Amy Sullivan

SUCH A GOOD ALTAR BOY….There are a lot of interesting polls floating around right now. But take a minute to check out today’s latest from the Pew Research Center. If you scroll down to the second page, you’ll see the trend in support for Bush and Kerry by religious affiliation. Between the first debate and […]

MORE THAN WORDS….Everyone is still buzzing about Ron Suskind’s frightening description of Bush’s decision-making process (if that’s what it can be called.) But as Ayelish McGarvey points out in a must-read piece over at The American Prospect, Suskind makes the same mistake that countless other reporters and critics of the President have: he takes Bush’s […]

THAT DOESN’T BODE WELL FOR DEMOCRATS….Reader D.S. emailed this morning to share a theory linking the two major battles between good and evil that are currently playing out on the national stage: The Red Sox / Yankees series is a lot like the election, really. You?ve got a formidable but basically evil incumbent machine, that […]

DOMESTIC POLICY IS FUN….I keep trying to compose the perfect response to last night’s debate–particularly on the religion questions–but it’s just not coming. So here are my imperfect belated thoughts instead. First of all, kudos to the Interfaith Alliance, which held a press conference on Tuesday morning, imploring Bob Schieffer to ask the candidates: “What […]

IN DEFENSE OF KERRY’S ABORTION ANSWER….John Kerry’s answer to the rigged question about abortion in Friday night’s debate struck me as almost perfect (he really should have ignored the specific question–about government funding of abortion–and stuck to the general issue of abortion). And I’m not just saying that because he used the opportunity to remind […]

NOT COMPASSIONATE, NOT EVEN CONSERVATIVE….WHAT’S LEFT?….The DLC’s Progressive Policy Institute released a pretty devastating report today that examines the promises of Bush’s “compassionate conservative” agenda and finds nothing there. It’s worth a read. It fits nicely with my article in our October issue on the political sham that is Bush’s faith-based initiative. It’s a pretty […]

MSNBC IS ON DRUGS, AND OTHER REACTION….So the debate had just ended and Edwards had pretty much rocked the first hour, even if he fell off a bit during the last thirty minutes thanks to some seriously doofy questions from Gwen Ifill, and MSNBC moved straight to Chris Matthews and his gang of four, who […]

BUSH, THE UNCHURCHED….Here’s a question someone should ask Bush in one of the remaining debates: Why don’t you go to church, sir? Update: Drat. I keep forgetting about the “registration required” thing. Well, hopefully my article will be posted free and clear sometime next week. In the meantime, the gist is that even Bush’s conservative […]

NO, PLEASE, ANYTHING BUT THAT….You kind of have to wonder if the Bush folks were played in the debate negotiations. I just got back from lunch with two individuals who were involved in the discussions for each side and the consensus opinion is that, contrary to the pre-debate CW, the set-up pretty much favored Kerry. […]