Ron Elving

Goodbye, Again, To Obama's Most Audacious Hope

Ron Elving — Tue, 14 May 2013 23:33:00 +0000

The sudden eruption of second-term scandals in his administration will have many costs for President Obama, but surely the most grievous will be the lost opportunity to transcend the partisan wars of Washington. That aspiration was his fondest dream for his second term, much as it was for his first. Now it seems destined to be dashed once again.

Of course, there are those who believe Barack Obama never intended to be anything but a conquering hero of the left.

Logic Behind Obama News Conference Hard To Fathom

Ron Elving — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:49:00 +0000

On Tuesday afternoon, President Obama declared May as Older Americans Month, National Foster Care Month, National Building Safety Month, Jewish American Heritage Month and National Physical Fitness and Sports Month.

The president also issued a statement on the investiture of the new king of the Netherlands.

While small and routine, these moves were all easy to understand, as were the accompanying proclamations from the White House press shop.

What was not clear was the executive thinking behind the postmortem" report on the 2012 national election by the Republican National Committee is either the first step toward the GOP's recovery or the latest sign that the party is headed for a breakup.

Or, it could be both.

RNC Chairman Reince Priebus put out a hard-eyed assessment of the state of his party, excoriating failures

Fiscal Cliff Debate: Why The (Very) Few Rule The Many In Congress

Ron Elving — Sun, 30 Dec 2012 20:48:00 +0000

In the final hours of the latest budget crisis in Washington, several salient facts are increasingly clear.

First, the leaders of the two parties in the Senate might still put together a negotiated deal that would avert the combination of tax increases and spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff.

Republican Grab For Senate Seats May Not Come Easy

Ron Elving — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 22:37:00 +0000

Melissa Block talks with senior Washington editor Ron Elving about the Senate races to watch on Tuesday.

NPR Poll Finds Presidential Race Too Close To Call

Ron Elving — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 02:36:00 +0000

The latest and last NPR Battleground Poll for 2012 shows former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holding the narrowest of leads in the national sample, but trailing President Obama in the dozen states that will decide the election.

The poll adds evidence that the Oct. 3 debate between the two men redefined the race.

Could There Be A Tie In The Electoral College?

Ron Elving — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 21:53:00 +0000

Transcript

AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

It's ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Audie Cornish.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

And I'm Melissa Block.

Most polls in the presidential race show the national popular vote to be a virtual tie. But as we know, the popular does not pick the president. That's the job of the Electoral College. And some election number crunchers are starting to explore the nightmare scenario of an Electoral College tie.

Analysis: Romney Debate Strategy Shows He Thinks He's In the Driver's Seat

Ron Elving — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 17:02:00 +0000

In his third debate with President Obama, Mitt Romney dialed up "cool and cautious" on his mood meter. And that tells you a great deal about where this presidential race stands with two weeks to go.

Romney had to know the president would be coming after him in Boca Raton, Fla., but he decided to avoid the aggressive and even angry notes he had struck in the first two debates. He had achieved what he could with this approach in the initial clash in Denver on Oct. 3, when he seemed the more decisive and strong-willed candidate on stage.

George McGovern, An Improbable Icon Of Anti-War Movement

Ron Elving — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 10:36:00 +0000

If George McGovern often seemed miscast as a presidential candidate, he was at least as improbable as an icon of the anti-war movement.

The Vietnam War gave birth to an opposition movement unlike any America had seen in its previous wars. It was young, unconventional and countercultural, defiant of authority and deeply suspicious of government.

McGovern himself was none of these things.

He was, at the time of his presidential nomination, a 50-year-old two-term senator from South Dakota, a family man and the son of a small-town Methodist minister.