes. Weren't we...
Just to change things up a bit, here's P-Funk performing "Dr. Funkenstein" in Houston on Halloween 1976....
19 days to go until the Big Day. And the state of play is probably more confused than ever. Here are some final notes from today's news and chatter: *...
Like my friend Harold Pollack, I have no desire to throw my own kindling into the dumpster fire that is consuming Dinesh D'Souza's career and personal life, or warm myself...
On second thought, there's another line in that Weekly Standard post excoriating early voting that's worth a bit of commentary: The traditional Election Day ensured that all Americans went to...
I guess it shouldn't be surprising in a conservative publication where early voting is considered a major threat to the election of Mitt Romney and a Republican Congress. But the...
In many respects the most interesting moment in the second presidential candidates' debate didn't involve Libya or "binders full of women" or any of the other stuff post-debate chatter centered...
Felt the need for carbo-loading, and consumed a big bowl of pasta for brunch. Will likely regret it later, but in any event, here are some lighter snacks for you:...
In an absolute must-read--particularly for anyone who hasn't thought through the implications of the Romney/Ryan Medicaid block grant proposal--Jonathan Cohn of TNR takes a close look at state-level decisions over...
Both TNR's Alec MacGillis and WaPo's Dana Milbank have been asking a pretty obvious question this week: if, as the most political observers (other than yours truly) seem to think,...
I might not even mention this if I didn't fear it was the first sign of a theme that's about to show up in Romney/Ryan ads, but that fine legislator...
In the least surprising media news of the year, NewsBeast honcho Tina Brown announced that the print edition of Newsweek would cease publication at the end of the year. After...
It's entirely possible that Republicans will get a few breaks and a last-minute battleground state tail wind and win control of the Senate on November 6. But it ain't looking...
On a morning when I'm really wishing this election cycle would come to a merciful end, here's Hot Tuna performing "Hesitation Blues" in 1970....
Those who follow conservative opinionating have doubtless been amused today by the vast firepower aimed at Candy Crowley and the total obsession with establishing that Romney "won" the point on...
Californians who grumble about being left out of the national electoral conversation these days certainly can't complain there's nothing going on in the Golden State this year. For one thing,...
Debate live-blogging preempted my usual Day's End post yesterday, so I missed the chance to draw attention to other cool stuff that's up on the Washington Monthly site. Here are...
Like some of you, no doubt, I watched and wrote about last night's presidential debate under half-protest, annoyed at the hysterically overwrought coverage that treated the event like a WWE...
I mentioned in the Lunch Buffet post that the Romney campaign is running an ad suggesting that the attacks on Mitt for extremism on abortion are untrue and unfair because...
It's my wedding anniversary day, but both my wife and I are working (in her case, into the evening). Since I couldn't do this gig or much of anything else...
In a rude interruption of the spin battles over the second presidential candidates' debate, the Gallup organization published its latest estimates of trends in unemployment, and they reinforce the BLS...
When I heard Mitt Romney refer (several times, as it happened) to the supposed Obama creed of "trickle-down government" in the first presidential candidates' debate in Denver, I figured some...
The most intense day-after spin from the second presidential debate involves the bizarre exchange near the end when Romney accused the president of lying in saying he had referred to...
Anyone with a sense of history has probably been struck by the remarkably skewed nature of the current national discussion (as reflected in the presidential contest) on energy and the...
So reactions to the second presidential candidates' debate didn't much change as they marinated overnight. The CW take remains an Obama win and a badly needed reversal of First Debate...
Since we're dealing with the aftermath of another debate, to set the tone here's LMFAO with Jimmy Fallon performing the "Spin Class Song."...
While most conservative spinners are calling it a "draw," the MSM CW is that Obama won, and certainly exceeded expectations. Lotta talk about Obama's passion and effective counter-punching. Unlike first...
* Another non-winner for Mitt: an immigration question. He's not answering question, but is off to the races on immigration subject generally. * Huh? Romney wants kids will have path...
* Next question a high lob to Obama on pay equity. Moving kind of slow on his answer; don't think he can get to other issues important to women. On...
Brian Williams opens NBC coverage by suggesting tonight's a gut check for Obama--not Romney. Expectations creeping back up. * Candidates seem to have agreed to switch tie color scheme. *...
So the second debate begins at 9:00 EDT, and will revolve around up to 12 pre-screened questions from undecided voters living in the general area of Hofstra University. There's some...
