• “Until this election, presidential campaign merchandising was largely limited to yard signs, lapel pins, bumper stickers and other baubles…This time, the campaigns have still been giving plenty of paraphernalia away, but they’ve also leveraged a growing Web presence to reach a population willing to pay for the same gear, plus many more-elaborate items on [...]

Here’s my take on Obama’s exceptional speech, which defied the usual conventions dictating how candidates should manage a crisis in their campaigns. In addressing the controversy over some of the language in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s sermons, Obama put a new twist on his message of hope about a post-racial politics in America: he said America’s [...]

I’ll have a lot more to say about Barack Obama’s stunning speech in my print column this week. