Dylan Matthews

By Dylan Matthews Obviously, Obama hasn’t announced his running mate yet, but thanks to now-leaking Denver speaking schedules we can safely cross off a number of prominent options. The VP pick will speak on Wednesday, August 27th, which means that politicians speaking on other days have been ruled out. Thus, Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, Ohio […]

By Dylan Matthews Matt Stoller reports that Jared Polis has just won the Democratic primary for Colorado’s second district House seat. The district has a Cook Rating of D+8, hasn’t had a Republican representative since Watergate, and reelected Mark Udall (who’s retiring to run for the Senate) by a 40-point margin in 2006, so Polis […]

By Dylan Matthews My esteemed co-blogger Nick asks whether ’90s-era Democratic platforms contained the same commitment to abortion rights “regardless of ability to pay” that the 2008 and 2004 platforms do. This clause is important, because as Miriam over at Feministing notes, the Hyde Amendment (which bans federal funds from paying for abortions) means that […]

By Dylan Matthews The first draft of the Democratic Party platform is now available. See if you notice something missing in the section about reproductive rights: The Democratic Party strongly and unequivocally supports Roe v. Wade and a woman’s right to choose a safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay, and we oppose […]

By Dylan Matthews Dmitri Medvedev says he has called off the Russian assault on Georgia. Now, Medvedev obviously isn’t the most powerful actor in Russian military affairs, especially during this crisis. But if this is accurate, it means that the end result of the conflict is a situation where Georgia’s government remains intact, with South […]

By Dylan Matthews Over at Bloggingheads, Robert Kagan outlines his ideal approach to China: There are a number of things wrong here, not least of which is his casual support for a containment strategy against China (new Cold War, no big deal). But I want to take a second to highlight the rank absurdity of […]

By Dylan Matthews In the midst of their current war, it seems average Ossetians and Georgians can agree on one thing: it’s the Americans’ fault. Georgians around Gori spoke of America plaintively, uncertainly. They were beginning to feel betrayed. “Tell your government,” said a man named Truber, fresh from the side of the Tbilisi hospital […]

By Dylan Matthews I, for one, could never have predicted that Mark Penn’s a racist: Mark Penn, the top campaign strategist for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign, advised her to portray Barack Obama as having a “limited” connection “to basic American values and culture,” according to a forthcoming article in The Atlantic. The magazine reports Penn […]

By Dylan Matthews I knew the Russia/Georgia situation was escalating (see the hilariously/tragically understated New York Times headline, “Georgia and Russia Nearing All-Out War”), but you know things are getting out of hand when Google News is reporting that the Russian Army is closing in Savannah (via /.): Thank God we have the Wolverines to […]

By Dylan Matthews It’s always a good idea to take these kinds of reports with a grain of salt, but the Financial Times‘ claim that Joe Lieberman is on McCain’s VP shortlist is too amusing to ignore (h/t Taegan). If McCain wants to compound his problems with the religious right, emphasize his incoherence on national […]