Category Archives: The making of the President

I don’t need another reason to be glad that former President Bush chose someplace other than Houston to retire to, but if you do, here’s one for you. The tab to provide crowd and traffic control at the new Preston … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I just love the way Whitehouse.gov looks now, on just about every level. And they have a blog, too, though as some people have noted, one without comments. Not that there’s anything terribly unusual about a commentless blog, mind you. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

As of today, we can stop saying “President-elect Obama” and start simply saying “President Obama”. I’m wearing a really goofy grin just typing those words. We can also finally start the really hard and long-term work of undoing the incredible … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Evan Smith has a brief essay in Newsweek in which he takes the position that Texas will not be truly competitive at the Presidential level until 2016 at the earliest. He invited people to argue with him on this; Democratic … Continue reading → Continue reading →

That does it. I don’t want to be President when I grow up any more. Sorry, Mr. President. Please surrender your BlackBerry. Those are seven words President-elect Barack Obama is dreading but expecting to hear, friends and advisers say, when … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The LA Times looks at the national coalition Barack Obama built in winning the Presidency and considers the next obvious target for expansion of the political battleground. Texas, the nation’s second-most-populous state and home to 34 electoral votes, was not … Continue reading → Continue reading →

It had been rumored for months, but today it happened: Former Secretary of State for President Bush Colin Powell has endorsed Barack Obama. “I think he is a transformational figure, he is a new generation coming onto the world stage, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I figure this Sunday we’ll see a bunch of Presidential endorsements, as it’s the day before early voting begins here. I don’t have any faith that Barack Obama will claim even one major paper recommendation in Texas, though I’m sure … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Andrew Sullivan notes that Texas Republican activist Kelly Shackleford is among the litigants in Alaska trying to forestall the Troopergate investigation. To which Evan Smith asks: Why the devil is a Texan — and a Texas-based organization — messing with … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Greg Sargent: The lengths the McCain campaign is going to in order to shield Sarah Palin from questioning are reaching truly comic dimensions. Check out this nugget from the pool report, via Jonathan Martin, on John McCain and Palin’s meeting … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The lawsuit by Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr to knock Barack Obama and John McCain off the ballot in Texas has been denied. The Texas Supreme Court has denied Libertarian presidential candidate’s Bob Barr attempt to keep the names John … Continue reading → Continue reading →

From the “Things That Should’t Matter But Probably Do Anyway” department, more people would rather watch football with Barack Obama than John McCain. One can only presume that this would also involve beer drinking, since as we know that is … Continue reading → Continue reading →

As we know, Libertarian candidate Bob Barr has filed a lawsuit claiming that Barack Obama and John McCain failed to meet a deadline for appearing on the Texas ballot, and thus should be excluded. He has now sought an emergency … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Sometimes the electoral season makes you sad. Sometimes it makes you giggle. I’m happy for those times. Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr sued the state of Texas today, claiming that Obama and McCain missed the state’s deadline to be certified … Continue reading → Continue reading →

For those of you who haven’t seen this yet: Pretty funny, but then that’s what you’d expect from Fey and Poehler This has to be manna from heaven for them. It’s so funny it apparently caused McCain surrogate Carly Fiorina … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Ron Paul says to his followers “Never give up, never surrender”. Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning, Houston-area congressman who waged a feisty Republican primary campaign for president, is expected today to urge supporters to reject the two major party candidates and … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Marc Ambinder tells us what Team McCain didn’t know about Sarah Palin before she became his soul mate. They’ve bragged that Palin opposed the famous “Bridge to Nowhere,” only to learn that Palin supported the project and even told residents … Continue reading → Continue reading →

What Ann Friedman says. That’s all I have to say on this topic. Continue reading →

I don’t spend a whole lot of time writing about national elections, as there are so many other fine sources for that analysis, and I don’t intend to spend too much time on today’s Presidential race news. But I do … Continue reading → Continue reading →

So John McCain has made his choice for Vice President: first-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. John McCain tapped little-known Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his vice presidential running mate today in a startling selection on the eve of the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

*slaps forehead* Who knew that the whole people-without-health-insurance thing could be solved so easily? Texas once again led the nation with the highest percentage of residents without health insurance, a U.S. Census Bureau report showed Tuesday, although the same study … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Yglesias: Joe Klein visited a focus group: “Change” as a theme is over. Too vague. And Obama’s rhetoric has begun to seriously cut against him. “No more oratory,” one woman said. “Give us details.” I always wonder about this stuff. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I feel pretty confident that John McCain will announce his pick for Vice President shortly – maybe tomorrow, maybe not – timed to distract as much attention from Barack Obama’s speech at the Democratic Convention as possible. But whether he … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Awhile back, some McCain surrogates were floating the idea that the Republican Presidential nominee would make a pledge to serve only one term in the White House. Whatever the merits of that idea, it appears to now be inoperative. John … Continue reading → Continue reading →

At long last, we have an answer. Barack Obama has ended an intense and highly secretive search for a vice-presidential nominee by settling on Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware–a choice calculated to offset some of the weaknesses in Obama’s own … Continue reading → Continue reading →

McCain not sure how many houses he and wife own. Don’t you hate it when you forget stuff like that? John McCain may have created his own housing crisis. Hours after a report that the Republican presidential nominee-in-waiting didn’t know … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Hope you’ve got your “Hail to the Chief” ringtone in place for that special text message from Barack Obama, because he’ll be naming his VP real soon now. Barack Obama and his newly named running mate will campaign together Saturday … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Awhile back, immigration-focused blog The Sanctuary (now at a new URL) sent a detailed questionnaire to John McCain and Barack Obama to ask them about their stances on immigration issues. What kind of a response did they get? With a … Continue reading → Continue reading →

So some surrogates for John McCain are floating the idea that he may take a one-term-only pledge. Rick Davis, appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” demurred three times when Chris Wallace raised the prospect that McCain may use the Republican convention … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Speaking of new frontiers for text messaging, here’s an email from the Barack Obama campaign of interest: Barack Obama is about to make one of the most important decisions of this campaign — choosing a running mate. You have helped … Continue reading → Continue reading →