So I'm suspending blogging for the afternoon, but will be back between 8:00-8:30 EDT for a preview of the debate, to be followed by live-blogging and then some analysis. Please...
Now that not much of anybody is maintaining that "debates don't matter," and with Mitt Romney having pulled slightly ahead in the RCP poll average, there's lots of advice being...
Don't know how many of you debated in high school or college (I did, though not all that well), but two things that I recall from the mists of time...
So as per usual on debate nights, I'll knock off regular blogging early this afternoon and then resume with live-blogging of the event at Hofstra. May even take a nap,...
There's a long new profile of Paul Ryan done by Mark Leibovich for the New York Times Magazine that's part campaign travelogue, part abbreviated biography, and part political analysis. The...
As part of our preparations for watching tonight's second presidential candidates' debate, we have a moral obligation to pay attention to at least one tirade about the exaggerated importance of...
A big part of the complicated makeover Mitt Romney is attempting (and will attempt to consummate tonight) involves connecting his fiscal agenda to some sort of argument that he will...
With the polls coming at us more rapidly every day, each greeted with a blare of trumpets from one camp or the other, it's very helpful to keep a few...
Liberals whose nerves have been shot recently by this or that political development should probably just take a little time off to wallow in Frank Rich's defeatist essay at New...
For a little extra energy, today we have Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band performing "Sure 'nuff 'n Yes I do" on the beach in Cannes in 1968....
Truth be told, we're all just waiting for tomorrow night's second presidential debate, even though it shouldn't much matter unless Mitt Romney breaks down and confesses he's tired of his...
Back in August, the famous Reagan Budget Director David Stockman tore Paul Ryan a new one in an op-ed accusing his presumed doppelganger of great feats of mendacity and cowardice....
I meant to write about this last week, but better late than never: Stateline's Josh Grovum wrote an analysis of the judicial and political struggle over voter ID laws under...
So like many of you, I've casually followed early voting news from the battleground states, and had the impression that Dems were doing well in Iowa and maybe Ohio, while...
Greg Sargent argues today, quoting no less an authority than Stan Greenberg, at whose feet I often sit for enlightenment, that Mitt Romney's recent polling gains, and with it a...
A lot of the trouble liberals (and the MSM) have had with getting a firm handle on Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan's fiscal policies is that so much of them...
Slowest Monday for political news in a good while, at least so far. Coupla polls, coupla dumb quotes. Some good analysis, which I'll probably be commenting on further. Here's what...
Sometimes a candidate receives an endorsement that's not exactly worth the collateral damage. That may be the case with infotainment celebrity Piers Morgan, whose assessment of Mitt's Romney's candidacy at...
You never know if this sort of thing is just misdirection, but CNN's Peter Hamby is reporting today that the "message of the week" for the Romney campaign is very...
One of the memes you are going to definitely hear a lot of if the presidential contest stays close and if the turnout machines and ad campaigns ratchet up interparty...
After two weeks of turbulence and furor over highly contrasting measurements of the presidential contest--not just by polls, but via CW--today's new WaPo/ABC and Politico/Battleground/GWU national surveys arrive today with...
Just getting ready for another fine week of politics on the Tube: Here's the Mothers of Invention performing "Trouble Every Day" with images from the 1965 and 1992 riots in...
Holy crap! A former employee of right-wing billionaire William Koch has filed a lawsuit alleging that his employer kidnapped and imprisoned him, in an incident that lasted for days. The...
is this, from an editorial in The Economist: no Wall Street financier has done as much damage to American social mobility as the teachers’ unions have. How is this wrong?...
I am a woman of many strange interests and hobbies; one of these is that I am something of a true crime buff. I am fascinated by famous crimes, and...
Question that the Asscociated Press will never ask: Do White People Support Romney Because He's White? Free answer: yes!! A more interesting question: is the AP deliberately trolling us with...
By now, some of you may have heard about the controversy concerning sexist comments made by New York Times Magazine writer Andrew Goldman. Goldman, who writes the weekly interview column...
Financial reporter Chystia Freeland has an excellent op-ed in today's New York Times. It concerns a very important subject, which is the way that, in highly unequal societies like our...
You know, as a humble weekend blogger, I sometimes struggle about what in the world I should write about. Weekends are often slow news periods, and frequently I am at...
I haven't seen much about this in most of the political blogs I frequent, but the Nobel committee's decision to award this year's Peace Prize to the European Union strikes...
