Bush Blew It

OK, obviously a first(ish) impression. Kerry cruised. His answers were generally tight. I don’t know who decided on the two minute, 90 second format but it clearly favored Kerry who sounded concise while filling his time and Bush sounded lost at sea trying to fill the void. Bush blew at… Read more »

Debate Preview

Predictions for the Debates Tonight: I am going to lay it all out on the line; I am going to make a prediction about the debates tonight. I know that if I am wrong, everyone will point it out in the coming days, weeks, and months, but here it goes.… Read more »

If Kerry's a flip-flopper...

…how come everybody knows where he stands? The Program on International Policy Attitudes, a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes and the Center for International and Security Studies (University of Maryland), has released poll results indicating that voters who favor Bush (as well as swing voters) tend to… Read more »

"It's like the poorest village in Africa."

That’s the awesome quote from a South African election monitor after they toured Florida’s ridiculously messed up state election systems. Man, the above article is worth the time to read because it will remind you that elections in this country just aren’t up to snuff. Which is apparently OK if… Read more »

Crawford, TX paper endorses Kerry

The Lone Star Iconoclast, a paper based in Crawford, Texas (where George W. Bush’s ranch is located), has issued an endorsement of John Kerry that also outlines the shortcomings of Bush’s term. The Iconoclast endorsed Bush in 2000. In those dark hours after the World Trade Center attacks, Americans rallied… Read more »

Botox Man Takes on New Look

John Kerry officiall looks like a pumpkin. Now I am left wondering if he will turn back into a candidate at midnight.… Read more »

CIA to "influence" Iraqi elections

A major cornerstone of Bush’s defense of his foreign policy is his claim that, thanks to US intervention, Iraq will now be able to hold free and fair elections. Following the discovery of an alarming internal memo, the Administration is claiming that the CIA won’t be used to rig the… Read more »

Rugged individualism, indeed

New data released by the Tax Foundation (a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit org) show which states “win” in the game to acquire more than their share of federal funding dollars, and which lose. 32 states receive more dollars in federal funding than they pay in federal taxes; of the top… Read more »

Banned!

Republicans admit they want voters to think that Kerry will ban the Bible if elected. Suggestions also abound that Kerry would call for same-sex marriages, even though he does not in fact support same-sex marriage. Best line: The RNC has several different outreach categories, including snowmobilers, but not gays and… Read more »

Child Advocates = Pedophiles

That’s electoral logic, Rove Style. There’s a piece out in the most recent Atlantic Monthly documenting some of Karl Rove’s underhanded techniques in a slew of state races in the 1990s. The whole piece isn’t available online, but some of the more lurid details are (via TPM).… Read more »

The Lighter Side of Political Journalism

The Columbia Journalism Review has published a list of what they consider to be the top ten journalists and reporters working in the field today. (Un?)surprisingly, John Stewart of the Daily Show on Comedy Central is the only TV journalist to make the cut.… Read more »

Bushies' confusion on Iraq elections

Edwards (via Kos) excoriates Bush and Administration officials for offering competing accounts of the upcoming Iraqi elections. Dubya had said the elections will be held in January, but Cheney says that Iraqis themselves must make the decision. Rumsfeld, meanwhile, in an almost-admission that the Mission might not be quite so… Read more »

It All Falls Apart

Wow. The Bush administration is taking it from just about everyone these days. If it was the stony silence of the UN General Assembly, or the recent loud and public musings of centrist Republicans that our president isn’t fit to lead (and really, who thinks he is?) in Iraq, now… Read more »

Democratic Chaos

Now, now, Rob — us conservatives aren’t giving up — we’re just taking the time to enjoy some new poll numbers! Today I am struck by the sheer chaos within the Democratic Party. The NY Sun and Matt Drudge are reporting that Bill Burkett - the most imaginative news source… Read more »

Wolves at the Door for DeLay

One of the most prolific fundraisers for the Republican National Party and polemical politicians just got a few steps closer to scandal land. Is that even a real metaphor? Rep. Tom DeLay, a well-known player on the national scene and one known for pulling no punches in national politics had… Read more »

Just can't vote for Bush

Anybody but Bush. I know, I know, that sounds like something Hunter and I have been saying for weeks on this blog (and hey, Smith, Ver Standig, Baumgardner…what’s up? Have you just conceded the blogosphere to the liberals or what? Come on! Put up a fight!). But I’m not saying… Read more »

Lest we forget...

Even though CBS and Rather have admitted they were mistaken on the TANG memos, there’s still plenty of evidence that Bush was AWOL, as this Air Force Times article explains.… Read more »

Who's uncivil?

