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CPAC Straw Poll 2013: Conservatives Battle For Top Spot At Conference

The Huffington Post | Jason Linkins | May 14, 2013 | Politics
One of the more hotly anticipated events of the annual CPAC conference is, of course, the Straw Poll. First conducted in 1976, the CPAC Straw Poll is a helpful measure of the pulse of the conservative movement, as attendees are encouraged to respond to questions covering a range...

On Libya, Winning Debate On Semantics, Missing The Point: The 2012 Speculatron Weekly Roundup For Oct. 19

Jason Linkins | December 20, 2012 | Politics
One final note on this: we were a little dumbstruck by the number of people who commented that Obama had managed to definitively parry the issue or put Libya to bed. No, no! It really is more than what phrases were used in certain speeches, we're afraid. There is a whole debate coming on Monday, exclusively about foreign policy. That debate's moderator, Bob Schieffer, is absolutely going to want to earn his stripes. He will absolutely re-raise the question. If he doesn't he will be pilloried. So the matter has not been put to bed. Hopefully, Schieffer will manage to steer the discussion to more substantive grounds.

TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads

Jason Linkins | September 9, 2012 | Media
Could anyone have turned things around in four years, better than has been done by the Obama administration. Hubbard says no. He says that Romney is awesome though, and Obama is terrible, so what are you going to do, America?

Someone Will Win The 2012 Election In A Landslide, Unless They Don't, Say People

Jason Linkins | October 7, 2012 | Politics
If I had just 30 words to describe the state of the 2012 race, I would say, "Obama holds a narrow but not insurmountable lead, and the lousy state of the economy offers Romney a better than average chance to win a close race." That would leave me with three words, which I would donate to a worthy charity. But even if I had several hundred words to describe the state of the race, I probably would not describe it as an imminent "landslide." At least not in August of 2012. But Dick Morris, who primarily exists as a counteragent to Clinton-era nostalgia, is doing just that, because he's seen "numbers" that are more "real" than other, less "real" numbers, and these hypothetically add up to a Romney "landslide"

TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads

Jason Linkins | August 5, 2012 | Media
DWS says that Congress cares more about defeating the President than putting Americans back to work. GSteph asks about the Federal Reserve intervening, and she says that the White House should not dictate to the Fed what they do. Why not, though?

Steve King Ponders The 'Telegram From Kenya' Scenario, For The Birthers

Jason Linkins | October 1, 2012 | Politics
You know, we make fun of Rep. Steve King for the way he opposes restricting dogfighting on the grounds that boxing exists, and isn't that the same thing? (No.) But you've got to hand it to King -- the man is an innovator. Scott Keyes (who I guess is on the Steve King beat these days, not that I'm complaining) has now caught King indulging in a little bit of Birther Calvinball. He's pretty sure that Obama's papers are legit, but you never know, because reasons. The whole point to Birtherism, though, is that you don't need to conclusively make this case to sell it. It's just that the buyers are all blithering loons.

Mitt Romney U.K. Vacation And Our Pretty Vacant Politics: The 2012 Speculatron Weekly Roundup For July 20, 2012

Jason Linkins | September 26, 2012 | Politics
By now, you've probably heard that Mitt Romney has spent a day in the U.K., where he failed rather miserably at carrying the Star Spangled Banner, making a series of gaffes and blunders that rivaled "The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret," and which earned brickbats from British Prime Minister David Cameron and London's Tory mayor and Chris Matthews doppelganger Boris Johnson, who delighted a cheering crowd by referring to him as "a guy called Mitt Romney." But, hey, President George W. Bush and Tony Blair went all-in for a stupid, costly war in Iraq, so, you know ... there are degrees to this sort of trans-Atlantic incompetence.

