Indiana and North Carolina Postmortem

Barack Obama moved to within 200 delegates of securing the Democratic presidential nomination yesterday, scoring a 56-42 blowout in North Carolina while narrowly losing, 49-51, in Indiana. Barring revelations that would make the Wright affair look insignificant in comparison, the race is all over but the shouting. Obama Wins the Night AP's Calvin Woodward: On the rebound, Barack Obama left Hillary Rodham ...

Gas Tax Demagoguery

Kevin Drum, upon learning that Hillary Clinton has joined John McCain in calling for a suspension of the federal gas tax as a campaign stunt: I'd say there's approximately a zero percent chance that Hillary Clinton or John McCain actually believe this is good policy. It would increase oil company profits, it would make hardly a dent in the price of ...

U.S. Foreign Policy in the Post-Bush Era

Fareed Zakaria argues that John McCain's foreign policy would be bellicose whereas Barack Obama's would be conciliatiatory but, as Dave Schuler notes, both are "confrontational" and "interventionist," just with slightly different priorities. Zakaria points to a recent McCain speech: Not only does it declare war on Russia and China, it places the United States in active opposition to all nondemocracies. It proposes ...

Iran War Drums Beating?

As previously noted, Admiral Mike Mullen told a gathering at the Atlantic Council that he fears the United States and its allies “will have to deal with Iran in the very near future.” That statement left a lot of room for strategic ambiguity. He removed a bit in a press briefing yesterday, Ann Scott Tyson reports. The nation's ...

ABC News Debate Focuses on ‘News’

ABC News hosted the Democratic debate in Philadelphia last night, with anchors Charles Gibson and George Stephanopolous asking the questions. Shockingly, they selected questions on the basis of what they've been covering in recent days, namely Bittergate, patriotism, various campaign faux pas and countercharges, and so forth. This has pretty much everybody except David Brooks upset. I'm ...

Obama on Guns, God, and Hate in Rural America

Barack Obama's foray into pop psychology, trying to explain why rural Pennsylvanians aren't warming to him and are asking him to talk more about patriotism, is causing quite the stir in the blogosphere. "You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now ...

G.I. Bill Needs Updating

Wes Clark and Jon Soltz take to the op-ed pages of the LAT to urge John McCain to support a massive increase in educational benefits for our veterans. The Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, sponsored by Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), will restore the promise of a cost-free education to those who serve in the military. The ...

Iraqi Militias Disbanding Under Pressure?

Could the Mahdi Army and other key Iraqi "militias" disband? Signs are pointing in that direction. Iraq's top leadership council issued a call over the weekend: A top leadership council called Saturday on Iraqi parties to disband their militias or risk being barred from taking part in elections and participating in political life. A statement by the "Political Council ...

Airline Travel Worse than Ever

Americans are increasingly frustrated with airline travel. Low-cost carriers — AirTran, Jet Blue and Southwest — took the top three spots in a national survey of airline quality, while the industry overall fared poorly amid rising fuel prices and increasingly fed-up consumers. At the bottom of the list released Monday were Comair, American Eagle and in last place: Atlantic Southeast ...

Obama Denies KKK Funding Charges

Barack Obama denies accusations that he's funded by the Ku Klux Klan, Gone Hollywood's Cara Harrington reports. “It is completely untrue,” the candidate said. Given that Obama's father is black and that he's spent the last two weeks denying that he hates white people, it seems ridiculous that anyone would accuse him of being backed by a white supremacist group. ...

Sneakers the Sign of a Leader?

Leadership apparently sneaks up on you. Got a passion for buying sneakers? It could be a good sign, with a poll finding that people who buy three pairs of sneakers or more a year are far more likely to be a leadership type than other people. Mindset Media, a media company that examines personality traits of different consumers, found that people ...

Recession, Depression, or Neither?

There's no doubt that the U.S. economy is in a downturn. The cost of petroleum has skyrocketed, creating all manner of ripple effects throughout the economy. The "housing bubble" has burst in several cities and the sub-prime mortgage industry has gone bust, leaving many people upside down in their houses or facing -- or experiencing -- foreclosure. Bear-Stearns sold ...

Basra Mess Proves Surge Success!

The Mahdi Army controls Basra and four days of intense fighting there has been punctuated with the bombing of one of Iraq's two main oil pipelines.* U.S. officials are painting this is a success story. Karim Kadim/Associated Press via NYT The Pentagon on Wednesday said an eruption of violence in southern Iraq, where US-backed government forces were battling Shiite ...

Democrats Breaking Up over Obama-Clinton Fight?

As the bitter nomination fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continues, many of their supporters are threatening to take their ball and go home. A new Gallup poll shows that 28% of Clinton backers and 19% of Obama's claim they vote for John McCain if their candidate is not the nominee. Along those same ...

How Clinton Could Win

Adam Nagourney offers a "bruising scenario" by which Hillary Clinton could still pull out the Democratic nomination. It's not a particularly novel one; indeed, it's the one that Clinton has been banking on for weeks: the superdelegates put her over the top. There are about 800 of them, and they are going be weighing two main arguments: Mr. Obama’s contention ...