http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/ 15 en-us Copyright 2008 Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:00:01 -0400 http://www.movabletype.org/?v=3.36 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss The Talk is taking Sunday off for the Fourth of July holiday. It will return to duty July 13. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/07/the_talk_takes_a_holiday.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/07/the_talk_takes_a_holiday.html Sun, 06 Jul 2008 10:00:01 -0400 By Zachary A. Goldfarb Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr, a former Georgia congressman, said today that the Republican Party has utterly failed to present a "new program, new leadership or vision." "What's wrong with John McCain is symptomatic of what's wrong with the Republican Party in these first years of the 21st century," Barr said on "Fox News Sunday." "They talk one thing but do something different, and that's become very obvious to the American people." Barr said that he tends to agree with Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) on issues of civil liberties, while he tends to agree with McCain, a senator from Arizona, on issues of government spending and taxation. "Neither of these candidates is talking about the deep cuts in government spending and returning power to the people that we are," Barr said. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/libertarian_barr_says_gop_is_p.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/libertarian_barr_says_gop_is_p.html Sun, 29 Jun 2008 13:30:36 -0400 We'll resume blogging the Sunday talk shows on June 29. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/no_talk_this_week.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/no_talk_this_week.html Sun, 22 Jun 2008 15:11:45 -0400 By Zachary A. Goldfarb Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, an up-and-coming Republican sometimes touted as a potential presidential running mate, said his party has taken a beating at the polls lately because it "started defending corruption and spending and other things they would have rightfully condemned in the other party." Jindal, the first Indian American governor and a former House member, said he has talked to presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) several times, but that they have never talked about his possibly serving on McCain's ticket. "I'm certainly supporting Senator McCain, will do whatever I can to help him get elected, but I'm focused on being governor of Louisiana," Jindal said on CBS's "Face the Nation." http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/jindal_says_gop_getting_away_f.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/jindal_says_gop_getting_away_f.html Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:40:48 -0400 By Zachary A. Goldfarb At the end of an hour-long tribute to him on this morning's "Meet the Press" on NBC, longtime host Tim Russert, who died Friday, appeared to deliver a final message. A montage of photos -- the final three with his "Meet the Press" staff, with his wife, Maureen Orth, and with his son, Luke -- had just been displayed. "Thunder Road," a song by Russert's favorite musician, Bruce Springsteen, was playing in the background. "That's all for today. We'll be back next week. If it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press. Happy Father's Day, especially to Big Russ up in Buffalo. And Luke, I'm real proud to be your dad," Russert said. With that, the lights on the "Meet the Press" set were dimmed, and the host's chair sat empty. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/remembering_russert.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/remembering_russert.html Sun, 15 Jun 2008 13:18:16 -0400 One of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's top advisers made clear today that the former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination would agree to serve as Sen. Barack Obama's vice presidential candidate. "It's not a job that she's seeking. And it's not a job that she's campaigning for," said Howard Wolfson, the adviser. "But she has made it clear, during the campaign and now, that she will do, as I've said, whatever she can and whatever she is asked." Meanwhile, three other potential vice presidential candidates -Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) and Virginia Sen. Jim Webb (D) - left the door open to serving on a ticket this fall. "I think probably it would be hard for anybody to say no under a situation like that," Kaine said of being asked. "It would be difficult to turn that down," Pawlenty said. Pawlenty and Kaine spoke http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/clinton_will_do_whatever_she_c.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/clinton_will_do_whatever_she_c.html Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:47:03 -0400 The Clinton campaign signaled it is pushing on despite being dealt a setback by a Democratic Party rules committee yesterday weighing whether to seat the Michigan and Florida delegations. Campaign chairman Terence McAuliffe would not say whether the campaign would fight yesterday's decision by a Democratic Party panel to seat Florida and Michigan delegates at the summer convention but only count their votes as half. "[C]learly we're going to keep our options open," McAuliffe said. "We'll see where we are when we finish up Tuesday. Then superdelegates will begin to move." McAuliffe added on ABC's "This Week," "[W]e're going to make our argument right up until someone has [won] ... and I believe today, as much as I've ever believed, Hillary Clinton will be the nominee of this party." Appearing on the same show, a top strategist in the Obama campaign said that the end of the Democratic race is http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/clinton_campaign_not_backing_d.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/06/clinton_campaign_not_backing_d.html Sun, 01 Jun 2008 16:48:03 -0400 By Zachary A. Goldfarb Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign accused Sen. Barack Obama's campaign of fanning a controversy over her describing the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy late in the 1968 Democratic primary as one reason she is continuing to run for the presidency. "The Obama campaign ... tried to take these words out of context," Clinton campaign chairman Terence R. McAuliffe said on "Fox News Sunday." "She was making a point merely about the time line." The issue is particularly sensitive given longstanding concerns about Obama's safety as a presidential candidate. (He first received Secret Service protection last May.) The Obama campaign called Clinton's words unfortunate and circulated a TV commentary criticizing them, although Obama himself said Saturday that he took Clinton at her word that she meant no harm. Hours after mentioning Kennedy's assassination, Clinton said, "I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/05/clinton_camp_stokes_rfk_flap_b.