Politics

Every hurricane season, Haitians at home and abroad gird themselves for the inevitable loss of life that comes with the torrential rains and winds. But this season has been especially hard, as one storm after another has battered the island, leaving death and destruction in their wake. Tropical Storm Fay struck in mid-August. Hurricane Gustav…

It’s difficult to remember just how ho-hum the political stakes felt in the 1990s, a time when our country’s prosperity and stability made leadership seem secondary to things like ideology, faith and personality. People who came of age in that era could still debate deep, academic questions like whether history is shaped by the person…

So we wake up this morning to a Web ad from the McCain-Palin campaign accusing Barack Obama of sexism. It is a swift and superb effort and, from what we know about these things and the political climate in which we live, likely to be effective. It is a quick and dirty piece of television…

“He was wearing my Harvard tie. Can you believe it—my Harvard tie? Like, ‘Oh, sure,’ he went to Harvard.” —Winthorpe (Dan Aykroyd) from Trading Places (1983) All summer long, John McCain has been selling the idea that a guy who graduated at the top of his Harvard Law class, who went from living on food…

Here is the nightmare scenario: Nov. 1, 2008, Barack Obama is leading in the national polls by a comfortable margin. Nov. 4, 2008, he loses the election, either by a whisker or by a margin large enough to suggest that it was never really close. All indications are that the loss will be blamed on…

Fundamental to the marketing of any brand is the establishment of trust: A brand builds trust when promises are met and destroys that trust when promises are broken. It’s a fact of life in retail and true in the world of retail politics. Barack Obama has been busy trying to improve the Democratic Party brand.…

During his first term, his nicknames in the local media ran the gamut: “Big Diamond,” “thug,” “pimp,” “player,” “Kwame Soprano,” “Swami,” “his thugness,” “ghetto,” “gangsta,” “inept club crawler,” “hustler,” “Puffy Kilpatrick.” Often it was just plain ole Kwame—the reverent title of “Mayor,” “Mr. Mayor” or “Mr. Kilpatrick” chucked aside. Back then, stereotypical characterizations like that…

In a moment of unusual candor for a political professional, John McCain’s campaign manager Rick Davis admitted earlier this week, “This election is not about issues. This election is about a composite view of what people take away from these candidates.” Cynical as the sentiment may sound, he may well be right. Now that the…

She wasn’t Hillary Clinton. Sarah Palin did many of the things she needed to do last night. She established herself as a politician with gumption, a candidate who would not shy away from battle, a conservative who would carry her small-town ideals to the corridors of Washington. She billed herself as an advocate: for special-needs…

Sen. McCain’s vice presidential pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has injected some much-needed energy into the Republican campaign. The risky but potentially game-changing selection provides a choice to the white and Hispanic female swing voters who may be decisive in this year’s election. Will they make Sen. Barack Obama the first black president? Or…