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He opens the door a bit in Fargo today:"[W]hen I go to Iraq and have a chance to talk to some of the commanders
on the ground, I’m sure I’ll have more information and will continue to
refine my policies....” “My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything that I’ve said, was
always premised on making sure that our troops were safe,” he said. “I
said that based on the information that we...Posted 03:05 PM to The Stump | Comments(10) | Share this post ...For trying to destroy my family.
Okay, not quite destroy my family. But I'm in Israel about to head to my cousin's wedding, so I don't have a ton of time to respond to Chait's response to my piece from yesterday.
Given that, let me just take on two quick arguments Chait makes.
1.) Chait writes:
Look at poor John Kerry: The "flip-flopper" label completely disqualified...Posted 10:21 AM to The Stump | Comments(20) | Share this post I meant to link to this earlier, but better late than never: In response to some of the questions we raised Monday about the ways Romney's fundraising ability could benefit McCain, The Weekly Standard's Jaime Sneider had a conversation with former FEC commissioner and former Romney adviser Brad Smith. Here's what Sneider took away from it:
[Smith] tells me any money...Posted 07:22 PM to The Stump | Comments(1) | Share this post Nagourney on the McCain shakeup:[I]n moves that drew widespread derision by Republicans and delighted
Democrats, Mr. McCain recently delivered a speech on energy policy
before an audience of oil executives in Houston and came out in favor
of offshore drilling
in a speech in Santa Barbara, Calif. In both cases, Mr. McCain’s aides
said, he ended up delivering those speeches in those locations because...Posted 06:57 PM to The Stump | Comments(7) | Share this post Over at The Politico, David Paul Kuhn has the latest in the Republicans-grumbling-about-the-McCain-campaign genre. Some of it will be pretty familiar--four wasted months, pukey green backdrops, etc.--but Kuhn has some revealing complaints about the McCain organization, which is one of the campaign's bigger liabilities at this point. Kuhn reports:
“Here is where...Posted 11:22 AM to The Stump | Comments(3) | Share this post McCain, keeping the Clark dustup alive:ARLINGTON, VA -- Today at 10:45 a.m. EDT, U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign will hold a press conference call with Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Lt.Col. Orson Swindle, USMC (Ret.) to discuss Gen. Wesley Clark's continued attacks on John McCain, and the Obama campaign's response to them.That should tell you who thinks they're...Posted 10:32 AM to The Stump | Comments(12) | Share this post U.S. casualties in Afghanistan reach peak levels. Either Obama or McCain will face the increasingly hard question of what to do about The Other War. To focus on Obama: The CW seems to hold that once we at least mostly get out of Iraq, Afghanistan will become a lot easier. But what if the opposite is true? Once Iraq is no longer the cause celebre, where do you think all the jihadis will go? I assume...Posted 09:55 AM to The Stump | Comments(14) | Share this post Over on the Plank, Jon Cohn tried to make the case for Mitt Romney as John McCain's vice president. Eve Fairbanks thinks it's a terrible idea: My brilliant colleague Jon Cohn is almost always dead on
target, but I think Mitt Romney's shameless Michigan pandering has gone to his head. I
know Romney's the flavor of the week on McCain's veep list, but I couldn't disagree
more...Posted 05:31 PM to The Stump | Comments(14) | Share this post No doubt the Obama campaign is aggressively courting evangelicals because it thinks it can erode the GOP's traditional dominance there. If Obama can cut the 80-20 Bush-Kerry split among evangelical voters to 60-40--something an evangelical PR-man connected to Franklin Graham suggests is possible in today's Times--then he will almost certainly win the election...Posted 08:34 AM to The Stump | Comments(9) | Share this post The worthwhile blog Campaign Diaries elaborates on the reasons to be skeptical of the recent veep buzz over Mitt Romney. In particular, the post considers the three ways for McCain to tap Romney's fundraising ability (reputedly up to $60 million in 60 days, which would take us into the public finacing period if Romney wasn't selected until early August) and...Posted 06:43 AM to The Stump | Comments(1) | Share this post Obama's good, though not great, patriotism speech today in Independence, Missouri, contained two interesting lines: an aside about the "wrenching poverty ... of the hills of Appalachia" and a forceful condemnation of how '60s "counterculture" types refused to honor Vietnam veterans when they came home, which, Obama said, "remains a national shame to this day." ...Posted 01:35 PM to The Stump | Comments(15) | Share this post From today's otherwise mildly useful column on Obama and the DC gun-ban decision:
What may be Obama's authentic position on gun rights was revealed in early April when he told a closed-door Silicon Valley fundraiser that "bitter" small-town residents "cling" to the Bible and Second Amendment. That ran against his public assertion as a former constitutional law professor...Posted 01:14 PM to The Stump | Comments(14) | Share this post
