Sam Boyd

I’m watching the convention on C-Span from my couch in D.C. like a good blogger (no Cheetos though) and from my perspective Claire McCaskill is knocking this out of the park. Rather than vague statements about how Obama is, like, totally awesome, she’s saying McCain would be a bad president. Doesn’t sound like much, but […]

I’ll echo Dana and Ann‘s comments about Kathleen Sebelius and add a few of my own. As this nice New York Times piece points out, Sebelius reinforces Obama‘s core message in a way none of the other potential VPs do. She has a record of working with Republicans to achieve progressive aims — increasing school […]

For a while now, I’ve been wondering why no one is talking about the Senate race in Oklahoma (yes really, Oklahoma). In fact, I’ve been wondering long enough that I wrote an article about the Democrat in the race, Andrew Rice, for In These Times a few months ago. Now, Washington Post campaign guru Chris […]

MSNBC just announced that, starting on September 8, Rachel Maddow will have her own nightly show on MSNBC at 9 p.m., right after Keith Olbermann‘s show at 8. She’ll replace Dan Abrams, who will remain on the network. I’m working a piece about Maddow for the next issue of the Prospect; she’s a fascinating figure, […]

While I’m skeptical about a lot of the VP tea-leaf reading surrounding the recently announced DNC schedule, it does strike me that the selection of Mark Warner as the keynote speaker is suggestive. While Hillary Clinton does speak the same night, it still seems to me that, in an election year so wracked with gender […]

Jonathan Martin argues that because Barack Obama and President Bush recently made statements that are somewhat more similar to John McCain‘s hawkish statements in the first hours of the South Ossetia crisis than their own original comments, McCain has somehow been proven prescient: McCain aides feel encouraged that their candidate appeared to get it right […]

Sure, Tim Kaine has a number of objectionable policy positions that should make liberals oppose his selection as Barack Obama‘s VP but, on the other hand, ponies (via Jonathan Martin)! Kaine, who took a leave-of-absence from Harvard Law School to work as a Catholic missionary in Honduras, made his comments about the media-created Obama VP […]

Via TPM Muckraker, word is burbling through the tubes that Sen. Ted Stevens has been indicted: The U.S. Justice Department has scheduled a news conference for 1:20 p.m. to make an announcement “regarding a significant criminal matter.” The official said the news conference would announce the criminal charges against Stevens that have been returned by […]

Over in Klein-land, Ezra points out that small-donor fundraising must be even more effective than we thought since the Obama campaign seems to have enough cash to bribe God to bathe today’s speech in Berlin in a golden glow you normally don’t see outside of a bowl of melted butter. I think he’s neglecting to […]

Why, asks Mike Riggs at Reason, should people not be allowed to carry nooses around on public property when we let KKK members and flag burners do their thing in public? I’ll tell you why. Because people shouldn’t have to live in fear for their lives. A rally is a political statement, a noose is […]