Walter Shapiro -- Politics Daily

Published: 03/9/11

David Broder, the Best Boy on the Campaign Bus, Dies at 81

"The high priest of political journalism, the most powerful and respected man in the trade was David Broder." -- "The Boys on the Bus" by Timothy Crouse, 1973 For nearly four decades, from the late 1960s to the 21st century, David Broder of The Washington Post, wore those priestly robes lightly, treating his journalistic calling and the American voters with reverence, never succumbing to the know-it-all self-importance that is an occupational hazard on the political beat. Broder, who filed his last column for the Post just a month ago, died Wednesday at age 81 from complications from ...

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Published: 03/7/11

Enough With Budget Brinksmanship: The Case for Waiting Until 2012

With the government living on a two-week financial reprieve that will expire on March 18, this is Rumpelstiltskin time in politics as everyone seems to be stamping his feet in rage over the $14-trillion national debt. Republican Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is making the rounds with charts entitled "Reckless Spending Spree" and "Tidal Wave of Debt." In a clarion-call address to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Indiana GOP Gov. Mitch Daniels warned of "the new Red Menace, this time consisting of ink." Talking to a convention of religious broadcasters ...

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Published: 03/3/11

Newt Gingrich Poised to Run: Why the 1990s GOP Icon Struggles for Respect

Newt Gingrich moved toward launching his first presidential campaign with all the grace of a suitcase falling down a flight of stairs. It all began with conflicting signals from aides about what Gingrich actually would be announcing Thursday in Atlanta (correct answer: A website called "NewtExplore2012"). Then, in an odd one-question press conference, Gingrich proposed a Tenth Amendment Implementation Act (a vague project to return federal responsibilities to the states) while he simultaneously unveiled the exploratory White House candidacy. Finally, there was the embarrassing glitch when a ...

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Published: 02/28/11

Obama's Workout White House: Democrats as Fitness Fanatics

When John Kennedy tried to sell the therapeutic virtues of 50-mile hikes to a sedentary nation, the president's chosen guinea pig was his own well-padded press secretary, Pierre Salinger. A man whose idea of exercise was teeing off on the golf course with a fat cigar in his mouth, Salinger stoutly resisted JFK's summons to a New Frontier in physical exertion. "I may be plucky," Salinger said, "but I ain't stupid." Salinger was lucky – he worked for a president who could take no for an answer without working up a sweat. In the Obama White House, the near-mandatory regimen appears to be ...

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Published: 02/27/11

The GOP Budget and Cancer -- Why New Research Is at Risk

The budgetary hot-air wars gripping Washington have spotlighted all the elements that have degraded of 21st century politics: Apocalyptic threats of a government shutdown, high-decibel debates over budgetary irrelevancies (the drive to defund Planned Parenthood), angry denunciations of do-nothing government bureaucrats and vapid presidential slogans ("Win the Future"). Even when the congressional fiscal follies momentarily take a serious turn, an abstract tone dominates these floating numbers games involving slashing tens of billions. Budget arithmetic turns into an alternative reality as ...

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Published: 02/23/11

From Mike Huckabee to Sarah Palin, the Republicans Offer Indecision 2012

Like prominent Republicans from, well, Mississippi (Gov. Haley Barbour) to Alaska (c'mon, you can do it), Mike Huckabee admits that he mulls every day whether he should enter the wide-open GOP presidential contest. But unlike other Republican White House dreamers -- with the conspicuous exception of the indefatigable Mitt Romney -- Huckabee knows the adrenaline rush and the arduous pressures of a presidential race from his quest for the 2008 GOP nomination. "If you've jumped out of an airplane," Huckabee told Washington political reporters Wednesday afternoon, "you have a whole lot better ...

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Published: 02/17/11

Sarah Palin: Do We Hear Sighs of Reluctance About 2012?

WOODBURY, N.Y. – After weeks in the shadows with only a flicker of Facebook postings, Sarah Palin emerged Thursday for a lucrative and surprisingly revealing question-and-answer session before the Long Island Association, a business group used to hosting former presidents. During an hour in which she was quizzed in a more probing fashion than is often the norm on Fox News, Palin proved that she can create more headlines from a single luncheon than are possible from six months on the Mitt Romney beat. Palin tantalized her audience (who paid $300 and up for the privilege, with a backstage ...

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Published: 02/14/11

Forget the Obama Budget -- the Real Crisis Ahead Is the Debt Ceiling

For all the red-ink rhetoric that engulfed Washington Monday with the release of Barack Obama's $3.7 trillion budget, the partisan talking points ("win the future" versus "spending the future") have far more to do with the 2012 elections than the national debt. The economic document that matters right now is not the line items in the 2012 budget, the ever-shifting House GOP proposals to slash as much as $74 billion in government spending this year, nor even the slash-and-burn report of the president's bipartisan fiscal commission. Far more important for those who worry about America's fiscal ...

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Published: 02/12/11

CPAC 2011 -- The Only Winners Were Mitch Daniels and Ron Paul

The three-day Conservative Political Action Conference ended Saturday afternoon with a meaningless presidential straw poll (if you must know, libertarian gadfly Ron Paul won for the second year in a row). But what CPAC really illustrated (and the bizarro straw poll results underscored) is that the late-starting 2012 GOP race remains so wide open that Bob Dole at age 87 might have a plausible chance for a comeback. Even though both Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee were too busy with their Fox News slots and paid speaking engagements to appear at this premier celebration of all things ...

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Published: 02/8/11

CPAC 2011: Spring Training for Republican Campaign Metaphors

Using a (gasp!) liberal definition of politically plausible, 10 Republican White House dreamers -- ranging from Michele Bachmann to Haley Barbour -- have featured speaking parts at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference beginning Thursday in Washington. So what if the Republicans, showing rare reticence, have yet to begin the over-choreographed rollout of candidate announcements? Frustrated by the lack of candidate caravans canvassing all 99 counties of Iowa, the restive press pack is poised to treat the three-day CPAC meeting as the first step in the marathon that will climax ...

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