Lazy Democrats Broke The Curse, Not Bush
From Slate’s Bush’s Legacy: He Survived!: “Historians will be debating George Bush’s presidency for decades to com but in one area, at least, he leaves an unambiguous legacy: He will break, once and for all, Tecumseh’s Curse. The curse — also known as the Curse of Tippecanoe, the Zero-Year Curse and the 20-Year Curse — [...]
Venturing Out From The Base
From David Brooks’ Ceding the Center: “The Hamiltonian-Bull Moose tendency is the great, moderate strain in American politics. In some sense this whole campaign was a contest to see which party could reach out from its base and occupy that centrist ground. The Democratic Party did that. Senior Democrats like Robert Rubin, Larry Summers and [...]
Democrats may get their diploma
From Tim Egan’s The Party of Yesterday: “Two years ago, a list of the nation’s brainiest cities was put together from Census Bureau reports — that is, cities with the highest percentage of college graduates, which is not the same as smart, of course….Among the top 10, only two of those metro areas…voted Republican in [...]
You know what’s no more dangerous than Vodka…?
From Slate’s The New Complacency: “During the past 25 years, there have been countless sentiments that respectable Democratic politicians were never, ever supposed to say out loud for fear of angering the all-powerful Republicans. It still isn’t wise for Obama to say them, but maybe the [growing belief that Obama will win] will loosen other [...]
The Democrats Get Back to Work
From Rep. Steve Israel’s An Agenda for Success: “In Congress, we can and need to do more to make it easier for families to succeed. Today, I announced the formation of the Democratic Middle Class Working Group. My colleagues and I have been working together to craft legislation that will ease the squeeze on [...]
A Mildly Interesting Tale of What If?
From Boston.com’s President Duke: “[Michael Dukakis] works now in a cluttered office…at Northeastern University. ‘As I say to people, kiddingly, blame this mess on me…If I’d have beaten the old man, we’d have never had this kid and this stupid war and all.’” [Hat tip to Adam for the link; FYI: Adam warns that the [...]
Fact Check Time
From NY Times’s interactive graphic, The Rhetoric and the Reality: “A political convention is a license if not to lie then at least to tell the truth creatively. At their quadrennial gatherings over the last two weeks, Democrats and Republicans presented their records and their platforms — and those of their opponents — through typically [...]
Who Hires A 72-year Old?
Republicans! It’s not about commitment to America! We all understand that McCain is committed to America. It’s not about that! It’s about making wise decisions.
Of course, your argument — or I should say, Guiliani’s argument — about Obama’s votes of “present,” and how executives aren’t allowed to vote “present.” That’s a fair argument.
But the [...]
A Progressive Voice
From Alternet’s The Democratic Convention Was Anything But Conventional: “Perhaps the convention’s value was most pronounced at the interpersonal level where liberal activists kibbutzed with campaign operatives, bloggers met politicians, and — as I saw firsthand — potential Obama administration officials began dialoguing with Congress’ most committed progressive leaders…I remembered that while conventions are usually [...]
The Democratic Convention: Part 1
The Democratic Convention is over. Along with a slew of lesser names, we’ve heard from Michelle Obama, Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy, Joe Biden, and now, finally, the nominee himself, Sen. Barack Obama.
The Clintons
Let’s start with the Clintons. As much as I can’t stand her, Sen. Clinton’s speech was pretty [...]