Those good-for-nothing Kerry supporters, of course.… Read more »

"The trouble with technology"

A good breakdown of the dangers, as well as the advantages, of switching to electronic voting. It’s been months, but I still can’t get over that Diebold exec’s promise that he would “deliver the votes” that Bush needed.… Read more »

Kerry: Iraq war was a "mistake"

Kerry has made his strongest (and most unambiguous) claim yet over whether or not the invasion of Iraq was justified, saying that Bush displayed “colossal failures of judgement” and that the war was a “mistake”. The move seems to indicate that the Kerry campaign will attempt to move away from… Read more »

Is Bush about to bolt and run in Iraq?

Even Bob Novak thinks the answer is yes.… Read more »

Judge sez: S Dakota voting districts illegal

A heartening victory for opponents of gerrymandering everywhere.… Read more »

FEC taken to task on CF rules

The dust hasn’t settled yet, but the ruling is clearly a victory for those who supported the new campaign finance rules in 2002. It remains yet to be seen how the rules will be rewritten, and how they will affect the remaining month-and-a-half before Election Day: The judge overturned several… Read more »

Proportional Representation

In case you haven’t heard Colorado is trying to kill off the “winner take all” electoral vote system that they current employ. They want to switch to a proportional system of vote distribution and with their nine electoral votes, this means roughly 1 electoral vote to about 10% of the… Read more »

Analysis of the CBS TANG memos debacle

Kurtz looks at the problem the way no one else can. Implicit throughout the article is the perception that CBS would still have had a great story without rushing to publicize the memos as genuine. [update] CBS now says it was “misled” on the authenticity of the memos. [/update]… Read more »

Nader back on FL ballot--again!

He was on, he was off, now he’s on again.… Read more »

"Political Human Sacrifice"

Among the non-presidential election stories this season, few are as bizarre as this. Conservative southern California AM talk radio hosts John and Ken (a.k.a. John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou) want to unseat the most powerful California Congressional Republican they can in order to demonstrate their ire over illegal immigration, which… Read more »

Kerry's tone is catching on

We’ve known for a long time that John Kerry is a relatively heartless candidate who will say or do just about anything (like voting against funding our troops) to win. But now we are beginning to see his heartlessness spreading to his supporters. As this photo sadly shows, Kerry supporters… Read more »

A happy ending...

for Lynne Gobbell, who is now working for the Kerry campaign.… Read more »

"It's beyond pitiful, it's beyond embarrassing. It is now in the zone of dangerous."

When a Republican Senator says this in regard to the spending (or lack thereof) in Iraq, I sit up and pay attention. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R) of Nebraska along with others have made it known they aren’t happy with the transfer of funds from development to security in Iraq. Everyone… Read more »

Update: Nader off the ballots in FL

“Circuit Judge Kevin Davey overruled a move this week by Florida’s elections supervisor to include Nader on the ballot for the November 2 election as a Reform Party candidate… Davey … said that if counties had already sent out ballots with Nader’s name on them, they must send corrected versions… Read more »

Rule of law, part 2

The Dems appear to have a few more scruples when it comes to the insane game of Florida electoral politics than does the GOP…… Read more »

527s Win Court Battle

The Bush campaign’s petition for a preliminary injunction against hostile 527 groups in the case Bush-Cheney ‘04, Inc. v. FEC was denied. Apparently, the fact that the Bush complaint was over 500 pages long caused Judge James Robertson to view the petition with skepticism, since it could not be processed… Read more »

And they're off!

Here’s a nice little breakdown of the horse race, electoral vote style. The long-term trend favored Kerry until the post-RNC bounce. If you take a look at the archives you’ll see that Wisconsin has been an exceptionally volatile state, judging by the Badger Poll. It’s refreshing to know that in… Read more »

Losing Wisconsin

There is a brilliant news piece in tomorrow’s Washington Post that takes care to document just how carelessly John Kerry has moved through the state of Wisconsin. For a guy so used to swinging between both sides of seemingly every issue, you’d think Kerry would be more comfortable in a… Read more »

Nader to appear on FL ballot despite court order

Just goes to show you how committed the GOP is to re-stealing the election in Florida… “Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader’s name can appear on Florida ballots for the election, despite a court order to the contrary, Florida’s elections chief told officials on Monday in a move that could help… Read more »

Submitted for your consideration...

…a sour episode in this election season that is more than a little telling about the Bushistas’ philosophy on the rights of labor…… Read more »

Democratic denial

There is a brilliant cartoon in this morning’s Los Angeles Times, an otherwise flagrantly liberal rag that employs a remarkably witty illustrator. Give it a gander — it does a superb job of explaining just what the Democrats are up to these days…… Read more »

Who...

…is a bigger flip-flopper?… Read more »

Gotcha!

