SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
US President George Bush addresses the nation during his State of the Union address from Capitol Hill in Washington 20 January 2004. Bush vowed that the United States "will never seek a permission slip" to go to war as he took aim in his annual State of the Union speech at critics of the invasion of Iraq. At left is Vice President Dick Cheney; at right House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-IL. (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/AFP/Getty Images)
I've got a stone in my shoe.
It's been there for 18 painful years. I can't seem to accommodate myself to it. Because every so often it grows another sharp edge. Those familiar with the "Americans Who Tell the Truth" portrait project know that the stone planted itself in my shoe shortly after 9/11 when the Bush administration launched the propaganda for attacking Iraq. This was a war crime. At Nuremberg after World War II we hung Nazis for similar crimes against humanity.
"What sort of twisted curmudgeon flies into a rage upon seeing photos of a happy grandfather, alongside his radiant daughter, holding his grandson? I guess that sort of curmudgeon would be me."
Instead of demanding accountability, our political, corporate, media and military powers keep working to make all that history of lies disappear. They want to make the stone invisible, the hobble in our walk imaginary. That cover-up is another crime. I wouldn't care so much except that this is not about George W. Bush being a dishonest human being. It's about the millions of dead and traumatized, the landscape and economies destroyed, the weapons we used still causing terrible birth defects, the cultures destroyed--and all the profit made by the US war industry. The greater the chaos, the bigger the profit. The more invisible the stone, the more it hurts. Let me give you an example of how this works.
A few days ago I happened to see some photos on the CBS News morning show of ex-president George W. Bush holding his newly born grandson. A quick Google search showed all the networks sporting similar coverage. In the photos we see the young mother, Bush's daughter Jenna, her two little girls, her newborn son Harold who will be called 'Hal,' and the exuberant grandfather, George W. Bush, president of the US from 2001 to 2009. In many of the photos is also Laura, passive wife of the former president.
I was enraged; but what sort of twisted curmudgeon flies into a rage upon seeing photos of a happy grandfather, alongside his radiant daughter, holding his grandson? I guess that sort of curmudgeon would be me--for even though the photos were taken in a brightly lit hospital room, I saw only darkness. I saw propaganda. I saw the cynical re-writing of history and reputation. I saw fatuous news anchors smiling along with this granddad, celebrating the birth of a baby.
These folks love it when the rich and famous have babies. Pushes their saccharine pander button, I guess. Don't we all love (read envy) this fortunate family! But it's worse than that. This isn't about corporate news actors fawning over celebrities. I saw those news folks--this is the dark part--enabling the restitution of the granddad's reputation the same way they had enabled his criminal war. Actually, they were purposely refurbishing his reputation because they had enabled his war. Right in front of our jovial, baby-happy eyes, we were watching history being erased. Because implicit in the happy birth chatter was the question: "How could anyone think this smiling guy cradling his little grandson could ever hurt anyone?"
I suspect some of you have heard of the great work of the Innocence Project. Begun in 1992, the Innocence Project works to have wrongfully convicted people (there are lots of them) exonerated and to reform the legal system to prevent future injustices. What was taking place in this Texas hospital room, though, was another kind of innocence project, not an idealistic but deeply cynical one, part of the political, corporate and media elite project to present W as a compassionate hero--a hero for our veterans, a hero for children.
I certainly wish Hal well, as I would any new inhabitant of this planet--oak sapling, platypus baby, or human newborn. Some of you might think my well wishes irrelevant. Hal is by birth a one percenter. 'Privilege' is his first, last and middle name. Nevertheless, I worry about him. At some point a rude person, a person who, unlike the news anchors, remembers history--a person like me, for instance--will inform Hal that his doting granddad lied shamelessly and persistently to instigate war. An imperialist war. An illegal and immoral war. This rude person will also inform Hal that such preemptive war is classified as a crime against humanity, that this war caused a cascade of events resulting in incalculable (and ongoing) suffering for millions of people--all while granddad and his cronies profited enormously. Granddad should be in prison. That rude truth may be a bitter pill for Hal and precipitate a storm of questions, a storm violent enough to rattle the Bush family tree.
But back to the news anchors. Why do they seem so exuberantly happy? Are they members of the Bush family? In fact, yes, they are members of the family. In late 2001 and throughout 2002 they renounced their free press obligations in a democratic society. They refused to investigate the lies and propaganda of the Bush administration, and chose to trumpet the same fear and lies as the Bush team. They crawled on their bellies begging adoption into family Bush. Adopt us and you can have your war. We'll reap profits, too. And it came to pass. Those media conglomerates owned by defense contractors profited twice.
