Over the weekend, I reread Ryan Lizza’s terrific New Yorker piece, “The Obama Memos: The Making of a Post-Post-Partisan Presidency.” It’s an insightful look at President Obama’s struggles during his first term — his mistakes, his compromises, his actions that made Republicans feel betrayed, the obstruction by Republicans…. And one of the most fascinating sections […]
Democratic convention
Posted inNews & Opinion
Dems back off on climate policy
The Democratic Party of 2012 is less ambitious on climate policy than the Democratic Party of 2008. I’m referring specifically to the party’s platform, which it approved yesterday, the first day of its national convention. It’s available here in PDF and ebook formats. In some areas, the platform makes commendable progress; the call for marriage […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
The big-tent blues
Democrats — especially in this town — have a reputation for fighting one another, and last weekend’s countywide convention was no exception. The convention’s purpose was to designate candidates for several key races. Councilmember Wade Norwood won the mayoral designation convincingly, but retired Police Chief Bob Duffy and Councilmember Tim Mains will challenge Norwood in […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Send out the troops
It was the most heavily scripted, carefully choreographed Democratic convention I can remember. The signs, the chants, the singing, dancing delegates; all were made for TV, though TV, for the most part, was ignoring them. But I’ll tell you what: there were exquisitely inspiring speeches, and genuinely emotional moments. There were times when you felt […]
Posted inNews & Opinion
Come on out!
Well, here we go. The Democratic Convention is less than a week away. And by the end of it, we should have a pretty clear sense of how strong the Kerry-Edwards ticket will be. The big question: whether party leaders are so afraid of offending anybody that the campaign will be little more than centrist […]
