The two leading Democratic contenders seem to have figured out that sparring back and forth over race is not a good idea for either of them, or for the country. Earlier this evening, Barack Obama had this to say: “I’ve been a little concerned about the tenor of the campaign over the last few days,” [...]

On Day Two of the conference call wars, we move on to the subject of abortion (see Jay’s post below): Obama Campaign to hold Conference Call to Discuss the Clinton Campaign’s Attacks on Obama’s Strong Choice Record CHICAGO, IL- The Obama campaign will host a conference call today to discuss the Clinton campaign’s attacks on [...]

Over at the New Republic, Norm Ornstein, Eve Fairbanks and Michelle Cottle have a lively debate going on: “So Why Have the Democrats Struggled?” One of the issues they are dealing with, near and dear to Swampland and its commenters, is the filibuster–and, specifically, why Harry Reid doesn’t just call the Republicans’ bluff. Ornstein once [...]

As I Twittered earlier, the rah-rah-cars-and-America-and-apple-pie speech that Mitt Romney gave before the Detroit Economic Club was a risk the size of Dennis Kucinich. The questions that followed were written on paper, and screened, and generally asked Romney just how much good would he do the Michigan economy. But when someone asked how, specifically, would [...]

By tradition and expertise, presidential candidates tend to avoid offering advice on the best way through the gates of heaven. But Mike Huckabee is more than just a political candidate. He is also a Southern Baptist pastor, and his presidential campaign has not stopped him from ministering to primary state voters as he travels the [...]

And if anyone can explain this extended metaphor that Mitt Romney used a high school assembly this morning, please do so in the comments. (On the bus, we were puzzled by how, in life, “you can know what’s behind the curtain.” Does anyone ever know exactly how their choices will turn out?) You know when [...]

This is the season of political whoppers–apparent falsehoods told in the public sphere with a straight face. The pols and their assassin surrogates twist and turn the truth to the breaking point. They aim for the kneecaps while pretending to reach for the stars. There are gradations of awfulness, but as a rule, no campaign [...]

The good news is that Romney attracted at crowd of almost 3,000 here today, about twice the size of McCain’s largest recent rally. The bad news: they were mostly under the age of eighteen. The ratio of potential voters to teenagers was, by a rough estimate, about 30 to one one to thirty. As a [...]