So, South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford had an affair.  With a woman in Argentina.  An affair that was apparently so all-consuming he felt the need to visit said Argentine in person, leaving his state government in a bit of limbo.  He felt the need to come clean about the affair aft… Read full post »

I'm about to say words that may surprise you:

I feel bad for Bobby Jindal.

Well, I'm not sure I feel bad for the man himself.  But I certainly feel for the position he was in tonight.  The entire idea of an immediate opposition response to… Read full post »

The coverage of the President's budget announcement today is surprising for the amount of surprise it seems to contain. The Post's David Broder is leading this Charge of the Shocked Brigade:

The size of the gambles that President Obama is taking every day is simply staggering. What came… Read full post »

It's the end of the campaign, and everyone I know who's following things has become one raw nerve ending, wandering around, spasming at the release of every poll number, every questionable comment, every Palin rally and Biden gaffe.  I have found myself reacting more emotionally to just about ev… Read full post »

Joe Biden, my favorite current vice-president, spoke¹ this weekend at a security conference in Munich.  Coverage of the event has mostly focused on Biden's assertion that the U.S. will continue to seek a strategic missile defense initiative, but will also work with Russia.  That summary mak… Read full post »

Maybe you've seen this ad:



It's part of the This Is Reality Campaign, which is, itself, part of the Alliance for Climate Protection.  If that sounds familiar, it may be because the ACP is Al Gore's big climate umbrella -- the organization that includes, for instance, the WE campaign, whic… Read full post »

Well, you had to know that on the day Salon posts its Sexiest Man Living, I'd be doing a Tim Geithner post, right? But I come to study Geithner, not to ogle him*. He's having another extremely rough week, as both a Democrat and a Republican have taken to the public… Read full post »

I still don't believe that Sarah Palin is going to be withdrawn as a VP candidate, but the hum, post-Couric, is getting louder.  There's yesterday's National Review column calling for her to resign.  There's the turn of the mainstream media against her -- even Anderson Cooper… Read full post »

Paul Krugman used a small quote from President Eisenhower today, and I found it worth looking up the whole bit.  In a letter to Edgar Newton Eisenhower on November 8, 1954, Eisenhower wrote:

I was wrong.

And no, not just about being able to play just one... more... game of Tower Defense.  No, I've been wrong a lot recently, and I feel that I need to confess.  So here it is, a List of Those to Whom I Owe an Apology… Read full post »

I have an uncle Joe. He's a nurse, and he's good at what he does, and he votes in a swing state, and though he once made about the best joke I've ever heard about John Ashcroft I have no idea how he's voting this year.

I have a niece… Read full post »

The nomination of Kathleen Sebelius to Health and Human Services seems pretty official -- the New York Times reports she's accepted the nomination, and though it's sourced anonymously, it's supported by the head of the Democratic Governor's Association sending out congratulations (and by Claire McCas… Read full post »

 So, you're Charlie Gibson, and you land the first interview with Sarah Palin, would-be Vice President, a woman wreathed both in controversy and silence.  You fly to Alaska to talk with her, which means not only have you had at least 10 days to be dreaming… Read full post »

I made some reference recently to not being impressed by Maureen Dowd, and I thought maybe today would be a nice time to show why. So I did a little running commentary on her column from Saturday's New York Times, "A Penny for My Thoughts?" My comments are not… Read full post »

The big news is this fake campaign suspension.  I say fake because, well, McCain hasn't stopped meeting with campaign supporters and his ads are still running and none of his offices seem to be sending people home (at least I assume that's true, if the talking points about the suspension are… Read full post »

Big Cheney news this weekend [NYT]:

I keep hearing the same, troubling refrain from GOP commentators today: "Let Palin Be Palin."  Maybe Bill Kristol started it, with a column of the same title over at The Weekly Standard on Sept. 8, urging that McCain's camp not get distracted by old revelations about Palin but instead let her… Read full post »

I've been trying to come up with something cogent to say about the House's single-party passage of the stimulus bill.  I started with a list of valid reasons (I thought of three) that a member of congress might use to vote against a bill that's already going to pass, but that… Read full post »

George Stephanopoulos had a bombshell of a blog post Sunday, about the 2008 Edwards campaign.  Most aides didn't believe the affair rumors, he said, but some that he talked to did:

Dr. George Tiller, the well-known Kansas doctor, was shot to death today at his church in Wichita.  Tiller has been a fixture in Kansas my whole life.  I was in grade school during the Operation Rescue's "Summer of Mercy," 1991, when Randall Terry led daily protests and blockades out…

Read full post »

It's Stress Test Week!  (Again).  But this time, we're talking results instead of just, you know, hey, guess what's happening behind closed doors.  The nation's 19 largest banks have all seen their results by now, and rumors have been flying since Monday about what, exactly, those… Read full post »

Faiz Shakir, the main blogger at ThinkProgress, today discusses President Bush's intention to use federal funds to install an entrance gate at his new home in Dallas.  Though it's not explicit, there's an overt tone to the report suggesting that this is an inappropriate use of federal funds.&nbs… Read full post »

I've been reading some terribly dorky stuff as of late, and among these readings I've stumbled back into the Federalist Papers¹.  This is in no order, mind you, but as topics interest me.  Right now, for some crazy reason, I'm pretty interested in finding out more about the presidency. … Read full post »

Yesterday, I saw two Americas on the Mall.  Not the kinds of Americas that John Edwards was talking about, but the kinds that President Obama, in his Inaugural Address, spoke of: the childish America, and the America ready to grow up.

Throughout the day, I saw the best of people, the mature… Read full post »

Where do you hang out when your opponent is starting his convention? At one of your many houses, of course!

Is no one on the McCain campaign watching Meghan "Blogette" McCain?* Is this really the week that you want to put up a post… Read full post »