I Don’t Think That Means What You Think It Means

From the Times:
The new report sheds light on the beliefs of the unaffiliated. Like the overwhelming majority of Americans, 70 percent of the unaffiliated said they believed in God, including one of every five people who identified themselves as atheist and more than half of those who identified as agnostic. [Emphasis added.]
Huh? Twenty percent of [...]

Expanding the Map, Part 4

Obama really is going to be playing in all 50 states. Burnt Orange Report says that David Axelrod has promised there will be 15 paid Obama staffers working in the state. As Ben Smith says:

That, plus, spending of, say, $10 million on ads — as somebody speculated yesterday, and I can’t find the link — [...]

While I’m at it

While I’m talking about Republicans in an Obama cabinet, there is one position above all others that it would make sense to me to fill with a Republican; the Attorney Generalship.
It is probably unlikely that Obama, with his focus on civil rights law and the general reluctance of Democrats to give up the position of [...]

Should Gates Stay On?

Joe Klein fleshes out an idea I’ve sort of been mulling over since Andrew Sullivan floated it a few weeks ago, that Robert Gates should stay on as Secretary of Defence in an Obama administration. The core of the argument is really pretty simple; Gates has done a pretty fantastic job as Secretary of Defense [...]

Weird Borders

Did you know there is a little part of Kentucky that is non-contiguous? I didn’t either, but via Waldo Jaquith I see that there is the odd little enclave, called the Kentucky Bend.
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Yep, that little bubble of Kentucky that is wedged in between Missouri and Tennessee is real. It was caused by the [...]

The Time for Sister Souljahs

Michael Cohen argues McCain needs a Sister Souljah moment:
Today, polls suggest that the American electorate prefers the Democratic Party on virtually every major domestic issue. If Barack Obama wanted to slap down a politically unhelpful liberal interest group he’d be hard pressed to find one. The same, however, cannot be said of the Republican Party [...]

Hillary’s Legacy

I’ve got to agree with Ezra Klein:

Insofar as Clinton’s campaign was a trailblazing, historic candidacy, it’s because it consciously sought to ease the way for those who would come after Clinton. By proving a woman could be commander-in-chief, by proving a woman could win primary states, by proving a women could out-campaign the guys, the [...]

Obama and the Value of Going Wide

One of the impressive things about the Obama campaign, and Democrats in general this cycle, is its aggressiveness in going after not just a win, but a wide, convincing win. Obama is doing this by actually implementing a 50 State Strategy, which is just about unprecedented in modern campaigning. Democrats in the Senate are going [...]

Biden for Veep?

I think Ezra Klein is largely right in his case for Joe Biden as Vice President.
In the 2008 election, he was the only Democrat who really figured out how to talk about Republicans and foreign policy. All the other candidates on the stage started from the presumption that Republicans were strong on national security, and [...]

Expanding the Map, Part 3

One of the potential benefits to Republicans of John McCain’s candidacy was supposed to be his appeal to Hispanic voters. After the GOP has spent much of the last 4 years trying their hardest to alienate the fastest growing block of voters in the country, McCain was supposed to be able to reach out to [...]