Politics

McCain's Attacks Missed Target in Third Debate

During Wednesday night's third and final presidential debate, the former fighter pilot John McCain proved that he doesn't know how to land an attack. Whether due to discomfort or ineptitude, McCain brought up ACORN and William Ayers in a way that had to be utterly baffling to people who don't follow politics closely. Picking up a week-long Republican campaign against the voter-registration organization ACORN, McCain said this during the debate: We need to know the full extent of Senator Obama's ... (read more)

2008/10/16

Defending ACORN's Voter Registration Efforts

Shelley Powers wrote a blog entry yesterday in support of ACORN: ACORN is an organization focused on getting people to vote, ensuring that people equal access to housing and education, supportive of unions, and decent working conditions. Really, how awful—what do these people think this country is? ACORN and Missouri have a long history together because my state is always held up as the poster child for voter registration fraud. Governor Blunt, a man so despised after his one and only term as ... (read more)

2008/10/15

National Review Dumps Buckley's Son for Voting Obama

A few days ago, the writer Christopher Buckley, son of the late William F. Buckley, wrote that he was voting for Barack Obama: It's a good thing my dear old mum and pup are no longer alive. They'd cut off my allowance. ... Obama has in him -- I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy "We are the people we have been waiting for" silly rhetoric -- the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. Though Buckley didn't write the endorsement for the National Review, the conservative magazine ... (read more)

2008/10/14

Obama Campaign Remembers Earliest Donors

I just got an email from Barack Obama telling me something interesting -- I was one of his earliest donors: You were one of the first 100,000 people to own a piece of this campaign. You provided the strength needed to build a movement. Back then, few pundits or insiders thought we had a chance. But thanks to you, we overcame steep odds. Twenty months later, millions of Americans all across the country have joined you, working for change. But in these final three weeks, our opponents are ... (read more)

2008/10/13

Sarah Palin: 'How Dare They Boo Piper!'

My favorite Amy Carter moment was when a reporter asked her if she had any message for the children of America. She looked at the reporter square in the eyes, thought for a few moments, and then gave this brilliant reply: "No." -- Danny Miller, Huffington Post Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin dropped the puck at the Philadelphia Flyers game Saturday night and was greeted with either a loud chorus of boos or a mixed response, depending on which media account you read. On the ... (read more)

2008/10/12

Scoring the Second Obama/McCain Debate

On a night when he had to change the dynamics of a presidential race he's losing, John McCain wandered all over the place during Tuesday's presidential debate, both figuratively and literally. Sometimes walking around to no purpose as Barack Obama spoke, McCain even had the bad luck at the end of blocking the camera, an Abe Simpson moment that separated moderator Tom Brokaw from his teleprompter. As the faltering economy dominates the election, McCain continues to struggle to put together a ... (read more)

2008/10/08

Campaign Ad: 'Maverick Maverick Maverick!'

The ad agency Goodby, Silverstein and Partners has created some inventive fake campaign ads for the presidential campaign. This one's good enough to be a real ad for Obama. Two more over-the-top ads from the agency can be found on Stunningly Bad.Com. I've thought for a while that the world needs an ad agency that specializes in creating attack ads for subjects outside of politics. Our most sarcastic voiceover actors shouldn't be put on a shelf for three out of every four years. If Madison ... (read more)

2008/10/07

Rich Lowry: 'I Think She Just Winked at Me'

Rich Lowry, the editor of National Review for the past 11 years, posted this comment on The Corner about Sarah Palin's performance in the vice presidential debate: I'm sure I'm not the only male in America who, when Palin dropped her first wink, sat up a little straighter on the couch and said, "Hey, I think she just winked at me." And her smile. By the end, when she clearly knew she was doing well, it was so sparkling it was almost mesmerizing. It sent little starbursts through the screen and ... (read more)

2008/10/04

Scoring the Biden/Palin Debate

The summer before third grade, I became the oldest kid on my block to ride my bike with training wheels, a subject of increasing ridicule among my peers in Garland, Texas. My dad, attempting to solve the problem as dads are prone to do, decided the best solution was to take off the training wheels and push me down our steep driveway on my bike. Instinct would kick in. I would navigate the incline with increasing confidence, execute a deft 90 degree turn down the alley and ride through the ... (read more)

2008/10/03

Debate Moderator Writing 'Age of Obama' Book

A lot's being made today of the fact that Gwen Ifill, the moderator of Thursday night's vice presidential debate, has a new book coming out on Inauguration Day titled The Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama. The story's drawn hundreds of comments on the Drudge Retort. Ifill has made no secret of the book, which has been mentioned for months in media reports. On Aug. 21, she wrote an essay for Time magazine that describes her motivation for writing it: ... Obama is just one ... (read more)

2008/10/01

Read More Entries