Harold Meyerson

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — John Kerry and John Edwards will be duking it out for a little while yet, which means there will be populist rhetoric aplenty on the campaign trail. “At the heart of this campaign,” Kerry said at his Seattle victory rally on Tuesday night, “is a commitment to fairness for all, not […]

ST. LOUIS — I’ve been channel surfing out here and haven’t seen a political ad yet. It’s not just my myopia, according to Sunday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The fact is that this state tilts so heavily toward John Kerry that nobody’s buying much airtime in Missouri. According to the Post-Dispatch, the Kerry and John Edwards […]

ST. LOUIS — I’ve been channel surfing out here and haven’t seen a political ad yet. It’s not just my myopia, according to Sunday’s St. Louis Post-Dispatch. The fact is that this state tilts so heavily toward John Kerry that nobody’s buying much airtime in Missouri. According to the Post-Dispatch, the Kerry and John Edwards […]

ST. LOUIS — Over at Pat’s Bar and Grill on Thursday night, the Kerry campaign reached the limits of its momentum. One day earlier, it had been able to turn out roughly 1,000 people to a hastily called rally at the community college just down the street, for which the candidate flew in straight from […]

NASHUA, N.H. — If Karl Rove thinks he can take down John Kerry the way his mentor, Lee Atwater, took down Michael Dukakis, he’s got another thing coming. The Kerry who delivered that victory speech in Manchester on Tuesday night was the most effective Democratic politico since the fall of Bill Clinton. Within his first […]

NASHUA, N.H. — He’s got the experience, the Lincoln-like elongation, the Kennedy-esque turns of phrase, the environmental activists attesting to his record, and the guys from his gunboat attesting to his guts. But can John Kerry campaign? We’ll know soon enough — tonight, actually — just how he impressed the citizens of New Hampshire. Another […]

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. — The spin room of a desultory debate doesn’t really offer much in the way of spin. The Democrats are frozen in the grip of niceness just now; the specter of the penitent Howard Dean (D-Vt.), reciting his record as governor in hopes of arresting his fall, has put them all on painfully […]

NASHUA, N.H. — Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) came here Wednesday afternoon speakin’ and shoutin’ populism. Well, not shoutin’ exactly. More like enthusiastically declaimin’. “I’m running for president so you will have a president who’s on your side,” he said, “and who will take on the powerful interests that stand in your way.” He named those […]

If you work for a living in George W. Bush’s America, you’re a sap. Take a quick look, or a long one, at the tax code as Bush has altered it during his three years as president, and you’re compelled to conclude that work has become a distinctly inferior kind of income acquisition in the […]

I’ve got this Howard Dean problem, and it’s not that I think he’s George McGovern. Actually, I think he’s John Wayne. And not just any John Wayne, but the Duke in his greatest performances, in some of John Ford’s later movies. I know — it’s bad enough to tell my fellow liberals that I still […]