Category: US Politics

Town Hall moments Obama and Romney would like to forget

Tonight’s presidential debate is a “Town Hall”-style format in which everyday voters, not journalists or politicians, will put the questions to President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney. The interlocutors are all pre-screened and the debate moderator, CNN’s Candy Crowley, has selected the questions but still, these will be real, live and apparently undecided voters quizzing the candidates.

This presents a bit of a risk for any politicians. You never what the “real voter” will say and you never what the politicians might say. Here’s two moments from previous town-hall-style debates that both candidates hope they don’t repeat. Continue reading Town Hall moments Obama and Romney would like to forget

New twists on the politics of the Benghazi attack

Yesterday in Lima, Peru, Elise Labott of CNN had this exchange with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:

QUESTION: You say you don’t want to play the blame game, but certainly there’s a blame game going on in Washington. In fact, during the presidential debate, Vice President Biden said, “We didn’t know.” White House officials calling around saying, “Hey, this is a State Department function.” Are they throwing you under the bus?

SECRETARY CLINTON: Oh, of course not. Look, I take responsibility. I’m in charge of the State Department, 60,000-plus people all over the world, 275 posts. The President and the Vice President certainly wouldn’t be knowledgeable about specific decisions that are made by security professionals. They’re the ones who weigh all of the threats and the risks and the needs and make a considered decision.

via Interview With Elise Labott of CNN.

That quickly led to stories like this one from Reuters’ Andrew Quinn: Continue reading New twists on the politics of the Benghazi attack

Is Obama taking a page from Harper's election playbook?

Henry Olsen, the vice president and director of the national research initiative for the conservative U.S. think tank American Enteprise Institute is warning Republicans that Obama is trying to beat Romney with the same club that Stephen Harper’s Conservatives used to considerable effect to deal with Michael Ignatieff’s Liberals in Canada’s last general election: Continue reading Is Obama taking a page from Harper's election playbook?

Why Obama lost to the Rockefeller Republican and other tales

A couple of pieces that caught my eye in the wake of the first U.S. presidential debate in Denver on Wednesday night.

First, Matt Miller, who worked in the Clinton White House, writes in the Washington Post that on Wednesday, “at long last came the full-throated return of the Rockefeller Republican many suspect is Romney’s true political nature.” Miller goes on to say:

If he wins, of course, Romney and his advisers will be hailed as geniuses for their timing, for bonding the party faithful to the ticket with the choice of Paul Ryan and a conservative-themed convention, and then dashing to the center for the home stretch.

Read the rest  Matt Miller: The audacity of Romney – The Washington Post.

Here’s David Frum, Continue reading Why Obama lost to the Rockefeller Republican and other tales

How'd Obama do tonight? Not so good, says Michael Moore and other Obama-maniacs

How’d President Obama do tonight in the first of three presidential debates? I think he tanked. But don’t take my word for it. Look at the Twitter feed for some well-known Obama-maniacs. Cue Storify:  Continue reading How'd Obama do tonight? Not so good, says Michael Moore and other Obama-maniacs

A Bloomberg columnist argues that economists should stay out of politics

Quite frankly, I find Laurence Kotlikoff’s argument here absolutely absurd:

Some 500 of my colleagues in economics, almost all academics, have signed a statement applauding former Governor Mitt Romney’s economic plan and condemning President Barack Obama’s handling of the economy. The statement amounts to an endorsement of Romney’s presidential candidacy. As such, it represents a disservice to the economics profession as well as to the statement’s signatories, five of whom are Nobel laureates.

The decision of the 500 U.S. economists, many from the leading ranks of the profession, to trade in their credentials as economists for that of campaign workers is just the latest sign that something’s rotten in economics.

Read the rest at Economists Risk Labeling as Political Hacks – Bloomberg.

In the U.S., those who don't vote like Obama a lot

Suffolk University has just polled those in the U.S. who say they are unlikely to vote in November’s presidential election. There are 80 million such Americans and Suffolks conclusions is that if those who are not planning to vote actually voted, Obama would cruise to re-election. Continue reading In the U.S., those who don't vote like Obama a lot

Galston: Dismantling the GOP’s Odious Philosophy of Voter Suppression

A piece from Brookings scholar Bill Galston out this morning:

Republicans should not be surprised if voter laws becomes a major topic of debate this election season—they will be the ones responsible for making it so. Over the past two years, the GOP has made a concerted attempt in a number of states to tighten voter registration procedures, cut back on alternatives such as early voting, and—most controversially—require would-be voters to show state-issued photo IDs as proof of identity. Because there’s such little evidence that these changes are needed to eliminate widespread voter fraud, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that many Republican legislators want to discourage voting among groups—especially minorities and the poor—that cast their ballots mainly for Democrats.

via Dismantling the GOP’s Odious Philosophy of Voter Suppression | Brookings Institution.

Not that U.S. politicians can be bought or anything …

I’m a smug Canadian when it comes to political financing. Corporations, unions, and NGOs are not allowed to donate a penny to federal candidates or parties in Canada. Only regular Canadians can kick in and we are all restricted to donating no more than $1,000 a year to a candidate or a party.

Though we still have some improvements we could make to our system, we have successfully removed the distortions of “Big Money” from our politics. Every party in Ottawa would agree with that assessment. (It’s very much a different matter in provincial politics and I encourage Premiers Redford, Wall, McGuinty, etc. to do something about that.)

But in the U.S., billionaires, giant unions, and mega-corporations can spend hundreds of millions of dollars to warp the political process. Continue reading Not that U.S. politicians can be bought or anything …