It's always worth taking time on the Fourth of July to read through the Declaration of Independence, a document that never ceases to amaze. In particular, it's fun to go over the list of grievances against King George III, to remind oneself what the whole fuss was about. My favorite is this:For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us...Posted 12:31 AM to The Plank | Comments(7) | Share this post I think the debate over flip-flopping is missing what's probably the more significant development of the campaign: John McCain is saying that Barack Obama is not patriotic. A few days ago, when asked if he questioned Obama's patriotism, McCain did not answer the question. And now, in today's Parade magazine, McCain has an essay on patriotism:
Patriotism is deeper than its symbolic expressions...Posted 10:07 PM to The Plank | Comments(13) | Share this post New numbers from CNN reveal that Americans think both Barack Obama and John McCain are flip-floppers -- but like them just fine anyway:Sixty-one
percent of voters believe that McCain has changed his mind for
political reasons; 37 percent do not. Fifty-nine percent of voters
believe that Obama also shifts positions with the political winds; 38
percent do not.That's a change from 2004, according...Posted 05:43 PM to The Plank | Comments(8) | Share this post In response to my post about Barack Obama's rush to the center, Josh Marshall asks:
There's no question Barack Obama has shifted his position on FISA. But I'm hearing more and more that Obama has clearly shifted his position on Iraq. I've been a bit under the weather the last few days. So maybe I've missed something. But can anyone show me any evidence that this is really...Posted 04:51 PM to The Plank | Comments(20) | Share this post WASHINGTON -- Danielle Wibeto might be John McCain's worst nightmare. A
23-year old pro-life Christian, Wibeto travels around the country promoting a
children's book--Justice Loves Babies, which she wrote with her twin
sister, Darlene--about a child trying to save his unborn sister from being
aborted. The Wibeto sisters, from a
small, conservative town in central California
and...Posted 03:56 PM to The Plank | Comments(13) | Share this post Barack Obama has 5-point lead in Montana, according to a new poll from Rasmussen Reports. John McCain had led by 5 in their only previous poll of the state back in April.It
would, obviously, be premature to conclude that Obama is the favorite
in Montana. Our regression model still thinks that the state ought to
favor McCain by about 6 points, and will probably maintain that opinion
until we see...Posted 03:43 PM to The Plank | Comments(4) | Share this post Given the amount of media attention paid to Iran and its infamous president
in recent weeks, we would do well to keep in mind that Ahmadinejad might not be
in power for much longer: Around this time next year, the Islamic Republic will
be holding presidential elections, and--according
to some--the incumbent Ahmadinejad could suffer a loss at
the polls. Who might step in to fill his shoes? According...Posted 02:37 PM to The Plank | Comments(7) | Share this post Since it's the afternoon before a three-day weekend and no one seems inclined to call me back for the magazine story I'm working on, I guess I'll pass the time by indulging in some more semi-informed McCainland blogging. At the end of today's NYT article on the campaign shakeup, there's this interesting tidbit:Mr. McCain spent Wednesday in Colombia, his second overseas trip in
...Posted 02:24 PM to The Plank | Comments(2) | Share this post Chait and Kaus both say there's still plenty of time for McCain Campaign 4.0 to be unveiled, with Mike Murphy running the show. I still say no way--McCain
is going to sink or swim with Version 3.0 and Steve Schmidt, and
yesterday's shakeup means Murphy (and John Weaver, for that matter)
are going to remain on the sidelines for this one. My reasoning
is two-fold. First, I think Schmidt ...Posted 12:17 PM to The Plank | Comments(7) | Share this post Political autopsies of the failed campaign for universal health care in the 1990s frequently focus on the activities of special interests who opposed it. Not that many people saw the infamous "Harry and Louise" ads, in which an average-looking couple sat at their dining room table worrying that the Clinton health plan would take away their choice of doctor. But the ads came to symbolize ...Posted 07:48 AM to The Plank | Comments(5) | Share this post Brian Beutler, a liberal blogger who many PLANK readers have probably come across, was shot three times last night during a robbery in Washington D.C. He is currently at a local hospital, where he is expected to make a full recovery.Brian is a friend or acquaintance of many of the folks at TNR; he is also an exceedingly smart and kind and generous person. We wish him nothing but the best.--Isaac Chotiner...Posted 12:40 AM to The Plank | Comments(3) | Share this post Ezra Klein has a nice web piece over at the American Prospect summarizing what we know about the success of Massachusetts's universal health care scheme. The gist of it is this: It's been quite successful in reducing the ranks of the uninsured, which have been roughly cut in half (results are even better for those with incomes below 300 percent of the poverty line). There are two main drawbacks...Posted 10:39 PM to The Plank | Comments(9) | Share this post
We've all heard how skyrocketing food and fuel prices have squeezed
the world’s poor. But the fact that commodities prices are high--and that urban
food-and-fuel
riots have sprung up across the globe--isn’t always the best indicator of
when people are going hungry, said Robert Paarlbarg, one of the panelists at
