Todd's Mischief Blog

Rick Perry's campaign released a new ad on Tuesday. I just wanted to share my thoughts on it and invite others to express theirs: This ad makes me think that perhaps Perry is a different breed of Republican than we've become accustomed to. I already know that his campaign strategist, Dave Carney, is a different breed of strategist. But this goes beyond mere strategy. Perry actually adopted the "President Zero" tagline, which is exactly what all the right-wing talkers were suggesting on radio and cable news. That is a major curveball. I was not expecting any candidates to take advice from the talkers. That is a very anti-establishment move. That really demonstrates Perry's receptiveness to the conservative base. As for the ad itself, it is extremely cinematic. The approach is not necessarily novel among political ads anymore, but it’s still not the norm. What sets this ad apart is its full embracing of that approach. He's not just dipping his toes in. This is a...

Nancy Pelosi is pissed off at Republicans. While that isn’t all too surprising, her reason is. In advance of President Obama’s jobs address before a joint session of congress tonight, Boehner’s office announced that no one from the Republican Party will issue a formal rebuttal. Boehner spokesman Mike Steel said Obama's proposals "will rise or fall on their own merits."  But apparently Pelosi was gearing up for a row, and she’s going to pick a fight no matter what. Pelosi claimed that by not offering a rebuttal, Republicans are being “not only disrespectful to [the president], but to the American people.”  Aren’t politics confusing? It seems that since Obama took the oath of office, Democrats have been admonishing Republicans to lay off the president. Furthermore, I thought the American people were tired of partisan bickering. Forgive me for thinking this looks like a double-dose of giving people what they want. Surely there is some calculation behind the Republicans’ deci...