The operational theme of the pathologically smiling news team is gee whiz innocence--a happy multi-generational, privileged family on the one hand and a cluster of very attractive 30 somethings being paid big network bucks to gush over the new grandfather on the other. It's meant to appear as run of the mill, feel-good, celebrity news. An innocent antidote to the world's ugliness, carefully omitting the cause of much of that ugliness. Bush uses the cardboard corporate media to power wash his image. The media use the sweet, goofy grandfather to power wash theirs. A win-win. Meanwhile, a truly innocent little Hal lies swaddled in a huge lie.
"Real history is a tough business. But to erase it is to erase your own identity. That's what Bush and all his enablers don't seem to get."
I remember in 2001 when Bush, Cheney, Condi, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Powell, et al., trotted out their righteous fear and lies campaign to attack Iraq. It all seemed so transparent to me, as though the mask of government probity had been yanked aside for anyone to see the deceit underneath, the ruthless willingness to choose war over dialogue, the ruthless appetite for indiscriminate murder for empire, profit and resource control. But the corporate press scurried to their rescue, made sure the mask never slipped. They paraded ex-general after goose stepping ex-general in front of their cameras to soberly underline Iraq's imminent threat. Practically every one of those ex-generals was either a defense company executive or a defense contractor's lobbyist. Or soon would be.
I wonder if some of those smiling anchors feel a moral twinge, carry a tiny burden of their complicity in war promotion, the making of entire regions and populations collateral damage for US corporate interests. Dr. King liked to say the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice. What we see here is the purposeful bending of that arc in the opposite direction--twisted and knotted beyond recognition.
Bush is a war criminal, guilty of crimes against humanity, a serial killer. I have no trouble with him being delighted at the birth of his grandson, but if he really wanted to do something for his grandson and for this country, he'd admit his crimes. How likely is that? I'm afraid it may be left to teenage Hal to tally the children killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Somalia, etc.. Maybe Bush, in passing, will even tell Hal how he censored his administration's climate science to benefit the fossil fuel industry.
When we hear the survivors of mass shootings relate their trauma--their terror as the racist and/or deranged executioner in the next aisle mows down shoppers and children, we try to imagine the horror. We try, but we really can't. The trauma belongs to the survivors.
But do we even try imagining the horror on a scale infinitely worse--the civilians of Iraq under "Shock and Awe" ordered by Bush and championed by vice president Dick Cheney and secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld. Years of bombs, missiles, machine guns, torture, humiliation--on and on and on. About that horror we are not encouraged to imagine the trauma. We are encouraged to exult as conquerors. Or, at the worst, dismiss all that terror and blood as merely a policy mistake.
It's a cliche to remark on the short attention span of citizens of the digital world. The assumption is that technology and information overload cause rapid memory saturation. Perhaps, though, the real reason for the reduced brain space is that we'd rather not know. Yes, the politicians and the press lied. But, do we really want to carry the moral burden of crimes committed in our names? It's OK to have some soldiers traumatized with PTSD, but not the entire country! We'd rather see "Dubya" as a good natured, harmless, innocent granddad and join his innocence project. It's a lot easier on us. Real history is a tough business. But to erase it is to erase your own identity. That's what Bush and all his enablers don't seem to get. They've helped to create a culture with no will to name the crimes, and in the process made themselves nonentities. Financially rich, ethically worthless. Historical abominations. They are executioners with black masks pulled over their faces. We can see them, but they can't see themselves. Because they can't see themselves, they think their crimes are invisible, and that baby Hal will help shield them.
And about the stone in my shoe? I don't expect relief any time soon.
Donald Trump’s attacks on democracy, justice, and a free press are escalating — putting everything we stand for at risk. We believe a better world is possible, but we can’t get there without your support. Common Dreams stands apart. We answer only to you — our readers, activists, and changemakers — not to billionaires or corporations. Our independence allows us to cover the vital stories that others won’t, spotlighting movements for peace, equality, and human rights. Right now, our work faces unprecedented challenges. Misinformation is spreading, journalists are under attack, and financial pressures are mounting. As a reader-supported, nonprofit newsroom, your support is crucial to keep this journalism alive. Whatever you can give — $10, $25, or $100 — helps us stay strong and responsive when the world needs us most. Together, we’ll continue to build the independent, courageous journalism our movement relies on. Thank you for being part of this community. |
I've got a stone in my shoe.
