[ Posted Thursday, March 8th, 2012 – 18:26 UTC ]
As it looks like more and more of a certainty that Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee for president this year, the world of political punditry has begun flailing around for some sort of storyline which keeps the excitement alive, because they just love a good horserace (even when anyone with eyes can see the race has already been won). Sooner or later, they're going to discover what could be the biggest curveball of the election season, though: a group calling itself Americans Elect.
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[ Posted Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 – 17:47 UTC ]
Rather than micro-examine Super Tuesday's results or predict what will happen in any of the upcoming primary contests this month (you're probably already maxed out on such analysis by now, right?), instead I'd like to take a longer view, and contemplate where the Republican Party will be headed after the 2012 election. There are three major scenarios as to how this could play out, if you'll join with me in what is admittedly some way-way-too-early speculation.
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[ Posted Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 – 16:13 UTC ]
It's finally Super Tuesday! This year is less "super," and a month later, than Super Tuesday 2008, when 24 states voted at once. But it remains the biggest day in the primary calendar, and we've got a lot to cover.
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[ Posted Monday, March 5th, 2012 – 15:44 UTC ]
President Barack Obama's job approval numbers are back "above water" (where his approval rate is higher than his disapproval number), continuing an impressive rise in the polls which began in November of last year. This is the longest run of improved public job approval Obama has managed since he got elected. Obama posted a gain of almost two full percentage points in his approval rate in February, the third-best month he's ever had in this respect (and one of the two months he posted bigger gains in was the bounce he got from Osama Bin Laden's death). He wound up the month with his approval rating a full percent better than his disapproval rating, the best numbers he's seen since last June. But this trend could be flattening out, as he ended the month of February by slipping back a bit. So in the midst of plenty of good news on the polling front for Obama, there is reason for caution as well. Call it the dark lining to a very silver cloud, if you will.
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[ Posted Thursday, March 1st, 2012 – 17:52 UTC ]
Which brings us to our point: the phrase "winner take all" is just wrong. Many news and polling organizations have begun using this phrase to differentiate states which award all their delegates in one bloc to the winner of the state vote from states which apportion their delegates proportionally. But the phrase is seriously lacking an "s" in there, somewhere.
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[ Posted Tuesday, February 28th, 2012 – 16:15 UTC ]
It's that time once again, kiddies, when we gather 'round the virtual fireplace and throw a few darts at the wall to predict the outcome of today's Republican primary races. Feel free to join us here tonight as we sit back and watch the results come in!
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[ Posted Monday, February 27th, 2012 – 17:44 UTC ]
While everyone knew that the Republican primary candidates would all be displaying plenty of "Obama Derangement Syndrome" during the campaign, this week the rhetoric took a bizarre tangent which might be called "Apology Derangement Syndrome." The concept is not only laughable, it is easy to prove what rampant and stinking hypocrisy those espousing it are truly guilty of displaying.
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[ Posted Friday, February 24th, 2012 – 17:51 UTC ]
"When the going gets weird," Hunter S. Thompson famously said, "the weird turn pro."
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[ Posted Thursday, February 23rd, 2012 – 17:38 UTC ]
A tectonic shift is in process in American politics, and while individual incidents occasionally draw attention, the larger continental drift is usually not in focus. Because Democrats have started winning the so-called "culture wars."
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[ Posted Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012 – 15:50 UTC ]
You might not know it from the extended bouts of hair-pulling-and-garment-rending anguish emanating from the Republican Party establishment these days (see: any recent GOP commentary by a party elder or deep thinker which uses the phrase "brokered convention"), but the Republican Party is getting exactly what they asked for. Not just asked for, in fact, but specifically planned on.
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