Tom with the April 2024 BTRTN Month in Review. APRIL 2024 Much has been made of the legislative triumph of the month, the passage of a $95 billion package which in four separate bills provided badly needed and long overdue aid to Ukraine, plus support for Israel and Taiwan, and an anti-TikTok sop to the hard right.  There has been strong bipartisan praise for Speaker Mike Johnson for ..read more

Back in 2020, BTRTN published a post entitled “Bigfoot, Unicorns, and Superior Republican Stewardship of the Economy,” which used historical data to smash the myth that the GOP is better at managing the economy than Democrats. Now, with polls showing that a majority of Americans rate Trump as better for the economy than Biden, it is time to revisit that topic with the latest data… and fresh ..read more

My friend and great Democratic activist Sherrye Henry recently hosted a lunch during which New York advertising legend Sally Minard framed the essential challenge for Joe Biden’s campaign: “What goes on our hat?”  Today, Steve offers his answer.       They’ve got a hat.                We ..read more

Tom gives a brief preview of what is usually a drama-filled, circle-the-day-on-the-calendar extravaganza that makes or breaks campaigns.  But not this year.  Welcome to Super Tuesday!  Well, maybe not so super after all.  Donald Trump will likely sweep every single race on the GOP side and Joe Biden surely will do the same in the Democratic races.  There is not much ..read more

Tom with the February 2024 BTRTN Month in Review. FEBRUARY 2024 Our politics are a full-fledged embarrassment.  The departure of Donald Trump from the White House has far from eliminated his pervasiveness.  We suffer still for his peculiar talent of infecting every chance we have to be normal, decent or admirable, and turning it into a national humiliation.  From his own ..read more

This most peculiar primary season continues in what could be the “Ground Zero” election state in November, 2024. By all rights, Nikki Haley should have packed up her bags after the New Hampshire primary, and if not then, then surely after South Carolina.  Three straight whippings, including Iowa, and a 20-point defeat in your home state would, in any other year, be enough to send an ..read more

Tom addresses the only question about the South Carolina primary. Nikki Haley is about to get thrashed in her own state of South Carolina in the GOP primary tomorrow.  This did not have to happen.  Donald Trump’s convincing win in Iowa, topped with leads in polling in virtually every other primary state that lay ahead, was more than enough to chase off every other remaining GOP ..read more

Do Democrats understand that Republicans actually do want to end democracy in America? Steve says it’s not someone else’s job to fight for democracy. It’s ours. Nice guys finish last. With the 2000 election hanging in the balance like a chad on a Florida ballot, Democrat Al Gore sought a “fair” resolution to the crisis. George W. Bush's lawyer, former White House Chief of Staff James Baker ..read more

Tom reviews the race to replace George Santos. George Santos will have a D-List celebrity career while on his way to becoming an answer to a trivia question and a historical footnote.  His bizarre run in the limelight as the U.S. representative in New York’s 3rd District ended last December when the dysfunctional GOP-led House finally expelled him, after a near two-year saga.  It ..read more

Tom explains the GOP weirdness that begins today in Nevada. This will be the outcome in Nevada this week:  Nikki Haley will win the primary by an overwhelming margin.  Donald Trump will take all the delegates. How can this be?  It all gets down to a spat between the state and the state’s Republican Party.  The state legislature, run by Democrats, passed a bill in 2021 ..read more