When I was growing up, I had a good friend named Cliff. He was smart and funny, OK, corny, and a bit nerdy, but he had a good heart and I’m sure he’s doing wonderful things with his life. Meanwhile, his name is being dragged through the mud. This Fiscal Cliff business is terrible for… Continue reading Cliff Notes
Author: Robert I. Grundfest
I am a teacher, writer, voice-over artist and rationally opinionated observer of American and international society. While my job is to entertain and engage, my purpose is always to start a conversation.
Walk, Cory, Walk!
Let the political salivating begin. The prospect of a Cory Booker-Chris Christie throw-down has the twitterverse all atwitter and the national press sharpening its knives and pens. All that’s left is for both candidates to announce their intentions and we’ll have a money-soaked affair that will make Linda McMahon‘s spending for the Connecticut Senate race… Continue reading Walk, Cory, Walk!
The Election Is Over
You know it’s bad when the list of reasons for your loss keeps growing. Mitt Romney is walking off the national stage with his head held high, but with an entire party rattling behind him like cans attached to a newlywed’s bumper. The final list, as I see it, is thus: 1. Mitt was a… Continue reading The Election Is Over
Wipeout! The GOP Wave Crashes.
It’s funny how elections make clear what is already in plain sight. The decline of the Republican Party and the discrediting of its radical right-wing has been evident for the past 3 to 4 years. Instead of following an agenda, they’ve focused on obstruction. When they deigned to speak about policy, it was usually in… Continue reading Wipeout! The GOP Wave Crashes.
What We Know: The Calm After the Election
Oh, that 20/20 hindsight. Now that the election’s over, didn’t we just know it was going to end the way it did? Wasn’t it painfully obvious that President Obama was going to be reelected and win every swing state by recount-resistant margins? Elizabeth Warren? Claire McCaskill? Heidi Heitkamp? Marriage equality? Of course not. That’s the… Continue reading What We Know: The Calm After the Election
The Race Race
It doesn’t come as a complete surprise, but this article from Yahoo! News about racial attitudes is a shameful comment about our so-called post-racial attitudes. Turns out they aren’t very post-anything. Antebellum would be more accurate. From the article: In all, 51 percent of Americans now express explicit anti-black attitudes, compared with 48 percent in… Continue reading The Race Race
Foreign Affairs
Remember when foreign affairs wasn’t a major part of the presidential campaign? It was supposed to be about jobs, jobs and jobs. But now that the world has intruded on our parochial election, the third debate will play a major role in the last two weeks of this contest. This does not bode well for Mitt… Continue reading Foreign Affairs
The Obama Resurge Starts Now
Ignore the national polls from now on. Ignore them. Even the Gallup poll that has Mitt leading by 7 points. You heard me. The only real action is in the swing states that will decide this election. There were some very good polls for the president over the past two days, and you need to… Continue reading The Obama Resurge Starts Now
Romney’s Bounce Is Over And I Bet You Didn’t Even Notice
Better yet, you probably thought that it started the day or two after the Denver Debacle on October 3. Nope. It actually began on September 26th, was accelerated, and probably prolonged, by the debate, and is now winding down, approximately two weeks later. It was a long bump by historical standards and was immediately preceded… Continue reading Romney’s Bounce Is Over And I Bet You Didn’t Even Notice
Panic! At The Campaign (Part Deux)
Hey kids, remember in June when the Obama campaign was supposedly panicking? I sure do. That’s why I wrote about it. Well here we are again at a crisis point in the race. The debate went very badly for the president. He seemed uninterested, unengaged, unfocused, blah, blah, blah. In fact, he was all of… Continue reading Panic! At The Campaign (Part Deux)
The Narrative’s Changed, But The Song Remains the Same
Mitt Romney won the debate last night because he projected a presidential attitude, seemed to be more interested, and actually strung together answers in clear sentences. Barack Obama was clearly unprepared and stories about his lack of focus on the debates turned out to be true. The right-wing media is ecstatic. The left is crestfallen.… Continue reading The Narrative’s Changed, But The Song Remains the Same
Polling and the Debate
The pace of polling has slowed down since last week, but the overall trend is still towards Barack Obama in the swing states. His national numbers are somewhat closer, but Gallup (RV poll) still has him up six and Rasmussen has him leading by one, which is down two points from Monday. New Quinnipiac and… Continue reading Polling and the Debate