I have to say, one of the most deeply satisfying web posts I have ever read has got to be this one, posted yesterday, in which Gawker's Adrian Chen unmasks...
The anti-abortion movement has had many triumphs; one of the most unfortunate ones is that they have driven the millions of women who have had abortions back into the closet....
Looks like we'll barely be finished with This Week's Debate before speculation about Next Week's Debate begins. As a writer, I love close elections; as a citizen, not so much....
I've been wondering ever since Moderate Mitt came out of hiding after five years to beat his chest during the first presidential debate whether there'd be some serious conservative blowback....
There's a fair amount of buzz today about a Bloomberg column by Josh Barro that conducts a definitive smackdown on the Romney's tax proposal and the idea that Mitt can...
I've probably yelled enough about the mendacity of Mitt Romney's claims last week that he'd "sit down with Democrats" the day after the election and start charting a bipartisan path...
Just did an appearance on KCRW's fine show "To the Point," and tried to make the point that Joe Biden's accomplishment wasn't just a matter of "aggressiveness," but of a...
So shortly after I decided to "adopt" the Bay Area teams in the MLB post-season, the Giants made the cut but the A's didn't. And while I'm not an obsessive...
So right in the middle of all the yelling and screaming over polling methodologies, Gallup responds to long-standing criticisms (particularly from Mark Blumenthal) and changes its ways of choose its...
Assessments of the overall debate aside, a fun aspect of watching it was to look for Eddie Haskell moments where Paul Ryan tried to fool Mrs. Cleaver. "I just think...
While we are on the subject of abortion policy, Michael Barone's take on the Veep debate included a cynical thought that you often hear expressed by "sophisticated" conservatives who figure...
The final question posed in last night's Veep debate was the most skewed, even if moderator Martha Raddatz rationalized it by noting this was the first time two Catholics had...
Having slept on it, and read this morning's ruminations from near and far, I haven't had any blazing new insights on last night's vice-presidential debate, but am convinced more than...
As the political season's intensity reaches a new level, here's Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie performing "Hot House" in 1952....
Before too many readers lay into me for failing to immediately score this as a big Biden win, I'll remind you I didn't think Romney did all that well in...
Well, can't see anyone calling this a big win. Ryan will, as I predicted, get props for "holding his own" re foreign policy. He was also fluid and stuck to...
Abrupt switch to abortion, with narrow framing of how candidates' Catholicism affected views. * Ryan off to the races w/personal story. Makes Romney policy sound moderate. And now switches to...
Suddenly off to defense spending. * Biden does good job hitting Ryan on sequester and defense spending generally. * Afghanistan: Ryan spends some time making sure Romney's failure to mention...
* Biden off to the races on taxes. Threw an awful lot out there for Ryan to deal with. * Ryan does the "ain't enough money for rich people to...
* Onto economy now, and Biden hitting narly every single point Obama faulted for failing to make against Romney--inherited mess, auto bailout, 47%, Ryan's "takers" comments, etc., etc. * Ryan...
Well, Biden gets a nasty opening pitch from Raddatz: Do Libya killings represent massive intelligence failure? * Biden very smooth in shifting to broad national security case for administration, and...
I don't have much of an idea what to expect tonight, other than Joe Biden exhibiting all the stylistic qualities Barack Obama failed to exhibit last week in Denver, and...
Okay, you know the drill: I'm going to take some time off to recharge the batteries and read up a bit more, but will be back to live-blog the Biden-Ryan...
Well, just as I was getting settled into my theory that Mitt's perceived "move to the center" was a pretty big strategic deal, along comes John Sides with at least...
Like my friend and sometimes colleague Harold Pollack of the University of Chicago, I've tended to get a lot angrier at Mitt Romney for policy positions that will undoubtedly hurt...
So today we'll have the usual Special Evening Event drill of an early suspension of blogging followed by live-blogging of tonight's Biden-Ryan debate. I'd recommend PA as a superior and...
It's getting a lot of derisive attention today, but let me add my own hilarity to the general reaction to Daniel Henninger's Wall Street Journal column today suggesting that people...
I've read quite a few "what to watch for" or "why it matters" or "why ___ will win" pieces on tonight's vice presidential candidates' debate, and it's obvious that the...
In the wake of national shock and hilarity over the latest antics of United States Representative Paul Broun, Jr., a man who makes Allen West look reasonable and well-informed, Charlie...
