McCain, Obama Have Some Base Building to Do By Rhodes Cook
For the first time in 40 years, the Democrats and Republicans are each on the verge of nominating a candidate who failed to attract even half of their party's primary vote.
Political Commentary
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June 12, 2008
June 12, 2008
A Challenge Obama Should Accept By Joe Conason
To his credit, John McCain has invited Barack Obama to join him in a national "town hall" tour over the coming months, without the unneeded intrusion of celebrity journalists, network extravaganzas and all of their irrelevant impertinence.
June 12, 2008
On Issues, Obama Poetry Won't Rhyme By Froma Harrop
Barack Obama is such a stand-up guy that he'll stand up twice -- once for each side of an issue. The poetry reading on change and hope is over. Now that he has to talk about real policy, there's little rhyme in the rhythm.
June 12, 2008
Congressional Combat, Continued By Larry J. Sabato
Last December, when we first sketched out the upcoming House elections , we suggested that Democrats were likely to have a good year. Nothing has changed our forecast in the six months since, and if anything, we now see November 2008 as probably the best year Democrats have had in many a moon.
June 12, 2008
Decline of the Senate By Robert Novak
Sen. Arlen Specter, at age 78 suffering from cancer, was feeling miserable Monday following chemotherapy the previous Friday. But believing the best antidote was hard work, Specter took the Senate floor with a speech different in kind from the partisan oratory now customary in the chamber.
June 11, 2008
The Other Forty Percent By Susan Estrich
Everyone knows what the "right" answer is to the question of whether you would be willing to vote for an African-American for president. The "right" answer is yes. What's surprising is not how many people say yes, but how many don't.
June 10, 2008
How Obama Can Win By Dick Morris
Most aspiring presidents and prime ministers face a myriad of challenges as they embark on their journey.
June 10, 2008
Pro-Choice Democrats and John McCain By Froma Harrop
Hillary Clinton's blessing notwithstanding, many of the New York senator's supporters will resist the handover to Barack Obama. The sexism that permeated the recent campaign still rankles, and John McCain is far from the standard-issue Republican they instinctively vote against.
June 9, 2008
McCain's Evangelical Problem By Robert Novak
Shortcomings by John McCain's campaign in the art of politics are alienating two organizations of Christian conservatives. James Dobson's Focus on the Family is estranged following the failure of Dobson and McCain to talk out their differences.
June 7, 2008
General Election Campaign Begins With New Playing Field By Michael Barone
Almost precisely at the midpoint between the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3 and the general election on Nov. 4, the general election campaign is on. Neither party's nominee swept the primaries.
June 7, 2008
A McCain Mistake By Robert Novak
Sen. John McCain had just begun his speech from Kenner, La., on the year's last primary election night when distraught Republicans began e-mailing each other this message: Is it possible at this late hour for our presidential candidate to learn to read a teleprompter?
June 6, 2008
Gay Marriage -- and Divorce: A Commentary by Susan Estrich
"Today is a great day not only for every lesbian and gay couple who wants to get married, but for every Californian who believes in fairness and equal opportunity for all," said Judy Appel, executive director of Our Family Coalition, a group that advocates for same-sex couples with children, in response to the California Supreme Court majority's refusal to delay its ruling on gay marriage. As a result of that refusal, California counties have until June 17 to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
June 5, 2008
Obama's VP Search Mistake By Dick Morris
On his first day as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama made his first clear, serious mistake: He named Eric Holder as one of three people charged with vice-presidential vetting.
June 5, 2008
Hillary's Latest Provocation By Robert D. Novak
Just when it seemed on the last Tuesday of the presidential primary season that Hillary Clinton would bow to the inevitable, she enraged Democrats who expected her to start strengthening Barack Obama as nominee.
June 5, 2008
The Running Mate Dilemma By Joe Conason
The selection of a vice president is not only an exercise in political handicapping but also a national rite of statecraft. Candidates, advisers, pundits and assorted experts try to calculate the ethnic, geographic, gender and ideological characteristics of potential running mates, but what this choice actually reveals is the character of a presidential nominee.
June 5, 2008
Health Care: the Democrats' Lost Opportunity By Froma Harrop
A remarkable thing just happened in the people's party. Democrats have chosen a candidate, in the year 2008, who does not have a plan for universal health coverage.
June 5, 2008
Bernanke Backs King Dollar By Lawrence Kudlow
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke made big news Tuesday by singling out the weak foreign-exchange value of the U.S. dollar as the principal culprit in "the unwelcome rise in import prices and consumer price inflation."
June 4, 2008
Obama's Iraq Achilles Heel By Dick Morris
John McCain needs to go on the offensive against Barack Obama over the Iraq war. Polls tell us that his support for the Iraq invasion is one of voters' chief problems with McCain. Obama's chief credential, on the other hand, is his early, consistent opposition to the war.
June 4, 2008
One Great Dame By Susan Estrich
As I write this, the last voters in the last states in this seemingly endless primary process are heading to the polls, even as various news organizations have already announced that Barack Obama has reached the shifting magic number to claim a majority of the delegates.
June 3, 2008
White Women Take the Gloves Off By Froma Harrop
The woman who shouted "McCain in '08" at the Democratic rules committee was speaking for a multitude. After mounting for months, female anger over the choreographed dumping on Hillary Clinton and her supporters has exploded -- and party loyalty be damned.
