The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner‘s favor today, overturning a lower court ruling in favor of the local GOP, which was demanding the a list of 200,000 mismatched voters that they would use to disenfranchise voters at the polls. The court ruled 9-0 that the Ohio Republican Party, which […]
Adam Serwer
Adam Serwer is a writing fellow at The American Prospect and a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He also blogs at Jack and Jill Politics and has written for The Village Voice, The Washington Post, The Root, and the Daily News. Follow @adamserwer
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THE ACORN PROBE IS SUSPICIOUS.
The FBI has launched a probe of ACORN over whether the group is trying to “foster” voter registration fraud. This is extremely suspect. As I’ve pointed out before, the law in many states dictates that voter registration groups have to turn in even those forms which seem suspect. It’s not like ACORN can simply throw […]
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JOE, MEET IRONY.
It looks like Joe the Plumber, the Republican Party’s new mascot, had he registered recently, could have been disenfranchised by the very error-prone databases the GOP has been championing to prevent the virtually non-existent problem of voter fraud. Purging voters or blocking their registration because of data errors is disenfranchisement by typo,” said Michael Waldman, […]
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EVIL IS A BLURRY BROWN FACE.
From a GOP mailer being sent out in Virginia: The mailer includes images of Ahmadinejad, Kim Jong Il, the usual bad guys. It’s unclear whether the image above is supposed to be of Obama, but I wouldn’t be surprised given the Virginia McCain campaign’s tendency towards race-baiting hyperbole. If it isn’t Obama, then the takeaway […]
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THE PROBLEM OF DATABASES.
The New York Times has a good piece on what’s happening in Ohio today with regards to the recent ruling forcing Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner to provide a list of voters who didn’t match government databases to election officials. The result is that thousands of people who aren’t disenfranchised entirely may end up […]
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WATCHING THE DEBATE IS DIFFERENT FROM LISTENING TO IT.
Part of the problem I have watching debates is that sometimes, because of live-blogging, I spend more time listening to them than watching them, and I miss what is happening visually. This is political cliche after Kennedy–Nixon, but it’s really true that you get a different sense of the debate from listening rather than watching. […]
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PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY.
Obama‘s best moment in the debate may be his invocation of parental responsibility. His own complicated upbringing gives him credence on what may be his most resonant cultural issue. The good news is that he’s not all talk, he’s been pretty clear on his policy priorities for helping families, especially low income families, stay together […]
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PLASTIC SURGERY.
A quick addendum to Tim‘s post: My cousin, who works for the American Medical Association, informs me that even “cadillac gold plated” health care plans don’t cover plastic surgery, except in the case of disfigurement. McCain seems to think they do. –A. Serwer
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STARTING OFF BY FUDGING THE MORTGAGE CRISIS.
John McCain just started off by saying Fannie and Freddie caused the subprime mortgage crisis. Of course, neither institution makes loans, they bought mortgage loans from other institutions. In fact, during the biggest subprime boom between 2004 and 2006, Fannie and Freddie’s share of the mortgage securities went down. The fact is that the institutions […]
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SCHIEFFER.
Sure, the economy’s in the tank, and we’re in two wars, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t see Bob Schieffer himself bring up Ayers or Wright in this debate. Given his performance with General Wesley Clark earlier this year, it seems Schieffer isn’t above spinning for John McCain if the moment presents itself, […]