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This 30 second quickfire round thing is a bit of a joke, isn't it? No one is actually being teleported off the stage if they run over, there are no puffs of smoke, and no amusing noises to accompany candidates not disappearing from the stage. But, Brian Williams is going to get tougher on enforcing the cut-off time, so OK, I'll keep playing along.

Dodd is wasting time by telling us he has 30 seconds to talk about attracting people into medicine. He makes the cutoff point.

Biden...

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It's the Social Security round, apparently. And Hillary's been caught out on some inconsistency, courtesy of an AP reporter.

Hillary says she wasn't being inconsistent, and she has a plan. By plan, she means loose principles and nothing specific on offer. But she's switched to talking about evil Republicans and privatization. Smart move, because she was clearly caught out here. BTW, talking Social Security is evidently entering the GOP's terrain (even though as Russert just pointed...

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I say "interesting" with the greatest degree of irony. From the Concord Monitor:

John Edwards says if he's elected president, he'll institute a New Deal-like suite of programs to fight poverty and stem growing wealth disparity. To do it, he said, he'll ask many Americans to make sacrifices, like paying higher taxes.

Edwards, a former Democratic senator from North Carolina, says the federal government should underwrite universal pre-kindergarten, create matching savings accounts...

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So, evangelicals are getting ticked off with the GOP. Anyone who has been paying attention knows this is to some degree true. The question is, why? The NY Times magazine offers one suggestion:

Today the president’s support among evangelicals, still among his most loyal constituents, has crumbled. Once close to 90 percent, the president’s approval rating among white evangelicals has fallen to a recent low below 45 percent, according to polls by the Pew Research Center. White...

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I like Judd Gregg, but I'm not a big fan of this particular move.

I also think it's interesting that this is the second time in a row that Gregg seems to have backed the guy who can't cope without a script in hand (see the Romney "house than Reagan built" debacle in the most recent GOP debate).

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... I'd like to draw your attention to my piece on McCain running interference for Rudy in today's American Spectator.

The piece has already generated a whirlwind of comment. By the time I checked email this morning, I already had about 25 emails about the piece-- a high number for 9AM! So, if you haven't checked out the column, please do-- and send me your thoughts!

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I'm late in the day posting on this, but we all learned today, definitively, that Tom Davis isn't going to be running for John Warner's Senate seat in Virginia.

I'll be the first to say this is a shame. I think Davis would be best placed to beat Mark Warner.

But, I also understand why he's not doing it. In a campaign against a well-known character like M. Warner, the only real shot a Republican will have, in my view, is to get to the task of reaching out to a wide swathe of...

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Charlie Rangel's at it again.

At what, you ask? Raising taxes. By 4% on those earning more than $150k a year (or, it seems couples making more than $200k). By 4.6% on those earning more than $500k.

It's a stupid move, yes, and I think it gives us all a pretty good indication of what Democrats' definition of "rich" is (i.e., probably not the same as yours and mine-- $150k a year is a nice income, but it certainly isn't like the Dems are only going after Paris Hiltons here, is...

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So, the arguable real winner of the 2004 WA-Gov contest, Dino Rossi, is going to run against Christine Gregoire again in 2008. Fun, fun, fun!

Rossi announced his closely watched decision in an interview with The Associated Press and planned campaign kickoff events in Issaquah, the heart of his old legislative district, and in Spokane.

"It's time for fresh air in Olympia," he told the AP. "I'm ready. I'm very excited about the prospect of changing this state."

Rossi, the...

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I've been working on a bunch of stuff today, so while I've been online a bit, I haven't been blogging.

But, there's something very serious going on in the right-wing blogosphere today, and I feel I must now weigh in, despite the fact that my voice is less well-heard and softer than those of some other conservative/center-right/whatever bloggers.

Conservative blog (and occasional old foe) RedState took a pretty controversial step on Monday to deal with an apparent "scourge" of Ron...

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