Posts by John Nichols

John Nichols writes about politics for The Nation magazine as its Washington correspondent.

McCain's VP Pick: A Sarah Palin Head-Fake?
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on August 28, 2008 at 4:18 PM.

Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota says he will spending this day at the Minnesota State Fair. And now we hear that he has gotten the "sorry, pal" call from John McCain.

Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge was in suburban Washington this morning, grabbing a cup of coffee and heading out to get a haircut.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is getting ready to deal with another hurricane.

And Mitt Romney's not coming to Dayton, to which John McCain will quietly mutter, "Yippie!"

This morning, there was a great big buzz in the Dayton area, where presumptive Republican presidential candidate McCain is to announce his running-mate, about a private plane that arrived last night from Alaska.

John McCain and his campaign have sent a lot of signals about wanting to put a woman on the ticket.

Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin is not just a woman but, at 44, she is young enough to be McCain's daughter.

Palin's a smart, edgy pol who is exceptionally popular in Alaska. She's a conservative with a reputation as a reformer -- which has been somewhat tainted by scandals associated with her office.

Palin's married to a native Alaskan Yup'ik (an Eskimo people of western and southwestern Alaska), she's got a kid in the Army, she likes to hunt and fish, eats moose burgers, and has taken on establishment Republicans to elbow her way onto the political stage.

Palin would have been a smart if risky choice for McCain.

But, according to Palin's Washington office, she's still in Alaska.

So maybe we just saw the Sarah Palin head-fake.

Or maybe the head-fake was the suggestion that she isn't in the running.

Or maybe...

For the McCain camp, the back-and-forth is already serving a purpose.

The prospect of a surprise selection got all the cable networks to flip their coverage over from analyzing Barack Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention and over to the speculation about McCain's VP pick.

Will Hillary Clinton Release her Delegates?
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on August 25, 2008 at 12:00 AM.

Will Hillary Clinton's name actually be placed in nomination for the presidency on the third day of the Democratic National Convention?

And if the senator's name is placed in nomination, will there be an actual roll-call vote? Or will a call be made for the nomination of Barack Obama by acclamation?

Those are the last open questions of the convention that will open Monday in Denver.

On Wednesday afternoon, at 1 p.m., Clinton will gather her delegates, alternates and allies at the Colorado Convention Center.

A crowd of 5,000 is expected, according to Clinton aides and allies.

Clinton could issue a call to arms. And she has an agreement with the Obama campaign to go forward with the nomination and roll-call.

But Clinton and her aides are worried.

Many of her delegates have formally endorsed Obama, and more than a few plan to vote for him on that first ballot.

There is open discussion in the Clinton camp about what the embarrassment level might be?

What if her vote were to fall below the 1,219 secured by the Rev. Jesse Jackson at the 1988 Democratic National Convention?

Or the 596 that former California Governor Jerry Brown received at the 1992 convention -- the last to see nominations and a roll-call involving challengers to the eventual nominee?

Clinton is unlikely to risk it.

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VEEPWATCH: Obama Winning High-Stakes Expectations Game
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on August 22, 2008 at 12:41 PM.

Barack Obama is winning the vice presidential race.

No, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president is not preparing to flip his ticket position. He's winning the fight for the centerstage position that a well-managed roll-out of a veep prospect affords a president candidate.

Obama's got everyone waiting to learn the identity of his selection of a running mate for the 2008 Democratic ticket.

Television crews have cameras stationed outside the homes of the "possibles" and even some of the "impossibles." They're at the airport with cameras aimed at Obama's campaign plane.

It's a classic Obama Drama.

And guess who is watching most closely?

John McCain, the man Republicans will run against Obama in the fall.

Of the two major-party presidential contenders, McCain is the advantaged player in this high-stakes poker game.

The Republican gets to see the Democrat's hand hefore he has to show his own.

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Ron Paul Gets Best Primary Finish Yet
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on May 30, 2008 at 10:50 AM.

