Barr: McCain Bane or Obama Obstacle?
As Alex reports below, former Republican congressman Bob Barr has thrown his hat into the Libertarian Party nomination contest. Assuming Barr does secure the Libertarian nomination--a big assumption, given that the LP isn't exactly known for picking the most electable presidential candidates--how much of an impact will Barr really have in November, and if so, on whom? Certainly ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 12, 2008 15:52
Pennsylvania Democratic Primary Prediction
Tomorrow the long-awaited Pennsylvania primary will have arrived and I thought it might be a good time to launch fecklessly into a few predictions. As of this morning the polls are showing Sen. Clinton leading Sen. Obama by anything from six points (Zogby) to ten points (Suffolk). Sen. Obama's strongest support is in eastern Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia and ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 21, 2008 07:42
OTB Radio – Tonight at 7 Eastern
The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live tonight from 7-8 Eastern. Dave Schuler, Alex Knapp, and Chris Lawrence will be joining me tonight to talk David Petraeus' Senate testimony, the protests over the Olympic torch relay, a controversy over a popular American Government textbook, and (time permitting) other stuff. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 9, 2008 15:00
State Dept. Contractors Caught Snooping Obama Records
Via Marc Ambinder and reporter Bill Gertz of the Moonie Washington Times, three State Department contract employees were recently caught sneaking peeks at Barack Obama's passport records. The relevant particulars from Gertz's piece: The officials, all contract workers, used their authorized computer network access to look up files within the department's consular affairs section, which processes and stores passport information, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 20, 2008 22:35
Obama, McCain Prevail in Mississippi
To the surprise of virtually no one, Barack Obama has won the Mississippi Democratic primary, the last contest before Pennsylvania's primaries in late April. To even less surprise, presumptive Republican nominee John McCain also prevailed in his party's contest. Perhaps more interesting than the primary victory are the exit poll numbers, which may suggest some serious problems for the Democrats ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 11, 2008 21:10
OTB Radio – Tonight at 7 Eastern
The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live tonight from 7-8 Eastern. Dave Schuler, Chris Lawrence, and Steve Verdon will join me to talk about the Ohio and Texas results and all things Campaign 2008, the war in Iraq, whether we're in a recession, and maybe some other things. Please join us. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 5, 2008 17:02
OTB Radio – Tonight at 7 Eastern
The next episode of OTB Radio, our BlogTalkRadio program, will record and air live tonight from 7-8 Eastern. Dave Schuler and Chris Lawrence will join me to talk about the latest twists and turns in Campaign 2008, the war in Iraq, and whatever else we can think of in a relatively slow news week. Please join us. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 27, 2008 16:00
Flat Tax? No, Fat Ban
Radley Balko finds lard of a different nature than pork spending on the menu of the Mississippi legislature: a state legislative bill sponsored by two Republicans and one Democrat that would effectively ban all restaurants in the state from serving the "obese." Lest you think the sponsors are kidding, blogger Sandy Szwarc contacted the main sponsor of the bill ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 1, 2008 14:07
Political Scientists Say Obama Might Be More Liberal Than Hillary
As James and Alex discuss below, the National Journal just released its 2007 rankings of Senators and found that Barack Obama had the most liberal voting record based on 107 "key votes" in the Senate in 2007. As legislative politics scholar Sarah Binder notes, this does not comport with Poole and Rosenthal's NOMINATE scores, nor does it correspond with ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 1, 2008 11:19
Florida Primary Predictions
Yes, it's that time again: trying to make predictions in a political season that's largely defying predictability. Polls are open today in Florida, the last primary state before next week's Super Tuesday extravaganza, and it's an important contest, at least on the GOP side. As for the Democrats, it'll be a complete shock if Hillary Clinton doesn't win the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 29, 2008 11:09
Bush to Issue Earmarks Executive Order
President Bush is poised to ban most spending earmarks by executive decree. President George W. Bush will begin "unprecedented steps'' to trim billions of dollars earmarked by lawmakers for pet projects, a White House spokesman said. In his State of the Union address tonight, Bush will promise to "veto any spending bill that does not succeed in cutting earmarks in half ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 28, 2008 10:48
Obama Thumps Clinton in S.C.; Edwards Takes 3rd
Barack Obama has bracketed his Iowa win in one of the whitest states of the Union with a victory in South Carolina, one of the nation's blackest, in what appears to be a 2-to-1 rout over Hillary Rodham Clinton. Despite an apparent late surge by John Edwards in polls in the his home turf, it appears that he trails ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 26, 2008 20:49
Paul Beats Romney in Louisiana, Trails Dropout Thompson
The first part of the headline is what the Ronulans want you to take away from the results of last night's Louisiana Republican Caucuses, where in actuality the rump of Fred Thompson's state organization was able to secure backing for a "pro-life uncommitted" slate of delegates; delegates pledged to John McCain (who had no active precinct organization) did the best ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 23, 2008 22:07
Giuliani in Florida Freefall
Rudy Giuliani, despite putting all his eggs in his Florida basket, has dropped to third place in two recent polls (one conducted before Fred Thompson's withdrawal, one after) even after considering the former poll's whopping 5.1-point 95% confidence margin, suggesting that Rudy's strategy of saturating the state with ads before any elections elsewhere had taken place has seriously backfired as ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 23, 2008 19:15
The Good People, Then and Now
As we commemorate Martin Luther King's life today, here is what I think may be the most important passage from his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, written to the clergy of Birmingham who counseled against the SCLC’s protests in that city in 1963: I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on January 21, 2008 22:33
