View image | gettyimages.com Speaker of the House John Boehner, showing his enthusiasm for the fact that he and his party have yet again bumbled into a shutdown crisis that they’re going to lose, just like all the others.
Blog: Paul Waldman
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Republicans Pleased About the Return of Foreign Policy
Republican candidates are apparently encouraged by the fact that the world seems like a more dangerous place than it was a few months ago, even if it may not actually be a more dangerous place. Why is this encouraging? Because it allows them to get back on simpler, safer ground, as I explain in my […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Why Walker Is Surging and Bush Is Struggling in Iowa, in One Chart
A new poll of Iowa Republicans from Quinnipiac has some terrifically good news for flavor-of-the-month Scott Walker, and though I know you’re saying, “Who cares about a poll for an election that’s 11 months away?” this is a good opportunity to remind ourselves of just how unusual Iowa Republicans are. They have a terrible record […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Bad to the Bone Edition
View image | gettyimages.com On the day I was born The nurses all gathered ’round And they gazed in wide wonder At the joy they had found The head nurse spoke up Said “leave this one alone” She could tell right away That I would change Senate rules to allow certain executive branch nominations to […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
Why It’s a Good Thing GOP Debates Will Be Moderated by Conservatives
View image | gettyimages.com In August 2013, the RNC said it was considering having its 2016 presidential primary debates moderated not by some blow-dried, vacuous, allegedly-objective-but-actually-liberal TV news personalities, but by its own blow-dried, vacuous, openly conservative personalities. At the time, many liberals ridiculed the idea as yet another example of the closed right-wing information […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Bill O’Reilly Is Not Going Anywhere, You Far-Left Pinheads
View image | gettyimages.com Bill O’Reilly suffers from the same malady as Brian Williams: a tendency to embellish stories of the dangers and horrors he has faced as a journalist (though in O’Reilly’s case, his career as a journalist was brief, before he discovered his true calling). They may have had a slightly different motivation; […]
Posted inBooks, Arts and Culture
Photo of the Day, Flying Kick Edition
View image | gettyimages.com A Shaolin monk demonstrates his flying side kick on a visit to London. What does this have to do with American politics? Think of it as a metaphor. The monk represents one thing, his target off-camera another thing, and the red doors behind him yet another thing. You fill in the […]
Posted inMoney, Politics, and Power
When a ‘Gotcha’ Question Is More Than a Gotcha
View image | gettyimages.com I’m no fan of John McCain’s (to say the least), but there was at least one moment in his 2008 presidential campaign in which he did the right thing by standing up to the crazies in his party, even if it might have meant some political risk. At an event just […]
Posted inPaul Waldman
Photo of the Day, Snow In Strange Places Edition
View image | gettyimages.com This is the scene in Jerusalem today, with the Dome of the Rock half-covered by a fluffy white blanket of hope and understanding.
Posted inAmerica and the World
How Will the 2016 Candidates Deal With Anti-Islamic Sentiment In Their Party?
(Flickr/Dan Nguyen) My Plum Line post today is about what looks like a growing sentiment on the right that we should indeed be in a clash of civilizations, between the Christian West and Islam. When Bill O’Reilly is literally calling for a “holy war,” practically every Republican is complaining that President Obama doesn’t call terrorism […]