Bush and his supporters… 1) Abuse protesters 2) Abuse detainees and admit to it 3) Abuse the economy, working and lower-middle class families, and just about anybody else who’s not Bush and his supporters. Film at eleven.… Read more »

Questions Raised....

So, the memos, are they real? Or are they fake…. What we’re referring to are the memos uncovered by 60 Minutes so gleefully and immediately attacked by the right…and by that I mean the Weekly Standard. Turns out that the group behind the press release that brought up the allegations… Read more »

The Memos

Everyone’s talking about CBS’s reporting about leaked memos that were supposedly written in the 70s by the CO of the 111th Fighter Squadron of the Texas Air National Guard in which he complained about political pressure to ignore the fact that Shrub was disobeying orders and being generally unpleasant. Right-wing… Read more »

Bush Cooks Books With Terror Numbers

If it isn’t his overestimation of budgetary numbers in order to produce a “shrinking deficit” that is in fact growing, it seems Bush is able to catch more terrorists without doing anything. Recently, Bush’s speeches have increased the number of Al-Queda terrorists captured from two-thirds to three-quarters. This is without… Read more »

"Vote for us or we'll kill you"

A dissection of the current administration’s use of terror and fear to cow American voters, and: “Cheney implies that John Kerry couldn’t protect America from an attack like Sept. 11, blithely ignoring the fact that he and Bush didn’t protect America from the real Sept. 11. Think of what brass-knuckled… Read more »

Wait a minute... Actually, wait 60 minutes!

As noted in Rob Deters’ recent post, 60 Minutes has unconvered documents suggesting that President Bush’s service in the National Guard was, well, less than a service. But now there is a minor problem: it looks like the documents are forgeries. According to the Weekly Standard, experts are now saying… Read more »

What Makes Us Tick?

Here’s an excellent piece on why, for example, American voters simply aren’t aware of the fact that both candidates’ spending proposals will spell disaster for the national deficit. A good overview of the political science behind voting behavior analysis.… Read more »

"We Look Forward To Having A Debate About Debates"

The Washington Post (click here if you don’t want to register) reports that Bush will most likely duck out of one of the three scheduled presidential debates this season, citing concerns that “undecided voters” selected to be the audience by the Gallup organization could become “partisan”. It’s clearly to the… Read more »

Kerry supporters turn to violence

According to WKRN, an anti-Kerry heckler who chose to sound-off at a Kerry rally may have been violently assaulted by Kerry supporters. The Kerry camp knows plenty about crashing opposition events - there were repeated intrusions during the RNC - but in New York no Bush supporters turned to violence.… Read more »

The God Gap and the Income Gap...

…as discussed by a sociologist and a priest.… Read more »

The World Wants Kerry

On a bizarre note the Internation Herald Tribune reported the results of a poll to determine who would be elected president if the whole world could vote. Turns out it would be Kerry in a landslide.… Read more »

Kerry Ratings

Here’s an interesting site I just picked up off instapundit. Check it out to see how various lobby and interest groups rate John Kerry in terms of how he has voted in the past on their issues. The Kerry ratings seems to be very black and white where as the… Read more »

Newsweek Rejects Kitty Kelly Book Claims

Newsmax is reporting today that Newsweek has rejected the Kitty Kelly book because “a key allegation in the book coudln’t be nailed down.” The allegation is the one Deters refered to in an early entry that new cocain rumors about Bush were about to surface. Apparently Kelley’s only source is… Read more »

One less Kerry country

John Kerry has enjoyed attacking President Bush over and over for not going into Iraq with the approval of the entire world. In fact, Kerry seems to think that France, Germany and Russia should all hold vetoes on any actions taken by the US in the protection of its own… Read more »

Are They Different?

Simply put, if you haven’t seen this flash cartoon, hop to it! It’s funny as hell and points up the inanities of this election. www.jibjab.com… Read more »

Fun with Maps!

In the interest of providing our readers with something other than the usual partisan pabulum, here are a couple of links to the NYT’s and the WSJ’s electoral calculators. Note that Bush’s lead in the national polls doesn’t directly translate to victories at the level of the battleground states. Even… Read more »

Cheney Fearmongering in Iowa

Vice President Cheney all but explicitly claimed that a Kerry win would somehow trigger a fresh wave of international terrorist attacks against the U.S. Apparently Al Qaeda offers refresher courses in American Constitutional law, since the terrorists would be embolded by a supposed change in the White House’s philosophy on… Read more »

Triple Whammy for Bush

Bush may be enjoying a modest bounce post-RNC but this week he’s going to take a beating. Item A) New cocaine rumors surface. The book published prior to the 2000 election that brought up allegations of Bush’s coke usage was not released by major publishing houses and slammed by the… Read more »

