It's time to get some laws passed.

The time is now.

I don't know how else to say it. Democrats in Congress have been served up with the goldenest of opportunities to actually get some good bills passed, from now until election day. To their credit, they've had a mighty productive week, doing just that. But they need to redouble their efforts and hammer Republican legislators with vote after vote on issues popular with the American public. Because, while it's always a good campaign tactic in an election year, this year is different because there is an excellent chance of actually passing -- even over Bush's veto -- some good laws.

Because Republican congressional incumbents are scared. They are quite literally quaking in their boots. The Republican Party's complete and utter breakdown -- showing their absolute lack of even having any pretense of new ideas for America -- is happening right out in the open, for all to see. They're so depressed, they actually stole their new slogan "The Change you Deserve" from an anti-depressant drug. I wrote about this fear yesterday, but since then more and more Republicans keep giving quotes to the press about how dismal their chances are this year. Here is just a sampling of what Republicans are saying, selecting quotes only from people named "Tom":

Continue Reading »

[Those of you who prefer "all cynicism all the time" should just skip this column, since I'm about to get blisteringly optimistic here. You have been warned.]

Maybe this will be Karl Rove's legacy. One can only hope.

There have been three astounding elections recently which are absolutely terrifying the Republican Party. Because they can see which way the pendulum of American politics is swinging, and it is decidedly not in their direction.

Continue Reading »

And so all eyes in the American political world turn to West Virginia -- a state none of the pundits and pontificators know (or care) much about. They certainly never expected to be in a hotel room in Wheeling or Charleston in the middle of May this year. Because the conventional wisdom set in stone -- before anybody actually cast a primary vote -- was that "Super Duper Tsunami Tuesday" (as it was called back then, mercifully shortened now to just "Super Tuesday") was going to be the whole Magilla. On the not-as-super-Wednesday that followed, we would have a Democratic nominee, and could then focus on beating Rudy Giuliani in November.

That this never came to pass is an indictment of following the chattering classes inside the Beltway, and their so-called conventional "wisdom." Because here we sit, months after Super Tuesday, and we're still paying attention to primaries in states that never get mentioned on the national news otherwise (barring spectacular video footage of some natural disaster there). Which begs the question for the next election cycle -- what will the primary calendar look like in 2012?

Continue Reading »

With sincere apologies to Bill Maher for stealing his schtick, I have a new rule.

My new rule is for uncommitted Democratic superdelegates. The rule is: you are not allowed to publicly bemoan how "divided" the party currently is, or tut-tut that "the nomination process has gone on too long," or even wish that "it resolve itself soon." In other words, if you're part of the problem, you're not allowed to get all vaporous over the fact that the problem exists. Period.

The remaining 250 (or so) superdelegates who have not "put up" their endorsement publicly need to "shut up." Because these mugwumps can end the race any time they want -- by coming out en masse for one candidate or the other. So they no longer have the right to complain that the race is going on too long.

Continue Reading »

Now that that's all over with, can we please focus on beating John McCain?

Virtually everyone (with the possible exception of Hillary Clinton -- I guess nobody told her) now knows that the Democratic candidate for president is going to be Barack Obama. But while the end of this long and winding road is now in sight, Democrats should not just be heaving an enormous sigh of relief -- they should be turning all their energy towards beating John McCain in November.

Because we've already seen what happens when the candidate lets their guard down between becoming presumptive nominee and the convention (can you say "Swift Boat"?). And we definitely don't want that to happen again.

We also want to help Barack Obama with his down-ticket coattails. A stunning thing happened in Louisiana last week, but very few people noticed. There was a special election for a House seat in a district held by Republicans for 33 years, which voted overwhelmingly for Bush last time around. And guess what? The Democratic candidate won. Importantly, he won even after he was smeared by an anti-Obama and anti-Wright ad campaign by his Republican opponent.

