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$15.92
By Nomi Prins
$13.22
$23
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thepage.time.com
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There have been 20 debates between the Democratic candidates, three featuring only Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, and if this final confrontation had any game-changing potential, the opportunity has come and passed. There were a few tense moments, to be sure, but no gaffes, no inappropriate sighs to puzzle over, just two people who claim to like each other and largely agree on everything.
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timesonline.typepad.com
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Conservative radio host Bill Cunningham scored points with the audience while speaking before John McCain at a rally by repeatedly referring to “Barack Hussein Obama.” McCain apparently had no idea what Cunningham had said, but soon after the event addressed the matter in no uncertain terms.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — It seems odd, but for John McCain it was a blessing to have the chance to bury questions about his dealings with lobbyists beneath an alleged sex scandal.
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By Marie Cocco — Someone’s halo has to slip and, when it does, the fall will be jarring and the crash unusually harsh. The national media have two anointed sons in Barack Obama and John McCain, each the repository of extraordinary favor and each now poised to become the presidential candidate who may well be chosen to be an object of unrelenting scorn.
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nytimes.com
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The Politico reports that Republican strategists have been clandestinely polling and focus-grouping to determine how America might react to campaign attacks on an African-American or woman presidential candidate. As one strategist explained, “You can’t allow the party to be Macaca-ed,” a reference to former Sen. George Allen, whose use of a racial slur cost him certain victory in the last election.
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AP photo
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By Chris Hedges — There’s an ugly secret behind the “success” of the surge: The United States is paying off Iraqi militants with weapons and cash. It’s a recipe for disaster, one that reminds Chris Hedges of “Yugoslavia before the storm.”
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AP photo / J. Pat Carter
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Sen. John McCain, campaigning in Indianapolis, said Cuba won’t be better off under Fidel Castro’s fraternal successor, Raul Castro, whom he called “worse in many respects than Fidel was,” and the Republican front-runner voiced the hope that Fidel will meet his commie maker, Karl Marx, “very soon.”
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By Eugene Robinson — Humor me while we conduct a little thought experiment. Imagine that Barack Obama lost 10 states in a row.
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By Joe Conason — As a presidential candidate, John McCain stands out not only for his vocal endorsement of the unpopular war in Iraq, but also because one of his own sons is a Marine Corps officer on active duty there.
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By Ellen Goodman — On Tuesday, I got a sarcastic e-mail from a Hillary supporter. She forwarded a crack made by Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s media man, about Obama. “Senator Clinton,” he scoffed, “is not running on the strength of her rhetoric.” To which my friend added: “Unfortunately.”
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Americans of a certain age may take umbrage at David Letterman’s characterizations of 71-year-old presidential candidate John McCain as a “Wal-Mart greeter,” a “mall-walker” and “the guy at the supermarket who is confused by the automatic doors.”
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coloradoconfidential.com
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Truthdig political correspondent Bill Boyarsky weighs in on the state of the race and explains why, no matter what the pundits tell you, a showdown in Denver could be good for the Democrats.
Posted on Feb 19, 2008
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AP photo / Steven Senne
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Barack Obama once again swept the evening’s contests, but the big surprise came in Wisconsin, where Hillary Clinton invested much time and money and where the two candidates got caught in a nasty air war. He beat her there by roughly 18 points.
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By Eugene Robinson — John McCain has the advantage of getting to run right away. Too bad he’s campaigning on failed policies and bad ideas.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The boilerplate in a candidate’s speeches gets little attention because words used over and over never constitute “news.” But one of John McCain’s favorite lines—his declaration that “the transcendent challenge of the 21st century is radical Islamic extremists,” or, as he sometimes says it, “extremism”—could define the 2008 election.
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By Marie Cocco — Barack Obama has had success against Hillary Clinton’s experience argument in part, Cocco argues, because she is a woman. He’ll have a harder time taking on John McCain.
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AP photo / Gerald Herbert
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John McCain’s recent jockeying to make himself look like a direct heir to Ronald Reagan’s Republican legacy was helped along Monday by George H.W. Bush’s vote of confidence that McCain is indeed the right person to lead the nation as the next president.
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Bill Maher’s writers are back and so is his biting commentary on the political and cultural issues of the week. In this clip, the “Real Time” host tackles the decline of the handshake, Bush’s war addiction, the fighting Romneys, McCain’s zombie army and why it isn’t amazing that the Democrats have suddenly discovered diversity.
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AP photo / Charles Dharapak
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Sen. John McCain’s campaign says he has no plans to resign his Senate seat in order to focus on the presidential race, but no amount of patent-pending straight talk is going to keep potential successors from readying themselves to take his place.
Posted on Feb 15, 2008
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By David Sirota — To the consternation of news bureaus, political consulting firms and has-been politicians, The Wall Street Journal’s poll last month shows that America is hostile to an independent presidential candidacy by Michael Bloomberg.
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According to The New York Times and others, what was once an alarming possibility now appears likely: The Democratic nomination will probably be decided by superdelegates—those party bigwigs who exist to keep the will of the people in check. If that happens, expect to see the ugly side of politics out in the open. It’s already begun to surface.
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By Joe Conason — The same conservatives sending Barack Obama love notes over the airwaves are likely to smear him from every angle if he secures the nomination. Obama says he is ready. Let’s hope so.