It's been there for 18 painful years. I can't seem to accommodate myself to it. Because every so often it grows another sharp edge. Those familiar with the "Americans Who Tell the Truth" portrait project know that the stone planted itself in my shoe shortly after 9/11 when the Bush administration launched the propaganda for attacking Iraq. This was a war crime. At Nuremberg after World War II we hung Nazis for similar crimes against humanity.
"What sort of twisted curmudgeon flies into a rage upon seeing photos of a happy grandfather, alongside his radiant daughter, holding his grandson? I guess that sort of curmudgeon would be me."
Instead of demanding accountability, our political, corporate, media and military powers keep working to make all that history of lies disappear. They want to make the stone invisible, the hobble in our walk imaginary. That cover-up is another crime. I wouldn't care so much except that this is not about George W. Bush being a dishonest human being. It's about the millions of dead and traumatized, the landscape and economies destroyed, the weapons we used still causing terrible birth defects, the cultures destroyed--and all the profit made by the US war industry. The greater the chaos, the bigger the profit. The more invisible the stone, the more it hurts. Let me give you an example of how this works.
A few days ago I happened to see some photos on the CBS News morning show of ex-president George W. Bush holding his newly born grandson. A quick Google search showed all the networks sporting similar coverage. In the photos we see the young mother, Bush's daughter Jenna, her two little girls, her newborn son Harold who will be called 'Hal,' and the exuberant grandfather, George W. Bush, president of the US from 2001 to 2009. In many of the photos is also Laura, passive wife of the former president.
I was enraged; but what sort of twisted curmudgeon flies into a rage upon seeing photos of a happy grandfather, alongside his radiant daughter, holding his grandson? I guess that sort of curmudgeon would be me--for even though the photos were taken in a brightly lit hospital room, I saw only darkness. I saw propaganda. I saw the cynical re-writing of history and reputation. I saw fatuous news anchors smiling along with this granddad, celebrating the birth of a baby.
These folks love it when the rich and famous have babies. Pushes their saccharine pander button, I guess. Don't we all love (read envy) this fortunate family! But it's worse than that. This isn't about corporate news actors fawning over celebrities. I saw those news folks--this is the dark part--enabling the restitution of the granddad's reputation the same way they had enabled his criminal war. Actually, they were purposely refurbishing his reputation because they had enabled his war. Right in front of our jovial, baby-happy eyes, we were watching history being erased. Because implicit in the happy birth chatter was the question: "How could anyone think this smiling guy cradling his little grandson could ever hurt anyone?"
I suspect some of you have heard of the great work of the Innocence Project. Begun in 1992, the Innocence Project works to have wrongfully convicted people (there are lots of them) exonerated and to reform the legal system to prevent future injustices. What was taking place in this Texas hospital room, though, was another kind of innocence project, not an idealistic but deeply cynical one, part of the political, corporate and media elite project to present W as a compassionate hero--a hero for our veterans, a hero for children.
I certainly wish Hal well, as I would any new inhabitant of this planet--oak sapling, platypus baby, or human newborn. Some of you might think my well wishes irrelevant. Hal is by birth a one percenter. 'Privilege' is his first, last and middle name. Nevertheless, I worry about him. At some point a rude person, a person who, unlike the news anchors, remembers history--a person like me, for instance--will inform Hal that his doting granddad lied shamelessly and persistently to instigate war. An imperialist war. An illegal and immoral war. This rude person will also inform Hal that such preemptive war is classified as a crime against humanity, that this war caused a cascade of events resulting in incalculable (and ongoing) suffering for millions of people--all while granddad and his cronies profited enormously. Granddad should be in prison. That rude truth may be a bitter pill for Hal and precipitate a storm of questions, a storm violent enough to rattle the Bush family tree.
But back to the news anchors. Why do they seem so exuberantly happy? Are they members of the Bush family? In fact, yes, they are members of the family. In late 2001 and throughout 2002 they renounced their free press obligations in a democratic society. They refused to investigate the lies and propaganda of the Bush administration, and chose to trumpet the same fear and lies as the Bush team. They crawled on their bellies begging adoption into family Bush. Adopt us and you can have your war. We'll reap profits, too. And it came to pass. Those media conglomerates owned by defense contractors profited twice.
