Greenspan the Partisan Kenneth Thomas of Wharton has published information that he received under the FOIA confirming what we already suspected: close coordination between the White House and Alan Greenspan. Greenspan has taken to visiting the White House so often that they may be considering giving him a permanent parking spot there. This chart from […]

Umm, Well, About Those Budget Cuts We Said Wouldn’t Happen… A few months ago the White House denied that they were intending budget cuts across the board for domestic programs over the coming years. Now the Washington Post reports that widespread domestic budget cuts are exactly what they’ve decided to do: The White House put […]

Worst President Update In a speech I really, really, wish I had seen, Gore makes a strong case for Bush as worst President ever: George W. Bush promised us a foreign policy with humility. Instead, he has brought us humiliation in the eyes of the world. He promised to “restore honor and integrity to the […]

Worst. President. Ever? It certainly seems to me that George W. Bush is the worst president in the modern era, if not ever. But I also realize that this impression is shaped by the fact that I have no memories of Nixon or Ford, and my only memories of Carter are peanuts, hostages, gas lines, […]

Angry Population In yet another new poll, ABC News reports that 57% of respondents are now “angry” about the Iraq war, up from 30% in 3/2003. Additionally, Anger is up by 26 points among Democrats, and also by 21 points among Republicans (and by 29 points among independents). And it’s up by 20 points among […]

Mission Accomplished Actually, the exact opposite: LONDON (AFP) – The US-led war on Iraq (news – web sites), far from countering terrorism, has helped revitalise the Al-Qaeda terror network, the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) think-tank warned. The London-based body said in its annual Strategic Survey 2003/2004 that the deadly train bombings in Madrid […]

More Polls The following mostly good news for Kerry is from the latest Washington Post/ABC polls: How closely are you following the 2004 presidential race: very closely, somewhat closely, not too closely, or not closely at all? Based on my impression of historical standards, 74% of respondents following the presidential race at this stage presages […]

The Fundamental Problem The fundamental problem, or at least the pragmatic problem, with using torture and abrogating civil rights is that the government can never be sure it is torturing the right person, or abrogating the civil rights of the right person. In cases where the government has sufficient evidence to be certain it has […]

Swing State Jobs Update Alert readers may recall that during the height of the Democratic primaries I did a series on the jobs picture in most of the big swing states — after many years of growth under Clinton, almost every one had a substantial jobs decline under Bush (Florida is an exception, but much […]

Bad Poll News … if you’re George W. Bush, that is. His poll numbers are falling like a clumsy mountain bike rider. Ruy T.’s got the details: Wow! Not only has Bush’s approval rating on handling the war on terrorism been dropping like a stone, the Annenberg Election Survey has now measured it in net […]