After Hillary Clinton wraps up her campaign and Barack Obama stakes his uncontested claim on the Democratic presidential nomination -- something that could happen as soon as next week -- John McCain will still have a race on his hands for the Republican nod.

Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who is running an anti-war, libertarian-themed challenge to the GOP establishment,refuses to quit.

Indeed, Paul is running better now than when the media was paying attention to the race for the GOP nod.

In Idaho, which held its primary Tuesday, Paul won almost a quarter of the vote -- his best percentage so far this year.

Final returns give Arizona Senator McCain just 70 percent support from Idaho Republicans -- not a very impressive figure for a man who has been the presumptive party nominee since February.

Paul, who has made it clear that he does not intend to endorse McCain, took 24 percent.

Six percent picked "uncommitted" -- in other words, nobody -- over McCain.

Paul gains five delegates from Idaho, adding to the base his campaign hopes to use to force platform debates at this summer's Republican National Convention in St. Paul.

And Paul's not done yet.

He's been to Montana, where he has attracted big-name endorsements and substantial support for his effort to finish strong in the state's "beauty contest" primary on June 3. Paul's also got a campaign going in South Dakota, which votes the same day. And his supporters are packing state conventions in other states, still seeking to win delegates -- and, with them, to make the GOP convention a whole lot more interesting than the Democratic gathering.

Obama Claims Delegate Victory; Clinton Stays In
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on May 21, 2008 at 5:00 AM.

Barack Obama may have reached what he describes as "a major milestone on this journey" up the 2008 campaign trail. The senator from Illinois has now secured a majority of the "pledged" delegates to be chosen in the party's primaries and caucuses.

Citing that achievement, Obama told wildly cheering supporters in Des Moines that he was now "within reach of the Democratic nomination for president of the United States of America."

But Hillary Clinton is not going to let him grab the prize this week.

The lady is not quitting this contest just yet.

The pressure on Clinton to finish her run for the Democratic presidential nomination has been intense. And it will get more intense now that the results from Tuesday's primaries in Kentucky (a loss for the Illinoisan) and Oregon (a win for the Illinoisan) have given Obama that pledged-delegate majority. The senator from New York's keeping her campaign afloat by writing checks out of her own account. And she's watching from the sidelines as Obama and Republican John McCain launch their fall campaigns against one another.

But there is one ironclad rule when it comes to races for presidential nominations: You don't quit when you are winning primaries.

And Clinton has won another primary by a lopsided margin.

The former first lady took 65 percent of the vote in Kentucky to just 30 percent for Obama -- almost as overwhelming win as she secured last week in West Virginia. That victory had her crowing Tuesday night that, "It's not just the Kentucky bluegrass that music to my ears -- it's the sound of your overwhelming vote of confidence even in the face of tough odds."

"You've never given up on me, because you know I've never given up on you," told her cheering supporters in a speech that will be repeated as she moves her campaign on to Puerto Rico (where she should do well) and the last primary states of Montana and South Dakota (where Obama's probably a little ahead).

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Kennedy's Fight and the Democratic Void
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on May 20, 2008 at 12:46 PM.

The big political story today will not come from Oregon or Kentucky.

It has arrived, already, from Boston.

Ted Kennedy is seriously ill. The seizures he suffered over the weekend were related to a malignant brain tumor that, depending on its seriousness, could end his tenure in the Senate.

Doctors treating the senior Senator announced today that "preliminary results from a biopsy of the brain identified the cause of the seizure as a malignant glioma in the left parietal lobe." Translation: the 76-year-old champion of civil right, labor rights, health care, education and a sane foreign policy is heading into the most serious fight of his life. A doctor says, "The usual course of treatment for Kennedy's type of tumor includes radiation and chemotherapy."

How successful that treatment will be depends on how advanced his condition has become.

