Jul 3 2009, 5:27PM
Three Theories of Palin's Resignation
Sarah Palin's stunning announcement that she'd not only decline to seek reelection as Alaska's Governor in 2010 but that she'd resign her term later this month caught everyone by surprise. After all, can you think of another presidential candidate who resigned their office to seek the presidency? Jimmy Carter and Mitt Romney had left their governorships when they sought the White House. Bill Clinton remained as Arkansas governor when he sought the presidency. George McClellan was fired by Lincoln before he ran for the presidency in 1864. The last person I can think of who left government service to run for the presidency was Dwight Eisenhower who gave up his NATO command in the Spring of 1952 and garnered the GOP presidendtial nomination a couple of months later. That's far different from cutting out of elective office 18 months before you're scheduled to leave.
Okay, so why would Palin do this on a Friday before a holday, traditionally a day for dumping bad news? A couple of theories:
1. She has more bad news to report. There's something going on with her family again. There's more to come with the state's finance. Whatever. There's no good reason for her to suddenly up and quit the governorship, her one claim on elective experience.
2. She wants the money. Palin is probably turning down tons of lucrative speaking offers, corporate boards and others ways of getting righ while she bides her time waiting for the presidency. Maybe she just cant say no to the money any longer?
3. She's totally impulsive. Assuming this wasn't a well calculated, move maybe she's just being utterly impulsive. She got sick of the job, sick of dealing with declining revenue, sick of having to stay close to Juneau and Wasilla when she really wants to be in Manchester and Des Moines.
I can't explain why Palin who abandon the people of Alaska before she finishes her first term as governor. But I suspect not that many Alaskans will be complaining.
Okay, so why would Palin do this on a Friday before a holday, traditionally a day for dumping bad news? A couple of theories:
1. She has more bad news to report. There's something going on with her family again. There's more to come with the state's finance. Whatever. There's no good reason for her to suddenly up and quit the governorship, her one claim on elective experience.
2. She wants the money. Palin is probably turning down tons of lucrative speaking offers, corporate boards and others ways of getting righ while she bides her time waiting for the presidency. Maybe she just cant say no to the money any longer?
3. She's totally impulsive. Assuming this wasn't a well calculated, move maybe she's just being utterly impulsive. She got sick of the job, sick of dealing with declining revenue, sick of having to stay close to Juneau and Wasilla when she really wants to be in Manchester and Des Moines.
I can't explain why Palin who abandon the people of Alaska before she finishes her first term as governor. But I suspect not that many Alaskans will be complaining.
Jul 2 2009, 4:40PM
The Democratic Party's Health Care Ad
The Democratic National Committee and Organizing for America are looking to raise money from supporters with a new TV ad promoting health care reform. Though they're asking for money to put the ad on air, the DNC isn't hurting for cash, unless you compare it to its GOP counterpart. The DNC has $12.1 million in the bank, with $5.6 million owed out, as of its latest financial disclosure. It could probably air the ad now if it wanted to, but sending it around to supporters makes for a better fundraising tool--and the RNC, by contrast, has $21.5 million with no debt. The ad went out to supporters today in a fundraising e-mail.
Holding fast to President Obama's messaging strategy on health care so far, the ad paints U.S. health care as unsustainable, with individuals attesting that, for instance, employer provided insurance only covers you until you're laid off. See the ad below:
Holding fast to President Obama's messaging strategy on health care so far, the ad paints U.S. health care as unsustainable, with individuals attesting that, for instance, employer provided insurance only covers you until you're laid off. See the ad below:
Christina Davidson
Jul 2 2009, 2:56PM
No Swimming Pools Or Frisbee Golf
Time's Michael Scherer illustrates Joe Biden's task in keeping stimulus spending in line. For the White House, it's critical that the $787 billion gets spent efficiently and appropriately, and it's worth noticing that we haven't heard as many rumblings about ridiculous pork projects as one might expect from a spending initiative of this size: there haven't been any major bridges to nowhere or Woodstock museums--though Sen. Tom Coburn outlined 100 examples in a report this month that, he says, are questionable. But stimulus critics seem more concerned with government borrowing and debt, and their macroeconomic effects, than whatever pork might be coming out of it; in that regard, sheriff Biden has kept the White House out of trouble.
