Neil Sinhababu

TEN GOOD REASONS FOR AN OBAMA/EDWARDS TICKET….If you’re a progressive Democrat, you should want John Edwards to be Barack Obama’s vice president. I’ve made some of these points before, but now I’ve set up the slideshow! So enjoy: 10. Because he’s the most Vice-Presidential candidate we have. For VP, you want a powerful campaigner who […]

MEET NANCY….It’d be a mistake to think that the loyalties some women feel to Hillary Clinton are immediately transferrable to other female politicians. We’ve seen all sorts of misogyny thrown at Hillary over the last 16 years, and that’s the sort of thing that bonds you to a particular individual. But when this primary is […]

MOO IF YOU LIKE THIS POLL….Gallup titles this batch of polling data, “Public Lukewarm on Animal Rights,” but the big news is that Americans are much more concerned with the welfare of farm animals than I expected. Solid majorities oppose bans on hunting and animal testing, but a 62-35 majority of Americans supports “Passing strict […]

EDWARDS WINS ON THE ROAD….SurveyUSA has been putting out an interesting series of Obama-McCain polls where they test possible VP choices. In some ways, the polls were badly done — what’s the point of asking people if they prefer Obama-Sebelius to McCain-Pawlenty in Virginia, where nobody knows who Sebelius or Pawlenty are? It might’ve been […]

FORESIGHT….In response to all sorts of different questions about Barack Obama — Why should we support him? How is a first-term Senator suddenly winning the nomination? How can he beat John McCain? What kind of President will he be? — I like to point to these three paragraphs from his 2002 speech against the Iraq […]

THE DNC RULES….As the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee meets today to decide whether to strip Florida and Michigan of their delegates, it’s important to remember why such strong punitive measures were needed in the first place. There were good reasons for the DNC to add the states it added to the January primary calendar. […]

DID REID AND MCCONNELL CUT A LIEBERMAN DEAL?….Here are two things I can’t explain — except, maybe, in terms of each other. First: Even if Joe Lieberman decides to officially become a Republican, this doesn’t give the GOP control of the Senate. This is because of the organizing resolution that was passed at the beginning […]

PELOSI FOREVER!….It’s good to see Nancy Pelosi get some positive coverage. I wish the article went into more detail on what’s probably the grandest achievement of her political career to date — holding the Democratic caucus together to destroy Bush’s Social Security Privatization initiative in 2005. Of the 200+ Democrats in the House, only one […]

A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN….Below, Cheryl Rofer joins Thomas Carothers in criticizing the idea of an active ‘League of Democracies’. The reason some people want such an organization is so that they don’t have to listen to China and Russia in deciding when to undertake coercive action. That’s an understandable motivation — getting approval from […]

INSTANT CONGRESSIONAL RACE RANKINGS….This is pretty nifty: Nicholas Beaudrot analyzed the demographics of the 27 GOP-held open seats and all 170 races with GOP incumbents to see how Barack Obama would perform in each district. The thinking is that demographics predict Obama’s performance (blacks and college-educated whites help him), and Obama’s performance serves as a […]