The operational theme of the pathologically smiling news team is gee whiz innocence--a happy multi-generational, privileged family on the one hand and a cluster of very attractive 30 somethings being paid big network bucks to gush over the new grandfather on the other. It's meant to appear as run of the mill, feel-good, celebrity news. An innocent antidote to the world's ugliness, carefully omitting the cause of much of that ugliness. Bush uses the cardboard corporate media to power wash his image. The media use the sweet, goofy grandfather to power wash theirs. A win-win. Meanwhile, a truly innocent little Hal lies swaddled in a huge lie.
"Real history is a tough business. But to erase it is to erase your own identity. That's what Bush and all his enablers don't seem to get."
I remember in 2001 when Bush, Cheney, Condi, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Powell, et al., trotted out their righteous fear and lies campaign to attack Iraq. It all seemed so transparent to me, as though the mask of government probity had been yanked aside for anyone to see the deceit underneath, the ruthless willingness to choose war over dialogue, the ruthless appetite for indiscriminate murder for empire, profit and resource control. But the corporate press scurried to their rescue, made sure the mask never slipped. They paraded ex-general after goose stepping ex-general in front of their cameras to soberly underline Iraq's imminent threat. Practically every one of those ex-generals was either a defense company executive or a defense contractor's lobbyist. Or soon would be.
I wonder if some of those smiling anchors feel a moral twinge, carry a tiny burden of their complicity in war promotion, the making of entire regions and populations collateral damage for US corporate interests. Dr. King liked to say the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice. What we see here is the purposeful bending of that arc in the opposite direction--twisted and knotted beyond recognition.
Bush is a war criminal, guilty of crimes against humanity, a serial killer. I have no trouble with him being delighted at the birth of his grandson, but if he really wanted to do something for his grandson and for this country, he'd admit his crimes. How likely is that? I'm afraid it may be left to teenage Hal to tally the children killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Somalia, etc.. Maybe Bush, in passing, will even tell Hal how he censored his administration's climate science to benefit the fossil fuel industry.
When we hear the survivors of mass shootings relate their trauma--their terror as the racist and/or deranged executioner in the next aisle mows down shoppers and children, we try to imagine the horror. We try, but we really can't. The trauma belongs to the survivors.
But do we even try imagining the horror on a scale infinitely worse--the civilians of Iraq under "Shock and Awe" ordered by Bush and championed by vice president Dick Cheney and secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld. Years of bombs, missiles, machine guns, torture, humiliation--on and on and on. About that horror we are not encouraged to imagine the trauma. We are encouraged to exult as conquerors. Or, at the worst, dismiss all that terror and blood as merely a policy mistake.
It's a cliche to remark on the short attention span of citizens of the digital world. The assumption is that technology and information overload cause rapid memory saturation. Perhaps, though, the real reason for the reduced brain space is that we'd rather not know. Yes, the politicians and the press lied. But, do we really want to carry the moral burden of crimes committed in our names? It's OK to have some soldiers traumatized with PTSD, but not the entire country! We'd rather see "Dubya" as a good natured, harmless, innocent granddad and join his innocence project. It's a lot easier on us. Real history is a tough business. But to erase it is to erase your own identity. That's what Bush and all his enablers don't seem to get. They've helped to create a culture with no will to name the crimes, and in the process made themselves nonentities. Financially rich, ethically worthless. Historical abominations. They are executioners with black masks pulled over their faces. We can see them, but they can't see themselves. Because they can't see themselves, they think their crimes are invisible, and that baby Hal will help shield them.
And about the stone in my shoe? I don't expect relief any time soon.
I've got a stone in my shoe.
It's been there for 18 painful years. I can't seem to accommodate myself to it. Because every so often it grows another sharp edge. Those familiar with the "Americans Who Tell the Truth" portrait project know that the stone planted itself in my shoe shortly after 9/11 when the Bush administration launched the propaganda for attacking Iraq. This was a war crime. At Nuremberg after World War II we hung Nazis for similar crimes against humanity.
"What sort of twisted curmudgeon flies into a rage upon seeing photos of a happy grandfather, alongside his radiant daughter, holding his grandson? I guess that sort of curmudgeon would be me."
