Stories related to: election 2008

With his small stature and tendency to stumble over words, John McCain struggles behind a podium, the New York Times notes. “The only time I would put him behind a podium at all” during the campaign “is when he’s announcing a policy position,” said his former communications director. McCain is now working with experts to improve his onstage presence, according to aides. More »

After a nasty campaign, Bill Clinton has a serious image problem. But if he moves quickly, he can escape any long-term damage, reports Politico, which surveys experts in the field for advice on his behalf. “He needs to put this story behind him by Labor Day,” said one, and he should start by offering his sincere support to Obama. "Right now what he is doing is thinking about Bill Clinton. He has to put the party and country first.” Other advice: More »

Barack Obama and John McCain each hope to widen the playing field this November, and that could be a good thing for the country, writes Ronald Brownstein for the National Journal. Part of the reason America is so partisan is because it’s politically balkanized. In 2000 and 2004, both candidates resigned themselves to that division, conceding states that will be in play this time around. More »

For black Americans, patriotism is a complex sentiment, but "complicated relationships tend to be the deepest and strongest," writes Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post . Barack Obama’s candidacy shows how far we've come, but "it is not common, in my experience, for sitting US senators to be questioned on their love of country," Robinson observes. More »

Barack Obama currently leads John McCain 47% to 43%, but does that mean anything this early? Yes and no. Early July Gallup polls have correctly predicted the eventual popular vote winner in 10 of the last 15 elections, but they missed the mark in four of the last five. Politico looks back. More »

This week's firefight over what Wesley Clark did or didn't say about John McCain's war record doesn't just remind us that most campaign brouhahas these days are about things that didn't even happen, writes Paul Krugman in the New York Times. It also reveals the long arm of Karl Rove. "The latest fake scandal fit the usual pattern as an awkwardly phrased remark, lifted out of context and willfully misinterpreted, exploded across the airwaves," he writes. More »

Barack Obama today appeared to soften his oft-stated pledge that he would pull troops out of Iraq in 16 months, the New York Times reports. Obama, while inisting that his policies had not changed, said he would consider the opinions of military commanders as he continues to “refine his policies.” The presumptive nominee will make a trip to Iraq later this month. More »

Flip-flops are an easy summer target for media covering the presidential campaign, Ruth Marcus writes in the Washington Post . But, she notes, it's important to remember that the issues are more important than the candidates' changing views on them. "We in the media risk becoming the enablers of inanity by acting as if all flip-flops are created equal, and equally bad." More »

Barack Obama is still doing battle to define himself, with his patriotism the latest thrust, Dan Balz writes in the Washington Post . But as he wrapped himself in the flag yesterday, Obama was revealed as both “stronger and weaker” than earlier in the year—stronger because he’s battle-hardened, but weaker because "he remains not yet fully formed in the minds of many voters." More »

“There will be no such thing as victory in Iraq,” George Packer writes in the New Yorker , “but the next President, if he remains nimble, may be able to keep the damage under control.” Packer argues that the dramatic improvement since the surge poses a problem for Barack Obama, whose proposal to withdraw troops in 16 months helped him seal the nomination, but is outdated.  More »

America’s choice for president will likely ripple all the way to the halls of the sharply divided Supreme Court, the Washington Post reports. Since the next justice to retire is likely to be left-leaning, a Barack Obama victory would maintain the status quo of four conservatives, four liberals, and Anthony M. Kennedy serving as the swing vote. But if John McCain appoints the next justice, the court could swing decidedly to the right. More »

The key issue in the presidential election won’t be national security or Iraq, as many once believed—it will be how to fix our ailing nation at home, writes Thomas Friedman in the New York Times . “We are a country in debt and in decline—not terminal, not irreversible, but in decline,” Friedman notes. What we need is a president who can restore a broken political system. More »

Voter polls on John McCain and Barack Obama are all over the map: Gallup has them neck-and-neck, while LA Times /Bloomberg and Newsweek say Obama leads by up to 15 points. What gives? One expert says the latter polls relied too heavily on Democrats. "We know that the best predictor of how someone is going to vote is their party ID," Pew Research editor Richard Morin tells CQPolitics. More »

A glut of political amateurs who produce popular videos on the cheap for YouTube and similar sites is redefining campaign politics. The New York Times takes a look at the phenomenon, in which partisans with nothing but passion and a computer produce often scathing videos about McCain and Obama. The campaigns, meanwhile, are struggling to ajdust to "politics at the speed of the Internet," as one Obama adviser puts it. More »

Barack Obama’s plan to cut the Democrats' evangelical deficit (68%-30% in 2000, 78-21% in '04)? Convince the religious right he’s not the devil. That’s a “radically different” course from the one taken by John Kerry and Al Gore, what Jeff Greenfield, on Slate, calls a “reassurance strategy”—“in effect, ‘OK, don’t vote for me; but you have nothing to fear from me.’” More »

Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama finally took a stage in support of the same candidate today—with Clinton asserting that it was time for the “36 million Americans who supported us” to stand in solidarity behind Obama, the Washington Post reports. "We are not going to rest until we take back our country," declared Clinton, adding, in a dig to the GOP reign, "think of the progress we have not made!” More »

Whether it's John McCain or Barack Obama, the next president will confront a global economic landscape unlike anything his predecessor confronted, write Robert Hormats and Jim O'Neill. In an op-ed for the Financial Times , the two Goldman Sachs executives explain that the new president's greatest challenge will be the rise of emerging economies, whose share of world GDP has doubled since George W. Bush took office. More »

John McCain is getting lost in the giant media shadow thrown by Barack Obama, but there's plenty of time to fix things, writes Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal . For every two Obamania stories, there's one "deadly" boring report declaring: "McCain Unveils Proposal.” Now would be a good time for McCain to get interesting again, Noonan says. To the McCain who in 2000 spoke with unblinking candor, she pleads: Please step up. More »

When the Supreme Court struck down Washington, DC's ban on handguns yesterday, Barack Obama gave the opinion a muted welcome, endorsing both the right to bear arms and anti-gun laws. Obama's measured, even tortured response—after seeming to support the ban in February—is the latest in a series of calibrated positions on hot-button issues that have seen the candidate tack to the center. The New York Times analyzes Obama's new triangulations. More »

The presidential candidates are ignoring—even insulting—American Muslims in the hope of grabbing the Jewish vote, write Salam Al-Marayati and Steven B. Jacobs in the Los Angles Times . McCain and Obama have on several occasions snubbed Muslims, who seem to be the victims of modern McCarthyism—just substitute terrorism for communism. It's a "disturbing trend" that must stop, write the co-members of an interfaith peace group. More »