Regular readers know that I'm more than a little cranky about the ancient habit of Democrats of raising heaven and hell to defend the Medicare program while ignoring threats to...
I'm sure Team Obama is aware of the heightened stakes for tonight's vice presidential debate given the interminable hype and spin associated with the first presidential debate, which could harden...
A little song of encouragement for Joe Biden tonight: MC5 performing "Kick Out the Jams" at Wayne State University back in the day....
Just heard thunder, and wondered, What are those booming noises? Love the weather here! Meanwhile, here are some final news items for this mid-week day: * Another poll to throw...
So the Supreme Court's oral arguments in the case of Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin have ended pretty much where they started, with Justice Kennedy getting to decide...
As Ezra Klein explained this morning at Wonkblog, the Romney poll surge after last week's debate is being excessively touted to "prove" that the political science consensus that debates usually...
Faithful readers may recall that I lost it a bit last Friday in reaction to watching a video of Rep. Paul Broun, Jr. (R-GA) speaking to a Baptist Sportsmen's group...
American political journalism hasn't exactly showered itself with glory lately. The snail's-eye-view treatment of elections as tactical battles revolving around "game-changing" events and polls rather than as national decisions on...
Slow political news morning. Guess we need some more polls. But here's what I got in the pantry: * SCOTUSblog offers "half-time report" on oral arguments in the Texas college...
I've already written today about the mendacity of Mitt Romney's comment that legislation restricting abortion rights wasn't part of "his agenda," and wondered whether any of his anti-choicer allies would...
It's probably still a bit too early to conclude that the first presidential candidates' debate had a genuinely seismic impact on the contest, but at some point the perception that...
As you probably know, the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments today in a case that many have predicted will produce a judicial ban, or at least major new...
At Slate yesterday, election-law wizard Rick Hasen raised a question that's been in the back of a lot of minds lately: will conservatives accept an adverse result on November 6,...
So Moderate Mitt Romney told the editorial board of the Des Moines Register yesterday that he had no interest in promoting anti-abortion legislation as president: “There’s no legislation with regards...
One of those mornings when I look at the political news and think: "Is this the Stupid Election or what?" So here's the Sex Pistols with "Pretty Vacant," performed in...
Just ran across a conservative blog that suggested of me that "Someone should crush this guy's skull with one of Obama's teleprompters." So I went on his comment thread and...
Recently we had an event at the New America foundation. The panelists included: Stephen Burd, a New America scholar, who explained his plan for abolishing the student loan repo man...
I'm working on a longer piece about this for TNR, but since Matt Bai addressed it today, I'll go ahead and state the semi-obvious: no, if Mitt Romney loses on...
It is one of the most firmly established facts in U.S. politics that steady majorities of Americans dislike "government spending" as an abstract matter, but approve of most actual spending...
As I noted earlier, my esteemed predecessor Kevin Drum touched off a bit of a blogospheric firestorm by suggesting last night that the liberal commentariat's garment-rending criticism of Barack Obama's...
I greatly admire policy wonks who go to the trouble to try to explain their work to non-policy-wonks. It's not a universal trait of the breed, by any means; indeed,...
Beautiful morning here on the Central Coast. Tourists on ocean walking trail don't seem perturbed by the Pew Poll. Here are some mid-day political morsels: * Gallup one-day tracking poll...
You gotta hand it to conservative gabbers: they don't often lose touch with their long-term objectives. Here's Hugh Hewitt quickly pocketing the "Romney surge" as though it is an established...
Don't mean to be a crank about this, but as I've feared, the "Moderate Mitt Meme" is being widely accepted in the MSM and many liberal precincts (though not, by...
You had to feel this was coming: with polls showing at least a momentary Romney surge, someone within the campaign had to get credit for engineering the big, "game-changing" shift...
Well, the latest presidential horse-race poll isn't the only notable new offering from the Pew public opinion empire. A big new survey from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public...
In the Daylight Video, I was reacting to the first look at the aggregators this morning, which showed plenty of gloating among conservatives about favorable poll numbers for Romney late...
Got up this morning expecting hordes of conservatives in the streets raising a primitive, bone-chilling war cry: the election is over because of the Pew Poll! The Pew Poll! Instead...
Okay, for this federal holiday I'm calling it a day with a tenth post. Hasn't been much political news today, but here are some final items: * TAP's Paul Waldman...
