"This was the voice of moderation until 13 Sept, 2025"
by publius Utah Governor Jon Huntsman continues to stake out a conspicuously moderate persona — this time in an ABC interview regarding Specter. At first glance, his tactics seem foolish for a potential 2012 candidate. "Conspicuous moderation" isn't exactly sweeping the GOP primary electorate by storm these days. But still, it's a smart strategy for … Read more
by publius Dave Weigel brings the snark to Bryon York's observation that Obama would be less popular if we pretend black people aren't part of America. Here's the part that I find rather baffling: On his 100th day in office, Barack Obama enjoys high job approval ratings, no matter what poll you consult. But if … Read more
by publius I'll have more to say on the Supreme Court's indecency decision later — though it was decided on narrow administrative law grounds, rather than on constitutional grounds. Briefly, though, the opinion illustrates once again (like Lawrence and Raisch) that Justice Scalia's worldview is shaped by a bitter and venomous resentment of what he … Read more
by publius The quest to say anything original about Specter may well be hopeless. There are only 8 million posts or so out there. But I’ll give it a shot – here are a few more scattered thoughts: Thanks Hillary Today’s flip further vindicates Clinton’s decision to fight it out to the bitter end in … Read more
by publius Memories… of the way we were…
by publius You've delivered Harry Reid his 60th Democrat. Specter is officially switching parties. UPDATE: Other than the pure schadenfreude, the best part of the switch is that the PA primary dynamics have now completely changed. Prior to today, Specter was being pulled unwillingly to the right by the pressure to win the median Republican … Read more
What follows is a guest post by Ruth A. Karron and Ruth R. Faden. Ruth A. Karron is the director of the Center for Immunization Research and Johns Hopkins Vaccine Initiative at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Ruth R. Faden is the executive director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. *** At … Read more
by publius It's nice to see Senator Collins scrambling to note her support for pandemic flu funding. And I'm sure she's telling the truth about that. The point of the Collins snark, though, wasn't so much to accuse her of endangering public health. It was to illustrate how utterly absurd and non-substantive her stimulus posturing … Read more
by publius Boy, this isn't going to age well (via Yglesias/Political Carnival). Here's Susan Collins in a press conference on February 5, 2009: And these decisions are difficult. For example, I think everybody in the room is concerned about pandemic flu. Does it belong in this bill? Should we have $870 million in this bill? … Read more
by publius I didn’t write about the Iowa gay marriage decision – largely because my tentative post seemed inappropriate. I was happy for people and didn’t want to rain on their parade. But the decision did pose a dilemma for me. On the one hand, I’ve generally been skeptical of using the judiciary to bring … Read more