Instead of demanding accountability, our political, corporate, media and military powers keep working to make all that history of lies disappear. They want to make the stone invisible, the hobble in our walk imaginary. That cover-up is another crime. I wouldn't care so much except that this is not about George W. Bush being a dishonest human being. It's about the millions of dead and traumatized, the landscape and economies destroyed, the weapons we used still causing terrible birth defects, the cultures destroyed--and all the profit made by the US war industry. The greater the chaos, the bigger the profit. The more invisible the stone, the more it hurts. Let me give you an example of how this works.
A few days ago I happened to see some photos on the CBS News morning show of ex-president George W. Bush holding his newly born grandson. A quick Google search showed all the networks sporting similar coverage. In the photos we see the young mother, Bush's daughter Jenna, her two little girls, her newborn son Harold who will be called 'Hal,' and the exuberant grandfather, George W. Bush, president of the US from 2001 to 2009. In many of the photos is also Laura, passive wife of the former president.
I was enraged; but what sort of twisted curmudgeon flies into a rage upon seeing photos of a happy grandfather, alongside his radiant daughter, holding his grandson? I guess that sort of curmudgeon would be me--for even though the photos were taken in a brightly lit hospital room, I saw only darkness. I saw propaganda. I saw the cynical re-writing of history and reputation. I saw fatuous news anchors smiling along with this granddad, celebrating the birth of a baby.
These folks love it when the rich and famous have babies. Pushes their saccharine pander button, I guess. Don't we all love (read envy) this fortunate family! But it's worse than that. This isn't about corporate news actors fawning over celebrities. I saw those news folks--this is the dark part--enabling the restitution of the granddad's reputation the same way they had enabled his criminal war. Actually, they were purposely refurbishing his reputation because they had enabled his war. Right in front of our jovial, baby-happy eyes, we were watching history being erased. Because implicit in the happy birth chatter was the question: "How could anyone think this smiling guy cradling his little grandson could ever hurt anyone?"
I suspect some of you have heard of the great work of the Innocence Project. Begun in 1992, the Innocence Project works to have wrongfully convicted people (there are lots of them) exonerated and to reform the legal system to prevent future injustices. What was taking place in this Texas hospital room, though, was another kind of innocence project, not an idealistic but deeply cynical one, part of the political, corporate and media elite project to present W as a compassionate hero--a hero for our veterans, a hero for children.
I certainly wish Hal well, as I would any new inhabitant of this planet--oak sapling, platypus baby, or human newborn. Some of you might think my well wishes irrelevant. Hal is by birth a one percenter. 'Privilege' is his first, last and middle name. Nevertheless, I worry about him. At some point a rude person, a person who, unlike the news anchors, remembers history--a person like me, for instance--will inform Hal that his doting granddad lied shamelessly and persistently to instigate war. An imperialist war. An illegal and immoral war. This rude person will also inform Hal that such preemptive war is classified as a crime against humanity, that this war caused a cascade of events resulting in incalculable (and ongoing) suffering for millions of people--all while granddad and his cronies profited enormously. Granddad should be in prison. That rude truth may be a bitter pill for Hal and precipitate a storm of questions, a storm violent enough to rattle the Bush family tree.
But back to the news anchors. Why do they seem so exuberantly happy? Are they members of the Bush family? In fact, yes, they are members of the family. In late 2001 and throughout 2002 they renounced their free press obligations in a democratic society. They refused to investigate the lies and propaganda of the Bush administration, and chose to trumpet the same fear and lies as the Bush team. They crawled on their bellies begging adoption into family Bush. Adopt us and you can have your war. We'll reap profits, too. And it came to pass. Those media conglomerates owned by defense contractors profited twice.
The operational theme of the pathologically smiling news team is gee whiz innocence--a happy multi-generational, privileged family on the one hand and a cluster of very attractive 30 somethings being paid big network bucks to gush over the new grandfather on the other. It's meant to appear as run of the mill, feel-good, celebrity news. An innocent antidote to the world's ugliness, carefully omitting the cause of much of that ugliness. Bush uses the cardboard corporate media to power wash his image. The media use the sweet, goofy grandfather to power wash theirs. A win-win. Meanwhile, a truly innocent little Hal lies swaddled in a huge lie.
"Real history is a tough business. But to erase it is to erase your own identity. That's what Bush and all his enablers don't seem to get."