Kennedy is reportedly "in good spirits and full of energy." And it is probably fair to say that if anyone can beat a tumor, it is this epic persona. But Kennedy, who has been a critical player in defining liberal Democratic politics for better part of fifty years, is likely to be sidelined at what will be an essential moment for the causes and ideals he has promoted for so very long.

Democrats are on the march, poised to gain control of both the White House and the Congress for the first time since 1994--and, perhaps, for the first extended period since Kennedy came to Congress in the 1960s.

His candidate for President, Barack Obama, is about to secure the Democratic nomination. Voters in Oregon are expected to give the Illinois senator a solid win tonight, while voters in Kentucky back New York Senator Hillary Clinton. When all is said and done, Obama will move to within touching distance of the nomination.

That nomination, which will come by acclamation, will be made at this summer's convention in Denver.

Since 1972, Kennedy has delivered the loudest, the boldest and often the most moving addresses at the quadrennial gatherings of what is in so many senses his party.

The question, today, is whether the liberal lion can roar once more at a Democratic National Convention.

The hope, surely, is that he will.

Obama-Backing Edwards Elbows Aside Clinton
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on May 15, 2008 at 3:52 AM.

It was a weary and wistful Hillary Clinton who sat down with CNN's Wolf Blitzer and other network anchors for extended interviews in the middle of the day Wednesday. She knew that, no matter what she said, and how well she said it, it would not be enough.

Like the coronation march that her 2008 campaign was supposed to be, her latest gambit would be trumped by Barack Obama's juggernaut.

Yes, she had just been handed a face-saving landslide win by West Virginia Democrats, beating Obama by more than 2-1 in an honest-to-goodness swing state. But Clinton did not seem to be fighting very hard on a day when her senior campaign adviser, Harold Ickes, was disptached to Capitol Hill to reassure congressional supporter that the former frontrunner would remain in the race through June 3.

Clinton used her precious spotlight time to defend Obama as a friend of Israel, describe his supporters as people who thought he would be the best president and promised to "work my heart out for whoever our nominee is." Indeed, if she made news Wednesday, it was with a seeming show of openness to an as-yet-unoffered place on an Obama-led ticket. Clinton did not dismiss the vice-presidential talk – and she certainly did not resort to the old dig of suggesting she might have a place on her ticket for the senator from Illinois – she simply it was "premature" to talk about what she would be doing after her campaign was done.

Perhaps it was. But only by a few hours.

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John McCain: Eco-Warrior
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on May 13, 2008 at 8:19 AM.

Yikes, it's really true. John McCain is running for president as a tree-hugging liberal.

No, not an all-the-time environmentalist -- rather, as a swing-state-savvy, targeted-message-peddling, hoping-to-pick-up- the-votes-of-lifestyle-liberals-who-want-to-address-climate- change-on-the-cheap murky-shade-of-green Republican.

So, today, in the battleground state of Oregon, where a reverence for the outdoors requires that Republican contenders greenwash their appeals, McCain's campaign will begin airing a new television commercial that essentially says: "Look, I'm not like George Bush and Dick Cheney. I don't live in la-la land when it comes to global warming. I actually believe in something I like to call 'science.'"

The senator -- who broke a little bit with Bush and Cheney on environmental issues, but who never really lined up with the serious Republican environmentalists who were isolated by the administration and burn-the-planet GOP leaders like Tom DeLay -- is reinforcing the message with a major campaign swing through the northwest, where he hopes to put the sometimes swinging states of Oregon and Washington in play by presenting himself as John McCain: Eco-Warrior.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee swept into Portlandon Monday to deliver a major address outlining his plan to "re-establish America's environmental leadership in the world." Here's a hint about how he'll do it: The McCain campaign says the candidates wants to "mobilize market forces."

That may sound good, but as Gene Karpinski, the president of the bipartisan League of Conservation Voters, says, "To his credit, Senator McCain wants to do something serious about global warming, but his proposal falls far short of what the science says we need to do today. He has not substantively improved his plan over the bill he introduced years ago -- legislation that the science now shows is out of date."

