|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
By Susan Faludi
$17.16
By Paul Cummins
$14.78
$40
|
|
|
|
AP photo / Ron Edmonds
|
By Robert Scheer — Are Americans unusually stupid or is it something our president put in the water? As millions surrender their homes and sacrifice other standards of our nation’s economic stability and reputation to the caprice of the Bush-Cheney imperium, a majority of voters tell pollsters that they might vote for a candidate who promises more of the same.
|
AP photo / Charlie Neibergall
|
By Stanley Kutler — With the so-called scandal over Barack Obama’s “bitter” comment, the media have once again abandoned impartiality and become active participants in the race for the White House.
|
AP photo / Mary Altaffer
|
John McCain joined Hillary Clinton in critiquing Barack Obama’s characterization of small-town Pennsylvania’s (and by extension, perhaps, America’s) “bitter” outlook, telling a crowd of magazine and newspaper editors on Monday that Obama’s description represented “a contradiction from what I believe America is all about.”
|
|
There are many opportunities, in every heated political campaign, for one candidate’s perceived slip-up to quickly provide the plot for another’s next TV spot. Here, Hillary Clinton’s camp has some Pennsylvania supporters weigh in on Barack Obama’s recent statements about their home state.
|
|
By Eugene Robinson — Hillary “Shot-and-a-Beer” Clinton has given us the perfect illustration of what’s so insane about American politics: the philosophical dictum that could be summed up (with apologies to Descartes) as “I seem, therefore I am.”
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The Democratic presidential candidates are doing a splendid job of helping John McCain get to the White House.
|
wikimedia.org
|
U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis of Kentucky has asked Barack Obama’s forgiveness for a racially charged comment about the candidate’s readiness to handle national security. Davis told a group of fellow Republicans Saturday, “That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button.”
|
Flickr / Steve Rhodes
|
A new poll shows Hillary Clinton way out ahead in Pennsylvania, thanks in part to the 23 percent of respondents who said Barack Obama’s saturation advertising is turning them off. The Obama campaign is currently spending more per week on ads in Pennsylvania than any other candidate ever has spent.
|
|
In another response to the controversy over his “bitter” comments, Barack Obama ridicules rival Hillary Clinton. He says “it sounds like there’s some politics being played,” and he goes on to jab at Clinton’s recent attempt to portray herself as pro-gun: “She’s running around talking about ... how she values the Second Amendment, she’s talking like she’s Annie Oakley! Hillary Clinton’s out there like she’s on the duck blind every Sunday, she’s packin’ a six-shooter! C’mon! She knows better.”
|
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
|
Barack Obama has apparently decided to stand by his observation, first delivered in San Francisco on April 6, that some Americans in small-town Pennsylvania are “bitter” about the lack of available jobs. After Hillary Clinton and John McCain criticized his views as elitist and condescending, Obama repeated, and elaborated upon, his original statement Friday. Updated
|
|
CNN’s political panel takes Hillary Clinton to task over what Jeffrey Toobin calls her “ridiculous” and “embarrassing” attack on Barack Obama’s comment that some Americans are bitter about federal mishandling of the economy. And when John McCain’s criticism of the Obama comment comes up, Jack Cafferty nearly blows a gasket.
|
|
By Eugene Robinson — No, it’s not your imagination: The “debate” about Iraq, and I use the word loosely, becomes ever more surreal as the occupation drags on.
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The problem with the debate over our future course in Iraq is that the two sides are not even talking about the same things.
|
AP photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
|
By Bill Boyarsky — Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker’s congressional check-in about Iraq this week didn’t offer much hope for America’s overseas entanglements, and as coverage of the overseas wars wanes, the media isn’t holding politicians’ feet to the fire—or telling the real story about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
|
abcnews.go.com
|
Gen. Colin Powell won’t say who will get his vote this November, but on Thursday’s “Good Morning America,” the former secretary of state put in a good word for all three front-runners, praised Obama’s Rev. Wright speech and worried that the U.S. armed forces are becoming “very, very stretched” by the protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
|
AP photo / Duane A. Laverty
|
Despite some congressional resistance, it seems Gen. David Petraeus’ recommended “pause” in U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq will take effect after July. On Thursday, President Bush (whose approval ratings have plummeted to a new low) essentially deferred the withdrawal issue to his successor.