Continue Reading »

Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign season, I have tried to remain scrupulously neutral among the Democratic candidates. I spotlighted the so-called "minor" and even "fringe" candidates, because I don't like the media declaring who is and who is not a viable candidate -- I feel that power should be reserved for the voters. Last Thanksgiving, I printed the full text of a speech from every single Democratic candidate because I thought it was the right thing to do -- give voters a side-by-side comparison of what the candidates were actually saying on the stump. I think it is pathetic that the news media -- print included -- do not routinely do this throughout the course of every election. And throughout the bruising battle since early February between the two candidates left standing, I have tried to bend over backwards to point out the good and the bad from both campaigns.

But there comes a time when any sane analyst looks at the math and says "it's over." And even though nobody apparently told Hillary Clinton, it is indeed over now. Barack Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee, unless he is struck by lightning tomorrow.

Continue Reading »

[Update: This article has been updated. I have received permission to credit the person who pointed out this coincidence, in a comment he made to another Huffington Post article, so it has been changed to add Brian Laws' name. I never cite commenters within the text of my articles, as a policy, unless I have their permission to do so.]

August 28th will be the final day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. The keynote speaker will be the Democratic nominee for president. Unless Hillary Clinton soon acquires the ability to perform miracles, that nominee giving the acceptance speech is going to be Barack Obama.

And he will give a historic speech. He will be the first black man in this country's entire history to give such a speech. And if he's half the orator he's cracked up to be, he will use the following line at some point during the speech:

"Exactly two score and five years ago..."

Continue Reading »

It has been suggested that I have been a bit too hard on the media recently, and I've been invited to point out some good journalism when I see it. While it is true that I have been media-bashing for the past few weeks, I would tend to frame it as their drivel being too hard on my ears... but that wouldn't solve the problem, only make it worse. Ahem.

So, while we all anxiously await the close of the polls in Indiana and North Carolina tonight (I thought about liveblogging them, but I have a scheduling conflict tonight, so this won't be possible), I thought I would shine the light on one example of (local) media speaking truth to power -- and by "power," I mean "the national mainstream media."

Continue Reading »

"The road goes on forever and the party never ends."
--Robert Earl Keen

Tomorrow is yet another primary day in the Democratic presidential nomination race, between Hillary Clinton and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

What's that? Wright is not running, you say?

Oh, that's right -- the actual candidate is Barack Obama. I apologize. After watching the blathering on yesterday's Sunday morning news shows, I don't know how I could have forgotten that and gotten the two mixed up. After all, the whole point of public opinion shows are to keep us informed of the serious issues of the day, right?

Ahem.

Seriously, though, here we sit waiting for yet another set of primary returns to come in. Could anyone have predicted at the beginning of the campaign that this is where we would be -- in May, 2008 -- still not knowing who one of the major candidates was going to be? Well... um... you decide. Here is what I wrote almost a year ago, on May 23rd (the full article is worth a read, especially for the long excerpt from H.L. Mencken at the end of it -- first-person reporting from the "open" Democratic convention of 1932):

Continue Reading »

If every port on the West Coast of the United States of America was shut down because of a terrorist threat, do you think it would make the news?

So do I. Any event of this magnitude would be the lead story on every evening news broadcast in the nation. I say that with almost total certitude, knowing it to be true.

Yesterday, all 29 cargo ports on the West Coast were shut down, although it wasn't terrorism that did it. It was the longshoremen, in a one-day strike. Media coverage, beyond some local newspapers, was almost completely non-existent.

Why is this? I don't know for sure. It could have been because the unions said they were protesting the war in Iraq. It could have been because they may not have actually cared about the war in Iraq, but instead were taking a one-day holiday to show their strength during contract negotiations. It could be because Labor gets no respect at all from our corporate media. It could have been that celebrating May Day (known to the rest of the planet as "International Workers' Day") is still seen as a commie-pinko thing to do in America. It could have been the epidemic of recto-cranial inversion (having one's head up one's... well, you figure it out...) among television news networks, which shows no sign of abating any time soon. It could have been because Miley Cyrus' bare shoulderblades were nowhere to be seen.

Continue Reading »