<![CDATA[ - Articles - RealClearPolitics]]> http://www.realclearpolitics.com/authors/rss/archive/15771.xml Author <![CDATA[Fear and Loathing at Fancy Farm]]> Sun, 03 Aug 2014 00:00:00 -0500 U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell rolled up his sleeves and walked to the podium on stage at the brand new pavilion at Kentucky's annual Fancy Farm picnic.
As McConnell geared up to rail against President Barack Obama and his "Kentucky candidate" Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, he began by noting that, "Fancy Farm is fun, but there are serious problems facing our country."
- See more at: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/08/03/fear-and-loathing-at-fancy-farm-ky.html#sthash.lpmOptfs.dpuf

]]> <![CDATA[Can Jesse Benton Unite Republicans?]]> Mon, 31 Mar 2014 00:00:00 -0500 When Jesse Benton moved to Kentucky, he didn’t think he would ever have to choose between them.

But in early 2013, Benton, the former aide to Rep. Ron Paul, Sen. Rand Paul, and now campaign manager to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was booed as he walked to the bathroom in a Louisville pizza place.

]]> <![CDATA[Kentucky's Anti-Mitch McConnell]]> Sat, 08 Feb 2014 00:00:00 -0600 To spend time around Matt Bevin, the Louisville businessman challenging Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Kentucky race for U.S. Senate, is to hear some Olympic-level name-butchering.

“We’re in Kentucky, dude,” Bevin said. “How many variations of Bevin are there? Many. Bevins, Blevins, Belvin, Belvins, I’m sure. Or Bevin even with an -eavin or… Bivin or Bivins. And we’re probably all cousins if you go back far enough.”

]]> <![CDATA[Some Black Voters Are Listening to Paul]]> Wed, 11 Dec 2013 00:00:00 -0600 Going by conventional wisdom and modern political party tendencies, it's hard to imagine a more unlikely setting.

But there was U.S. Sen. Rand Paul last Thursday, sitting in a leather wingback chair, a large collection of African ceremonial masks on the wall to his left, as he discussed the contributions of Malcolm X to the civil rights movement.

 

]]> <![CDATA[How Not to Beat Mitch McConnell]]> Sat, 30 Nov 2013 00:00:00 -0600 Things got heated in the gathering area behind the workshop of Guthrie Farms outside Lexington, Kentucky.

Not when Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes heard repeated concerns about regulations forcing farmers to take care of “the Mexicans” or after the laughter subsided when she was asked if she believed in “Adam and Eve or Adam and Steve.”

]]> <![CDATA[Final South Carolina Debate Looms Large]]> Thu, 19 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0600 Republican presidential candidates meet again on Thursday for perhaps the most crucial debate yet in the 2012 campaign, with front-runner Mitt Romney beginning to look shaky and likely to face fire from nearest challenger Newt Gingrich.

It is the final chance for rivals to chip away at Romney's lead in South Carolina ahead of the primary vote on Saturday when the former Massachusetts governor would take a huge step toward clinching the Republican nomination if he wins.

]]> <![CDATA[Obama: Victim or Professional Victim?]]> Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500 “Ronald Reagan wouldn’t be sitting here.” — President Obama during the debt-ceiling debate. Those words from the July debt-ceiling standoff offers perhaps the best glimpse into how the unknowable Obama thinks Congress sees him.

]]> <![CDATA[Obama Camp: Romney & Perry Out of Mainstream]]> Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500 President Obama's campaign said in a memo Monday that the Republican candidates vying for the president's job are running to the extreme right of the party, embracing policies that Americans oppose.

"From economics to immigration, Gov. Perry, Gov. Romney and the Republican field have embraced policies that the American people oppose," campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said in the memo. "The campaign to win the Republican nomination has become a campaign to win the hearts and minds of the Tea Party."

]]> <![CDATA[Why Team Obama Is Smiling Again]]> Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:00 -0500 Sometimes it really doesn’t matter if you win or lose, it’s how you play the game. 

Team Obama is banking on it.

]]> <![CDATA[Obama Targets GOP for Fall Offensive]]> Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500 “Kill the body, and the head will die.” — Joe Frazier

President Obama is preparing to fight a political war this fall on two fronts — the first against Republicans who want his job and the second against Republicans who want to make his job more difficult.

Obama is taking dead-aim at the latter group, targeting Congress in a fall offensive that the president’s reelection campaign hopes will bruise the overall GOP image beyond repair.

 

]]> <![CDATA[Obama and the Quicksand Summer]]> Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500 It's not as bad as it looks for President Obama. It's much, much worse. 

July and August are looking like a summer of quicksand for the president, and there is nobody left to throw him a rope.

]]> <![CDATA[White House: Lot for Dems to Love in Deal]]> Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 -0500 Responding to criticism from liberal Democrats, White House officials said Sunday night that the deal President Obama helped broker provides a path to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy while protecting domestic programs.

The president won major concessions, officials said, by ensuring the debt limit is not "held hostage" and up for another vote in just a few months and also by protecting domestic programs including Pell Grants and Medicaid.

]]> <![CDATA[July Is a Make or Break Month for Obama]]> Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:00 -0500 The yellow light isn’t blinking only on getting a debt-ceiling deal done — it’s flashing on President Obama’s reelection hopes, too.

If Obama and the debt deal face a yellow or red light at the end of July, voters might not be willing to give him the green light to go ahead with a second term.

]]> <![CDATA[Drop in Approval Comes at Bad Time for Obama]]> Thu, 21 Apr 2011 00:00:00 -0500 President Obama's approval ratings are plummeting, and the timing is terrible for the White House.

Even as Obama skewered Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and the House GOP budget plan, his approval rating dipped in a Gallup poll to 41 percent, the lowest number yet of his presidency.

]]> <![CDATA[President Makes Case for Financial Reform Bill]]> Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500 President Barack Obama on Thursday made his case for financial regulatory reform mere blocks from the heart of the U.S. financial sector.

Obama used his address in Manhattan to push back on Republican criticism that Democraticplans for financial reform are a ticket to endless bailouts, and to ask Wall Street to join his efforts.

 

]]> <![CDATA[Obama Ready for Tough Talk on Wall Street]]> Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0500 President Barack Obama will likely hit Wall Street with another round of criticism in his speech Thursday.

The president has grown increasingly harsher in tone when he speaks of the financial industry.White House spokesman Robert Gibbs hinted Wednesday that Wall Street could be subject to more tough talk for its past abuses and excessive bonuses when the president speaks. Obama was highly critical of bankers during his last trip to Wall Street. In his September speech Obama told bankers he was prepared to step in to stop their "reckless behavior"� from doing more harm to the economy.Thursday's speech comes days after the Securities and...]]> <![CDATA[Obama Tries to Reclaim Health Debate - Again]]> Mon, 07 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0500 WASHINGTON — President Obama returned to the White House from his summer break on Sunday determined to jump-start his struggling presidency by reasserting command of the health care debate and recalibrating expectations that some advisers believe got away from him.

A blog from The New York Times that tracks the health care debate as it unfolds.

The latest on President Obama, the new administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.

With his honeymoon seemingly over and his White House on the defensive, Mr. Obama faces what friends and foes alike call a make-or-break moment in his young...]]> <![CDATA[Short Election Night May End Long Campaign]]> Mon, 03 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0600