Tim Fernholz

News today that President Bush will announce the withdrawal of 8,000 troops from Iraq early next year and move 4,500 into Afghanistan. Ironically, it’s more or less what the start of an Obama Iraq plan would look like — a brigade or so a month for 16 months. If President Bush gives him a head […]

On Friday I noted the problems Sarah Palin offers pro-choice Republicans who wish to maintain their moderate image while endorsing their party’s presidential ticket. It seems Democrats have taken note — at a campaign rally for Jim Himes, who is challenging moderate Republican Chris Shays in Connecticut’s 4th District, Connecticut Rep. Rosa Delauro uses Palin […]

The second part of Bob Woodward’s book-excerpt is full of fascinating nuggets of information; in particular, that generals on the ground in Iraq opposed the surge: The president was not listening to [General George] Casey’s boss, Gen. John P. Abizaid at Central Command, anymore, either. “Yeah, I know,” the president said to Abizaid at a […]

Yesterday’s Washington Post op-ed page dedicated itself, at least in two pieces, to what at first glance would be a difficult task: explaining how John McCain and Barack Obama are, in fact, the same. First, David Broder: The good news is that Obama and McCain, for different reasons, have about as good a prospect of […]

We’ve heard a lot about how Sarah Palin’s nomination will affect the national race, but looking down the ticket, you have to wonder how choosing Palin, who is radically anti-choice — radical because she makes no exception for incest or rape — will affect the chances of pro-choice Republicans running for house seats. One example […]

Does someone who says of Sarah Palin, “the governor is someone I admired as a future star of the party before she was chosen” sound like an undecided independent? Unless you live in Alaska, would you really be aware of Palin or refer to the GOP as “the party” unless you were already a Republican […]

Unemployment has risen to 6.1 percent, a five year high. In the story, Jared Bernstein observes that this is now, whether you like it or not, officially a recession. I thought it might be instructive to compare the press releases of our two presidential campaigns. McCain: We must prepare every worker for the jobs of […]

I didn’t watch McCain‘s speech live, but catching it now, the observation that it was a bit lackluster seems accurate. He certainly didn’t do anything to distinguish himself from George W. Bush on any single item of policy; if he has a different agenda, he certainly didn’t identify it. Two lines on health care stuck […]

After last night’s attacks on the media, you have to wonder whether the press will continue to ask the hard questions about Palin‘s public record. Juding by Roger Simon’s response, which is well worth reading, they will. Though folks like Ross Douthat have complained about the coverage, I don’t see, at least in the MSM […]

It is so hard to think about substantive policy issues with all this conventioneering going on, but still we try, beating on, boats against the current. Lesser of two evils. The Tax Policy Institute updates and summarizes the latest tax plans from McCain and Obama. Their report digests both official staff statements and candidate utterances […]