Liberal Bill Scher and conservative Matt Lewis meet in the rancor-free DMZ to hash out the week’s political events.
On The DMZ: The 2016 campaign is underway! Can Republicans forgive Chris Christie? Will Jeb Bush bigfoot Rubio, Jindal, et al? Has American politics become too dynastic? Is Newt right about the uselessness of campaign consultants? And could higher taxes ultimately help the GOP?
The DMZ welcomes a new junior member: Becket Wilberforce Lewis! What does it mean for the Republican Party to “modernize not moderate“? Matt makes a full-throated case for the GOP to become the pro-immigration party. Is Marco Rubio the Great Latino Hope? Matt tells Rubio what he should have said when asked about the age of the Earth. Plus: Is Susan Rice damaged goods, or has she been unfairly smeared?
Kristen enters The DMZ to dissect the exit polls and conduct a GOP postmortem. Is it true that the conservative base didn’t show up? Why did Team Romney so misread the polls? Do Republicans risk losing the Millennial generation forever? Bill says conservatives have to realize that not all slopes are slippery. Is shifting on immigration enough to solve the Republican problem with Latinos? Kristen closes by arguing that young voters essentially decided the election.
On The DMZ: Obama wins! What does the GOP need to do differently? Matt thinks the Republicans must not abandon the pro-life cause, but their messaging needs to change. Bill argues that Obama has a mandate, but Matt contends that politicians always get burned by that assumption. With Obama reelected, will the GOP abandon its strategy of obstruction? Plus: Bill describes his fun-filled visit to the Daily Caller offices.
On The DMZ: The war over Nate Silver and his FiveThirtyEight election model. Can the polls really tell us who is going to show up on election day (and before)? Why is Chris Christie being so effusive in his praise of Obama? How will Hurricane Sandy affect the election? Why can’t conservatives learn to love FEMA? Plus: Matt argues that Mitt would govern as a moderate.
On The DMZ: Is Romney now seen as a sensible pragmatist, or is Obama’s “Romnesia” attack working? What must the campaigns do in the final two weeks? Is Twitter making media groupthink worse, and have the netroots lost their influence? Plus: The possibility that Obama could lose the popular vote but win the electoral college.
On The DMZ, Bill and Matt recap the second presidential debate and Candy Crowley’s moderating. Was Crowley right to reject the rules agreed upon before the debate? And were any of the attendees in Long Island actually undecided voters? They discuss the implications of Romney’s attempt to distance himself from George W. Bush. Bill attacks Romney’s tax plan, and Matt points out that the entire debate felt uncomfortably confrontational.
On The DMZ, Bill and Matt discuss yesterday’s biggest story…the miraculous playoff wins by both the Washington Nationals and the Baltimore Orioles. With that out of the way, they turn to the little matter of the vice presidential debate. Matt thinks Biden and the administration are being dishonest about the embassy attack in Libya. He also harshly criticizes Obama campaign adviser Stephanie Cutter. Bill describes attending the recent debate between Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown. Plus: Are conservatives happy with Paul Ryan?
On The DMZ: Matt says Romney’s win is huge! Bill says it’s meaningless! Matt says conservatives are ecstatic! Bill says Romney tried to abandon conservatism! And what about Big Bird? Plus: Bill and Matt analyze how a debate’s format can change the results.
On The DMZ: Can Scott Brown overcome being a Republican in Massachusetts? Can Politico‘s Roger Simon overcome a failed attempt at satire? Can Romney overcome the polls? Or is Obama the Teflon President? Did Obama mislead the public about Libya? And why hasn’t the attack in Benghazi become a bigger campaign issue? Plus: Romney’s wrong bet on the economy.