[ Posted Wednesday, November 12th, 2014 – 18:04 UTC ]
There is a very old tactic in American politics, used for decades after the Civil War, which is called "waving the bloody shirt." Without getting into the ugly details of Reconstruction (or the ugly details of the Democratic Party's own "Red Shirts," for that matter), the definition of "waving the bloody shirt" soon became akin to "using past injustices to divert attention from present-day issues." Holding a big grudge, in other words, and then milking it for all it is politically worth.
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[ Posted Tuesday, November 11th, 2014 – 17:47 UTC ]
[Program Note: Since today is a holiday, I am taking the day off. Below is what I wrote last year for Veterans' Day, so the calendar references are a bit out of date. This may be the first time I've ever re-run a re-run column, since last year's column actually contained within it [...]
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[ Posted Monday, November 10th, 2014 – 18:04 UTC ]
Politico has an interesting article up which details the efforts in the liberal political donor camp to come up with something to combat the influence of the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. The new liberal counterpart will be named the State Innovation Exchange, or "SiX." Creative capitalization seems to be their first innovation.
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[ Posted Friday, November 7th, 2014 – 17:14 UTC ]
President Obama called the 2010 midterms a "shellacking." He demurred on providing a label for the 2014 midterms, but others sprang into the void. The most notable label so far (the one seemingly most repeated, at any rate) is that Democrats suffered an "ass-kicking" this past Tuesday night. At this point, I won't quibble over terms. Democrats got beat, and they got beat pretty badly.
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[ Posted Thursday, November 6th, 2014 – 17:44 UTC ]
This may come as a surprise to some, especially after Tuesday's election results, but President Obama actually had a rather good October in his job approval polling.
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[ Posted Wednesday, November 5th, 2014 – 17:00 UTC ]
It's either the morning after, or the mourning after -- take your choice.
Last night, Democrats got well and truly shellacked once again in a midterm election. It was so bad, it's pretty hard for Democrats to even attempt to gild the lily or spot that elusive silver lining. Republicans are consumed with glee, which they've well earned this year.
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[ Posted Tuesday, November 4th, 2014 – 16:20 UTC ]
Happy Election Day, everyone! It being an off-year election, there will be no presidential race to dominate the news tonight as the election returns come in. The biggest races will be in the Senate, with political control of the chamber hanging in the balance. On the House side, the only real question is how many seats the Republicans will pick up. But there are plenty of interesting down-ballot races to watch, while waiting for Alaska's returns to come in late in the night (or, perhaps, the recounting of West Podunk's ballots). I thought, as a preview/guide to tonight's returns, it'd be worth the time to take a quick look at some of the other contests we may be hearing about this evening.
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[ Posted Monday, November 3rd, 2014 – 17:03 UTC ]
We are now officially down to the wire for the 2014 midterm elections. How well will the Republicans do this year? Will the Democrats hold the line in the Senate? Tune in tomorrow night....
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