New York Times 'Bailout' Review Incomprehensible, Dismissive

Jason Linkins | September 24, 2012 | Politics
Let's look at Jackie Calmes' poorly argued New York Times "takedown" of the former TARP Special Inspector General's new book, Bailout. If you're living in America, and you can't figure out why "Wall Street turned so hostile to President Obama's re-election," then you haven't been paying sufficient attention. In the first place, people on Wall Street have made it pretty clear that their major beef with Obama is that he refuses to characterize them as all-knowing, all-wise, fully redeemed individuals. Instead, he has been critical of the role they played in the financial crisis. And that's what hacks them off. And Wall Street knows they'll be getting a better deal from Romney, so they support him. Do I really have to spell this out for Jackie Calmes? Apparently, yes!

TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads

Jason Linkins | July 22, 2012 | Media
Any new news? In the coming days, it seems like we'll know more about the victims of the tragedy, and how they lived, and how many of them did things to protect their fellow moviegoers, and let's hope that we can get thirty times the coverage of those people next week than we got of the killer this week.

Republican Convention 2012 Has Pair Of Shoes With No Sarah Palin In Them

Jason Linkins | September 16, 2012 | Politics
Michael Tomasky this week reflected on the not-yet-invited-to-the-convention Sarah Palin, and wonders why Romney hasn't extended the invitation to the former governor of Alaska. It's interesting to note that Tomasky's operating under the assumption that the only people who can fill a space that might otherwise be occupied by Sarah Palin are those who ran against Romney for the GOP nomination. There's no doubt that Palin, who's already off to a good start as a 2012 endorser, has kept her brand in better shape than those whom Romney defeated during his march through the primary calendar. But it actually hadn't occurred to me that any of the vanquished candidates would provide a prime-time presence at the convention anyway.

Democrats Trying To Make 'Panthers Stadium' Happen [UPDATED]

Jason Linkins | September 16, 2012 | Politics
Maggie Haberman reports that for the second time, the host committee responsible for spreading the good cheer about the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina has referred to the venue for Thursday night's speech from President Barack Obama as "Panthers Stadium." "Panthers Stadium," if I recall correctly, is where the Dillon Panthers of the "Friday Night Lights" teevee series play. Certainly this would be a bold and transcendental move, to have the last night of the convention take place in a fictional town in Texas. But that's not actually happening. Rather, the folks behind the convention would just prefer to play down the actual name of the Carolina Panthers' home field -- Bank Of America stadium.

Mitt Romney's Air Of Mystery Has Diminishing Returns

Jason Linkins | August 27, 2012 | Politics
As Mitt Romney's campaign has pursued its strategy in these late spring-to-early summer months, there's been one glaring gap: specifics. No one really has much of an idea what Romney wants to do in terms of policy or what issues he particularly wants to prioritize. Pundits have noticed. Let's recall Peggy Noonan's admonishment to Romney: "Mr. Romney has to give us a plan. He has to tell us his priorities. To lead is to prioritize, to choose." This is a sentiment that's filtered into the Sunday morning political discussion. And meanwhile, the vacuum he's been permitted to open has been very well filled by the negative ads that the Obama campaign has launched in the swing states, ads that went heavy on attacking -- that's right! -- Romney's record at Bain.

Anonymous Democrats Agree With Other Anonymous Democrat That It's Time To Freak Out

Jason Linkins | August 13, 2012 | Politics
Yesterday, the chattering class was having a field day over a memo advising President Barack Obama to do more to ensure middle and working class Americans that he has a plan to brighten their future. It's not hard to see the wisdom in the strategy memo, whose authors urge the president to ignore the conventional wisdom of "elites" and focus on the fact that voters are sophisticated enough to understand the causes of their economic dislocation, and are looking for a sign that the president understands it as well. However, it's even easier to stop reading the memo after you get to the phrase "impossible headwind" and decide that it's a call for all-out panic. What to do next? Well, if you want to "confirm" the panic, all you have to do is call a random assortment of "Democratic strategists," who as a general rule, are almost always panicking.

