There’s a four-letter word in the headlines lately: Iraq. The withdrawal of U.S. troops in 2011 was done with the expectation that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would unite his country and ease ethnic tensions. Instead, Maliki, a Shiite, did what he could to ostracize minority Sunnis… perhaps in response to what Saddam Hussein did to Shiites during his ruthless decades …
Wow. Who saw the defeat of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor coming? Certainly not Cantor. Or the nation’s political establishment. And not Greg Giroux, political reporter for Bloomberg News, who sat with Political Junkie host Ken Rudin and together they shook their heads at one of the more amazing primary upsets of recent times. We also hear from Kevin Broughton of the Tea Party Patriots …
It was the race the tea party wanted from the beginning. And while they didn’t completely accomplish their goal, they are thought to be on their way. In six-term Sen. Thad Cochran, tea party conservatives saw a politician from the old school, who spent a career fighting for earmarks and pork projects for Mississippi and who …
So how do you run your campaign in 2014 if you’re a Democrat and your president’s job approval numbers are not so good? That’s the question host Ken Rudin put to Democratic pollster and strategist Anna Greenberg in the latest installment of the Political Junkie. Greenberg acknowledges the weak numbers, the disappointing foreign policy and the history of the party …
In most cases, we know the difference between a good president and a bad one. We re-elect the good ones and we send the bad ones packing. But how do historians see them? How does Harry Truman, for example, leave office with an anemic 23% approval rating and wind up as a “Near Great” president? And …
With the 50th anniversary of the 1964 Civil Rights Act — and with the revived reputation of President Lyndon Johnson — comparisons between LBJ and Barack Obama are being made. Johnson, who left office in 1969 with the cloud of Vietnam hanging over him, is remembered as a master tactician who, with huge Democratic majorities in Congress, pushed a …
The deadline to sign up for the Affordable Care Act has passed, and now comes the fun part: the political recrimination and finger-pointing. Janet Hook of the Wall Street Journal joins Political Junkie host Ken Rudin to talk about how Obamacare will be with us to stay for the 2014 campaign season. And with a lot of scandal in the news this …
Russian President Vladimir Putin has done his thing in Crimea, and U.S. President Barack Obama has responded with sanctions. Now Congress will have its say, with perhaps a bill calling for stronger sanctions against Moscow and more aid to Ukraine. Kate Hunter of Bloomberg News joins Political Junkie host Ken Rudin to talk about how anxious Congress is to be heard with a unified voice …