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Barack Obama's Very Good Primary Night
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on May 7, 2008 at 3:47 AM.

The last really good primary night for Barack Obama was February 19, when the senator from Illinois won the Wisconsin primary by a 58-41 margin.

Since then, the candidate who has been on the verge of claiming the Democratic presidential nomination for so very long has struggled to "close the deal."

He did not close it Tuesday night.

But he did have his best finish since February. And that finish all but assures that this most unlikely presidential contender will soon secure the nomination of his party.

The headlines may suggest that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton split Tuesday's primaries in North Carolina and Indiana -- with North Carolina for Obama and Indiana for Clinton.

But it was not an even split.

As Obama secured a landslide win in North Carolina, Clinton barely prevailed in her firewall state of Indiana.

In North Carolina, Obama was ahead 56-42. His popular vote advantage was more than 230,000.

In Indiana, Clinton squeezed out a 50.5 to 49.5 win. Her popular vote advantage was barely 20,000.

Bottom Line No. 1: Obama has come out of a night that was supposed to be a mixed one for him with a solid boost in his delegate total. He now leads Clinton by almost 150 pledged delegates and the gap is widening.

Bottom Line No. 2: Barack Obama has finished the night with a tremendous improvement in his popular vote total -- a boost so significant that it now seems all but certain that he will finish the primary competition with an overall popular-vote advantage.

That's very bad news for Clinton, who really needed to narrow the margin in the delegate race and improve her popular vote position if she was going to make an effective appeal to wavering super delegates.

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Democrats Win Another GOP House Seat
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on May 5, 2008 at 5:06 AM.

Democrats took another Republican-held U.S. House seat in a special election Saturday, suggesting that the party remains on track for significant expansion of its congressional majorities in 2008.

Louisiana Democrat Don Cazayoux, a young moderate with state legislative experience, snatched a seat that Republicans had held since the 1970s by a 49-46 margin over a well-funded campaign by veteran Republican legislator Woody Jenkins.

The win extends the Democratic majority in the House to 235-198 and it continues a pattern of special-election wins for the party in seats that have traditionally been thought of as Republican strongholds -- including the Illinois turf of former House Speaker Dennis Hastert.

But it does something far more significant.

Republicans and their allied special-interest groups had sought to save the seat by "nationalizing" -- or, to be more precise, racializing -- the contest with a campaign that sought to tie Cazayoux to Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama. Hoping to capitalize on concerns about Obama's former minister, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, in order to exploit racial divisions in the south and other regions of recent Republican strength, GOP operatives have developed advertising schemes that feature images of Obama, Wright and local Democratic candidates.

The strategy was implemented in Louisiana and is also being used in an upcoming Mississippi special election.

The Louisiana results had Maryland Congressman Chris Van Hollen, the able chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, declaring, "Republicans were reminded that 'all politics is local.' House Republicans tried to nationalize this election, illegally coordinated with Freedom's Watch, used false and deceptive special interest smears, and funneled nearly a million dollars into a district that Republicans held for more than three decades."

But don't expect the Republicans, who have struggled to come up with a plan to divert voter attention from economic and foreign-policy concerns, to abandon plans to exploit racial divisions in upcoming contests.

Cazayoux was an attractive candidate with deep Louisiana roots, while Jenkins was a controversial figure even in Republican circles -- in no small part because of his past ties to former Ku Klux Klansman David Duke. And still the final result was a close one.

That has encouraged National Republican Congressional Committee, which argued that the anti-Obama campaigning helped Jenkins make up "substantial ground" in the closing days of the contest.

"This election speaks to the potential toxicity of an Obama candidacy and the possible drag he could have down-ballot this fall," argued the NRCC team in a memo that, despite its sore-loser tone, makes clear the intention of the Republican party to make the fall campaign one very long, and very ugly, "Willie Horton" ad.

