Greg Sargent’s take on the new Bill Clinton ad and what it suggests about Obama’s re-election strategy in the face of a still very mediocre economy.
The 5.8 magnitude Mineral, Va., earthquake that rocked DC and startled folks across a large swath of the country east of the Mississippi was a year ago today. There was a lot of scoffing at the time from West Coasters (although I distinctly remember the look of fear on the face of one Southern Californian in our DC office as the shaking kept going and going and going), but with the Washington Monument still closed, scaffolding still marring the gothic lines of National Cathedral, and repairs ongoing at Union Station, the quake has earned cred in the last year. A look back.
A candidate for sheriff in New Hampshire cites common law mumbo jumbo for the proposition that sheriffs have the power to use deadly force against doctors to stop legal abortions.
The big lie of the 2012 cycle is Medicare. Most people don’t understand well enough how the program works and what the implications of the major reform proposals are to be able to wade through the disinformation coming out of the Romney camp. And most political coverage is not up to the task — a fact the Romney camp is depending on. But it’s actually not that complicated. Take for instance this fact: Romney’s plan would hasten the insolvency of Medicare.
Why is Team Romney so focused on making clear that Mitt Romney’s positions on abortion trump Paul Ryan’s? Just take a look at Ryan’s.
Over the last few days I’ve been describing some of the major problems with our elections which I cover in The Voting Wars.
Too many U.S. jurisdictions allow our elections to be run by political partisans. Local officials have too much control, and often lack adequate training and resources. Political rhetoric has been ratcheted up and mistrust has been building thanks to spurious and exaggerated claims of voter fraud (and in some cases voter suppression) by political provocateurs. Social media inflames partisan passions and could push the next election meltdown into the streets.
What can be done to end the voting wars? Read More
For a little project we’re putting together, when did you first start reading TPM and why?
As the guy who’s been on the receiving end of your emails for more than eleven years, folks come in different cohorts: people who were there from day one, ones who came in with the Trent Lott story, an appearance on Bill Moyers or Al Franken’s show. Or relatively more recently, the Social Security battle in 2005 or the USA Attorney firing scandal in 2007.
If TPM is important to you and/or you’ve been reading for a long time, we’d love it if you’d share your story about how you joined the fold.
The main exponent of Todd Akin’s theory that rape victims don’t get pregnant is a pro-life activist and doctor named Jack Willke. And he claims that he got a private meeting with Mitt Romney as recently as late last year. Read More
This afternoon we received a press release from the site that bills itself as the “world’s largest sugar daddy dating website” announcing a poll of its membership’s presidential preferences. And the results came back with a smashing win for Mitt Romney.
The former Massachusetts Governor tops President Obama by an 8 point margin and the “millionaires” who make up the site’s male clientele. Read More