[ Posted Friday, October 19th, 2007 – 17:15 UTC ]
Welcome to the sixth installment of the weekly suggestions for Democrats who are likely to appear on this weekend's chat shows. Previous installments can be seen at the new Talking Points archive on my site.
Before we get to the talking points themselves, attention must be paid to the worst and the best Democrats from last week. For balance, we initiate the "Most Impressive Democrat of the Week" (otherwise known as the "Golden Backbone Award") -- although I honestly can't promise I will be handing this award out every week. The rule shall be: if no Democrat impresses me, then no award for that week shall be given.
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[ Posted Thursday, October 18th, 2007 – 17:55 UTC ]
Senator Chris Dodd doesn't get a lot of press attention even though he's running for the Democratic nomination for president. This may be about to change, as Senator Dodd has just announced he is putting a "hold" on the FISA bill being considered by various Senate committees.
Some background on this action -- Congress, in a stinking cloud of shame, passed a sweeping law this summer which actually expanded the White House's ability to wiretap phone calls without warrants. They did this quickly, so they wouldn't miss any of their precious monthlong August vacation. At the time, Democrats sheepishly explained that the law was "only" for the next six months, and they'd fix it when they got back from going to the beach. For an entire month.
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[ Posted Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 – 16:19 UTC ]
[ Posted Wednesday, October 17th, 2007 – 10:10 UTC ]
This column really should be called "Variations on a Theme," as it continues the thought I began on Monday ("Will 2008 Be A Ho-Hum Election?") -- what kind of campaign will it turn out to be if we wind up with Hillary Clinton versus Rudy Giuliani? (As I said previously, I am not going out on a limb here and predicting that the race will come down to Clinton and Giuliani, but given their poll numbers it is certainly plausible that they will be the nominees next year.) While Monday's article examined the relative lack of enthusiasm for each candidate from within their own parties, today I'd like to look at the negative enthusiasm against the candidates from their opposition.
Hillary's detractors are well-known (and vocal). Hillary's negatives are also well-known. For whatever reason (I've never quite understood why, myself) Hillary also provokes an almost irrational amount of seething hatred against her from the right wing. None of this is earth-shattering news to anyone who hasn't been under a rock since 1992.
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[ Posted Tuesday, October 16th, 2007 – 14:29 UTC ]
Getting a clear picture of the situation on the ground in the middle of an occupation or war is a hard thing to do. For various reasons, it's hard to trust the reports from the Pentagon, the embedded media, or politicians of either stripe, because their views are usually skewed in one direction or another.
Which is why I give much more weight to first-person accounts from soldiers who have been there. And you can call me anti-elitist, but the lower the rank of the soldier, the more weight I give to their accounts. I see it as: the closer you get to the bottom, the tougher jobs you likely will have performed. This may not be fair, but I wanted to lay out my own personal biases (since I'm criticizing everyone else's).
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[ Posted Monday, October 15th, 2007 – 14:38 UTC ]
Conventional wisdom (or at least the self-proclaimed sages of political conventional wisdom, the Washington punditry) has been telling us that the 2008 presidential election is going to be The Most Important Election In Modern Times (if not actually In History), and that (of course) the electorate is More Polarized Than Ever -- which explains not only how incredibly early the contest started, but also the fierce battles for the primaries now being waged.
But what if this conventional wisdom turns out to be wrong? What if the 2008 election is a real snooze-fest, and voters are barely motivated to go to the polls?
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[ Posted Saturday, October 13th, 2007 – 11:35 UTC ]
[ Posted Friday, October 12th, 2007 – 17:32 UTC ]
Welcome back to the weekly talking points for Democrats appearing on television this weekend. Before I begin, I'd like to wish Ted Kennedy a fast and easy recovery from his recent surgery. We need you in the Senate, Teddy! Good health and long life!
Since I have been focusing this column on the SCHIP bill almost exclusively for the past two weeks [Vol. 3 and Vol. 4], I am going to refrain from repeating any of these talking points this week. They're all still valid, so Democrats should check them out to brush up on their SCHIP answers.
I must say, Charles Rangel impressed me last weekend, on CBS' Face The Nation, as he is the first Democrat I've heard yet using the "block grant" argument against the Republican spin on SCHIP. Modesty forbids me to take any credit, but if he is indeed reading these columns I'd like to say, "Well done, Representative Rangel!"
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[ Posted Thursday, October 11th, 2007 – 16:15 UTC ]
Let me begin by saying that in general, I like Nancy Pelosi. I think she's been more effective than Harry Reid at both passing bills and defending the Democratic position in Congress. She has held House Democrats together for some crucial votes, and -- because there is no filibuster in the House of Representatives -- she has more leeway to get things done.
Having said that, I was rather stunned to read in a fairly snarky article in the Washington Post that Speaker Pelosi is annoyed at the anti-war base in her own party -- specifically for demonstrating outside her San Francisco house. Here is an extended excerpt from the article (the whole thing is worth reading):
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[ Posted Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 – 15:37 UTC ]