Bill O'Reilly's Foxy Lady
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on May 1, 2008 at 12:02 PM.

You can argue with Bill O'Reilly about a lot of things. But the Fox Newsman got something right Wednesday night.

"(The) media in America," O'Reilly explained, "has become very corrupt, partisan."

No viewer of O'Reilly's program could possibly disagree.

Watching him get cozy with Hillary Clinton, his guest on Wednesday night, was one of the creepier moments in the creepy history of Fox's experiment in partisan broadcasting. And the pursuit of their mutual agenda -- discrediting Clinton's rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama -- confirmed the the full extent of the corruption that results when a political campaign and a broadcast outlet start working together.

O'Reilly and Clinton tag-teamed Obama on the only issue that Fox covers these days: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright

O'Reilly pitched the softball: "Can you believe this Rev. Wright guy? Can you believe this guy?"

Clinton replied: "Well, I'm going to leave it up to voters to decide."

O'Reilly: "Well, what do you think as an American?"

Clinton: "Well, what I said when I was asked directly is that I would not have stayed in the church.

O'Reilly: "You're an American citizen, I'm an American citizen, He's an American citizen, Rev. Wright. What do you think when you hear a fellow American citizen say that kind of stuff about America."

Clinton: "Well, I take offense. I think it's offensive and outrageous. And, you know, I'm going to express my opinion, others can express theirs. But, you know, it is -- it is part of, you know, just an atmosphere that we're in today where all kinds of things are being said."

Clinton is Fox offended.

Clinton is Fox outraged.

Clinton may never be the Democratic nominee for president.

But she's got the makings of a Fox New analyst: corrupt, partisan and ready to play ball with Bill O'Reilly.

Chimpeach Bush? Only Third Party Candidates are Discussing it
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on April 9, 2008 at 5:53 AM.

Next week, the New Hampshire House of Representatives will be considering State Representative Betty Hall's call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Hall's been a courageous battler for presidential accountability and, during the presidential primary season in her state, she had an ally in Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich, whose candidacy she endorsed.

Now that Kucinich is out of the race -- along with Delaware Senator Joe Biden who also dared to utter the "I" word -- the remaining Democratic contenders, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, are shying away from even the minimal discussion of accountability that they entertained when they were running in Iowa and New Hampshire.

They're playing it so safe that, when it comes to Constitutional concerns, former Georgia Republican Congressman Bob Barr -- a recently announced Libertarian contender -- is doing a better job out outlining the high crimes and misdemeanors of the president and vice president than are the contenders for the nomination of the supposed opposition party.

Green Party contender Cynthia McKinney, a former Democratic congresswoman from Georgia, actually introduced an impeachment resolution before she left the House in 2006. She continues to be solid on these issues.

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Hillary's NAFTA Lies Kill All of Her Credibility on Trade
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on March 22, 2008 at 7:24 AM.

What is the proper word for the claim by Hillary Clinton and the more factually disinclined supporters of her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination -- made in speeches, briefings and interviews (including one by this reporter with the candidate) -- that she has always been a critic of the North American Free Trade Agreement?

Now that we know from the 11,000 pages of Clinton White House documents released this week that former First Lady was an ardent advocate for NAFTA; now that we know she held at least five meetings to strategize about how to win congressional approval of the deal; now that we know she was in the thick of the manuevering to block the efforts of labor, farm, environmental and human rights groups to get a better agreement. Now that we know all of this, how should we assess the claim that Hillary's heart has always beaten to a fair-trade rhythm?

Now that we know from official records of her time as First Lady that Clinton was the featured speaker at a closed-door session where 120 women opinion leaders were hectored to pressure their congressional representatives to approve NAFTA; now that we know from ABC News reporting on the session that "her remarks were totally pro-NAFTA" and that "there was no equivocation for her support for NAFTA at the time;" now that we have these details confirmed, what should we make of Clinton's campaign claim that she was never comfortable with the militant free-trade agenda that has cost the United States hundreds of thousands of union jobs, that has idled entire industries, that has saddled this country with record trade deficits, undermined the security of working families in the US and abroad, and has forced Mexican farmers off their land into an economic refugee status that ultimately forces them to cross the Rio Grande River in search of work?

