National Democrats

George Bush has failed as Commander-in-Chief, so now he’s trying for Commentator-in-Chief. He predicted in an interview that Hillary Clinton would win the Democratic nomination and then would lose to the Republican, whom he did not predict. Let’s set aside whether this was just a ploy to energize discouraged Republicans (Bush certainly can’t energize them…

Hunter S. Thompson once compared national political reporters to birds on a wire. One lands on a wire, the rest follow. One flies to another wire, they all follow. So look for the birds to land on a new Hillary Clinton wire soon. The conventional wisdom, as confirmed on Page One of Sunday’s The New…

America is adrift in Iraq – and losing the war. But the political debate is about Hillary’s health care plan, Edwards’ attacks on Hillary’s “corporate insiders,” Obama’s tax plan, Moveon.org attacking Gen. Petraeus, Rudy attacking Moveon for attacking Petraeus and Fred Thompson being lazy. General Petraeus made clear in his congressional testimony that we’re not…

Several women in Raleigh reported getting taped phone calls from Hillary Clinton this week – with a message aimed right at women. I’m told Hillary says something like: When I’m President, women and their daughters will walk a little bit taller in America. The strategy is brilliant. It’s aimed at the most important voting group…

The images are depressingly familiar, six years after 9/11: Replays of the terrorist attacks on America Osama bin Laden, now mysteriously dark-bearded, on our TV screens again, threatening and taunting us still An impressively bemedaled and beribboned general warning Congress against a quick withdrawal from Iraq. Once again, we’re reminded of George Bush’s folly and…

Sometimes political campaigns are counter initiative. What you’re sure makes sense turns out not to make sense at all. John and Elizabeth Edwards are part of one campaign, but both seem headed in different directions. John Edwards wants his campaign to be about getting out of Iraq and if he can make that the dominant…

A poll last week seemed to support Karl Rove’s argument that Hillary Clinton is a “fatally flawed” candidate. But the results may say more about how polarized voters are today. The poll, by the Pew Research Center, said: “Among voters of all parties with an opinion, Clinton is viewed favorably by 55 percent, the lowest…

It wasn’t too long ago that John Edwards running for Senate as a moderate choirboy was promising to stay above gutter politics and negative smears. By gosh, he said, he was going to keep to the high moral ground. Times change. Nine years later, our choirboy has become a pit-bull attacking Hillary, Rupert Murdoch and…

There is one thing on which all political consultants of all political stripes agree: the importance of perpetuating the myth of political consultants. And there is one thing on which all political candidates agree: the importance of minimizing the myth of political consultants. As a recovering political consultant, I consider myself an expert on both…