McCain's VP Decision (Stuart Roy)

As the Democratic primary draws to a close, everyone is trying to look around the political corner to see what's next. To get ahead of the game I began writing this post a couple of weeks ago, but procrastination got in the way. Here is the lede I wrote about Rep. Eric Cantor (Va.) as a potential running mate on the Republican ticket:

"A few years ago if you asked the question of which Virginian might be the first to find his way to the White House, you might have said George Allen (R), Mark Warner (D) or maybe even Jim Gilmore (R). The now-obvious answer is Eric Cantor." > Read More

Archived under: Lawmaker News, Presidential Campaign
Post a Comment (8) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post


Share this post
      What's This

The Crossfit Candidate (Stuart Roy)

The hottest fitness craze (some say cult) is something called Crossfit that's been featured in numerous publications in the last few months, such as The New York Times and health magazines.

Crossfit bills itself as the toughest workout you'll ever do. Their slogans range from "Smoked Like Cheap Crack" to "Our Workout Can Beat Up Your Workout.” Or "Your Workout Is Our Warmup" and "Rest Later."

As a beginning Crossfitter, I can tell you this thing is brash, unapologetic and extremely challenging. A typical workout might be 100 pull-ups followed by 100 pushups and 100 squats. With a set of 100 situps to finish it off. Sometimes it will be 30 squat cleans (a power-lifting move), 30 pull-ups and an 800-meter run. Followed by a repeat of the whole thing. And then again for a third round. For time. > Read More

Archived under: Presidential Campaign
Post a Comment (8) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post


Share this post
      What's This

Disowning Your Grandmother (Stuart Roy)

The problem with being a politician is that you have to sometimes be, well, political. The best thing about being above the fray is that you are above the fray. The problem with being a politician who wants to be above the fray … Just read the above two sentences again.

Less than two months ago Barack Obama gave an eloquent defense of his pastor of more than 20 years. He told the nation he wants to lead that there was more to the man than the caricature that had been drawn of him. Many took that to show that Obama had political courage. The professional campaigners looked on it as a tactical error. > Read More

Archived under: Presidential Campaign
Post a Comment (18) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post


Share this post
      What's This

Clinton's Pennsylvania Landslide? (Stuart Roy)

Running now on Drudge is a banner that screams "CLINTON INTERNALS SHOW 11-POINT LEAD IN PA." Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) campaign has given some of its internal polling numbers to The Drudge Report. These numbers show a greater than 100 percent larger margin than the Real Clear Politics polling average for Pennsylvania in the Democratic primary.

Is this true? Could their numbers be correct? > Read More

Archived under: Presidential Campaign
Post a Comment (7) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post


Share this post
      What's This

Obama's Onion (Stuart Roy)

''You are not going to see me in parades on a Saturday down in Vidalia because that is not where the votes are and that's not where the fundraising will be," former gubernatorial candidate Guy Millner (R-Ga.) infamously told a group of university students on the campaign trail in 1994. (Vidalia population: 10,491. Georgia population: 4.6 million.)

The political firestorm of offended rural voters was textbook politics. The other candidates — Republican and Democrat — quickly pounced on the remark and trekked to Vidalia, Ga., for campaign events. Millner's campaign kept digging the hole deeper by accusing the other candidates of pandering. Then Millner offered a semi-apology, saying, "If I offended you or anyone else by the remarks attributed to me, I sincerely and humbly apologize." > Read More

Archived under: Presidential Campaign
Post a Comment (23) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post


Share this post
      What's This

The Monty Hall Paradox (Stuart Roy)

John Tierney has a mind-contorting piece in today's New York Times that explains the Monty Hall Paradox.

In it he explains how to beat the "Let's Make a Deal" system. In a typical show, the fabled host gives a contestant the choice of three doors where only one door has the sought-after prize, the other two offering nothing of real value. After the contestant chooses a door, Monty then opens one of the doors that does not contain the prize and gives the contestant the opportunity to switch doors.

What should the contestant do? By switching choices the contestant ditches their one out of three choice and substitutes the odds of being right into two out of three. > Read More

Archived under: Presidential Campaign
Post a Comment (7) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post


Share this post
      What's This

The Gullible Public, err … Pundit (Stuart Roy)

gul·li·ble [guhl-uh-buhl]
–adjective
easily deceived or cheated.
—Related forms
gul·li·bil·i·ty, noun
gul·li·bly, adverb
—Synonyms credulous, trusting, naive, innocent, simple, green.

(Source: Dictionary.com)

I try hard not to meet that definition. Especially in politics. Especially when it comes to the Clintons. But …

Mark Penn may be a fine individual. He may be brilliant. I've never met him. But he clearly screwed up when he tried to meet with Colombian officials about the U.S.-Colombian trade deal in his role as the head of Burson-Marsteller and somehow differentiate that from his role as the guru of the Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (D-N.Y.) campaign for president. > Read More

Archived under: Presidential Campaign
Post a Comment (3) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post


Share this post
      What's This

Democratic David Copperfields (Stuart Roy)

Poof! It disappeared without a trace. Then a wave of a wand. It reappeared in their opponents' hand. This week the Democrats lost — no, gave away — the single largest domestic political issue of this year, the mortgage and housing crisis.

Senators returned from their two-week break, where they heard an earful about the economic situation. They also saw the Fed bail out Bear Stearns. Now they were ready to deal on the housing bill the Senate had stifled just a few weeks before. Democrats were in the driver's seat.

What unfolded next was stunning. The bill began taking the shape of Republican legislation as Georgia's Sen. Johnny Isakson got a significant tax credit added. Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and Democratic Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) appeared at a press conference shoulder-to-shoulder to announce they had worked out a way for the bill to proceed. The Republicans garnered headlines of bipartisan cooperation. > Read More

Archived under: Lawmaker News
Post a Comment (7) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post


Share this post
      What's This

Countdown for Mrs. Clinton? (Stuart Roy)

The celebrated baseball statistician Bill James crossed over recently to put together a formula that can tell you with certainty when a basketball lead is permanently safe in any given game.

• Take the number of points one team is ahead.
• Subtract three.
• Add a half-point if the team that is ahead has the ball, and subtract a half-point if the other team has the ball. (Numbers less than zero become zero.)
• Square that.
• If the result is greater than the number of seconds left in the game, the lead is safe.
• (For those who really care, that means you can safely leave the game if your team is ahead by 17 with a little more than 3:00 to go.)

Someone will soon share the political equivalent of this formula with Hillary Clinton. Before the end of April the Democrats will have their nominee. No battling it out through the end of the primaries. No brokered convention. No credentialing battle. Hillary will drop out of the race during this cruelest month. > Read More

Archived under: Presidential Campaign
Post a Comment (13) Permalink TrackBack EMail This Post


Share this post
      What's This