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The Anti-Republican Who Is Really a Republican
September 5, 2008
ST. PAUL – In the eighth year of Republican dominance of the executive branch of the federal government, after an extended period in which Republicans also controlled the legislative branch of the same federal government, the party's nominee for president told its convention, "We need to change the way government does almost everything: from the way we protect our security to the way we compete in the world economy; from the way we respond to disasters to the way we fuel our transportation network; from the way we train our workers to the way we educate our children."
Never in recent American history has the candidate of a party seeking to maintain its hold on the presidency seen its candidate so aggressively dismiss the legacy of the incumbent commander-in-chief and his allies.
John McCain, the man George Bush so brutally beat for the Republican nomination in 2000, accepted that nomination in 2008 by declaring himself to be at war with Bush and Bushism.
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Ratings Race: Can McCain Beat Palin?
September 4, 2008
ST. PAUL -- The numbers are in for Sarah Palin's Republican National Convention speech, and they're pretty remarkable.
Some 37.2 million viewers watched Palin deliver a sharp, frequently sarcastic address in which she identified herself as a a pit-bull wearing lipstick. And she was biting at Barack Obama's heels.
While Palin's speech was shown on just six television networks -- as opposed to the ten that featured Obama's speech last Thursday night to the Democratic National Convention -- the Republican candidate for vice president attracted almost as many viewers as did the Democratic candidate for president.
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Spiro T. Palin
September 4, 2008
ST. PAUL – Forty years ago, mounting a comeback campaign after losing a presidential race eight years earlier, Richard Nixon secured the Republican nomination and then selected as his running-mate a former local official who had served a scant twenty months as the governor of a small state.
The choice was questioned by pundits and mocked by Democrats. They called the vice presidential nominee: "Spiro Who?"
But when Maryland Governor Spiro T. Agnew hit the campaign trail, he did so as "Nixon's Nixon" – the attack dog the party needed to take the opposition apart while making the Republican presidential nominee look presidential.
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Sarah Palin Owns the Hall, But What About the Country?
September 3, 2008
ST. PAUL – Say what you will about Sarah Palin.
Love her or despise her, celebrate or denounce her, but recognize this: The governor of Alaska has not just electrified the conservative base of a bruised and battered Republican party.
The woman who would be John McCain's vice president has super-charged a convention that until Wednesday night seemed lost and listless.
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This Is Sarah Palin's Convention
September 3, 2008
ST. PAUL – Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will on Wednesday night deliver the most anticipated address to a national party convention in decades.
And Mary Buestrin can't wait.
"Our people are pumped," says the Republican National Committeewoman from Wisconsin, the state that former White House political czar Karl Rove this week described to delegates as the most evenly divided along lines of red and blue in the country. "This is Sarah Palin's introduction to America. If she gets it right, and I think she will, her speech will give Republicans the boost we need to win this election. This is such a big deal"
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Lieberman's Partisan "Bipartisanship"
September 3, 2008
ST. PAUL – The most militantly conservative Republican National Convention in the history of the republic cheered itself hoarse Tuesday night for a pro-choice, pro-civil rights, pro-labor, pro-environment champion of anti-global warming initiatives who hailed the accomplishments of Bill Clinton's presidency.
Such are the vagaries of this strangest of all national conventions that it was a member of the Senate Democratic Caucus who finally focused the attention and energy of the gathering on the campaign to prevail in what he described as "no ordinary election."
And such are the vagaries of Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman's strangest of all political journeys that the man who just eight years ago accepted the Democratic nomination for the vice presidency on Tuesday night, endorsed a Republican candidate for president with whom Lieberman disagrees on many issues and a Republican candidate for vice president with whom he disagrees on almost every issue.
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It's Palin's Party, Not McCain's
September 2, 2008
ST. PAUL – Sarah Palin says she is "proud" that her 17-year-old daughter, who is five months pregnant, has made a "decision to have her baby."
Foes of abortion rights are celebrating the decision.
Richard Land, the president of the Southern Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the 16-million-member Southern Baptist Convention, says, ``The Palin family, in making this choice to affirm life and affirm the baby, is giving a pro-life stance."
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Thousands March Against War & McCain
September 1, 2008
ST. PAUL -- "We are the troops!" chanted the Iraq War veterans.
"How do you support us? their comrades responded.
"Bring us home!" came the response.
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Labor Day: Obama Returns to Union Heartlands
September 1, 2008
ST. PAUL -- Barack Obama will return to the traditional heartlands of the American trade union movement on this Labor Day, marching in and speaking at the close of the annual Labor Day Parade in Detroit and then flying later to a huge LaborFest celebration in Milwaukee.
The Detroit appearance brings the Democratic nominee back to the spot where the party's presidential candidates historically began their fall campaigns.
It was in Detroit in 1960 that a young John Kennedy, who had defeated labor-favorite Hubert Humphrey in that year's Democratic primaries, won over union members with a speech that embraced the union movement with a passion and a precision that helped him to win the confidence of working-class voters.
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Palin on Ron Paul "Right On!" Campaign
September 1, 2008
In a February interview with MTV, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin lavished praise on maverick Republican presidential contender Ron Paul.
She had a few nice things to say about another GOP candidate, Mitt Romney.
But Palin made no mention of John McCain.
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Convention News & Analysis »
John Nichols
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