Obama Gets High Marks
A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that Americans think Barack Obama is handling the transition well and picking an outstanding team. Gallup's Jeffrey Jones: Americans widely approve of Barack Obama's decisions, announced on Monday, to name Hillary Clinton secretary of state and to ask Robert Gates to stay on as secretary of defense. [...] During the recent period of speculation that Obama would ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on December 3, 2008 08:58
Chambliss Wins Runoff, Denies Democrats 60 Seats
Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss easily won his runoff against Democrat Jim Martin, 57.4 to 42.6 according to the current uncertified totals. NYT notes, [caption id="attachment_28185" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Senator Saxby Chambliss and his wife, Julianne, celebrating his victory on Tuesday in Atlanta. (Erik S. Lesser for The New York Times)"][/caption] The margin was far greater than the three percentage points that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on December 3, 2008 07:25
Franken to Win Recount by 27 Votes
Nate Silver uses a combination of regression analysis and wild ass guesses drawn from limited information on challenged ballots to project that Al Franken will come out ahead by a mere 27 votes. Kevin Drum, for one, is convinced. While I'm less enthralled by Silver's savant status than most (many came closer to the results by informed guessing) I agree that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 24, 2008 08:14
Stevens Loses Re-Election Bid
Senator Ted Stevens, who looked to have narrowly won re-election to the Senate weeks after being convicted on felony corruption charges, has now apparently lost as absentee ballots are slowly counted. Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in Senate history, narrowly lost his re-election bid Tuesday, marking the downfall of a Washington political power and Alaska icon who couldn't survive ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 19, 2008 08:29
Heads in the Sand Book Reviews
Matthew Yglesias published Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats way back in April but some of the reviews are just now hitting the 'net. Jim Henley's is in Reason and entitled, "Between Iraq and a Soft Place - Democrats counter with a kinder, gentler interventionism." My own, which hit ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 18, 2008 11:22
Taking Separation of Powers Seriously
Glenn Greenwald, reacting to reports that Barack Obama has told Harry Reid that Joe Lieberman should not be stripped of his committee chairmanship and thus making it very difficult for him to do so, has written a long and passionate plea for a return to vigorous separation of powers with strong institutional jealousies. [W]hatever the outcome here is, it's vital that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 11, 2008 15:12
Punishing Lieberman
Harry Reid, not unreasonably, is strongly considering stripping Joe Lieberman of his chairmanship after he campaigned vigorously for the Republican nominee for president. Reid, in a sternly worded statement after the 45-minute meeting, said no official decisions have been made. But an aide to the Nevada Democrat said Reid was leaning toward removing Lieberman as chairman of the Senate Homeland Security ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 7, 2008 08:48
2008 Voter Turnout Same as 2004
It turns out that, despite a huge rise in voter registrations, actual turnout Tuesday was essentially the same as in 2004. 61 Percent of Eligibles Voted A new report from American University’s Center for the Study of the American Electorate concludes that voter turnout in Tuesday’s election was the same in percentage terms as it was four years ago — or at ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 7, 2008 07:55
Palin Last Nail in Republican Coffin?
Quite a few reports came out yesterday buttressing rumors that there were tensions between John McCain and Sarah Palin which caused a feud within the campaign team. It's only fitting, I suppose, since the selection of Palin has highlighted and exacerbated a growing fissure within the Republican Party itself. Fox New's Carl Cameron dished last night about rumors that Palin was ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 6, 2008 08:06
2008 Election County-By-County
After George W. Bush won the 2000 election, despite having received substantially fewer votes nationwide than Al Gore, many of us took great comfort in this famous map, showing the election results county-by-county: [caption id="attachment_27108" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="2000 Election County-By-County Map"][/caption] In 2004, Bush won re-election by a majority -- but John Kerry nearly took it anyway because of a close call ...Posted in Outside The Beltway | OTB on November 5, 2008 15:54
