Obama wonks on the trail

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Wednesday January 09, 2008 · 7:54 PM PST

2008/01/09 · 19:54

Over at Balloon Juice, John Cole makes a substantive but not wholly accurate point that Obama "is not selling himself on [his] policies or positions... I like Obama just fine, but if you think he is gonna make it through a general election doing nothing but 'elevating' you with crap about 'change' and 'hope,' you are fooling yourself."

While I agree that in the past four weeks Obama has relied a bit too much on themes of "change" and "hope," he positively bored audiences throughout 2007 with policy specifics. And so as the meme is developing that Obama is all sizzle and no steak, he has to publicly re-introduce his inner wonk, at least up to a point.

I'm here to help. (Disclaimer: I am not a paid staff member for Obama, but I have given him money.) For those of you who forgot, or never knew to begin with -- go figure, the press rarely reports on the substance of policy speeches -- here's some recent history.

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Sunday October 21, 2007 · 9:03 PM PDT

2007/10/21 · 21:03

If you ever needed more reason to support Edwards or Obama -- or Dodd, who has of late led on Constitutional issues -- here's one: the Clinton campaign is utilizing the Drudge Report as a key propaganda outlet.

typical of a campaign with a reputation for exploiting every advantage and trying to neutralize every disadvantage, Mrs. Clinton's communications team, led by Howard Wolfson, is not leaving Mr. Drudge to the Republicans. Five current and former Democratic officials said Mrs. Clinton has on her side the closest thing her party has ever had to Mr. Rhoades in Tracy Sefl, a former Democratic National Committee official, who has established a friendly working relationship with Mr. Drudge — and through whom Mrs. Clinton's campaign often worked quietly to open a line of communication.

Well, hey, this is smart, right? Diplomacy is all about neutralizing your enemies, and even getting them into your camp. From where I sit, though, this is not about bringing Drudge into Camp Hillary. Rather, it's about playing the game on his turf, and not hers -- or ours.

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Wednesday December 14, 2005 · 10:54 AM PST

2005/12/14 · 10:54

John Harris may allege that the title of Dan Froomkin's washingtonpost.com column invites confusion, but when it comes to the Plame affair and the WMD scandal, it seems the Washington Post Political Editor either doesn't understand the basic issues or will not separate fact from spin.

Let's take first this shockingly casual shrug at the media's supine obsequiousness prior to the war. Embedded in this quote (from a Post online chat transcript on Oct. 20) is a misrepresentation of what journalism should be about. Read More

IL-06: Roskam default GOP nominee

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Saturday July 16, 2005 · 7:42 AM PDT

2005/07/16 · 07:42

The Chicago Tribune is reporting that state Sen. Carole Pankau and former DuPage County Recorder J.P. "Rick" Carney have withdrawn from the race. This leaves
DeLay supporter Peter Roskam, another as the presumptive nominee.

Strange tidbit in this story, though: Read More

Bush's side of the story

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Tuesday June 28, 2005 · 10:31 PM PDT

2005/06/28 · 22:31

The administration is again complaining, albeit implicitly, that the SCLM is stomping on Bush's Iraq policy out of malice or carelessness, overlooking the "good news" in Iraq. Per the Washington Post coverage of Bush's speech:

Bush's speech offered nothing new in policy or strategy but instead reframed an argument that the president's advisers believe has not been presented adequately to most Americans... "You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know it [was] time to address this issue," one official said. "We have to get our side of the story out... and make our case."

