Category Archives: Electoral Politics

Smart is Not Enough

1/15/2009 – 11:07 am

I’m in Washington, DC this week and the town reels already with inauguration fever, even as the temperature plunges. As I type, a flatbed truck bearing 12 port-o-sans drives past the window, headed for the National Mall, there to await the expected millions next Tuesday. At least this week, the capital’s homeless will find a […]

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Headed for Trouble

12/11/2008 – 11:36 am

Shortly after he was nominated as Barack Obama’s running mate, reporters overheard Joe Biden speaking with a National Guardsman. “If I had your hair, I’d be president, you know what I mean?” Mr. Biden said. “I wouldn’t be screwing around with this job.” Mr. Biden, long known for working the border between candor and too […]

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The Fightin’ Fifth!

11/6/2008 – 10:01 am

I spent 13 hours at my local polling place Tuesday. No, it didn’t take that long to vote. I volunteered to help out for a few hours, but the crowd was so big that I stayed for a few more and then a few more after that. Since I was the newbie on the poll […]

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Return to Normal

10/30/2008 – 11:52 am

It’s cold again. The furnace kicked on again this week, although we still wear sweaters in the house. The storm windows are up and the first snow storm of the year just missed us. The Adirondack Mountains to the west and the Green Mountains to the east both got hit Tuesday, but here the valley; […]

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Close Enough To Steal?

10/23/2008 – 10:03 am

I feel like I’m in uncharted electoral waters. I remember Bill Clinton’s decisive victory over Bob Dole in 1996 and indications point to a larger margin of victory this time. I remember Nixon’s 1972 landslide over George McGovern, but I was 11, I don’t remember the details and I certainly don’t remember what the last […]

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The Real McCain

10/9/2008 – 9:48 am

I hate to keep doing this, because I think it’s unfair to Barack Obama, but I can’t help it. I keep seeing, in this campaign, shades of the 1992 Bush/Quayle-Clinton/Gore matchup. In the last month of the ’92 campaign, with a sluggish economy controlling the debate, the Republican candidate was falling behind in the polls. […]

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“My Hot Little Hand”

9/25/2008 – 8:29 am

It was an evening in the mid-1970s and I was riding with my dad in his pickup. The AM radio was tuned to 1180 WHAM and Ed Hasbrouck’s talk show was on. The topic was the American economy, which at that moment wasn’t doing very well. Ed was recalling the bank failures of the Great […]

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