In a Daily Beast column suggesting that all of Obama's recent Big Television Appearances (the convention speech, the 60 Minutes interview, and the debate) show a pattern, Mike Tomasky nestles...
If you haven't heard about this yet, you will soon, probably from some of the same gabbers who were complaining just last week that the polls were all biased for...
Poll Denialism has subsided a bit since Romney began making gains last last week, but here it is again from John Nolte at Breitbart.com, in a form whose perversity really...
* Krugman supplies definitive smackdown of BLS truthers. Link and send to friends and family circulating crazy emails on this crazy meme. * Whoa! Latest Gallup tracking poll shows Obama...
Interesting that the very morning Mitt Romney delivers yet another Big Foreign Policy Speech that could have been (and for all I know, might have been) ghost-written by John Bolton,...
So the prepared text for Mitt Romney's latest "big foreign policy speech," this time at VMI, is now available, and if there is anything new in it, it sure doesn't...
As I am sure you know, there is a rapidly congealing MSM meme that in last week's first presidential debate, Mitt Romney shook himself loose of his reactionary party and...
Despite the excitement of Republicans (and horse-race-frenzied pundits of every variety) over the first presidential debate, anyone looking at the race seriously knew we'd have a wait a few days...
Happy Columbus Day, especially to our Italian brothers and sisters! This being a federal holiday (and one that has always been celebrated a lot more thoroughly in Washington than in...
A new round in our ongoing national conversation about the "end of men" has kicked off in the past month. First, Hanna Rosin released her eponymous book on the subject....
I'm not fond of the notion that the "crowds" are inherently "wise." Sure, InTrade works pretty well. But that only tells us that crowds are pretty good at predicting binary...
In response to habitual conservative claims that polling firms are cooking the books in Obama's favor, Jon Chait recently made the case that poll denialism was understandable, even if its...
Jaded by relentless GOP vote suppression efforts directed towards phantom voter impersonators, it's easy to forget that real fraud actually happens. Today Adam Liptak of the New York Times surveys...
No longer content to sit idly by while the commentariat uses him as a political talking point, Big Bird finally speaks out on "Saturday Night Live."...
For the most part, Mitt Romney's education platform—a move away from Bush and Obama's federal accountability measures-- reflects contemporary GOP orthodoxy. To a lesser degree, he has spoken favorably about...
"A former Charles Manson follower who was imprisoned for a double murder engineered by Manson won a recommendation of parole Thursday after 40 years in prison."--CBS News, October 5, 2012....
It's old news by now that Mitt Romney wants to fire Big Bird (and Rick Santorum wants to eat him, apparently) by cutting federal subsidies to PBS, where Sesame Street...
After Obama's downer performance in Denver, what could be worse for Chicago than a looming vice-presidential debate between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan? In one corner the goofy, irrepressible gaffemeister;...
Last weekend, I highlighted the return of the Vatileaks story, as ex-Papal butler Paolo Gabriele (one of fewer than ten men with access to the Pontiff's personal elevator) went on...
Galvanized by his strong debate performance, Mitt Romney's gone Gangnam:...
Another wild week as we all mosey along in the great cattle drive of life. Who knows if the political thunder and lightning around us mean anything? Yeah, I need...
Sometimes a writer comes up with a sentence that summarizes the broader meaning of the day's news so well there's not much you can add. Here's Dave Weigel: The way...
So you think a level 85 orc running for office is scary? Consider the prevailing community standards, wherein the great biologist and women's health advocate Todd Akin sits on the...
Ah, well, it's Friday afternoon, so time for a little Political News of the Weird, from Maine via The Note: These days a completely original line of attack in politics...
Well, I had hoped for better news fare, but the BLS Truthers are kind of blotting out the sun at the moment, infecting a lot of people who should know...
Jobs report got day off to a quick start, but now political discourse degenerating fast thanks to BLS Truthers. Just amazing. But here are some other mid-day news bites: *...
I'm not any sort of expert on Latin American politics, much less the complicated landscape of Hugo Chavez's Venezuela. But with elections on tap there Sunday, I was fascinated to...
Like a lot of debate viewers, I thought "unforced error" when Mitt Romney made his little joke about PBS funding during the debate on Wednesday night. It was sure to...
Before it becomes a kind of Fact-Made-Fact-By-Repetition, I'd like to challenge the much-assumed idea that in the first presidential debate Mitt Romney "moved to the center" in a real, substantive...
