A couple of outtakes from my backstage view of the rally yesterday: As Ted Kennedy was coming to the end of the ropeline where I was standing, his eyes lit on a ninetysomething man waiting there to shake his hand. Kennedy grabbed my arm and pulled me over to meet Mort Caplin: “He taught Bobby [...]

“Ladies and Gentlemen, the state of the Union is….is….is….” If you clicked on your television several hours ago hoping to hear the President of the United States finish that sentence, and in doing so give you a sensible and coherent framework for understanding the complex and sometimes frightening world you inhabit, you listened for 53 [...]

Time on the campaign trail is slippery–a day is a week is a month. The only thing you notice, after a while, is how nice the bedsheets are in your new hotel room. That said, I have vivid memories of late-night barroom conversations with both journalists and campaign aides in South Carolina. And the calendar [...]

I was backstage today at the remarkable rally at which Ted, Caroline and Patrick Kennedy endorsed Barack Obama. Here are my interviews with Ted and Caroline about why they decided to back Obama; I also talked to Obama about what this endorsement meant to him, and what it could mean to his chances of getting [...]

Over the weekend, I wrote about an online video candidate guide for Christian voters that incorrectly described Mitt Romney’s religious beliefs. The guide, which is distributed by Focus on the Family Action, the political arm of James Dobson’s organization, said that Romney had acknowledged that Mormonism is not a Christian faith. In fact, Romney has [...]

Thanks, Michael, for using your post to give fuller context to those quotes I referenced. And I was wrong to write that the press characterized Romney as having a specific date in mind — that was sloppy and I’ve fixed the language. But I do think the media portrayed him as, at the very least, [...]

I think we can all agree on what was going on in the spring of 2007, when Mitt Romney spoke about the surge in Iraq. He was taking what looked like the safest political position for a Republican. He supported the president’s policy, but he left open the possibility that it would fail. He said [...]

The last time I wrote in Swampland that Mitt Romney was a nerd (and John McCain was the cool kid), the response from readers, not to mention Atrios, was fierce–well more than a 100 comments saying I was everything that is wrong with journalism. Well, I did it again, in a Time.com story posted today, [...]