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Stephen Colbert pokes fun at Mike Huckabee’s miracle strategy and Rush Limbaugh’s inability to move the Republicans against McCain.
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indecision2008.com
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One of John McCain’s top advisers, Mark McKinnon, says he will resign from the campaign if Barack Obama wins the Democratic nomination, because “I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama.” McKinnon says he would still support McCain from a distance, but “I met Barack Obama, I read his book, I like him a great deal.”
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nytimes.com
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Clinton insiders talk a lot on the record about Hillary’s viability against John McCain, her confidence in Ohio and Texas and her determination to seat delegates from the uncontested Michigan and Florida primaries. But off the record, at least a few wonder if all that long-term thinking isn’t a bit premature for a campaign that is losing contests left and right.
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By Marie Cocco — As they prepare to vote, thousands of Virginia Democrats are struggling to decide between two able candidates. Many of those will not make that decision until they have ballots in their hands.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The Democrats’ hopes of regaining the White House hinge on how the party proceeds in the coming weeks and months. If momentum or civility reigns, they’ve got a shot. But if back-room dealing and cheating prevail, don’t hold your breath.
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By Eugene Robinson — It is insane to waste time and energy worrying that somewhere, doubtless in a high-tech subterranean lair, Republican masterminds are cackling over their diabolical plot: The use of reverse psychology to lure unsuspecting Democrats into nominating Barack Obama, an innocent lamb who will be chewed up by the attack machine in the fall. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha!
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AP photo / Carlos Osorio
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By Chris Hedges — Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zachariah Anani are the three stooges of the Christian right. These self-described former Muslim terrorists are regularly trotted out at Christian colleges—a few days ago they were at the Air Force Academy—to spew racist filth about Islam on behalf of groups such as Focus on the Family. It is a clever tactic.
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With a win in the Maine caucuses, Barack Obama has scored four lopsided victories in a row and the map favors him for weeks to come. Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, responded to her troubles by replacing her campaign manager. Clinton now has to hold back Obama’s momentum long enough to win the big states weeks from now, a strategy that did not help Rudy Guiliani.
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By Joe Conason — The revival of John McCain’s presidential candidacy, now expected to carry him through to his party’s nomination, can be interpreted as either proof of the judgment of Republican primary voters or evidence of the paucity of alternative choices.
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AP photo / Charlie Niebergall
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By Bill Boyarsky — After Super Tuesday, Democrats are worrying that a long Clinton-Obama contest might irreparably damage the party’s prospects in November. But, as longtime political reporter and former Los Angeles Times City Editor Bill Boyarsky points out, the bigger threat is a McCain-Huckabee ticket.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — The Super Tuesday primaries were a test of strength that demonstrated weaknesses in both parties and pointed to problems each could confront in the fall.
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By Ellen Goodman — Super Tuesday, Super Duper Tuesday, Plus-Size Tuesday, Vastly Engorged and Rotund Tuesday turned into a serious case of political bulimia. Never before have so many gorged on such huge portions of political expectations only to find themselves purged the next morning.
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AP photo / Matt York
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Rush Limbaugh’s said it, and now Charles Hurt from Rupert Murdoch’s Big Apple tabloid, the New York Post, is joining in the chorus of conservatives who worry that Sen. John McCain would betray the GOP’s core right-wing base if he inches any closer to the White House.
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Perhaps because neither Obama, Clinton nor McCain won a crushing victory, the top candidates’ post-Super Tuesday speeches repeated earlier themes, though with renewed focus on each other. McCain’s breathy tribute to himself would be the exception.
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AP photo / Chris Carlson
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As the dust settles from Tuesday’s “national primary,” we know two things: John McCain is the Republican front-runner and the Democrats still have a race on their hands. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama swapped states all night. Obama won more states overall, but Hillary took home the big prizes of California and New York. Updated
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AP photo / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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By Robert Scheer — Curb your enthusiasm. Even if your favored candidate did well on Super Tuesday, ask yourself if he or she will seriously challenge the bloated military budget that President Bush has proposed for 2009.
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There’s a reason campaigns are more expensive than ever: commercials. Although they try, the candidates can’t be in every Super Tuesday state at the same time, and the most effective way of reaching millions of people in one state is the same for politicians as it is for Tylenol. Even Barack Obama, who has bet big on his grass-roots organization, spent around $4 million on ads in the last week of January.
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dudehisattva.com
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New polls show Barack Obama closing in on Hillary Clinton’s lead, nationally, in California and among women voters, which may be why either the Clinton campaign or some ally is engaging in that unsavory campaign tactic, the push poll.
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OK, so clearly Ann Coulter is not above leaning heavily on hyperbole to raise a few eyebrows and sell a few books, but this time she even managed to shock us a little with her announcement on Fox’s “Hannity & Colmes” that she’d go to bat for Hillary Clinton if she’s up against John McCain for the presidency, because, Coulter said, Clinton’s “more conservative” than McCain.
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By E.J. Dionne, Jr. — If the Arizona senator secures the Republican presidential nomination, his victory would signal a revolution in American politics—a divorce, after a 28-year marriage, between the Republican and conservative establishments.
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Marching in Chicago: Resisting Rahm Emanuel’s Neoliberal Savagery
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