|
Flickr / realjameso16
|
Barack Obama’s fundraising machine has exceeded expectations and broken records, so it’s no wonder that he has hinted at retreating from public financing, a move his rivals are already trying to exploit. But Taegan Goddard argues that this “flip-flop story” could work to Obama’s advantage.
|
|
The questions leveled by Senate members at Ambassador Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus during Tuesday’s update session about Iraq failed to make the grade for Michael Ware, CNN’s “Situation Room” correspondent. Ware declared the session “frighteningly disappointing,” telling host Wolf Blitzer, “I just see a lot of oxygen being wasted here.”
|
|
“The Daily Show’s” Lewis Black probes the soft underbelly of the celebrity endorsement, from the guy who played Kumar to the “political juggernaut that is Dick Van Patten.” And if you think Oprah is excited about Barack Obama, just wait until you see how she reacts to the cast of “Desperate Housewives.”
|
AP photo / Charles Dharapak
|
By Robert Scheer — General Betray Us? Of course he has. MoveOn.org can hardly be expected to recycle its slogan from last September, when Gen. David Petraeus testified in support of escalating the U.S. war in Iraq, given the hysterical denunciations that worthy group received at the time. But it was right then—as it would be to repeat the charge now.
|
|
A few months ago columnist Amy Goodman argued that the principal beneficiaries of our current campaign finance system are the media conglomerates that rake in all those advertising dollars. That’s especially true this week as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama bombard Pennsylvania with commercials.
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The most striking critiques of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign have come not from her opponents or her enemies but from her most loyal friends.
|
|
If the election comes down to bowling ability, the Democrats are in serious trouble. Hillary Clinton poked fun at her rival’s poor showing at the lanes, but it turns out she can’t bowl either. Of course, there’s no evidence John McCain would fare any better. Is it too much to ask that the next president be able to roll a ball in a straight line?
|
|
From TSA’s mood music to Obama’s bowling blunder, Bill Maher takes on the issues of the week, including the growing concern over the Democrats’ heated primary battle: “If voting can destroy the Democratic Party, then the party isn’t very democratic.”
|
|
Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s health-care plans contain some form of mandate—a requirement that Americans purchase insurance. At least one legal scholar wonders whether that’s constitutional. At the very least, Karl Manheim argues in an Op-Ed article, it’s “certainly unprecedented.”
|
Flickr / Joe Crimmings Photography
|
By Bill Boyarsky — Real politicians don’t quit. They are defeated, indicted, jailed, die or, in some jurisdictions, ousted by term limits. So don’t expect Hillary Clinton to surrender just yet.
|
|
Barack Obama raised more than $40 million in March to Hillary Clinton’s $20 million. Between them, the Democrats took in about three times in March what John McCain raised in January and February combined. That’s good news for Democrats, but only, as Donna Brazile points out, if the money isn’t “used to tear the party apart.”
|
AP photo / Lori Cain
|
The former president and superdelegate wouldn’t tell a Nigerian reporter which of the Democratic candidates he intends to support, but he offered a pretty good hint: “Don’t forget that [Barack] Obama won in my state of Georgia. My town, which is home to 625 people, is for Obama. My children and their spouses are pro-Obama. My grandchildren are also pro-Obama.”
|
|
Here’s one person in Pennsylvania Barack Obama doesn’t want to shake hands with. After repeatedly refusing to pose for a photo, the candidate finally relented, but warned: “I won’t be smiling.”
|
|
By Ellen Goodman — Many families are split when it comes to the race for the Democratic nomination, and that says something about the dialogue between generations.
|
|
By Marie Cocco — Add doctors to that growing list of Americans who would like to see some form of national health insurance.
|
Flickr / Llima
|
A new poll shows Barack Obama taking a lead over Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania for the first time. His two-point advantage marks a shift of 28 points from the last Public Policy Polling survey, which was conducted just before Obama’s race speech. Other polls show Clinton holding a lead, though by diminishing margins.
|
|
Hillary Clinton’s latest ad reprises her 3 a.m. theme, only this time she’s taking calls on the economy. The most interesting thing about this commercial is its target: not Barack Obama, who has just surpassed Clinton in one poll in Pennsylvania, but John McCain. Update: McCain responds.
