Carl M. Cannon
Carl M. Cannon is the senior Washington correspondent for PoliticsDaily.com. Previously, Carl was the DC bureau chief for Reader's Digest... moreMohamed Osman Mohamud: What Made Him Hate?
Once again, the troubling question arises: How can someone come to these shores, accept the hospitality and bounty of a new country, swear fealty to its people and Constitution, then plan to commit mass murder in the name of religion? And once again, leaders of a local mosque – this time in Portland, Oregon – warily attempt to reassure their fellow Americans that one disturbed and dangerous young Muslim does not speak for their community. The alleged plot interrupted by the FBI was shocking even in an age in which we have become inured to indiscriminate terror: Mohamed Osman ...
FBI Thwarts Planned Portland Bombing at Christmas-Tree Lighting
A 19-year-old Somali-born resident of Corvallis, Oregon, who until recently had been a part-time student at Oregon State University was arrested Friday evening for attempting to detonate what he believed was an explosives-laden van parked amid a huge holiday throng attending a Christmas tree lighting ceremony in Portland, law-enforcement authorities said. Mohamed Osman Mohamud was arrested at Union Station in Portland at 5:40 p.m. just after he dialed a cell phone that he allegedly believed would kill or maim hundreds of innocent people, including children, the authorities said. Prosecutors ...
Mark Twain, Tom Friedman, and Quotations Too Good to Be Correctly Attributed
One of the hazards of fact-checking others -- or dressing down politicians who peddle preposterously bogus material -- is spreading your own misinformation while doing so. This was the booby trap Thomas L. Friedman and the New York Times set for themselves Tuesday in a column headlined, unfortunately, "Too Good to Check." I yield to no one in my admiration for Friedman, with whom I covered the White House in the Clinton years and later interviewed. As far as I know, I'm the only one who ever put forward Tom's name for consideration of the Nobel Peace Prize -- my thought being that he hardly ...
'And Then President Bush Said . . .' Dubious 'Quotes' Attributed to Dubya
When he was president, Gerald Ford and his aides marveled at an "Oval Office Effect" that would make even seasoned political insiders quite passive when they called on the president. Intending to give Ford candid -- or even unwelcome -- advice, they would instead discuss their golf games and families. This effect wasn't limited to Ford -- or to allies of presidents. In their book "Tell Newt to Shut Up!," authors David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf relate Republican Speaker Newt Gingrich's cringe-worthy confession to White House chief of staff Leon Panetta regarding President Clinton: "I ...
Midterm Elections 2010: Ugly Campaigns, Scared Incumbents and Angry Voters
For more than half a century, the reigning ethos in Washington was neatly articulated in the succinct wisdom of Speaker Sam Rayburn, words imparted to freshmen members of Congress when they first arrived in the nation's capital: "If you want to get along, go along." A sprawling congressional office building is named after the former speaker from Texas, and in January some of the new members of the congressional class chosen Tuesday by voters will set up shop in the Rayburn House Office Building. Some of them, however, will know in their hearts that they got here on the strength of a ...
Interview: Ken Buck Talks Colorado Senate Race and Tea Party
DENVER, Colo. -- The prevailing wisdom on Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck is that he is one of the runaway locomotives on the Tea Party Express, a creation of the grassroots who challenged the entire Colorado Republican establishment -- and is now an even-money choice in the general election against incumbent Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet. The story line is mostly accurate. Ken Buck is definitely a darling of the tea party set, it's true that the GOP hierarchy preferred former lieutenant governor Jane Norton over Buck in the Republican senatorial primary, and public opinion polls do ...
Interview: Michael Bennet on Colorado Politics and Challenger Ken Buck
Like many Democrats in Congress, Michael Bennet didn't expect he'd have to work so hard to defend his Senate seat this year, but for Bennet the circumstances are a little different than his colleagues' – Bennet didn't expect to be in Washington at all, let alone in the professional fight of his life against Republican Ken Buck. Two years ago, life was good for Colorado Democrats, including Michael Bennet. The Mile High City was the site of the Democrats' political convention, and one of the happy hosts was Bennet's college buddy, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper. Bennet, then Denver's ...
Exclusive Interview: Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper on Governor Campaign
DENVER, Colorado -- Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper is a test case, a kind of human guinea pig. The proposition being tested is whether a nice guy -- or, more to the point, a politician who refuses to run negative political ads -- can still be elected in a contested statewide election in a swing state. That is the question Colorado voters are fixing to answer on Tuesday when they choose their next governor. "I look at the business world sometimes and you don't see General Motors doing attack ads about Toyota -- and there's a reason for it," he tells Politics Daily (interview highlights at ...
Baseball, the World Series and Steroids: George W. Bush Was Right
When he was part of the syndicate that owned the Texas Rangers, George W. Bush usually eschewed the owners' box for a seat in the stands, all the better to shuck peanuts and kibitz with the players, sometimes in his basic Spanish. Now that the Rangers are finally in the World Series – which opened Wednesday night in San Francisco -- the network cameras will scan the box seats looking for Bush, who likes to sit next to his old friend Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan. Perhaps some of Bush's old critics ought to also search him out -- and apologize. Baseball is a better game, a truer game, ...
Juan Williams' Firing: Censorship or Partisan Games Between NPR and Fox News?
Always vigilant at resisting any and all attempts to squelch liberal voices, the political Left has been exhibiting an untoward inclination to suppress the speech of those with whom they do not agree. This disquieting impulse reveals itself in myriad ways, from shouting down Karl Rove in a Beverly Hills bookstore and boycotting businesses that contribute to Republicans, to advocating an Orwellian-named "fairness doctrine" designed to muzzle right-wing talk radio or demanding the firing of commentators who run afoul of their sensibilities. The caveat should be added that this instinct is not ...
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