You expect this sort of thing from the more distant regions of the fever swamps, but not from an American business titan: Former General Electric Co. (GE) Chief Executive Officer...
Well, the September Jobs Report is out, and it's pretty good for a change. Net job growth is pegged at 114,000 right on the nose of most predictions. But upward...
For no particular reason other than a feeling, here's the Beatles with "A Day in the Life."...
Wrote this a while ago but wanted to let Paul's post stay up top longer. Then like an idiot, unplugged the iMac (to move it) without saving! Time for a...
This morning on the BBC I was asked why the “great communicator” Barack Obama had done so poorly in last night’s debate. It suggested several reasons. Partly, I said, it...
So in a ritual that's getting mighty old by now, not only the financial world, but the whole hep political world, will be hitting the refresh button on the Bureau...
Those of us who think this election is a referendum on George W. Bush as well as on Barack Obama or Mitt Romney aren't just arguing this would be an...
Without question, one of the oldest games in American politics is the habit of employers--public and private--to use the implicit or explicit threat of job losses to pressure employees into...
As regular readers know, we are inordinately proud here at the Washington Monthly of our history, our mission, and the array of fine journalists who got their training and made...
We have four weeks and five days before Election Day, with more and more people casting early votes each day that goes by. There are two more presidential debates, a...
After blogging pretty late last night, dreamed about the debate all night, waking up tired but with no new insights. What really depresses me is the day or two of...
At least one more thought about last night's debate, if you don't mind: aside from "the 47%" and Bain Capital, there were a lot of topics most of us expected...
A lot of progressives are very upset today that in last night's first presidential debate the President did not mention Romney "Boca Moment," or tie his criticisms of companies outsourcing...
Krugman's right: in the grand scale of things, Romney's repetition last night of the lie that his "health care plan" takes care of people with pre-existing conditions was more egregious...
So other than the fading echoes of Republican celebration and Democratic angst from last night's presidential debate, and the wait we will now have to endure to see if it...
In tribute to Mitt Romney's latest reinvention last night, here's Pearl Jam with "Sleight of Hand."...
I gather from brief glances at Twitter and initial reaction at NBC that Mitt won pretty big on style points. A lot of progressives are beside themselves that Obama didn't...
Guess Lehrer's going to snuff Segment VI, so we won't find out how he views difference between "role of government" and "governing." * BHO may be filibustering a bit here....
* Mitt's indictment of Obamacare inexplicably omits slavery of individual mandate. * BHO on Obamacare: "Insurance companies can't jerk you around." I like that one. * Mitt's excitement at memorizing...
* BHO misses opportunity to mention that Paul Ryan author of Social Security privatization proposal. * Obama very professorial on Medicare. Needs a little more passion. * Was about to...
First segment ran way, way over. This one is on deficit. * Mitt promises to croak Big Bird. Don't quite know why he had to point that out. * Glad...
* Romney wins coin toss and will get final closing statement. * Blue tie for BHO, red tie for Mitt. That's so you can tell them apart. * Interesting framing...
According to BuzzFeed's McKay Coppins, Mitt Romney got "virtually no sleep" on Monday night thanks to freight trains that kept barreling past his hotel. I can relate. Was going to...
As indicated earlier, I'm taking a break from blogging until around 8:30 PM EDT, when I'll begin live-blogging the first presidential debate (which formally begins at 9:00). One of my...
At Religion Dispatches Sarah Posner has a very thorough post on the latest efforts of conservative evangelicals to push for a broader religion-based exemption from HHS rules mandating contraception coverage...
Today I read about the eightieth column (and maybe the twentieth just in the Wall Street Journal) from a conservative telling Mitt Romney he has to "go large" and get...
Just did BBC Radio 4, providing my brief thoughts on the debates. The Republican participant (didn't catch her last name very clearly, but her first name was "Jennifer," which created...
Now that a couple of national polls have come out showing Romney moving a bit closer to Obama, we're beginning to hear that ol' chestnut: "The presidential race is in...
I suggested yesterday that the debate question Mitt Romney really can't convincingly answer is: "“Governor Romney, how exactly do your economic policies differ from those of George W. Bush?” At...
The professed intention of the Romney campaign to deploy a few well-rehearsed "zingers" in tonight's first presidential debate doesn't deserve anything like the attention it's getting. Of course they think...