Is Mike Huckabee The New Jesse Jackson?
Michael Barone has a fascinating insight that, dare I say, I'd never really contemplated before.Huckabee or a candidate with a similar profile can corner the votes of evangelical and born-again...
Californians Are Sinking Themselves
The world's eighth-largest economy has just gone belly-up. When midnight tolled on Tuesday night with legislators and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger still deadlocked over how to resolve the state's staggering $24...
South Carolina GOP: Mark Sanford Must Go
Gov. Mark Sanford's long and emotional interview with The Associated Press Tuesday appears to have been the final straw for South Carolina's Republican establishment, much of which is now actively...
Helen Thomas: Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama
Following a testy exchange during Wednesday's briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control...
Jul 2 2009, 10:24AM
Democrats To Raise Money On Twitter
The new tech wave in politics is now going a step further: Democrats are raising money directly on Twitter.
Through a new program launched by ActBlue, an online fundraising group launched in 2004 that channels online donations to Democratic candidates, Democratic supporters can make donations by tweeting the amount and the candidate or party committee they want to give it to.
Through a new program launched by ActBlue, an online fundraising group launched in 2004 that channels online donations to Democratic candidates, Democratic supporters can make donations by tweeting the amount and the candidate or party committee they want to give it to.
Jul 2 2009, 9:54AM
Unemployment: Still Rising, By .1 Percent
The unemployment rate continued to rise today, from 9.4 percent in May to 9.5 percent in June, with 467,000 nonfarm payroll jobs being lost. (Click here to see the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, which includes breakdowns by sector.)
It was a smaller jump than we've seen in previous months. Last month, BLS announced a rise from 8.9 percent to 9.4 percent. From November to March, the average monthly job loss total was 670,000; from April to June, it's been 436,000. Still, this month's drop in payroll employment was more than expected.
The political calculus on unemployment hasn't changed much. President Obama, in an interview with Bloomberg in June, predicted unemployment would hit 10 percent by the end of the year, giving himself some room as observers wondered when the continued job losses would begin to hurt his high standing in the public's eye.
It was a smaller jump than we've seen in previous months. Last month, BLS announced a rise from 8.9 percent to 9.4 percent. From November to March, the average monthly job loss total was 670,000; from April to June, it's been 436,000. Still, this month's drop in payroll employment was more than expected.
The political calculus on unemployment hasn't changed much. President Obama, in an interview with Bloomberg in June, predicted unemployment would hit 10 percent by the end of the year, giving himself some room as observers wondered when the continued job losses would begin to hurt his high standing in the public's eye.
Jul 1 2009, 7:30PM
The Day In Politics, 7/1
Today, we learned that South Carolina Democrats are calling on Gov. Mark Sanford to resign; so are a host of others; and Sen. James Inhofe predicts no more than 35 Senate votes for the cap and trade bill.
We also pondered what Al Franken will be like as a senator; some more thoughts on Obama, Truman, and Don't Ask, Don't Tell; a court fight over detainee confessions obtained through harsh interrogations; and the recent Vanity Fair piece on Sarah Palin.
Tomorrow: President Obama departs for Camp David for the Fourth of July.
We also pondered what Al Franken will be like as a senator; some more thoughts on Obama, Truman, and Don't Ask, Don't Tell; a court fight over detainee confessions obtained through harsh interrogations; and the recent Vanity Fair piece on Sarah Palin.
Tomorrow: President Obama departs for Camp David for the Fourth of July.
Jul 1 2009, 7:00PM
The Invisible Primary, 7/1
Flickr user takomabibelot
Jul 1 2009, 6:35PM
Court Battle: Should Harsh Interrogation Confessions Be Allowed?