|
|
At least two of the presidential candidates decided to have a laugh this April Fools’ Day. Hillary Clinton challenged Barack Obama to a winner-take-all bowling tournament, while John McCain stopped by CBS to take revenge on David Letterman for all of those old-man jokes.
|
Flickr / mstearne
|
Barack Obama recently decided to get more competitive in Pennsylvania, thanks to prodding from his supporters. Two recent polls show that his efforts there might be paying off. He still trails Hillary Clinton, but he’s closing the gap. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that he’s able to outspend her by a significant margin.
|
|
By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — Even Obama has said his rival should stay in the race, but how will she campaign? Negativity has hurt the once-mighty Clinton brand.
|
|
By Marie Cocco — Have you noticed something similar about those Obama campaign surrogates and the media soothsayers who have started a drumbeat to force Clinton out of the campaign? Hint: They tend to share a certain anatomical attribute.
|
Flickr / shanda.w
|
Documents obtained by The Politico suggest that Barack Obama has moderated his positions on several issues since his early political life, a charge the candidate denies. He has also tried to distance himself from the label of “most liberal senator.” Perhaps the former community organizer doth protest too much?
|
|
The national media have made a pariah of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama’s former pastor, by replaying carefully selected snippets of his sermons without context. Here are extended versions of two of Wright’s more controversial statements.
|
AP photo /Tony Avelar
|
By Bill Boyarsky — More than a quarter of a century before Barack Obama made his name with a speech at the Democratic National Convention, another African-American politician, Willie L. Brown Jr. of San Francisco, did the same—but under much different circumstances.
|
|
A couple of recent polls have indicated that Clinton and Obama supporters would be so devastated by their candidate’s loss they would throw their support to McCain. Bill Maher asked Dan Savage to investigate the claim, and Savage concluded that voters were “having a little fit now, because they’re not going to have that little fit in November.”
|
AP photo / Nabil al-Jurani
|
OK, John McCain, still “fine” with the U.S. staying in Iraq for another 100 years? And as for the Democratic presidential hopefuls, how does the whole troop withdrawal scenario change in light of the outbreak of heavy fighting in Basra this week? These are just a couple of the questions that couldn’t be more timely—or pressing—on the campaign trail this weekend.
|
|
By Eugene Robinson — Talk about not being able to catch a break. To pummel a boxing metaphor, it was Barack Obama who got tagged with a roundhouse right, flush on the chin—but it was Hillary Clinton, from early indications, who ended up nursing a sore jaw and wondering what it was that hit her.
|
|
By David Sirota — Since the 1960s, bigotry has undergone an aesthetic makeover. Today, the most pernicious racists do not wear pointy hoods, scream epithets and anonymously burn crosses from behind masks. They don starched suits, recite sententious bromides and stage political lynchings before television cameras.
|
|
The three presidential contenders had a bit of a showdown Thursday over the economy. Barack Obama gave a major address in New York, while Hillary Clinton spoke in North Carolina. They criticized each other, as well as John McCain, who barked back.
|
|
Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama gave major economic policy speeches Thursday, outlining specific proposals and highlighting John McCain’s relative weakness on the subject. Obama called for a boost in regulation and an additional $30 billion in stimulus while Clinton proposed a job retraining program.
|
wikipedia.org
|
In a cryptic conversation with a Las Vegas paper, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the Democratic nomination would be resolved before the convention: “It will be done.” “Magically?” the reporter asked. “No, it will be done,” Reid repeated. “I had a conversation with Governor Dean today. Things are being done.”
|
thepage.time.com
|
Lost in the discussion of the Rev. Wright controversy and its impact on the Obama campaign is the fallout for the minister himself. Wright’s first public events since his sermons went YouTube, a revival in Tampa and a series of sermons in Houston, have been canceled. A third event, where he is supposed to be honored, has been downgraded to “pending.”
|
businessweek.com
|
With 20 debates between the Democratic candidates already in the books, and another scheduled before the Pennsylvania primary, it’s a little hard to believe that CBS News hasn’t yet had the opportunity to ask a few gotcha questions of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Katie Couric may just get the chance.
|
View the most popular tags overall?
|
|
A Cooler Century? Wait and See
Newsletter 
Like Us
Follow Us
Get Our Feed