Brother Steve Benen casts his usual bright spotlight this morning on a speech given by Paul Ryan about this time last year at an American Spectator event (first brought to...
I suppose I have to say something about the nastiness that emanated from conservative media yesterday about a previously chewed-over speech then-senator Barack Obama made in Virginia in 2007. The...
Friday's September Jobs Report is perhaps the last predictable external event that could affect the presidential contest. Yes, there will be one more of the suckers the Friday before Election...
After meditating for a bit on Matt Drudge's distinctive contributions to political discourse, I decided to go in his honor with a Pixies performance of "Debaser" in Brixton, 1991....
Five weeks until Election Day. Sounds like an eternity now, but time will fly when we are not having fun. Here are some news remainders from a relatively slow day:...
Having already internalized the fact that Romney and Ryan routinely lie about their fiscal proposals, I haven't paid very close attention to the sleuthing efforts of various analysts to prove...
Anyone interested in a take from the Romney camp about what he intends to accomplish in tomorrow night's debate should definitely read Robert Costa's preview at National Review based on...
The ever-insightful Paul Waldman has a useful piece up at MSNBC today offering a personal typology of campaign "gaffes," ranging from "The Head Scratcher" to "The Opinion Clearly Expressed, Then...
I noted earlier today, as I often do, that if the race-to-the-bottom keep-business-costs-as-low-as-possible approach to economic growth now being championed by the GOP made sense, then Mississippi would be the...
We've been doing our college rankings issue since 2005, and it seems that we've managed to break into the national discourse a bit more than usual this year. US News...
Already getting bored with debate previews. They're bringing back bad memories of those dozens of GOP primary debates I had to watch. But here are some mid-day diversions: * You...
There's an interesting WaPo piece today by T.W. Farnam concerning a million-dollar investment by the Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity in, of all places, Arkansas: Arkansas is not a battleground...
Ezra Klein absolutely nailed it yesterday in his assessment of what Mitt Romney needs to provide in the debates but can't: [H]e needs to do more than convince voters that...
We've heard repeatedly that Team Romney has developed and honed some "zingers" for tomorrow night's first candidate debate. Since Mitt is not exactly a natural comedian, you'd have to figure...
Political campaigns have a lot of tools for determining targets of opportunity in the electorate. The real difficulty comes in assessing the weight to assign to each. In the end,...
Having looked (via Greg Sargent) at Mitt Romney's latest campaign ad, I'm feeling a strong sense of deja vu. To be more precise, I'm feeling very 1986, the year no...
Given the season, just had to post this video of one of the great early British Invasion bands, the Hollies, on Hullabaloo, framed as a football team. The song, "Look...
Good to get to the end of another spin-dominated, low-actual-news day, and closer not only to the first debate, but to next weekend's pivotal Georgia-South Carolina game. Here are some...
As noted earlier today, one important variable for Democrats on November 6 is the size of the under-30 vote, a huge asset in 2008. But as a moment's reflection should...
Playing off a very entertaining Kevin Drum post on the dismal history of "October Surprises" (dating all the way back to 1940!), Jonathan Bernstein offers a fine encapsulation of why...
Amidst the strategic confusion surrounding the Romney/Ryan campaign--I say "surrounding," because while it's clear it has infected Mitt's intended echo chamber, we don't actually know if they are as internally...
In case you haven't heard, we're holding our annual College Guide event this Wednesday, October 3rd at the New America Foundation here in DC. We'll be talking about college and...
For an entire week of family visits, skies were cloudy and foggy here on the Central Coast. No one to show around this week, and the weather is absolutely perfect....
While the general consensus of observers outside the wingnutosphere is that the shape of the two parties' coalitions are beginning to strikingly resemble those who voted in 2008 (which does...
sabotate There's a natural tendency, certainly shared by the MSM, that in an era of partisan gridlock, particular election results may not really matter. If Mitt Romney wins the presidency,...
Now and then you read a report from "within" a presidential campaign that strains credulity to the point where you wonder if it was deliberately put out as disinformation. That's...
Here's the New York Times' brief description of the economic statistics we will be hearing about in the course of this week: Data to be released include the I.S.M. [Institute...
Since Mitt Romney has decided, for reasons that are a bit obscure, to make foreign policy a major focus of his campaign at this sensitive moment of the presidential contest,...
On general principles of nervous patriotism, here's the Grateful Dead performing "U.S. Blues" at Winterland in 1974....
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