That's the question Mohammad Jawad's defense attorneys are trying to answer with a motion filed Wednesday afternoon in the Guantanamo detainee's habeas petition, charting a course into some new legal territory and arguing that statements made to U.S. and Afghan interrogators should be rendered inadmissible in U.S. courts, given the conditions that yielded them.
Now that detainees can challenge their detentions in federal U.S. courts, a result of the Supreme Court's 2008 Boumediene v. Bush decision, and now that President Obama has signaled he wants to move some Guantanamo detainees into the U.S. court system, it's a question that will likely arise again.
Jawad is one of 229 detainees still at Guantanamo, and, though his age has been disputed, his attorneys estimate he was between the ages of 13 and 16 at the time of his arrest in Afghanistan in 2002. It's been suggested he was as young as 12. Nude photographs taken of Jawad in custody show an adolescent in his early teens, his attorneys say.
Now that detainees can challenge their detentions in federal U.S. courts, a result of the Supreme Court's 2008 Boumediene v. Bush decision, and now that President Obama has signaled he wants to move some Guantanamo detainees into the U.S. court system, it's a question that will likely arise again.
Jawad is one of 229 detainees still at Guantanamo, and, though his age has been disputed, his attorneys estimate he was between the ages of 13 and 16 at the time of his arrest in Afghanistan in 2002. It's been suggested he was as young as 12. Nude photographs taken of Jawad in custody show an adolescent in his early teens, his attorneys say.
Davis Turner/Getty Images
Jul 1 2009, 3:13PM
Pressure Mounts on Sanford
In the wake of Gov. Mark Sanford's admission this week that he had "crossed lines" with other women, and the revelation last Thursday that he visited his Argentinian liaison while on a taxpayer-funded trip last June, the calls on Sanford to step down are growing.
A wave of calls for his resignation were issued last night and today. According to the latest head counts, at least 12 (14 according to one published count) of the state Senate's 27 Republicans are calling on him to resign--a list that includes Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, who orchestrated a letter signed by five of his colleagues yesterday. They were joined this morning by a call from at least one additional GOP senator, that one being the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee.
A wave of calls for his resignation were issued last night and today. According to the latest head counts, at least 12 (14 according to one published count) of the state Senate's 27 Republicans are calling on him to resign--a list that includes Majority Leader Harvey Peeler, who orchestrated a letter signed by five of his colleagues yesterday. They were joined this morning by a call from at least one additional GOP senator, that one being the chairman of the Senate Ethics Committee.
Jul 1 2009, 2:09PM
Your Thoughts On Truman, Obama And Gays In the Military
Yesterday, I noted that the Obama administration could learn a thing or two from Harry Truman's 1948 executive order integrating the military. Readers rightly noted that I left out some important variables. First, Truman didn't rush to integrate. He took office in 1945 and waited until 1948 to do the deed. Second, Obama needs congressional approval to overturn the don't-ask-don't-tell policy, and I implied that it was his prerogative alone. That's not quite right.
On the first point, I don't think it diminishes Truman's political courage or risk taking to note that he waited until 1948 to integrate the military, a far harder task than faces Obama given the virulence of Jim Crow. It's true that there were political benefits to the integration order that helped Truman win the votes of blacks who had migrated north to states where they weren't largely prevented from voting, such as Illinois. But overall it was a gamble of astonishing proportions in an election year and far riskier than anything Obama is thus far avoiding. Truman's position helped lead to the Strom Thurmond/segregationist walkout from the party. No Democrat in Congress is going to bolt over this.
On the first point, I don't think it diminishes Truman's political courage or risk taking to note that he waited until 1948 to integrate the military, a far harder task than faces Obama given the virulence of Jim Crow. It's true that there were political benefits to the integration order that helped Truman win the votes of blacks who had migrated north to states where they weren't largely prevented from voting, such as Illinois. But overall it was a gamble of astonishing proportions in an election year and far riskier than anything Obama is thus far avoiding. Truman's position helped lead to the Strom Thurmond/segregationist walkout from the party. No Democrat in Congress is going to bolt over this.
