[ Posted Thursday, October 4th, 2012 – 17:23 UTC ]
Last night's debate format was unusual in this day and age. This was reportedly why Jim Lehrer "unretired" to moderate one last presidential debate. It was supposed to be the crowning achievement of a stellar career which included running numerous debates in past years. The overwhelming consensus today is that Lehrer should have stayed retired, and rested on his laurels, because if this was a crowning achievement it was more like a paper crown at a kid's birthday party.
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[ Posted Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012 – 20:59 UTC ]
There is a whole lot wrong with the way the media reports debates, on that we can all agree, I think. The overemphasis on who "won" and "lost," for starters. The inevitable boiling-down of ninety minutes into a nine-second soundbite from both candidates (which we'll see everyone agree on by tomorrow morning).
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[ Posted Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012 – 16:54 UTC ]
Shockingly, after a half a year of virtually no news whatsoever, last month was actually newsworthy in the world of presidential job approval polling. Barack Obama had a good month, and hit a noteworthy milestone in the percent of Americans who approve of the job he's doing.
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[ Posted Monday, October 1st, 2012 – 15:56 UTC ]
This caricature began approximately the day Obama took office, and has been used scathingly by Republicans over the past four years. Obama was nothing more than a puppet, Republicans sneered, tied by the strings of his TelePrompTer, and unable to form a coherent thought or sentence on his own.
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[ Posted Friday, September 28th, 2012 – 17:28 UTC ]
Unsolicited advice to the Romney campaign: this is not the way to convince voters that your candidate isn't Thurston Howell III. I'm just sayin'....
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[ Posted Thursday, September 27th, 2012 – 17:23 UTC ]
Next up on the presidential campaign schedule: debate season!
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[ Posted Monday, September 24th, 2012 – 16:40 UTC ]
The American public, over the past few weeks, seems to have gotten more optimistic about the future. These recent gains have been somewhat modest and still far below a majority of the public being optimistic, but if this trend continues for the next month or so it will likely help President Obama's chances of being re-elected.
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[ Posted Friday, September 21st, 2012 – 15:25 UTC ]
Wouldn't it be amusingly ironic if Mitt Romney only managed to get 47 percent of the national popular vote for president? It would renew my faith that the universe has a sense of humor, that's for sure.
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[ Posted Thursday, September 20th, 2012 – 17:03 UTC ]
The most poignant comment of all is that it is simply a non-story. For all of the fulminating and dire predictions from conservatives and military folks, gay people are now openly serving -- and the U.S. military has not fallen apart as a result! Whoa -- who'd a-thunk it? Western Civilization still stands and America has not been conquered by her enemies. Brave men and women still selflessly serve, and the military is stronger than ever.
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[ Posted Friday, September 14th, 2012 – 15:22 UTC ]
The second item of note is that today marks the fifth "birthday" of this column series. September 14, 2007 saw the very first Friday Talking Points column ever (although the name and the column format wouldn't solidify for a few months). Since then, almost every Friday, we've been attempting to provide Democratic talking points for politicians to use to get their point across in a snappy and memorable fashion. How much success we've had doing so is open to interpretation, but we're still here doing it, which tends to indicate that Democrats still have a ways to go to match the Republican ability to keep "on script" during interviews. To put this another way, it's the old Democratic "herding cats" problem.
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