Well, That Didn’t Take Long

When I made my predictions for the year, the one that I felt most confident about was #3 – the return of Bad McCain.  It took about 21 days for me to be proved right, if not specifically regarding the stimulus bill. A joke made its way around the Capitol yesterday: How do you know [...]

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The Bracelet Bungle?

One of the more odd exchanges from Friday night may turn out to harm Sen. Obama far more than he might have thought possible at the time.  Call it the bracelet debate: I couldn’t find a clip that contained the full Obama statement, so for fairness’ sake, here’s the text: OBAMA: I’ve got a bracelet, [...]

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Down at Halftime, McCain Pulls Out a Solid Win

I stand by my comments earlier regarding McCain’s problems on economic policy, and he must fix them before the next debate.  But McCain was a bulldog all night, aggressively laying out a broad vision for American foreign policy.  He looked like a natural, as if you could have the same discussion with him over coffee.  [...]

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Stuck on Spending.

We’re half an hour into the debate, and John McCain is incapable of explaining any aspect of economic policy beyond government spending. Obama talks health care, and McCain talks about how much waste is created by government spending programs. Lehrer asks about his position on economic recovery, so McCain talks about public corruption. Obama criticizes [...]

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The Racist Slur

CNN’s Jack Cafferty is the latest media personality to state without equivocation that ONLY racism can explain the closeness of the presidential election: The differences between Barack Obama and John McCain couldn’t be more well-defined. Obama wants to change Washington. McCain is a part of Washington and a part of the Bush legacy. Yet the [...]

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McCain Heeds the Lessons of the Clinton Campaign?

One of the leading lessons political observers drew from Hillary Clinton’s loss to Barack Obama was her slow reaction to Obama’s emergence following Iowa. Rather than dynamically refocusing on caucuses rather than big-state primaries or attacking Obama’s credentials, Hillary’s team said “steady as she goes.” The result was a string of 11 straight primary and [...]

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There’s Something About Huckabee

Listening to Huckabee’s speech tonight, I don’t regret that he isn’t our nominee — he said enough troubling things to disqualify him — but I’m glad he’s on our side. There’s something about his words that just draw you in. Good messengers, even when they aren’t good leaders, are invaluable to a party of big [...]

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The Gustav Opportunity

If Hurricane Gustav strikes with sound and fury against the Gulf states during the convention, the Republicans will have to step very lightly. The media have already broached the subject of how unseemly it would be if the RNC was celebrating while people in Louisiana or Texas are hurting.  It’s a fair point, but it’s [...]

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The Palin Pick: Inspired, Inspirational, Inspiring

Notes on the Palin pick, in no particular order: McCain closed the deal with me (and likely millions of conservatives) with this pick. Not that we were planning on voting for Obama, but we were the Fred Thompson voters, the Mitt Romney voters, even some Mike Huckabee voters. We were deeply worried that the man [...]

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On the Other Hand…Brilliance

Geraghty and the folks at Hot Air bring to my attention a far more accomplished piece of political film, also of the McCain campaign. My only question is, how has the final quote in this series not been broadcast sooner?

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