[ 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 ]
[ Posted Wednesday, October 10th, 2007 – 03:54 UTC ]
Sovereignty (n) -- government free from external control
Is Iraq a truly sovereign state, or is the Maliki government a puppet of America? We may know the answer to this crucial question in a very short time. Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki could show independence from American interests in many ways, some of them decidedly not to President Bush's liking.
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[ Posted Tuesday, October 9th, 2007 – 17:09 UTC ]
While most attention paid to Iraq by the American media is centered on Baghdad (and, post-"surge," al-Anbar province), there are two developing situations which bear closely watching over the next few months. The first is at the northern edge of Iraq, where the Kurdish areas of both Iraq and Turkey overlap. The second is the south, especially the city of Basra and the surrounding oil fields.
I've written about the Turkish situation before. Turkey is determined not to let the Iraqi Kurds declare their own country ("Kurdistan"), because it believes a Kurdish section of Turkey would want to join them (and by doing so, secede from Turkey). There are Turkish Kurds ("rebels" or "terrorists," depending on who you talk to) already fighting a low-level guerrilla war against Turkey, and Turkey is inching closer to directly attacking their bases in Iraq.
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[ Posted Monday, October 8th, 2007 – 15:32 UTC ]
A few months ago, the chattering classes were all a-tizzy over the prospect of a Michael Bloomberg third-party bid for the White House. Nothing much came of it, but we all had fun pontificating about the possibility (yours truly included -- 7/11/07). Since it was such an enjoyable exercise, I'd like to be the first to roll out another third-party scenario to provide fodder for the punditocracy (in case this turns out to be a slow news week).
After taking several recent announcements into consideration, I have gazed into my crystal ball and foreseen Ron Paul as the nominee of the Libertarian Party for 2008. Paul will be supported by droves of "family values" voters and will actually gain a respectable percentage of the popular vote. The Democratic nominee then waltzes into the White House, spikes the ball, and does an end-zone dance in the Oval Office.
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[ Posted Saturday, October 6th, 2007 – 14:23 UTC ]
[ Posted Friday, October 5th, 2007 – 17:33 UTC ]
[Welcome back to the weekly Friday Democratic Talking Points column (I'm still looking for a snappier title, by the way). This week, I've decided to start numbering these columns, so I can keep track of them easier. Previous columns will be numbered [ 1 ] (9/14/07), [ 2 ] (9/21/07), and [ 3 ] (9/28/07) for future reference. OK, enough of that, here we go...]
I think I'm going to have to introduce a feature for this column of "Most Disappointing Democrat of the Week." I really wish I didn't have to do this, and sincerely look forward to a week where there are just no candidates for such an award. Until that happens, we're going to have to shine a spotlight of shame on the most embarrassing cave-in of the week.
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