National Democrats
Two Americas
The Democratic and Republican conventions offered two starkly different visions of America. Here’s how this old Democrat sees them. Hillary Clinton’s is bright and optimistic. Donald Trump’s is dark and pessimistic. Clinton says there’s hope. Trump says he’s the only hope. Clinton is about love and unity. Trump is about fear and loathing. Clinton says…
Read MoreA Public Debate
Political campaigns are odd creatures: There’re born, grow like crazy, live in chaos, then die on a set date. Back in the late 1970’s, Republicans leaped a generation ahead of Democrats in the arts (from fundraising to communicating with voters) of nourishing these strange creatures. But those days are gone. At their convention in…
Read MoreEnd of the Obama era
As President Obama joked on Jimmy Fallon’s show not long ago, “How do you like me now?” Well, pretty good, the polls show. Especially as we ponder what comes next. As Michelle and Barack elegantly and eloquently exit the Democratic convention this week, let’s salute what they brought to the White House: eight years of…
Read MoreAn Old Plumb Line
Clicking back and forth between Fox News and CNN, watching the Democratic Convention, was like watching two different conventions. From two different worlds. Debbie Wasserman Schultz was roundly booed by Bernie Sanders’ supporters. But, then, Michelle Obama righted the Democrats’ ship with her speech Monday night – and proof of her effectiveness is the non-existent…
Read MoreBerning down the house
The bitterest fights are always inside the family. So it is with the Republican and Democratic conventions. Donald Trump has Ted Cruz (and John Kasich and Jeb Bush and…). Hillary Clinton has Bernie Sanders. At least Sanders endorsed Clinton. But not all his supporters buy it. There is a certain self-righteousness among some Sanders supporters…
Read MoreThe 24 Hour News Cycle
Last Friday, as the smoke cleared after the Republican Convention, with a Mongol Horde of Democratic Super PACs after his hide Donald Trump attacked Ted Cruz instead of Hillary. Next Wiki-leaks dumped nineteen thousand hacked Democrat Party emails onto the Internet and the Democrats’ dream of a happy convention went up in smoke. Sunday Debbie…
Read MoreWhy Clinton raised Kaine
Hillary Clinton’s choice of Tim Kaine is about more than winning the battleground state (excuse me, Commonwealth) of Virginia. It’s about a seismic shift in the Presidential chessboard this year – and for years to come. The Clinton campaign calculates that she must win Virginia, North Carolina and Florida (57 total electoral votes) if Donald…
Read MoreHillary’s No Poet Either
It was a rough week. But it’s over. No more opening the morning newspapers to read stories about plagiarism. Or about booing Ted. Or about hour-long political speeches in prime time by Donald Trump. Orators aren’t born – they learn their art the old-fashioned way. One hard step at a time. And great orators…
Read MoreHillary steps in
Hillary Clinton has the greatest gift in politics: a flawed, unpopular opponent. Still, she should use the Democratic convention to fix four big problems. First, she’s a status quo candidate in a change year. She and Bill have been on the stage for 25 years. And she is something of a third Obama term. The…
Read MoreThat Old Time Religion
We haven’t heard this said before – not during this convention. And not during Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton’s campaign against one another. We have heard, from Donald Trump: ‘I will make America great again.’ And ‘I will make great trade deals.’ And we’ve heard how ‘Donald Trump can do the impossible.’ We’ve heard…
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