Weak Democrats Hurt 2010 Senate Chances
Josh Marshall argues that bad picks by Democratic governors in filling vacant seats make it harder than necessary to retain those seats. I was just looking at this run-down of recent polls by Tom Jensen at Public Policy Polling. The upshot is that while it seems extremely unlikely Republicans could regain control of the senate next year, it's not impossible and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 26, 2009 08:41
Searching for the Exit?
The scuttlebutt that's coming out now in Washington is that President Obama doesn't much like the plans for Afghanistan offered by his advisors: WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama does not plan to accept any of the Afghanistan war options presented by his national security team, pushing instead for revisions to clarify how and when U.S. troops would turn over responsibility to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 12, 2009 13:37
A Case for Humility in Afghanistan?
Stephen Coll, president of the New America Foundation, has an article in Foreign Policy making the case for more humble objectives in Afghanistan. In the article he criticizes both the counter-insurgency strategy advocated by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander of U. S. forces in Afghanistan: To succeed, counterinsurgency approaches require deep, supple, and adaptive understanding of local conditions. And yet, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 18, 2009 10:50
Biden Right on AfPak
Ariana Huffington has generated quite a bit of buzz for her unlikely-to-be-taken suggestion that Vice President Biden resign in protest if President Obama sends more troops to Afghanistan. The cuteness of the suggestion has unfortunately overshadowed the opening paragraph in Holly Bailey and Evan Thomas' Newsweek piece on "A Day in the Life of Joe Biden" (HTML title: "Joe Biden, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on October 15, 2009 16:24
Health Insurance Mandates
Sam Stein reports that "Democrats are bracing themselves for a new line of conservative attack against a provision in the health care legislation once considered so non-controversial that it was endorsed by several major Republican officials." What is it, you might ask, that these dastardly Republicans are opposing out of their racist hatred of Barack Obama? On Tuesday, Sen. Jon Kyl ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 23, 2009 09:09
Biden: Republican House Takeback ‘End of the Road’
Vice President Joe Biden told a partisan crowd that, if the Republicans win the House back in 2010, it would be "the end of the road for what Barack and I are trying to do." Karen Travers for ABC: Biden said Republicans are pinning their political strategy on flipping these seats. “If they take them back, this the end of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 22, 2009 07:57
No Preconditions
Andrew Sullivan writes that "No Recognition Of Ahmadinejad" must be considered "the first and absolute requirement of all Western governments." In my New Atlanticist post "Negotiating with Iran without Preconditions," I recall this famous exchange from the July 24, 2007 CNN/YouTube debate: More commentary and analysis at the link.Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 17, 2009 12:17
Iran Elections: What Happened? What Now?
Over at New Atlanticist, I've published my thoughts on this weekend's Iranian election mess in two separate posts: Iran's Elections: What We Know (And What We Don't) and Iran's Elections: What Now? The short answers: "Not a whole hell of a lot" and "The same thing we do every day, Pinky." I'm reasonably sure that the elections were stolen. Indeed, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 15, 2009 15:14
Biden to Cops: Sotomayor ‘Has Your Back’
Vice President Joe Biden has a bit of a mouth problem, he just can't shut it, and whatever he thinks tends to come tumbling out. In this case, while speaking before a Law Enforcement group Vice President Biden told the cops present that "Sotomayor has your back". Vice President Joe Biden may have crossed the line when he assured national ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 11, 2009 00:50
Biden: My Dog is Smarter than Obama’s
"They told me that if I voted for McCain we'd have we'd have a buffoon for a Vice President. And they were right!" - Tom Maguire The "They told me that if I voted for McCain ..." gag has managed to go on quite a long time already (by Internet standards) without getting old.Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 11, 2009 14:22
Joe Biden: Avoid Airplanes!
Rebecca Frankel collects Joe Biden's Top Five Political Gaffes, which make for an amusing list. She rightly gives top honors to Biden's comments on swine flu. In case you missed it (I'm catching up a bit myself), Biden said this Thursday morning: Appearing on NBC's "Today Show," Biden said he has already advised his family to avoid traveling in small spaces. "I ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 2, 2009 08:00
Biden Dog Breeder: ‘It’s Been Horrific Since December’
Glenn Reynolds points to a story in a local Chester County, PA paper titled "Breeder Regrets Dog Sale to Biden." I clicked the link, expecting to find a story about Biden neglecting the pooch because he's too busy doing whatever it is that vice presidents do. Instead, it's a tale of what a royal pain in the ass it is to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 11, 2009 07:25
Biden on ‘Global War on Terror’ – Video
Townhall's Greg Hengler seems pleased to have caught Vice President Biden in a contradiction of the Obama administration's new verbal policy eschewing the phrase "Global War on Terror." Hengler quips, "Maybe Biden just forgot the phrase 'Overseas Contingency Operation.'" Others reacting to this and aggregated at memeorandum seem to have watched said video and come away with the same conclusion. Ed ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 8, 2009 06:33
One of These Is Not Like the Other
Timothy Sandefur is embarrassed: So I was watching this insane video of Christopher Hitchens and Salman Rushdie discussing the War on Terrorism with Mos Def. And it’s amusing to laugh at the utterly hapless ignorance of "Mr. Def," as he is repeatedly called—until you stop and wonder. Why is the black community not outraged by this? Bill Maher hosts a talk ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 31, 2009 11:38
Biden Drops F-Bomb on Former Colleagues
The string of U.S. vice presidents caught saying the F-word on Capitol Hill now stands at two: Joe Biden dropped a big F-bomb into a live mic at an event on Friday afternoon. "Gimme a f--ing break," the vice president said after a former Senate colleague referred to him as "Mr. Vice President." Biden was at Union Station in Washington, D.C. to announce ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 17, 2009 06:48
