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Presidential Debates Between McCain and Obama Will Have Extra Importance
Tweet Share on Facebook June 30, 2008 Comment (17)With no sitting president or vice president on the November ballot since 1952, this will be an extraordinary year in the run for the White House.
It underscores the importance of the three presidential debates and one vice presidential debate in September and October. Since many voters, surprisingly enough, don't focus on the election until Labor Day, it makes these encounters more important than ever.
The campaigns of Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama should agree soon on holding these debates without any prolonged discussion. In the past, there have been debates over the debates, often for silly reasons.
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Supreme Court's Decision Will Spark Lawsuits and Violence
Tweet Share on Facebook June 27, 2008 Comment (12)The Supreme Court's ruling on permitting handguns in the home will surely touch off an avalanche of lawsuits by gun lovers attacking any other restrictions on weapons.
That is the sad consequence of the court's narrow 5-to-4 decision overturning the District of Columbia's ban on handguns.
Don't kid yourself. The zealots of the National Rifle Association and their allies will now take aim at licensing laws, waiting periods on the purchases of guns, and any other impediments on the books in cities or states. Those celebrating the court's ruling left little doubt that this was only the first round in what promises to be a long battle in the courts—state and federal.
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Dobson for President—Let Him Test His Rigid Views With the Voters
Tweet Share on Facebook June 25, 2008 Comment (70)Perhaps it is time for James Dobson of Focus on the Family to run for public office—even the presidency.
Perched at his base in Colorado Springs, Colo., Dobson has been a consistent voice of intolerance in the evangelical-right crowd.
Dobson cannot abide either Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain. It is difficult to tell what he is for since he usually is shouting against someone.
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John McCain Is the Top Flip-Flopper
Tweet Share on Facebook June 23, 2008 Comment (17)Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina declared on Sunday that Sen. Barack Obama would "say anything, do anything" to win in November. However, Graham, the cochair of Sen. John McCain's national campaign, said his man would always put his nation first.
This remarkable and hypocritical accusation was made because Obama had flip-flopped on his vow to accept public money in the fall campaign. It wasn't Obama's finest hour, but Graham was over the top with that zinger.
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Barack Obama's Bad Decision on Public Financing
Tweet Share on Facebook June 20, 2008 Comment (26)Sen. Barack Obama did not do his integrity any favor by going back on his pledge to use public financing this fall in the final months of the campaign. It will cost him, at least in the short run.
Instead of the $85 million in taxpayer money, Obama will most likely raise at least three times that amount in the home stretch of this election cycle marathon of words and dollars.
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The Insultingly Irrelevant George W. Bush and One More Word on Ron Paul
Tweet Share on Facebook June 19, 2008 Comment (44)President Bush has completed what was probably the final trip to Europe of his two terms in office. It was hardly a victory lap.
The president was given cordial welcome in Italy and France, but the leaders in those countries are unpopular too. In Germany, the usual protesters did not even turn out because they consider him irrelevant.
In the United Kingdom, Prime Minister Gordon Brown was warned not to be too chummy with our leader.
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Ron Paul, the Political Wild Card in This Presidential Election
Tweet Share on Facebook June 16, 2008 Comment (202)While most Republicans are likely to consider Rep. Ron Paul of Texas a mere pest, his devoted followers could be a problem for Sen. John McCain in November.
Paul, the GOP congressman with the squeaky voice but with a following of vocal supporters, will not go away. He's suspended his presidential campaign but his crusade goes on.
Paul got into the presidential race with no chance of winning. But his opposition to the war in Iraq, his isolationist foreign policy, and his leave-us-alone views on the domestic front won him faithful supporters during the debates earlier this year.
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Hot Weather Brings Negative Charges in the Obama-McCain Presidential Campaign
Tweet Share on Facebook June 12, 2008 Comment (13)In case you've missed it, the two presumptive presidential candidates and their minions are "defining" each other these days. That means highly partisan exchanges and negative clashes between their hyped-up allies.
Sen. Barack Obama is defined as being an enemy of small business, a liberal bent on raising your taxes, a little-known senator with a fuzzy past and a man backed by strange preachers.
Worse, purely false rumors spread on the Internet that he is a Muslim.
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Afghanistan Remains a Question Mark Even as First Lady Laura Bush Visits
Tweet Share on Facebook June 9, 2008 Comment (5)First lady Laura Bush has had few critics during her nearly eight years in the White House. She has handled her duties with grace and charm despite her husband's nose dive in the polls.
However, the president and his advisers decided to use her as a symbol of progress and to whip up more support for war-torn Afghanistan. Over the weekend, Mrs. Bush made a surprise visit to the country, her third time there.
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Obama's Veep Choice
Tweet Share on Facebook June 6, 2008 Comment (21)If Sen. Barack Obama wants to head off a growing stampede by Sen. Hillary Clinton's supporters to pick her for the Democratic ticket, he might not want to wait too long.
His vetting team hasn't even started an operation. However, Obama has to know already whether it is smart to choose his chief rival and often severe critic for the last six months.
If he is looking elsewhere, here are five possible running mates—all with pluses and minuses, as is the case for all No. 2 prospects:
John W. Mashek covered politics in Washington for four decades with U.S. News & World Report, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and the Boston Globe. His primary beats were Congress, the White House, and national politics. He covered every presidential election from 1960 to 1996. He was a panelist in three televised presidential debates in 1984, 1988, and 1992.