Steve Benen

We covered a fair amount of ground over the weekend. Here’s a quick overview of what you may have missed. On Sunday, we talked about: * Mitt Romney’s popularity among his own constituents during his only time in public office was pretty awful. That should matter a lot in the presidential race. * Forcing accused […]

There’s a traditional model for presidential candidates when it comes to their pre-announcement career trajectory. It’s pretty straightforward: an official gets elected to a prominent office, he/she does well, his/her constituents are impressed, and the official parlays that success into a national campaign. In recent decades, this is the path Obama, Bush, Clinton, and Reagan […]

If facts had any bearing at all on national-security policy debates, the efficacy of the U.S. justice system in locking up convicted terrorists would shut down Republican arguments quickly. In recent weeks, Congress has reignited an old debate, with some arguing that only military justice is appropriate for terrorist suspects. But military tribunals have proved […]

The New York Times has a feature piece today on Mitt Romney’s “thrifty habits.” Apparently, the guy considers himself pretty cheap. It was a stark sign of the tug of war, still evident in Mr. Romney’s life, between an instinctive, at times comical frugality, and an embrace of the lavish lifestyle that accompanied his swelling […]

What can viewers of the Sunday morning public-affairs shows see today? A whole lot of Republicans. Looking at the lineups of the five major Sunday shows — NBC’s “Meet the Press,” CBS’s “Face the Nation,” ABC’s “This Week,” Fox News’ “Fox News Sunday,” and CNN’s “State of the Union” — we see the following: * […]

During last night’s debate, George Stephanopoulos raised an issue that doesn’t usually come up in these events: “Governor Romney and Governor Perry, you both made it a feature of ads you ran in Iowa this week, which leads to this question from our partners at the Des Moines Register. And we’re going to show it […]

The debate for Republican presidential candidates in Iowa last night lasted two hours, but it was a 35-second exchange that’s likely to be remembered. The subject was Mitt Romney’s support for an individual health care mandate, and the nuances of his shifting positions. It led to this proposed wager, via TPM: Rick Perry levied the […]

In about an hour or so, the Republican presidential candidates will take the stage in Iowa for yet another debate, this one co-sponsored by ABC and Yahoo. It takes place just 24 days before the caucuses, and will feature six major candidates: Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Santorum. […]

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting report the other day on the congressional fight over extending the payroll tax cut through 2012. Democrats were quoted as saying they feel like they have the advantage in this debate — they’re the ones fighting for a middle-class tax break — but one Republican said something in […]

My standards have fallen so far that I’m almost impressed when Mitt Romney attacks Newt Gingrich, and the criticisms (a) aren’t breathtakingly hypocritical; and (b) are grounded in fact. Here’s the former governor yesterday, talking to the editorial board of the Des Moines Register (apparently after having read David Brooks’ column). For those who can’t […]