For the record, Senator Obama came out of the Mississippi primary with an advantage of 99,000 votes over Senator Clinton, more than I had predicted based on his edge in Alabama. That puts his margin in the nationwide popular vote — by a measure that includes Florida but not Michigan — at more than 500,000. […]
Mark Schmitt
Posted inArticle
THE FREE PASS, MADE EXPLICIT.
John McCain‘s excellent lawyer Trevor Potter and his campaign manager Rick Davis held a call for reporters this afternoon to present their defense on the manipulation of the public financing system, and a vigorous defense it is. But, ultimately, it doesn’t amount to much more than: in our interpretation of the law, we think we’re […]
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EMPOWERING THE ANTI-REFORMERS.
One of the great ironies of misusing and manipulating a law, after advocating its strict enforcement, is that you empower and validate the opponents of that very law. Case in point: I don’t usually agree with Brad Smith, the former Federal Elections Commissioner who now runs the Center for Competitive Politics, which is kind of […]
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Our Senate Problem
The Senate is where ambitious presidencies die. To be effective, the next Democratic president will need to bring in new senators, make subtle institutional changes, and engineer cross-party alliances.
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TWO POINTS AFTER WISCONSIN.
1. Here’s the really amazing number from Wisconsin: The loser of the Wisconsin Democratic primary got twice as many votes as the winner of the Republican primary. (440,000 for Clinton to 220,000 for McCain). I know we’ve seen numbers like this in other states. But Wisconsin is a state that just a few years ago […]
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BETTING THE SPREAD.
We now have the exact language of John McCain’s “second loan,” and it is a legal masterpiece, albeit an ethical travesty. Based on the Washington Post report, I inferred that McCain had not excluded public matching funds from the collateral for his additional loan. But it’s much more complex than that. The second loan, for […]
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WOULD YOU MAKE A “PLEDGE” WITH THIS MAN?
The first great skirmish of an Obama-McCain general election has broken out over a matter of such arcane policy-wonkery that until this weekend, you would find it only here at TAPPED: the precise relationship between a loan and public financing for a presidential campaign, and the agreement, if one can call it that, between McCain […]
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MCCAIN: NO MAVERICK ON CAMPAIGN REFORM, EITHER.
The deed is done. John McCain, having been a participant in the presidential public financing system for eight months, has now declined the money for which he qualified, and declared himself free to spend an unlimited amount of private money between now and the convention, much of which will effectively be used to fight the […]
Posted inEducation in America
WHAT WINS CAUCUSES? HARD WORK OR INSPIRATION?
Barack Obama won four more caucuses over the weekend, raising the interesting question of what his extraordinary string of successes in caucus states means. I argued last Wednesday that it is evidence of hard work and planning, because low-turnout caucuses should generally be safe territory for an establishment candidate, while an insurgent usually tries to […]
Posted inEducation in America
Building a Coalition, Building a Party
The story of Barack Obama last night was in the small states where hard work and organizing paid off. He’s building a new coalition, Hillary Clinton’s expanding the old base, and together, they’re making a new Democratic majority.