Sam Boyd

This story is fascinating, both as a an account of how far the mortgage crisis has spread, and as an example how much politicians are willing to sacrifice to run for office: A Long Beach congresswoman who fell behind in her payments on a $535,000 mortgage in Sacramento said in a written statement that she […]

I saw a shorter version of this in the elevator this morning (via one of those “captivate” screens — a name that’s disturbingly close to “captive”) and laughed so loud everyone in the elevator kinda looked at me funny. When he escapes to his retreat outside Sedona for Memorial Day grilling this weekend, Arizona Sen. […]

This article by Conor Friedersdorf has gotten a lot of (well deserved) guff for its silly complaints about rent control, but I think people are missing a rather interesting point: But a political movement cannot survive on commentary and analysis alone! Were there only as talented a cadre of young right-leaning reporters dedicated to the […]

They both work for MSNBC (shame it also employs Chris Matthews). First off, Chuck Todd points out that, as we’ve written here, polls asking Clinton supporters if they’ll support Obama in November are essentially meaningless. Second, as Ta-Nehisi Coates says, this video of Rachel Maddow interviewing Geraldine Ferraro is kinda sad, though it more renews […]

David Frum is confused by Todd Gitlin‘s patriotism: Gitlin’s book fails, second, because the patriotism he advocates is a patriotism without content and without qualities. In this again, he reminds me of Obama. The senator, remember, condemned the flag lapel pin as a substitute for “true patriotism.” Not an indefensible point of view, in my […]

Watching the primary results last week on MSNBC I was struck by one thing: how did someone as sensible as Rachel Maddow make it onto a cable news channel? Seriously, she was the only one willing to tell the boring truth that nothing has really changed in the last few months, Clinton and Obama haven’t […]

This McCain ad on global warming is hilarious. It says that one side denies the reality of global warming while the other supports “high taxes and crippling regulation.” McCain you see, takes the moderate aproach we need: Admitting there’s a problem without actually doing anything about it. Now that’s a maverick! See Kate‘s recent piece […]

The bottom line coming out of tonight’s primaries is, as The bottom line coming out of tonight’s primaries is, as I wrote last week, that nothing has changed. Each candidate did about as well in each demographic group as he or she always does. If anything, Obama has improved his standing slightly. Wright, Ayers, flag […]

Chris Cillizza has a good summary of what to watch out for tonight (a hint: not the early exit polls). Obama is “closing in on Latvia.” Well, actually the number of donations he’s recieved is closing in on the population of Latvia (he just passed the 1.5 million mark) and has already passed that of […]

A law professor noticed recently that a 1999 law gave a government official the power to appoint patent judges even though the constitution clearly states that they must be approved by the Senate (the Constitution says “inferior officials” must be confirmed and the Supreme Court ruled in the early 90s that patent judges are inferior […]