Mitt Romney Grabs Nomination, Immediately Goes Double Negative: The 2012 Speculatron Weekly Roundup For June 1, 2012

Jason Linkins | August 1, 2012 | Politics
So far this year, the media has spent more time fretting about Barack Obama's negativity than it has on any of the arguments that were being mounted. Was Obama going too negative? Was it too soon? Oh no what is happening, in politics? And so the Obama campaign was broadly deemed to have "stumbled out of the gates." All of this presented Mitt Romney with a unique opportunity to come into June as the high-minded, positive candidate. Out of the gutter, above the fray, just talkin' economy with the folks, Obama is a nice guy who is in over his head. So we're at a loss to explain why Romney picked this week to cede this advantage, or at the very least risk, it by crawling down into the gutter himself. He closes out the month with a series of stunts that come across as either base or weird or vindictive, and none were absolutely necessary.

Concerned Citizens Petition President To Not Kill Them With Drones, Pretty Please

Jason Linkins | July 30, 2012 | Politics
On Tuesday, The New York Times published a lengthy article on the process by which the Obama White House decides whom to dispatch from this earth with robot drones. There's a couple of things worth noting upfront. First, given the access the Times was accorded to write this story, it's pretty much a certainty that the White House is happy with the finished product. Second... wow, is there ever some cause for concern! Just check out the way the it defines "militants" for the purpose of after-action review of these drone strikes: "... Mr. Obama embraced a disputed method for counting civilian casualties that did little to box him in. It in effect counts all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants... unless there is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent."

TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads

Jason Linkins | July 27, 2012 | Media
I just naturally assumed they were booked because the show felt no one could better help viewers relate to the politics of the week! You mean there's a special reason? Apparently so, and it is because...O'Malley might one day run for president, and maybe Gingrich has some advice?

Cory Booker Goes Off Message, Everyone Freaks For A Week: The Speculatron Weekly Round-Up

Jason Linkins | July 25, 2012 | Politics
This week, the 2012 election season finally got to pig out on an empty-calorie feeding frenzy, in which everyone in the media pretended to have some sort of lofty conversation about the role of private equity in society while actually reminding everyone else that political elites are completely removed from the real-life stakes of the lives of normal Americans. It made for a great show, though! Pundits screwed on their super-serious faces and reporters faked thoughtfulness and everyone who was pretending to know something about the subject did a fine job of acting like they were doing something interesting. But let's face it: The only reason anyone was talking about private equity was because somewhere, some surrogate had gone "off message," and suddenly there was catnip everywhere!

Karl Rove, Crossroads GPS Go 'Subtle' This Week, Suddenly Get Lots Of Positive Coverage

Jason Linkins | July 22, 2012 | Politics
Karl Rove has millions of dollars to indulge his political id. So while we may be in a weird period of focus-group recommended restraint these days, don't expect the restraint to continue. There are reasons for this. It's an article of faith among a large portion of the GOP base that Sen. John McCain lost in 2008 because he wasn't willing to throw heat at Barack Obama and turn the month of October into an all-Jeremiah-Wright-all-the-time sick-a-doo fiesta. Last week's revelation of a proposed ad campaign to do just that served as a reminder that there are plenty of people with money to burn who've a yen to fight the 2012 battle from the gutter. And if Republicans are reminded too much of McCain's perceived failures as they watch Romney prosecute the Obama administration in a too-gentle fashion, they could end up discouraged.

TV SoundOff: Sunday Talking Heads

Jason Linkins | July 13, 2012 | Media
This is probably not the conversation Priebus would prefer to have, by the way -- a lengthy discussion of same-sex marriage? There's a contrast, and that's the point: it needs no further elucidation.

CNN Is Terrible. Here's Why.

Jason Linkins | July 4, 2012 | Media
CNN is terrible. A God-awful, wall-to-wall, epic mess. And now, they have, in their hands, the clearest sign yet of how bad things have actually gotten.
All posts from 03.14.2013