National Democrats
Prime Time Player?
Once you get past the dishing about Sarah Palin, John Edwards, et al in the book Game Change, you learn a few things. Like about President Obama. That he’s like a basketball player who wants the ball when the game is on line. That he has supreme confidence he can rise to…
Read MoreNapoleon’s Mother
Sometimes it seems like one of a President’s less enviable jobs is to be a kind of national whipping boy, an outlet for our pent up frustrations and afflictions. And even if pummeling, say, Barack Obama or George Bush won’t put people back to work it sure is satisfying to have someone to blame. …
Read MoreObama Resets
Team Obama has a 1-1 record. They won the 2008 campaign, and they lost the 2009 campaign. Now they’re resetting for the 2010 tie-breaker. One step is organizational, and another is rhetorical. Organization: They brought back 2008 campaign manager David Plouffe to oversee the 2010 elections. The lesson Team Obama took from Massachusetts…
Read MoreCongressional Malpractice
President Obama made exactly the opposite mistake from Bill and Hillary Clinton on health-care reform. The Clintons drew up a sweeping reform plan in secret, then sent it to Congress, where it died. Obama let congressional Democrats come up with a reform plan. The first time it went to the voters, they voted…
Read MoreObama as Hamlet
President Obama just sent 30,000 soldiers to fight in Kabul so he’s got to be a little shocked to find himself branded as ‘soft’ on terrorism but there’s a reason: Obama as Hamlet. Obama-of-the-Divided-Mind. On one hand the President’s launching killer drones like crazy and dropping robot bombs out of the sky over Pakistan…
Read MoreDucking a Political Fight?
Up in Washington, DC the Democrats on the City Council have put the Democrats in Congress on the hot seat by passing a law to make gay marriage legal in our nation’s Capital. Now how on earth does that affect, say, Congressman Bob Etheridge who’s running for reelection here in North Carolina? …
Read MoreMass Hysteria
The polls hadn’t even closed in Massachusetts when Democrats formed up the requisite firing squad to fix the blame. In truth, there are three factors here. 1. Scott Brown had the greatest gift in politics: an inept and overconfident opponent. Did she really go on vacation in the Caribbean last month? 2.…
Read MoreObama Can’t Lose
Health-care reform may die in Massachusetts today, and Democrats across the country may panic, but a loss in the Senate race won’t be the death blow to the Obama Presidency that Republicans dream of. In fact, Obama wins either way. A Democratic win in Massachusetts guarantees enactment of reform. A Republican win gives him…
Read MoreThe Real Campaign
Nearly 50 years ago, Theodore White wrote a book, The Making of the President, that changed how campaigns are covered. Now Mark Halperin and John Heilemann have revolutionized the genre again with Game Change – in a way that says a lot about today’s politics, communications and culture. White told the inside story…
Read MoreThe Edwards Syndrome
The new revelations about John Edwards’ 2008 campaign – from the book Game Change by John Heilemann & Mark Halperin – raise this question: Didn’t he learn anything in his Senate race? When Edwards ran in 1998 – and I was one of his strategists – we struggled with how to handle the firestorm…
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