Republican Party’s Future

My Palin Derangement Syndrome post got a number of thoughtful responses, especially for a weekend post. My fellow Jacksonville State alumnus Stacy McCain, a Palin fan, thinks the internal debate on her role in last week's defeat and her future as a Republican Party standard bearer is one we should have.  He objects strenuously, though, to the tone of some of ...

McCain Campaign Postmortem

Newsweek shares several tidbits from their "special election project," which gave them inside information that they couldn't publish until after the fact. Palin's Spending Spree NEWSWEEK has also learned that Palin's shopping spree at high-end department stores was more extensive than previously reported. While publicly supporting Palin, McCain's top advisers privately fumed at what they regarded as her outrageous profligacy. One senior ...

Debate Reaction Dial ‘Squigglys’

[caption id="attachment_26333" align="alignright" width="300" caption="CNN Debate Dials from YouTube Debate"][/caption]Nate Silver seconds Mike Murphy's plea for television networks to end the practice of showing the instant reaction of uncommitted voters via dial group "squigglys" on the screen during presidential debates. Says Murphy: First, the sample from one group is far too small to mean much. Second, turning this voodoo into a television ...

Quote of the Day, Debate Edition

"And somewhere at this very moment, a Mafia wiseguy called 'Joe the Plumber' is saying, 'I'm gonna have t'get a new f***in' nickname..." - Peter David

Obama-McCain 3rd Debate Reaction

If I ever find Joe the Plumber,  I'm going to punch him in the nose.[*]  I'm not a big fan of Louise Ledbetter, either. [caption id="attachment_26232" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Obama McCain Third Debate Photo via YahooNews"][/caption] As a general matter, I find the idiotic personalization of American public policy extremely annoying.  Phil Gramm, with his unfortunately named "Dicky Flatt Test," at least hit ...

Obama Debate Talking Points Leaked

Politico has gotten "A copy of Obama surrogates' pre-debate talking points [which] slipped out inadvertently on a campaign press list this morning."  The first may look familiar: This is John McCain’s last chance to turn this race around and somehow convince the American people that his erratic response to this economic crisis doesn’t disqualify him from being President. Why, that's what the ...

More Debate Reax

Radley Balko has the best substantive analysis: Obama’s answer on the "Obama Doctrine" sounded like it was written by Sarah Palin.  He clearly didn’t have an answer about what criteria he’d use in determining which humanitarian crises are worthy of U.S. military force.  He was all over the place.  What we’re left is, then, is, "Iraq never posed a threat to ...

Polls: Obama Won Debate

[caption id="attachment_25937" align="alignright" width="400" caption="U.S. Republican presidential nominee Senator John McCain (R-AZ) (R) and Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) smile after their debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee October 7, 2008. REUTERS/Jim Young"][/caption] Once again, the early media polls show that Barack Obama won the debate. CBS "conducted nationally representative poll of uncommitted voters to get their immediate reaction" ...

McCain - Obama Townhall Debate Instant Reaction

About an hour into the debate, I'm bored to tears. Neither candidate has said anything I haven't heard before and they're just reciting canned speeches that are often tangentially related to the questions being asked. Neither are adhering to the rules and Tom Brokaw is exasperated but not doing anything about it. [caption id="attachment_25906" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="Barack Obama and ...

Obama Lead Solidifies Going into 2nd Debate

Barack Obama and Joe Biden continue to pull away from John McCain and Sarah Palin in the national polls, bolstered by the economic crisis and superior performances in the first two debates.  The new WSJ/NBC poll parallels recent findings: Voters were much more likely to say they felt good about Sen. Obama's handling of the current economic crisis than they were ...