These were the body postures, not of a prize fight, but of a particularly edgy divorce negotiation. It seemed fitting in a way that the contestants couldn’t bring themselves to shake hands with each other until after the 90-plus minutes were over.
Category: Tom Baxter
Posted inColumns
Throwing money at crumbling infrastructure won’t be enough
The presidential candidates’ positions on fixing the nation’s crumbling infrastructure can be characterized as spend, and spend more. But spend on what, exactly?
Posted inTom Baxter
The debate that didn’t go there
We’ve now had the first debate between the Democratic and Republican candidates for president on the serious issues facing our country. So first, let’s talk about Gennifer Flowers.
She matters, because throughout his campaign for president, Donald Trump has in various ways tantalized audiences with the expectation that when he finally got on a debate stage with the woman some of his younger supporters have hated all their lives, he would “go there.” He didn’t.
Posted inTom Baxter
Are we better off? It’s complicated
As Donald Trump observed a dozen years ago, “It just seems the economy does better under the Democrats than the Republicans.” There was fresh evidence last week, that this was not the Republican presidential nominee’s most outlandish statement on record.
Posted inTom Baxter
Not just man vs. woman, but this man vs. this woman
It was inevitable that at some point in the nation’s history, there would be a presidential battle between a man and a woman. That it would turn out to be this particular man and this particular woman is something no one could have predicted.
Posted inColumns
Everybody talks about the weather, but not as passionately anymore
It’s been hot, and lately, stormy as well. Truth is, though, we just don’t talk about the weather quite as much as we used to. It has become an embarrassingly touchy subject.
Posted inColumns
Georgia, the firewall state, goes it alone on election security
Russki hackers or no Russki hackers, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp isn’t about to give federal snoopers access to the state’s electronic voting system in an election year.
Posted inTom Baxter
When dynasties collide on the presidential stage
The Mercers are important people, but most Americans hadn’t heard of them before Rebekah Mercer pulled off what amounts to a fire-sale takeover of the Trump presidential campaign. The Mercers highlight one of the dominant features of this campaign: the rise importance of non-traditional family dynasties.
Posted inTom Baxter
Still your grandpa’s Democratic Party — and Joe Biden’s
There was recently blockbuster news which could set aside many assumptions about the outcome of the election. The story hasn’t received the attention it deserves, however, because the news was about the last election.
Posted inTom Baxter
Expect Congress to get a pass on Zika scandal
It’s not often President Obama and Florida Gov. Rick Scott agree about anything, but both condemned Congress last week for its failure to provide funding to combat the spreading Zika virus before adjourning for the August recess.
Posted inColumns
Campaign tampering: Much more serious than a spy thriller
When Richard Condon published “The Manchurian Candidate” in 1959, brainwashing was a popular but poorly understood subject of fascination and Communist China was more closed to the West than North Korea is today. The plot he spun, of devious foreign powers plotting to hijack a U.S. presidential election by programming a war hero to assassinate a candidate, seemed both chilling and distant in its plausibility. But now we’re in a different place.
Posted inColumns
Thursday night update: A clear, and liberal, speech
For the historic moment in which she became the first woman to accept the nomination of a major party, Hillary Clinton opted for elegant simplicity, and history will probably approve her choice. Clinton must have been the first nominee of her party to give her acceptance speech clad entirely in white. Her speech was clear, direct, and never on the defensive.
Posted inTom Baxter
Wednesday night update: “The things that last”
This was the night designed by the Democrats to make the case that Donald Trump is just a little too screwy to trust with the keys to the nation’s nuclear arsenal, and what better setup could there have been than Trump suggesting Russian intelligence might help bring Hillary Clinton’s missing emails to the surface?
Posted inUncategorized
Tuesday night update: This time, Bill was no Michelle Obama
The former president’s speech Tuesday night, capping off an evening marked by the nomination of his wife as the first woman presidential candidate of a major American political party, was long — long — on details about his wife’s accomplishments, but never seemed to reach the high notes the First Lady hit so effortlessly on the convention’s first night.
Posted inTom Baxter
COZY BEAR and FANCY BEAR crash the Democrats’ party
What a movie this campaign will make, if they are still able to make movies by the time it’s over.
COZY BEAR and FANCY BEAR are a pair of Russian hacker groups, well known in intelligence circles but not to the general public until the recent hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s computer system. They are widely thought to be the source of the 20,000 emails which Wikileaks released last Friday, just ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.
Posted inTom Baxter
Thursday night update: A message aimed at an impatient America
Have I got a deal for you, the nominee said, in so many words. What was remarkable about Donald Trump’s much-awaited nomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention Thursday night wasn’t how many promises he made — most nomination speeches are chock full of those. Instead it was the blinding speed with which he promised to carry them out.
Posted inColumns
Convention update: For Ted Cruz, what might have been… or might be
For a few minutes Wednesday night, a sort of time warp opened in Quicken Loans Arena, and we got a glimpse of how things might have been if Donald Trump had not won the Republican presidential nomination. In some ways it was not so different than how things were.
Posted inTom Baxter
Forward from deadly force: A modest proposal
There has been much hand-wringing over the decision by the Dallas police to use a robot to kill Micah Johnson with an explosive device. Perhaps our time would be better spent figuring out better ways to use the robot.
Posted inColumns
Summer solstice
Tom Baxter’s column will resume in a few weeks.
Baxter will return well in time to help set the stage for the conventions at which Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are expected to be named their party candidates. It’s been a long time coming.
Posted inTom Baxter
As more states accept Medicaid expansion, dumping ObamaCare could be harder than dumping Trump
For a foretaste of what might happen when Georgia finally calls a truce in the war against its own self interest and accepts the federal Medicaid expansion, let’s take a little trip down to the bayou.
