[ Posted Tuesday, March 11th, 2008 – 12:35 UTC ]
So maybe we can get beyond our Puritanical roots when it comes to sex scandals as well. Maybe the next time around, John McCain will be on the front page of the New York Times for a lobbyist scandal, without having to throw sex into it. Maybe we'll all realize that it is simply impossible to describe the relationship between Washington politicians, lobbyists, corporations, and campaign cash -- and still have it come out sounding somehow different than what a prostitute does for a living. Or somehow more moral.
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[ Posted Monday, March 10th, 2008 – 12:48 UTC ]
Because once the ticket's formed, the presidential candidate is supposed to be uplifting, with soaring rhetoric designed to make everybody feel good about voting such an optimist into the Oval Office. The vice presidential candidate, on the other hand, is supposed to be the attack dog. All the negative, scathing comments directed at the other team are supposed to originate from the number two candidate on the ticket. This allows the leader of the ticket to distance himself from the political fracas a bit, but also keeps the pressure on the Republican candidate as much as possible. These are the traditional roles in any presidential campaign. Now, who does each of these roles actually sound like this year? If you were casting this for Broadway, whom would you pick for each role?
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[ Posted Friday, March 7th, 2008 – 16:04 UTC ]
The first was the fact that (although few noticed it) she blew the opening line on her appearance on Saturday Night Live. For the almost the entire 82-year history of the show (ahem), the opener has been the very-easy-to-pronounce: "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!" Hillary went all Ivy League on us, changing it to "it is Saturday Night." Sheesh. Luckily for her, nobody in the media noticed the gaffe, and it went largely unremarked. But some things are sacred, which is why I feel duty-bound to point it out here.
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[ Posted Thursday, March 6th, 2008 – 15:02 UTC ]
They are called many things. Party leaders. Party elders. Senior statesmen. Bigwigs. Movers and shakers. But whatever you call them, the big voices of the Democratic Party have been remarkably silent when it comes to endorsing one candidate over the other for the party's nomination for president. I speak of such big cheeses as Al Gore, John Edwards, and Bill Richardson. It's time to lay your cards on the table, boys, and let us know which side you're on.
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[ Posted Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 – 16:27 UTC ]
"As our delegate count has indicated, there are exactly 2,024 delegates who are supporting Barack Obama, and the exact same number supporting Hillary Clinton. You, sir, are the only superdelegate who has so far resisted all attempts to be swayed one way or the other. So, my question for you is: whom are you going to cast your vote for at the convention?"
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[ Posted Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 – 15:58 UTC ]
POLLSTER: We take these polls to "take the pulse" of the people voting, so the news media can report on what the electorate is feeling. I know some of the answers are inadequate, but there are just so many opinions that the media can pay attention to in any one election.
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[ Posted Monday, March 3rd, 2008 – 16:26 UTC ]
But the really close race is going to be Texas. The polls are all over the map on this one. Hillary had a big lead a few weeks ago, then Barack closed the gap and actually passed her in the polls by a few points. But Hillary has managed an uptick in the past few days, and now the polls are about even (within the margin of error of most polls), so it is truly anybody's guess who is going to win.
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[ Posted Friday, February 29th, 2008 – 15:52 UTC ]
Happy Leap Day! Because we are given an extra day this year, I would like to spend it in a good old fashioned Bush-bash. Maybe it's because everyone's focused on the election, or maybe the entire country just doesn't want to think about President Bush anymore, but I feel that he hasn't been getting the attention he deserves of late. And what better way to spend the extra day we get this leap year?
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[ Posted Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 – 15:19 UTC ]
While everyone else is having fun determining who "won" or "lost" the Democratic debate last night, I would like to revisit an important topic: Iraq. Because while the national news media (fickle as they are) have lost almost all interest in the situation in Iraq, it is still going to be a large issue in the November presidential election. Which means we should be paying attention to it now.
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[ Posted Tuesday, February 26th, 2008 – 15:00 UTC ]
I have a piece of advice for both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for tonight's debate: take the high road and start trying to outdo each other on who can best take on the Republicans. In other words, both of them should start speaking as if the Democratic nomination is already theirs, and preview their general election campaign to the voters.
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