Carter Takes "Crazy as Zell" Miller to Task

Here’s the text of a letter that President Carter sent to Sen. Zell Miller, the crazy, duel-happy DINO (Democrat in Name Only) who spoke at the Republican National Convention. God, Zell is just nuts. Not only does he challenge Chris Mathews to a duel on national TV (hilarious!) he simply… Read more »

Kerry flops yet again

Internet columnist Matt Drudge has dug up photos of John Kerry sporting a firearm this weekend, as part of his apparent effort to show voters that he enjoys the same hobbies as them. (Apparently not everyone in swing states can afford to go yachting…) There is one problem with… Read more »

NYC fined for holding protesters

New York State Supreme Court Judge John Cataldo has imposed more than half a million dollars in fines on New York City, holding the city in contempt for not abiding by his earlier order to release more than 500 people arrested during protests against the Republican National Convention. The city… Read more »

Moveon.org & John Glenn

Buried at the very end of a Washington Post article in Saturday’s paper is a John Glenn comment that should give sensible individuals reason to pause, “You’ve just got to separate out fact from fiction… . Too often, too often, in this country, if you hear something repeated, it’s the… Read more »

Deconstructing Time's RNC poll

Classical American political wisdom tells us that a candidate’s supporters regard polls as scientifically infallible when they show support for their candidate, and as bluntly inaccurate when they show support for the other guy. While I want to refrain from sounding like an outraged Kerry partisan, I do feel compelled… Read more »

Breaking away

The newest Time Magazine poll is out, and President Bush has commenced to pull away with a double digit lead. Conducted over three days, only a third of the poll accounts for the President’s stunning convention speech, and that means that things should only begin to look better for him… Read more »

Jobs Better, Poor Still Screwed

So the jobs report came out today, and Republicans are sure to point to it as a) Bush’s tax cuts creating jobs and b) signs that I am an economic girly-man. While it is true what Schwarzenegger said, that America always finds a way to recover, I’m positive it isn’t… Read more »

Kerry Overshadowed by a Real Commander in Chief

In a marvelous delivery the President presented a speach that was more than any of his supporters could have asked for. He hit all the issues, defense, social security, education, welfare, jobs, abortion, gay marriage, and everything else. Bush spoke like a commander in chief and the latest poll numbers… Read more »

The RNC Ends

Regardless of one’s political orientation, it must be said that President Bush delivered what is arguably his finest speech of the past two years this evening. Not since his last momentous occasion in New York City - his post 9/11 visit to “Ground Zero” - has the Commander in Chief… Read more »

What you won't hear from Bush tonight

According to GlobalSecurity.org the dreaded 1000th death milestone in Iraq has already been surpassed. Will you hear that tonight in New York? No. GlobalSecurity acknowledges that they use information posted by the Army that indicates that the families have not been notified so officially, the count is under 1000, yet… Read more »

Mel Martinez - Millionaire Trial Lawyer

Mmmmm, I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning! This campaign we’ve heard plenty about how you can’t be pro-trial lawyer and pro-patient at the same time. Bill Frist made the (incorrect) statement that a hospital in Florida might close down it’s trauma services because of rising malpractice costs… Read more »

RNC Heats Up

Coming in to day four I don’t see how the Bush Campaign or the RNC could have hoped for a better convention thus far. Monday night’s performances by McCain and Rudy, two moderate Republicans, gave moving endorsements of the commander in chief. On Tuesday night Arnold blew the roof off… Read more »

Night 3 at the RNC

Perhaps lost in the hoopla of Zell Miller and Dick Cheney speaking tonight will be the address of Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin representative in the House. It is not a mistake that he was slated to speak in primetime on a night so major as to include a tribute to… Read more »

Awesome Electoral Site

This site is freakin’ great. it compiles polling data from every state to determine how close they are and then shows you where the election is at were it held today. Keep in mind it doesn’t weigh polls, so some polls are certainly more reliable than others. For instance, any… Read more »

Republicans Mislead on Tax Hikes

As usual, fudging the numbers is the name of the game for Republicans at this RNC this week. Since they can’t produce jobs (see the upcoming and sure to be disappointing August job numbers) and they know how to rile the base with threats of a tax and spend liberal,… Read more »

Voter Registrants "Irk Clerks"

If you have been on State St. at all this summer you’ve been approached by the New Voters Project. It’s impossible to avoid them, seeing as they’ve been registering voters in bars, on the street, in restaurants, coffeeshops, parks, you name it. Recently the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal ran an article… Read more »

It begins....

So the Herald Election 2004 blog opens up smack dab in the middle of the RNC. And what a trip the past two nights have been. McCain. Giuliani. Schwarzenegger. The three most popular and recognized names in the GOP each gave incredible speeches. McCain came across as strong yet compassionate.… Read more »