Sam Boyd

Josh Patashnik takes issue with Mark Schmitt‘s article on Mark Penn‘s demotion from his role as chief strategist of the Clinton campaign: Whatever one wants to say about Hillary Clinton’s campaign, it’s not characterized by a “limited, essentially conservative” message. From a policy standpoint, it’s largely indistinguishable from Barack Obama‘s…. There’s no doubt that the […]

There’s very little news in the presidential race today because the candidates (all senators!) are attending the hearings with General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker. However, there are a few things left to say. First off, the Penn story continues to reverberate and Clinton‘s critics are calling for his complete ouster from the campaign as it […]

Mark Penn is no longer Clinton’s chief strategist, but he may retain a fair amount of influence on the campaign. Holly Yeager makes a fantastic point I haven’t seen elsewhere — Barack Obama‘s money advantage is important not just because it allows him to spend more money, but because it frees him from spending much […]

Over at his blog Ezra says he’s not convinced of my argument about The New Republic‘s BP-sponsored blog Environment and Eneregy. The question, as he sees it, is whether this is just an ad or if it implies to readers a level of sponsorship that will limit editorial independence. I disagree. Certainly, publications aren’t responsible […]

The New Republic has a new environment and energy blog which is … wait for it… “powered by BP.” They promise that the actual content of the blog won’t be affected by BP’s sponsorship. But this doesn’t change the fact that putting BP’s name and logo all over an environmental blog makes it appear that […]

Over on the main site we have Mark Schmitt‘s column from the last print issue about how Obama is as much a sign of a new party as he is a new leader: Whether he becomes president this year, sometime in the future, or never, Barack Obama will surely stand as a distinctive and surprising […]

I think we tend to take Public Radio for granted a lot of the time and it doesn’t get the love it deserves on the internet in part because it’s primarily an audio experience. Two things I heard this weekend reminded me of this and I thought I’d pass them along. Peter Sagal had a […]

Hillary Clinton releases her taxes and apparently doesn’t account for 18 million dollars in income. It’s probably an oversight, but it’s definitely bad staff work. McCain‘s biographical tour may have been masterminded by Karl Rove. Speaking of his biography, McCain has yet another baffling and bizarre video that, as Ross Douthat says, seems more like […]

Rick Perlstein (Full disclosure: Rick is a friend and a former boss ) has a great piece in The Nation detailing John McCain‘s complicated relationship with conservatives. First they declared him anathema because he didn’t have a long enough record of kissing up to them and then, when it became clear that he was the […]

The DNC and The Politico are debating whether DNC rules allow DNC members from Florida and Michigan to vote on whether Florida and Michigan should be seated at the convention. The Politico says not at all while the DNC says that while state representatives can’t vote on their own cases they can vote on the […]