I remember in 2001 when Bush, Cheney, Condi, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and Powell, et al., trotted out their righteous fear and lies campaign to attack Iraq. It all seemed so transparent to me, as though the mask of government probity had been yanked aside for anyone to see the deceit underneath, the ruthless willingness to choose war over dialogue, the ruthless appetite for indiscriminate murder for empire, profit and resource control. But the corporate press scurried to their rescue, made sure the mask never slipped. They paraded ex-general after goose stepping ex-general in front of their cameras to soberly underline Iraq's imminent threat. Practically every one of those ex-generals was either a defense company executive or a defense contractor's lobbyist. Or soon would be.
I wonder if some of those smiling anchors feel a moral twinge, carry a tiny burden of their complicity in war promotion, the making of entire regions and populations collateral damage for US corporate interests. Dr. King liked to say the moral arc of the universe is long but it bends toward justice. What we see here is the purposeful bending of that arc in the opposite direction--twisted and knotted beyond recognition.
Bush is a war criminal, guilty of crimes against humanity, a serial killer. I have no trouble with him being delighted at the birth of his grandson, but if he really wanted to do something for his grandson and for this country, he'd admit his crimes. How likely is that? I'm afraid it may be left to teenage Hal to tally the children killed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Somalia, etc.. Maybe Bush, in passing, will even tell Hal how he censored his administration's climate science to benefit the fossil fuel industry.
When we hear the survivors of mass shootings relate their trauma--their terror as the racist and/or deranged executioner in the next aisle mows down shoppers and children, we try to imagine the horror. We try, but we really can't. The trauma belongs to the survivors.
But do we even try imagining the horror on a scale infinitely worse--the civilians of Iraq under "Shock and Awe" ordered by Bush and championed by vice president Dick Cheney and secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld. Years of bombs, missiles, machine guns, torture, humiliation--on and on and on. About that horror we are not encouraged to imagine the trauma. We are encouraged to exult as conquerors. Or, at the worst, dismiss all that terror and blood as merely a policy mistake.
It's a cliche to remark on the short attention span of citizens of the digital world. The assumption is that technology and information overload cause rapid memory saturation. Perhaps, though, the real reason for the reduced brain space is that we'd rather not know. Yes, the politicians and the press lied. But, do we really want to carry the moral burden of crimes committed in our names? It's OK to have some soldiers traumatized with PTSD, but not the entire country! We'd rather see "Dubya" as a good natured, harmless, innocent granddad and join his innocence project. It's a lot easier on us. Real history is a tough business. But to erase it is to erase your own identity. That's what Bush and all his enablers don't seem to get. They've helped to create a culture with no will to name the crimes, and in the process made themselves nonentities. Financially rich, ethically worthless. Historical abominations. They are executioners with black masks pulled over their faces. We can see them, but they can't see themselves. Because they can't see themselves, they think their crimes are invisible, and that baby Hal will help shield them.
And about the stone in my shoe? I don't expect relief any time soon.
"Eric Adams is a complete non-factor in this race," remarked a founding partner of pollster Zenith Research.
A new poll of the New York City mayoral race found that Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani is very well positioned to win later this year and that former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is only competitive in the race if every other Mamdani opponent drops out.
The survey, which was conducted by polling firm Zenith Research, showed Mamdani holding what Zenith founding partner Adam Carlson described on X as a "commanding" lead of 28 points among likely voters in a five-way race featuring Cuomo, incumbent Mayor Eric Adams, Republican Curtis Sliwa, and independent candidate Jim Walden. Even in other scenarios where other candidates drop out of the race, Mamdani would still garner more than 50% of likely votes in each instance.
However, Mamdani's lead becomes much smaller when the poll is expanded to all registered voters, among whom he only holds a three-point advantage over Cuomo in a head-to-head matchup. This suggests that Cuomo has room to grow as long as he can convince Adams, Sliwa, and Walden to exit the race.
Even so, commented Carlson, Cuomo faces significant headwinds that could block his path to victory even if he succeeds somehow in making it a one-on-one race.
"Another thing that’s extremely tough for Cuomo is that 60% of likely voters (as well as 52% of registered voters) would not even consider voting for him," he explained. "Only 32% say they wouldn't consider voting for Mamdani. Cuomo will need to go scorched earth to bring that number up."
New Yorkers who oppose Mamdani will have to place their hopes in the disgraced former governor, given the dismal standing held by incumbent Adams.
