13. Final Filibuster Watch: November 1
November 1, 2008 Mac Zilber With three days to go until the election, the Democrats have their best chance of getting 58-59 seats that they've had all year, but 60 seats could be a bit of a challenge. All of the seats I'm about to talk about are vulnerable Republican-held seats, as there are no vulnerable seats held by Democrats, and non-vulnerable seats ...
14. Allies of Lieber Compare Supporters of Pilch, Thomsen, and Javandel to Karl Rove
October 30, 2008
Mac Zilber
Note: The following article is an opinion piece, as are all posts in "The Muse." If you wish to criticize the content of the article, be my guest, but please maintain civility in the comments board. You are dealing with other people, after all.
Politics ...
15. Elisabeth Dole Serves Up The Nastiest October Surprise of the Season
October 29, 2008 Mac Zilber It's a time-honored tradition in politics to smear your opponent with false rumors or fearmongering in the days preceding an election, with the theory being that there is no chance for the candidate to rebut the charges. Mitt Romney and John McCain traded hits in the days leading up to Florida, and Hillary Clinton's eleventh hour "3 ...
16. Rashid Khalidi; The Most Reprehensible Smear Yet
October 29, 2008 Mac Zilber John McCain's campaign has sunk to a new low in their guilt-by-association games. Their campaign is now entirely focused on a man named Rashid Khalidi with whom Obama had dinner more than five years ago. No, Khalidi is not a radical, nor is he a terrorist, he's just an average professor. At least with the Ayers smear, ...
17. ATF Foils Obama “Assassination Attempt”
October 27, 2008 Mac Zilber Today, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms announced that they had foiled a plot to assassinate Barack Obama. A group of neo-nazi skinheads were planning to attempt to shoot 88 black people, decapitate 14, and then kill Barack Obama as some sort of final act. This particular threat came a month and a half after reports ...
18. Senator Ted Stevens Found Guilty on 7 Felonies
October 27, 2008 Mac Zilber Alaskan senator Ted Stevens was found guilty today on seven corruption charges, and could face up to five years in jail for each charge for which he was found guilty. This is not just interesting from the perspective of a powerful politician being brought down by the justice system, but it is interesting because of the fact ...
19. Fillibuster Watch: October 25
October 25, 2008 Mac Zilber There has been little movement in senate races over the past week. The only change I am going to make on the list is to move Al Franken's race in Minnesota from "Tossup" to "Leans Democratic," as he has taken a pretty consistent lead. "Gimme States" - Colorado, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Virginia "Leaners" - North Carolina, Minnesota, ...
20. Obama begins to be endorsed by numerous prominent Republicans
Mac Zilber Everybody has heard about the Colin Powell endorsement by now, but the less-covered story since is the quantity of prominent conservatives who have been endorsing Barack Obama, including one McCain advisor who announced his support today. This thread will be used to track notable endorsements that Obama has received from candidates outside of his party (I'd do the same ...
21. Huey Long vs. Herbert Hoover; McCain’s tactical misstep
October 24, 2008 Mac Zilber McCain’s Biggest Error Today the New York Times released some interesting poll numbers that lend insight as to why the race is going the way it’s going. 59% of the country believes that McCain’s policies favor the rich, compared to 62% who believe Obama’s policies will favor the middle class or treat all the same. Now part of ...
22. Battlegrounds vs. National Polls; The Money Advantage
October 23, 2008 Mac Zilber Today, Obama led by only 5, 4, 7, 1, and 4 points in 5 of the major national trackers. While this is a cushion that is enough to win with, it is several points off his peak numbers. Despite underwhelming national tracking numbers, Obama had arguably his best polling day of the entire campaign. Big Ten released ...
23. McCain “concedes” 5 more swing states
October 21, 2008 Mac Zilber One Path To Victory Remains for McCain John McCain's campaign has announced that it will not spend any more money in five Obama-leaning swing states swing-states: Colorado, Maine, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and New Hampshire. When added to the campaign's similar concession in Michigan weeks ago, this means that John McCain now is spending money in only one Kerry state: ...
24. The Greek Tragedy of Robert Lieber
Mac Zilber As my readers know, I'm not the type of person who tries to conceal my biases. I am of the school of thought that every journalist has biases, and that by trying to pretend they don't exist, we mislead people much more than simply telling people up front what our opinion is. I am a very progressive, very green ...