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/05/clinton_camp_stokes_rfk_flap_b.html Sun, 25 May 2008 16:39:16 -0400 Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton pledged to stay in the Democratic race through the final primaries on June 3. "I'm not going anywhere," she said on CNN's "Late Edition," dashing hopes of Sen. Barack Obama to wrap up the nomination battle and move into the general election as soon as possible. Clinton said she wants the Democratic National Committee rules panel to seat the Florida and Michigan delegations - giving a big boost to her campaign - when it meets on May 31. "I think the voters who came out, over 2.3 million of them in both states, clearly believed that their votes would count," she said. If she does not become the nominee, she said she'd campaign hard for Obama. "I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that anyone who supported me ... understand what a grave error it would be not to vote for Senator McCain," http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/05/clinton_pledges_to_stay_in_cam.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/05/clinton_pledges_to_stay_in_cam.html Sun, 18 May 2008 14:27:42 -0400 By Zachary A. Goldfarb Former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said it is likely Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) will be his party's nominee, and he warned Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) against hurting the party's chances in the fall by staying in the race. "I think it is likely, certainly, at this point, that Senator Obama will be the nominee," said Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and two-time presidential candidate. He added on CBS's "Face the Nation," "I think the one thing that [Clinton] has to be careful about ... is that, if she makes the case for herself, which she's completely entitled to do, she has to be really careful that she's not damaging our prospects, the Democratic Party, and our cause, for the fall." Edwards said Clinton has been making "a pretty compelling case for her candidacy," but "you can no longer make a compelling case for http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/05/edwards_obama_will_be_the_nomi.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/05/edwards_obama_will_be_the_nomi.html Sun, 11 May 2008 13:33:51 -0400 By Zachary A. Goldfarb Sen. Barack Obama pressed his attack on Sen. Hillary Clinton's proposal to suspend the federal gas temporarily, calling it an effort at political pandering. Clinton defended the proposal as a response to the real needs of working people struggling to afford enough gas to get to work. "This [issue] defines, I think, the difference between myself and Senator Clinton," Obama said, calling her proposal "a classic Washington gimmick." He said the proposal, to suspend the federal gas tax for three months and make up the hit to the federal budget by taxing oil companies, would save the average driver just 30 cents per day. "It is a political response to a serious problem we have neglected for decades," he said. Two days before primaries in North Carolina and Indiana, Clinton said she is meeting people across both states "who drive for a living, who commute long http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/05/obama_clinton_debate_gas_tax_h.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/05/obama_clinton_debate_gas_tax_h.html Sun, 04 May 2008 13:38:09 -0400 By Zachary A. Goldfarb Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) acknowledged today that he must work harder to win the support of working-class voters who backed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) in droves in last week's Pennsylvania primary. "I am less familiar with some of these blue-collar voters than [Clinton]. ... They are less familiar with me than they are with her, and so we probably have to work a little bit harder," Obama said on "Fox News Sunday." He added, "I've got to be more present. I've got to be knocking on more doors. I've got to be hitting more events. We've got to work harder." Howard Wolfson, a top aide to Clinton, said now that Obama has lost working-class voters in Pennsylvania and Ohio, "I think Democrats do have questions about whether or not he is going to be able to reach out and successfully win over the kind of http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/04/obama_cites_need_to_work_harde.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/04/obama_cites_need_to_work_harde.html Sun, 27 Apr 2008 14:01:00 -0400 By Zachary A. Goldfarb Presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) pledged Sunday to cut billions of dollars in defense spending, vowing to be special interests' "worst nightmare," and aimed to dismiss suggestions that he has an explosive temper. McCain said on ABC's "This Week" that he would seek to eliminate the federal budget deficit by cutting spending throughout government. The Pentagon drew special emphasis. "I am cutting billions and billions out of defense spending which are not earmarks," he said. The Arizona senator also defended a new Medicare means test he wants, saying that fairness demands that "wealthy people pay for their own prescription drugs." "Why should we be paying for Warren Buffett or Bill Gates or wealthy Americans who are retired, making $160,000 a couple, not pay for their own prescription drugs? We've got a $1 trillion unfunded liability associated with the Medicare prescription drug bill. One trillion http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/04/mccain_vows_to_slash_pentagon.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/04/mccain_vows_to_slash_pentagon.html Sun, 20 Apr 2008 14:01:52 -0400 By Zachary A. Goldfarb Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the steps necessary in Iraq before Washington can begin to withdraw troops are "already happening." "Eight provinces in Iraq are already under provincial Iraqi control, where there are either no coalition forces or they are ... not involved in combat," Gates said, adding that Al-Anbar province, once one of the most violent parts of the country, appears to be the next headed in that direction. So "what we have is half of Iraq where the transition has already been made to a different kind of role or mission for U.S. forces," Gates said on CBS's "Face the Nation." He warned, however, that "it may take a while" for the rest of the country to get there, noting that Baghdad and Mosul are still wracked by heavy combat. He offered no timeline for the complete transition. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/04/us_is_out_of_the_fight_in_half.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/04/us_is_out_of_the_fight_in_half.html Sun, 13 Apr 2008 13:53:42 -0400 By Zachary A. Goldfarb Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee for president, said Sunday that the leader for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Barack Obama, would be "absolutely" qualified to be president, should the voters elect him. But, he said, "I believe that my talent and my background and my experience, which has led to my judgment, ... qualifies me more." In his first Sunday talk show appearance since locking up the GOP nomination last month, McCain criticized Obama and others for making too much of his comment that the United States could remain in Iraq for 100 years, or a period similar to the length of the U.S. presence in Germany and South Korea. "Senator Obama and anyone who reads that [comment] knows that I didn't think we were in a 100-year war," he said on "Fox News Sunday." Days after going to Memphis to mark the 40th anniversary http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/04/mccain_obama_absolutely_qualif.html http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-talk/2008/04/mccain_obama_absolutely_qualif.html Sun, 06 Apr 2008 14:02:00 -0400