As she campaigns now, Clinton says, "I have been a critic of NAFTA from the very beginning."

But the White House records confirm that this is not true.

Her statement is, to be precise, a lie.

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David Paterson: a NY Activist, Progressive, and Now Governor
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on March 13, 2008 at 7:25 AM.

In 1999, when New York City activists organized civil disobedience to protest the police shooting of African-immigrant Amadou Diallo, one of New York state's most prominent legislators arrived at police headquarters in Manhattan to be arrested as part of the a remarkable civil rights protest.

The veteran state senator who was rising to a leadership role in Democratic circles took a place symbolically blocking an entrance to One Police Place and held his wrists out. Police officers attached plastic handcuffs and led the distinguished gentleman away to be charged with disorderly conduct.

The legislator's name was David Paterson.

On Monday, he will become the 55th governor of New York state.

Little known outside New York until now, Paterson becomes an instant political celebrity as he prepares to replace scandal-plagued Governor Eliot Spitzer, whose career was ruined by his association with a money-for-sex scandal.

Paterson is a radically different political player than Spitzer, a wealthy lawyer who grabbed headlines for battling Wall Street insiders but who always acted a little more like the bankers and brokers he challenged than the victims of corporate excess.

There was nothing grassroots, neighborhood-level or community-based about Eliot Spitzer's activism. As New York's Attorney General, he would as an outgrowth of the controversy surrounding Diallo's death, announce plans to conduct inquiries into police practices.

But Spitzer did not get his hands dirty in that fight or many others, and he did not hold them out to be handcuffed.

That's why, when Spitzer prepared to seek the governorship, he asked Paterson to run with him. Spitzer recognized that he needed the state senator's credibility with community activists and progressives, even if the gubernatorial candidate never quite embraced his running-mate as a full partner.

As is often the case with lieutenant governors, the No. 2 man in New York was not always treated fairly by the No. 1 man. They clashed a bit during the 2006 campaign, and no one was surprised when Spitzer grabbed all the headlines once the team took office.

But Paterson's decision to accept the second position on Spitzer's ticket in the first weeks of 2006, which many questioned at the time, has two years after the fact made him the man of the moment.

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Civil Rights Icon and Superdelegate John Lewis Officially Dumps Clinton for Obama
Posted by John Nichols, The Nation on February 28, 2008 at 5:29 AM.

Georgia Congressman John Lewis, the civil right movement veteran whose endorsement was once seen as a critical component of Hillary Clinton's appeal to African-American voters, confirmed on Wednesday that he will cast his superdelegate vote at this summer's Democratic National Convention for Barack Obama.

Lewis, who hinted at the shift several weeks ago after his Atlanta-area district voted overwhelmingly for the Illinois senator, has told the Atlanta Journal Constitution that, "It's been a long, hard difficult struggle to come to where I am. But when I am, as a superdelegate, I plan to cast my vote at the convention for Barack Obama."

"Something's happening in America, something some of us did not see coming," explained Lewis. "Barack Obama has tapped into something that is extraordinary.

The move costs Clinton more than just a prominent endorsement at a time when her campaign has suffered a number of setbacks, including last week's overwhelming loss in the Wisconsin primary.

It suggests that members of Congress who endorsed Clinton early but whose districts have since voted for Obama will come under increasing pressure to "keep faith with their constituents" by casting their superdelegate votes for Obama.

As Obama has surged, his support among superdelegates -- the almost 800 elected officials and party leaders who are guaranteed votes at the convention not by caucus or primary results but by virtue of their positions -- has grown dramatically.

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