Hilzoy

FERRARO AND RACE… Geraldine Ferraro wrote a horrible op-ed in the Boston Globe. She says a number of things about the effects of sexism on the Clinton campaign, which I do not propose to consider here. But she also claims that the concerns of Reagan Democrats have not been heard: “As for Reagan Democrats, how […]

MORE STRAIGHT TALK… Just in case anyone was in any doubt about the awesome advantage in understanding conferred by a trip to Iraq, John McCain provides a perfect illustration: “So I can tell you that it is succeeding. I can look you in the eye and tell you it’s succeeding. We have drawn down to […]

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER… ABC News: “In an encounter last night in the lobby of a New York Hotel, former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan apologized for denouncing a former White House colleague, Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism advisor, after Clarke wrote a book highly critical of the Bush administration in 2004. Now McClellan is […]

MUSIC TO MY EARS… From the Reuters blog: “During a fund-raiser in Denver, Obama –a former constitutional law professor at the University of Chicago Law School — was asked what he hoped to accomplish during his first 100 days in office. “I would call my attorney general in and review every single executive order issued […]

HAVE WE LOST OUR COLLECTIVE MARBLES?… Yesterday was full of interesting news. Sticking to stories that concern the election: John McCain gave a speech on nuclear non-proliferation. He also wrote an op-ed with Joe Lieberman in which he renounced Bush’s policy on North Korea. And then, in the evening, we learned that when he was […]

MCCAIN ON NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION… From the NYT: “Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, distanced himself from the Bush administration on Tuesday by vowing to work more closely with Russia on nuclear disarmament and by calling for a reduction in tactical nuclear weapons in Europe. In what his campaign promoted as a major speech […]

MSNBC (h/t): “Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s national campaign general co-chair was being paid by a Swiss bank to lobby Congress about the U.S. mortgage crisis at the same time he was advising McCain about his economic policy, federal records show. “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” reported Tuesday night that lobbying disclosure forms, filed by […]

Ben Smith puts the fact that 10% of Americans believe that Obama is a Muslim in context: “Large minorities of Americans consistently say they hold wildly out-of-the-mainstream views, often specifically discredited beliefs. In some cases, those views should make them pretty profoundly alienated from one party or the other. For instance: 22 percent believe President […]

Hillary Clinton has an op-ed in the NY Daily News called “Why I Continue To Run.” In addition to lamenting the fact that an unnamed “some” took her remarks about Bobby Kennedy’s assassination out of context, she makes two points that are worth remarking on. First: “I am running because I believe staying in this […]

The NYT has a story headlined ‘Worries in G.O.P. About Disarray in McCain Camp’. It contained this rather astonishing passage: “The string of departures from the campaign was prompted by questions about lobbying activities by aides and advisers to Mr. McCain and a new policy, which he dictated, that active lobbyists not be allowed to […]