Mark Schmitt

One of the great ironies of the Republican presidential race is that the rare intrusions of common sense have come from the unlikeliest corners – on foreign policy, from the segregationist, anti-choice Abe Lincoln-hating old Texan Ron Paul; and last week, on the place of religion in politics from the man who might have been […]

When I heard Mitt Romney say in his anti-atheist speech that “I saw my father march with Martin Luther King, my first reaction was, “whaaat?” And, indeed, apparently it’s not true, and Romney has now been forced to resort to a defense that even I invoke only as a last resort:

Let’s take a slightly different angle on the charge that Obama is “naïve” about power and partisanship. Suppose you were as non-naïve about it as I am — but your job wasn’t writing about politics, it was running for president? What should you do? In that case, your responsibility is not merely to describe the […]

Was the timing of Was the timing of Joe Lieberman’s endorsement of McCain meant to influence the Republican primary, or perhaps just to throw it in the face of those suckered into believing that Lieberman was really just an “independent Democrat.” It is one thing to say, as he had previously, “I may not support […]

I wasn’t wholly serious earlier with I wasn’t wholly serious earlier with my plea to Newt Gingrich to enter the GOP race (and by my obsession with the Definer, I date myself), but watching the Des Moines debate, I was struck by how much the characteristic gesture of Gingrichism has taken hold in most the […]

If the Republican Party winds up with no nominee at all in 2008, give me credit: I was If the Republican Party winds up with no nominee at all in 2008, give me credit: I was making that prediction well over a year ago, back when their top contenders were Bill Frist, George Allen, and […]

Tom Schaller made a good point last Thursday that the Republican Party is now the party without a coherent message. Though they all do still dutifully agree that they will cut taxes, which means that the subtle distinctions between the “compassionate” Huckabee and the “I Got Mine, Jack” philosophy of the rest is actually meaningless […]