Thanks to the miracle of Google, we can see whether the argument holds that the Bush administration isn't getting their side of the story out. Read More

Edwards, Dean, and RFK

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Sunday January 25, 2004 · 1:52 AM PST

2004/01/25 · 01:52

Edwards is running an interesting campaign right now. For months he harped on the "son of a mill worker" theme, to little effect. But since the turn of the year he's sounded two new themes. Read More

More Lying Liars Lies (NY Times)

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Friday January 23, 2004 · 3:42 PM PST

2004/01/23 · 15:42

As if you needed more proof of the NY Times' decline, check out today's top two headlines and particularly their associated summaries (see below for screen capture). The first is all woe for the Democrats, and in one broad brush stroke implies they're all faltering and are under heavy pressure to "correct course." President Bush is by contrast the bringer of "powerful themes." Read More

Profiling and lazy stereotypes from the WaPo

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Saturday January 17, 2004 · 7:25 PM PST

2004/01/17 · 19:25

The Washington Post published a minor but disgustingly lazy article called How Donations Depict Donors. It's more proof (if you need it) that the press too often lazily outsource analytical work, then report it as fact without subjecting the analysis to even basic standards.

By starting with incomplete data and refusing to add multivariant data to the mix, the net effect of this "analysis" is to misleadingly stereotype a candidates' supporters by wealth, class, and lifestyle. Read More

More on the Musharraf

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Tuesday December 16, 2003 · 3:10 AM PST

2003/12/16 · 03:10

As a nuclear power with a very long history of coups, coup attempts and assassinations, Pakistan is a very worrisome problem. It's bad enough they're the world's worst nuclear proliferator -- it was they who gave N Korea uranium in exchange for missle technology, after all -- but the state police propped up the Taliban and nuclear scientists are said to be close to Islamist radicals.

It's weird to pray for a proliferating dictator's safety, but right now, that's the conventional realpolitick stance; understandable, given the alternatives. But things don't look good in that direction.

Billmon suggested the attempt on Musharraf's life could have been an inside job, noting a Wall Street Journal report that "Since the past assassination attempts, [Musharraf's] movements have been kept highly secret." Now the NY Times reports that the bomb, a huge 800 pounder strapped under a bridge, was planted smack in the middle of a key military zone: Read More

How Can Kerry Save His Campaign? (w/ poll)

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Sunday December 07, 2003 · 5:00 AM PST

2003/12/07 · 05:00

Eric Alterman reports that John Kerry met with him on Thursday in New York, along with "with a dozen and a half journalists, writers and the odd historian, poet and cartoonist" to discuss the "Kerry Conundrum": how to right his flailing, deflating candidacy.

If Kerry himself proposed an idea, Alterman doesn't mention it. But Art Spiegelman tossed out a novel idea: Take responsibility for your actions and admit you were wrong. Read More

AP: Gephardt Aide Threatens Unions

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Wednesday December 03, 2003 · 9:54 PM PST

2003/12/03 · 21:54

Gephardt himself didn't have anything to do with this, but aide Joyce Aboussie threatened to undermine Missouri state workers' collective bargaining rights if AFSCME and SEIU campaign for Dean in Missouri.

Obviously there's going to be tension when different unions stump for different candidates, particularly on a candidates' home turf. But it appears that Aboussie crossed way over the line with what essentially amounts to blackmail -- and a pretty ugly form of it, too. Read More

Bush Setting Up Iraq Civil War?

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Tuesday December 02, 2003 · 11:15 PM PST

2003/12/02 · 23:15

In an alarming development, Paul Bremer has managed to strongarm the US-appointed Governing Council into supporting their complex, undemocratic, and even unrepresentative plan for a transfer of power.

This contradicts Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani's demand for national democratic elections. I imagine Sistani read up on Bush v. Gore, saw the danger in a hand-selected government, and decided his country deserved better. To no avail, apparently.

"We are facing a very tense situation, perhaps the most tense since the end of the war," one of the council's Shiite members said. "None of us want a confrontation, but we have to realize we are traveling down a road that could lead to a very big confrontation." Read More

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Obama wonks on the trail

Clinton's "friendly working relationship" with Drudge

John Harris's Distortions of Fact

IL-06: Roskam default GOP nominee

Bush's side of the story

Edwards, Dean, and RFK

More Lying Liars Lies (NY Times)

Profiling and lazy stereotypes from the WaPo

More on the Musharraf

How Can Kerry Save His Campaign? (w/ poll)

AP: Gephardt Aide Threatens Unions

Bush Setting Up Iraq Civil War?