Small BusinessOctober 28, 2004 Given our country's sluggish economy, both presidential candidates say they will help spur small business growth over the next four years. Their strategies are very different, however. President Bush, in a speech to aviation workers in Wisconsin, …
Tort ReformOctober 28, 2004 "Tort reform"—which, in the past few years, has primarily meant capping non-economic damages in medical- and product-liability lawsuits—has been a major political football in Mississippi over the past few years, including a huge driver in election-year fundraising …
Gay MarriageOctober 28, 2004 With countries such as Spain and many others making gay marriage legal, is it time that America takes the same step? That question has made gay marriage and civil unions the hot-button wedge issue of the 2004 …
The Economy and TaxationOctober 28, 2004 "It's the Economy, Stupid," is the famous line posted on the Clinton campaign's war room wall during the 1992 campaign. The conventional wisdom is that in most election years, people vote with their pocketbooks—if the economy has …
Malcolm WhiteOne might think you'd get to know someone after living for 40 nights in a five-by-seven-foot tent, a 15-foot canoe by day, bathing in the river, fending off crawling critters, heat, cold, solid sheets of rain for just under 500 …
ABC Poll: Voters say U.S. on ‘Wrong Track'; Kerry AheadABC News is reporting: "Skepticism about the nation's direction is boosting John Kerry's campaign for president: Fifty-five percent of likely voters say the country is on the wrong track, and their discontent is fueling Kerry to an even race against …
Daily Newspaper Endorsements: Kerry Leads So FarEditor & Publisher is keeping track of daily newspapers' presidential endorsements. Through today (Oct. 23): "Sen. John Kerry continues to pile up the newspaper endorsements, but in a reversal of past trends it was President Bush who nabbed the larger …
Sinclair Opts for 'Fair and Balanced' After AllNew York Times reports: "After stirring up protest over its plans to broadcast a documentary critical of Senator John Kerry, the Sinclair Broadcast Group presented a program last night that gave short shrift to that film and offered instead a …
No Evidence of Election Terror PlotCNN is reporting that talk about an election terrorist plot is overblown: "U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials say they have found no direct evidence of plans for an election-related terror attack after a five-week investigation, the Washington Post reported …
Rapper Eminem Slams Bush in Rolling StoneFirst American Conservative, now Eminem. This excerpt is from the issue of Rolling Stone that hits the streets the first week of November:
American Conservative Magazine ‘Endorses' KerryAre you sitting down? American Conservative magazine just 'endorsed' John Kerry:"Bush has behaved like a caricature of what a right-wing president is supposed to be, and his continuation in office will discredit any sort of conservatism for generations. The launching …
Factcheck.org needs your help[verbatim] We are looking for examples of false or misleading political mail regarding the presidential campaign. If you receive any, please send them to us. We promise not to use your name without your permission, but we won't be able …
Is the White House ‘Scrubbing' Its Web site?The blogosphere is presenting evidence, or at least arguments, that the White House is throwing potentially damning transcripts, audio and video down the memory hole. Read more here.
[Lott] Iraq: Neither ‘Wrong' Nor ‘Distracting'It's inconsistent for any songressman or senator to wake up one day and say our troops don't have enough equipment or that the reconstruction of Iraq isn't going well, when they've voted against paying for these things. And it's surely …
Factcheck.org: An Avalanche of MisinformationWith election day approaching the tempo of ads is increasing, but not the level of factual accuracy. Both sides are making false or misleading claims in their ads.
Two More Factchecks re: KerryA new RNC ad claims Kerry is "the most liberal man in the Senate." Actually, his lifetime rating is 11th or lower, depending.
Health CareOctober 21, 2004 Of all the issues in this presidential campaign, health care is probably the most confusing. But a few facts are clear: 45 million Americans (including children) do not have health insurance, prescription drug costs are through the …
Welfare and PovertyOctober 21, 2004 The public hasn't heard the word "welfare" as often as it did in the last three presidential elections, perhaps due to the bipartisan Welfare Act of 1996 signed by President Bill Clinton. However, the topic remains important …
Public EducationIllustration by Ken Patterson In all four presidential/vice presidential debates, the moderators failed to ask a single question about public education and the candidates' views on President Bush's "No Child Left Behind" education reform act, passed in January 2001. The …
Montrel McClentonMadison Central sophomore Montrel McClenton, 16, looks right at home seated in front of the computer monitor, TV screen and editing equipment at Back Porch Film & Video, at the Mill Street end of Keener Avenue. He should. For the …
Kerry Has Wide Support Among Blacks<i>Blacks prefer Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry over President Bush by a nearly 4-to-1 margin, though their support for the Democrat is down slightly from the backing Al Gore received in 2000, according to a poll released Tuesday.
FactCheck.org: New and Recycled Distortions in Debate #3Bush said most of his tax cuts went to "low- and middle-income Americans" when independent calculations show most went to the richest 10 percent. Kerry claims Bush "cut the Pell Grants" when they've actually increased. Both men repeated misstatements made …
Barbour Postpones Medicaid Transition<i>(Jackson, Miss.) -- Saying that a litigation (sic) had confused 50,000 Mississippi Medicaid recipients beyond repair, Governor Haley Barbour said today he would postpone the state's efforts to transition those recipients to Medicare and look to Medicaid reform opponents to …