"Eric Adams is a complete non-factor in this race," remarked Carlson. "He polls at 7% in the five-way race, 14% if Cuomo drops out, and 32% if Cuomo and Sliwa drop out. More than half of [likely voters] strongly disapprove of his performance and have a very unfavorable view of him. 68% won't consider voting for him."
The poll also found Mamdani with an overall lead among Jewish voters despite efforts by opponents to paint him as antisemitic given his opposition to Israel's war in Gaza and his past reluctance to criticize the slogan "globalize the intifada," which he told The Bulwark he viewed as "a desperate desire for equality and equal rights in standing up for Palestinian human rights." New York City Comptroller Brad Lander, a progressive Jewish ally of Mamdani's who has endorsed his mayoral bid, acknowledged before the election that some Jewish people view the phrase as a threat of violence.
Among likely Jewish voters, Mamdani leads Cuomo by 17 points in a five-way race. Although Cuomo holds a double-digit lead over Mamdani among likely Jewish voters over the age of 45, Mamdani dominates among young Jewish voters by pulling in more than two-thirds of likely Jewish voters between the ages of 18 and 44.
"These individuals have already taken steps to upend decades of scientific research and vaccine policy, threatening the health and safety of all Americans," said a letter signed by Sanders and seven other Democratic senators.
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday launched an investigation into U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s purge of independent experts from a panel on vaccine recommendations.
Last month, Kennedy announced that he was "retiring" all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, commonly known as ACIP, despite promising during his Senate confirmation hearing to keep the committee intact.
At the time, Sanders (I-Vt.)—chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions—warned that "firing independent vaccine experts is a dangerous, unprecedented move that will make it harder for the American people to access vaccines that are safe, effective, and essential to saving lives."
After the firings, Kennedy said, "We're going to bring great people onto the ACIP panel—not anti-vaxxers—bringing people on who are credentialed scientists."
In a letter sent to Kennedy Tuesday, Sanders and seven other Democratic senators said those fears have come to pass. Kennedy, they said, has replaced the panel of experts with "prominent vaccine deniers."
The most prominent of these figures is Dr. Robert Malone, who has described it as "high praise" to be dubbed an "anti-vaxxer."
Malone gained prominence during the Covid-19 pandemic by casting doubt on the illness's severity and baselessly suggesting that the mRNA vaccines used to treat the disease were "causing a form of AIDS."
Earlier this year, Malone also attempted to foment doubt that children had died due to the unprecedented measles outbreak in Texas.
Kennedy also appointed the former leader of his anti-vaccine organization, the Children's Health Defense, Lyn Redwood, a longtime proponent of the false belief that the vaccination for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) causes autism.
Also on the committee is Vicky Pebsworth Debold, founder of the National Vaccine Information Center—one of the longest-running anti-vaccine organizations in America—who has argued that a vaccination caused her child's autism.
ACIP is in charge of examining scientific findings to make recommendations to the public about which vaccines to get and when.
"These individuals," the senators said, "have already taken steps to upend decades of scientific research and vaccine policy, threatening the health and safety of all Americans."
When Kennedy's new handpicked committee met for the first time in late June, the members made substantial changes to vaccine policy and hinted at others coming in the future.
The most significant change they made was the recommendation that Americans receive flu vaccinations free of the preservative thimerosal—which is partially made of mercury and prevents germs and fungi from contaminating batches of vaccines.
Thimerosal, which is a component of many multidose vaccines, has never been found harmful by any scientific study. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided a document to the committee that included 25 years of studies indicating thimerosal's safety. But that document was removed from the meeting without explanation.
When they questioned ACIP about its removal, the senators say Malone replied that it was "not authorized by the office of the secretary," which the senators concluded meant that Kennedy or one of his staff "had the document taken off CDC’s website."
Instead of credible science, Redwood presented a report likely generated by artificial intelligence, which included many debunked claims about the dangers of thimerosal, and even made reference to a CDC study on the dangers of the preservative that did not exist.
Kennedy's ACIP also determined that it would revise the childhood vaccine schedule that has been in place for decades. That schedule includes vaccines for polio, chickenpox, diphtheria, and tetanus—illnesses that once routinely killed children but have been virtually eradicated by mass immunization.
The recommended vaccine schedule, the senators noted, determines what immunizations are required to be covered by health insurance companies and government programs like Medicaid and Medicare.
