9:15 PM: I’m trying to get a handle on what I think of how Anderson Cooper is handling this debate. My immediate take is that he’s stylistically being very, very aggressive. But the facts he hits people with, they seem to be able to dispatch pretty quickly – even when the candidates don’t have great arguments on the facts. Like he’s talking an aggressive game but he doesn’t seem that well prepared. Thoughts?
9:25 PM: Lincoln Chafee is so damn earnest and old line New Englandy and appealing. Not vote appealing – for me at least. But really appealing. And Hillary … wow, that was an inspired response (Obama made her Secretary of State). Without being aggressive at all, in political terms, she just made Chafee’s question go up in smoke.
9:29 PM: Asking staff to research whether Rick Perry handed his glasses off to Anderson Cooper after he got out of the race.
9:32 PM: Interesting that Webb signals opposition to Iran Deal.
9:33 PM: I’m not as much of a China hawk as Jim Webb but he’s very, very right about our myopia on the Middle East. There is more going in the world than the eastern Mediterranean and the Muslim Middle East.
So here we are, at another CNN debate where the start and end times are kept secret. It’s awesome.
8:39 PM: Jeez, releasing the Don Lemon Kraken. Bold, scary move.
8:41 PM: I think the national anthem was a shoot-out to people with non-traditional pitch.
8:52 PM: So there are actually other people running for president on the Democratic side beside Hillary and Bernie.
8:57 PM: Have to say I think O’Malley’s opening was weakest so far. Chafee and Webb better and more resonant than I would have thought. Sanders suitably strong and burning.
8:59 PM: Staff here says Fox did better by going straight to questions. Agree it makes better TV. But I think giving each candidate a chance to make their case at first is better on the merits.
9:01 PM: Hillary is benefiting by how stupid Anderson Cooper’s are. Good lord. He’s like the perfect foil.
9:04 PM: Can think of a lot of highly relevant differences between Denmark and the US other than the fact that Denmark is small. Cooper is perfect foil.
9:07 PM: Cooper: Sure the issues. But what about labels?
Let’s face it: it can’t match the drama of a Republican debate. But the first Democratic presidential debate is less than three hours away. So join us here for live coverage of all the goings-on.
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Late Update – 7:46 PM: Now just 40 to go!
The Republican party Super PAC tasked with attacking Hillary Clinton is out with a new ad which it will show tonight during the CNN debate. It features video images of Ambassador Chris Stevens’ grave. As I noted last week, Kevin McCarthy had to go because he endangered a primary RNC asset – exploiting the deaths of these four Americans for political mileage.
Fascinating look at how Haiti became a critical wedge issue in the 1932 presidential election, allowing Republicans to keep African-American votes for FDR remarkably low. The story goes back to the US occupation of Haiti almost a century ago and how FDR, then Assistant Secretary of the Navy, actually wrote the new Haitian constitution himself. Yes, FDR wrote the Haitian constitution! That fact and the US occupation itself came back to haunt him in 1932. Check it out – amazing chapter of 20th century history I was totally unaware of.
Tennessee legislature considering bill to shield Tennessee students from Islamic ‘indoctrination’.
Please join us for a discussion with J. Dana Stuster, a counterterrorism expert and journalist, who will be joining us in the Hive at 2 PM Eastern (sub req). Dana is a policy analyst at the National Security Network, and he’s written about the Middle East for publications including The Atlantic, Foreign Policy and Defense One.
Alabama Governor Bentley (R) floating plan to reopen DMVs in Alabama’s ‘black belt’ after voting rights outcry.
As Hillary Clinton gets ready for the first Democratic nomination debate tonight and testimony before the ‘Benghazi Committee’ later this month, the tables are suddenly dramatically turned. Ever since ‘Benghazi’ got pulled into the maelstrom of the House GOP leadership debacle with former-future Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ill-considered frankness about the political priorities of the ‘Benghazi’ ‘investigation’, everything’s changed. There are calls for the committee to be disbanded. Everyone associated with it is on the defensive. And now suddenly there’s a former committee investigator suing over wrongful termination because he claims he refused to focus the entire investigation on Hillary Clinton.
The most notable change is the attitude of the Beltway press corps. After a year of peddling selectively leaked transcripts and hyperventilating over and repeating tendentious readings of unexceptional process stories, suddenly everyone is asking whether it could possibly be true that this was just a political witch hunt all along.