yesterday’s American Enterprise Institute conference.Most of the world’s poor...Posted 06:12 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(0) | Share this post Blogging from the Aspen Ideas Festival, Matt Yglesias rejects the notion of having a cap-and-trade emissions scheme with a "safety valve," which would allow companies to buy emissions permits at a given price if the market price of for permits exceeds that price (in effect, setting a limit on how high the cost of carbon emissions can rise). Matt writes: [A] safety valve is a great provision...Posted 06:11 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(0) | Share this post Ethanol, the much-maligned biofuel of the hour, is gaining
some traction on the Hill. Today I attended a conference on the global food and
energy crisis at the American Enterprise Institute, where Senator Richard Lugar
argued (pdf link)
that the United States should lift its existing 54-cent tariff on imported sugarcane ethanol from Brazil:There are striking examples in oil
and natural gas, where...Posted 05:23 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(5) | Share this post I consider myself a fairly strong supporter of investments in public transportation, yet I often feel a vague sense of discomfort at the way some on the left frame the conversation. A good example is this recent interview that Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland gave to Grist's Kate Sheppard:I'm a big, big supporter of dramatic change in public
transportation. It includes more than just the bus...Posted 01:25 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(3) | Share this post There’s a heated debate at The Economist over this charticle
that claims organic farming is bad for the poor.
According to the author’s fuzzy logic, organic farming
produces fewer crops yields than conventional methods, thus demanding that more
farmland be put under cultivation. As the share of farmland devoted to
high-premium organic crops increases--the rise is most notable in Europe...Posted 04:30 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(8) | Share this post
The Pentagon is resisting the EPA’s orders to clean up its contaminated
military sites, the Washington Post reports
today. The danger? The Defense Department owns more Superfund sites than anyone
else, as well as more than 25,000 contaminated sites nationwide, where the department's toxic legacy could pose serious risks to public health and the
environment.
While the Post calls...Posted 06:28 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(1) | Share this post Today is the hundredth anniversary of the Tunguska event, when a massive explosion (likely resulting from a small asteroid or comet) rocked a remote region of central Siberia, flattening trees and reportedly knocking people to the ground in the nearest settlement 40 miles from the blast. Science News and Scientific American have had articles recently highlighting the latest developments in the ongoing...Posted 02:29 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(5) | Share this post Via the Guardian (whose science and environment coverage is habitually excellent):Bob Dylan faces the ire of ecologists, unions and local residents
because of a concert he is due to perform tonight in a park in the
Spanish countryside.Ten thousand fans are expected to descend on
the park for the concert, which is being promoted by local authorities
in Castilla y León under the title Musicians ...Posted 02:36 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(1) | Share this post The Economist warns us this week
that coal is going to become an increasingly tempting energy substitute as oil
prices continue to hit new records. Why? Because the alternatives to
coal--natural gas, fuel oil, and diesel--are all tied to oil. Coal remains America’s
most abundant energy resource, and the growing call for the country to assert
its energy independence
only stands to strengthen ...Posted 06:46 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(5) | Share this post What abysmal timing for the sun-starved moles deep in the Bureau
of Land Management--no doubt acting in cahoots with the intransigent bureaucrats of the EPA--to flex their muscle when it comes to solar power:
Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal
government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until
it studies their environmental...Posted 12:00 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(6) | Share this post The National Intelligence Council recently completed its classified assessment of climate change-related security issues through 2030, and, yesterday, briefed the House Intelligence Committee on its findings, describing how future environmental disasters will lead to water scarcity, food shortages, and forced migration in some of the most economically depressed regions of the world.
The idea that...Posted 06:21 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(0) | Share this post Via the WSJ's Keith Johnson, this new oil forecast from Jeff Rubin of CIBC World Markets is genuinely shocking, especially with its prediction of $7/gallon gas in the United States by 2010. There seems to be no way to avoid it: Saudi Arabia's pledge to pump out more crude amounts to a "pittance," China's decision to cut gas subsidies will barely move prices, and the most promising...Posted 12:33 PM to Environment & Energy | Comments(49) | Share this post
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