"If insurance companies, Medicare, Medicaid and other government programs stop covering vaccines, Americans will be forced to pay out of pocket," the senators said. "The only people who will be able to afford vaccines will be the wealthy."
The senators warned that this, along with Kennedy and his appointees' undermining of vaccine science, would result in "a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases."
Under Kennedy, the U.S. has already experienced its largest measles outbreak in 33 years, which has resulted in the first deaths from the disease in over a decade, following a downswing in measles vaccination.
Despite this, Kennedy has continued to downplay the disease's severity and the vaccine's well-documented effectiveness, even claiming that it causes "deaths every year."
The senators demanded that Kennedy provide information about why each of the nonpartisan members of ACIP were fired, and what criteria and vetting process was used to pick the anti-vaccine figures who replaced them.
"The harm your actions will cause is significant," the senators told Kennedy. "As your new ACIP makes recommendations based on pseudoscience, fewer and fewer Americans will have access to fewer and fewer vaccines. And as you give a platform to conspiracy theorists, and even promote their theories yourself, Americans will continue to lose confidence in whatever vaccines are still available."
"What will come out next about Bove?" said one senator as a confirmation vote loomed. "That's precisely the problem with this disaster of a nominee. And why Senate Republicans are rushing through his nomination."
With the U.S. Senate poised to vote as early as Tuesday on Trump administration official Emil Bove's nomination for a lifetime appointment as a federal judge, a third whistleblower came forward with information about Bove's conduct at the Department of Justice and Democratic senators made their latest push to stop his confirmation.
As The Washington Post reported, a whistleblower shared evidence with lawmakers that Bove, the principal associate deputy attorney general and a former personal attorney to President Donald Trump, misled the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding his role in the DOJ's dismissal of corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.
During his confirmation hearing in June, Bove told senators that U.S. District Judge Dale Ho granted the DOJ's motion to dismiss the Adams case because it "reflected a valid exercise of prosecutorial discretion."
He denied the existence of the DOJ deal with Adams to drop the charges in exchange for the mayor's cooperation with Trump's mass deportation agenda, saying that "the suggestion that there was some kind of quid pro quo was just plain false."
The decision to drop the charges led several prosecutors to resign from the DOJ in protest.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee and condemned Republicans' decision to advance Bove's nomination earlier this month, first received evidence from the third whistleblower, according to the Post. Several other Democrats have also reviewed the evidence, which Booker told the outlet was "significant."
"We have substantial information relevant to the truthfulness of the nominee," Booker said on the Senate floor, calling on Republicans on the committee to review the new evidence.
"Another whistleblower has come forward with evidence that raises serious concerns with Emil Bove's misconduct. Senate Republicans will bear full responsibility for the consequences if they rubber stamp Mr. Bove's nomination."
Lawyers for the anonymous whistleblower told the Post on Tuesday that they had turned over the new information provided by the person to the DOJ inspector general.
Booker was joined by Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) on Tuesday in calling on the DOJ's inspector general to promptly open an investigation into Bove in light of the latest whistleblower complaint.
"In the event these whistleblower complaints and other reports have not already prompted investigations by your office, we urge you to undertake a thorough review of these disclosures and allegations," said the lawmakers.
Two other whistleblowers have come forward in recent weeks, alleging Bove told DOJ lawyers to ignore court orders that would impede Trump's mass deportation agenda. Former DOJ attorneys and federal and state judges have urged the Senate to oppose his nomination.
Schiff condemned Republicans on the committee for attempting to dismiss the whistleblowers' complaints.
"What will come out next about Bove?" said Schiff. "That's precisely the problem with this disaster of a nominee. And why Senate Republicans are rushing through his nomination. Before more disqualifying information can come out."
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) emphasized that the fight to stop Bove's confirmation "isn't over, even when subservient Senate Republicans ignore another whistleblower and shove this character through their new-low, hide-the-ball Senate confirmation process and onto the bench."
Republicans can afford to lose only three votes for Bove and still confirm him with a tie-breaker vote from Vice President JD Vance. Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are expected to oppose him.
Josh Sorbe, a spokesperson for Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), the Judiciary Committee's ranking member, said the latest complaint is "another damning indictment of a man who should never be a federal judge."
"Another whistleblower has come forward with evidence that raises serious concerns with Emil Bove's misconduct," said Sorbe. "Senate Republicans will bear full responsibility for the consequences if they rubber stamp Mr. Bove's nomination."