Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/tag/ted-cruz/)
After spending the Republican National Convention in Texas, I can’t shake the feeling that the whole thing happened there. That is, of course, ridiculous. The convention was in Cleveland, Ohio, not Cleveland, Texas. (more…) Continue Reading →
Every couple of years when election season heats up, I write a column in defense of politicians. Don’t judge politicians so harshly, I argue. Yes, some are corrupt and some are liars, but it ruins democracy to paint them all with the same monochrome spray can. Not all politicians are ignorant and incompetent, I tell voters. (more…) Continue Reading →
The late Sen. Conrad Burns was an inspirational public figure. He inspired roughly half the population to love him and the other half to hate him. The thin margin between love and loathing was never more apparent than during his fourth and final Senate run, which he lost by just a few thousand votes. (more…) Continue Reading →
Editor’s Note: This is the first of two stories looking at the 2016 primary race ahead of Montana’s June 7 primary election. On Tuesday we’ll look at the Democratic race.)
In 2008, with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton nearly deadlocked in their race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Montana voters headed to the polls on June 3 not knowing who the party’s nominee would be. (more…) Continue Reading →
One good thing about having a colossal blowhard like Donald Trump run for president is that he occasionally blurts out a gaffe, which Michael Kinsley famously defined as “when a politician tells the truth–some obvious truth he isn’t supposed to say.” (more…) Continue Reading →
In April 1864, months before one of the most contentious elections in American history, the New York World accused President Abraham Lincoln of having urged a friend to sing a comic song as they strolled among the dead and wounded two years earlier at Antietam. The World pounded on the false story for five months, eventually adding the fanciful detail that Democratic opponent George McClellan, the general Lincoln had fired for timidity and a fatal case of the “slows,” had pleaded in vain for Lincoln to show respect to the fallen. (more…) Continue Reading →
In the midst of one of the strangest, most outlandish, stark-ravingly maddest election cycles in the history of the United States, a surprising number of voters have turned to me for guidance. I was tempted to tell them all to take two aspirin and go to bed until the third week of November, but that seemed a trifle irresponsible. So, I will attempt to answer all the questions to the best of my limited abilities. Here goes. (more…) Continue Reading →
This has to be the most entertaining primary election that I’ve ever witnessed, and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. My particular favorite among the Republican candidates, Jeb Bush, just dropped out and I suspect it was because he was not as big a charlatan as the others. Kasich will be next for the same reason. (more…) Continue Reading →
As sure as pimples follow chocolate, flat tax proposals erupt with each election cycle. Many of us enjoy chocolate, enough to tolerate the inevitable acne. Far fewer of us enjoy the palaver in favor of flat tax, but we’ve warned ourselves to expect it nevertheless. (more…) Continue Reading →
Susan Balter-Reitz, an assistant professor at Montana State University Billings, set my mind at ease last week about the laws governing journalism. But she said nothing to make me feel better about the future of the profession. Balter-Reitz was giving one of a series of talks on political cartooning developed by MSU Billings professors. She was speaking in the Community Lecture Series at the Billings Unitarian Universalist Fellowship. (more…) Continue Reading →
