Here’s the tail end of Michael Bennet’s speech last night in Denver, and the beginning of Bill Clinton’s: Although it perhaps defies convention, the Dems were very smart to have Bennet — the actual candidate — go before Clinton. If Bubba had spoken first, his lengthy stemwinder of a speech would have been an impossible act for the not terribly… Read more »
The most recent Senate forecast update from Nate Silver’s Five Thirty Eight, published last Thursday, shows the GOP with a 22 percent chance of winning at least 51 seats in the U.S. Senate. (That percentage would be in the mid-30s — i.e., probably a bit north of 1-in-3 odds — if the Republicans in Delaware hadn’t committed an act of… Read more »
Pollster: “There’s not a lot of point in breaking down feelings toward Blagojevich along demographic lines because pretty much everyone in the state hates him about the same.” Heh. He’s got 8% favorable ratings, 83% unfavorable, which is apparently the worst rating for a politician that Public Policy Polling has ever seen. And you know those 8% are either family… Read more »
Clive Crook on the Republicans’ “Pledge to America”: On taxes, it promises to “stop all job-killing tax hikes” — that is, to retain all of the Bush tax cuts — but says nothing about the comprehensive tax reform that will be needed to raise new revenues and balance the budget without avoidable damage to growth. The Pledge maintains the pretence… Read more »
Taking a step back from the Outrage Machine & Beltway Noise Generator, Slate‘s John Dickerson commits journalism and confirms what everyone with a functional brain, a modicum of common sense, and a resistance to right-wing partisan blinders instantly, instinctively knew upon reading Obama’s faux-outrage-of-the-day quote about America’s ability to “absorb” a terrorist attack: I asked an administration official familiar with… Read more »
Apropos of nothing, inspired by a random aside in comments… Yes, the song is called “The Idiot,” but I’m not being snarky by suggesting it as a Tea Party song. Its reference to idiocy is sarcastic: I could have stayed to take the dole, but I’m not one of those I take nothing free, and that makes me an idiot,… Read more »
So I came across this over at Improbable Research. It would appear that there is a scientist who believes her name cannot be used without written consent.
Nine years ago today: I don’t remember too much about Monday, September 10, 2001. But I do know three pertinent details. One, my roommates — big NFL fans — watched “Monday Night Football” that evening, and never changed the channel afterward, so the TV was on ABC when we went to bed for the night. Two, I didn’t go to… Read more »
A look at how some of this morning’s California newspapers covered last night’s massive San Bruno natural gas explosion and fire: More after the jump — including a bunch using the very same photo as the Santa Cruz Sentinel and the Daily News, and a few others with a very similar photo of the fireball. That’s interesting to me, because… Read more »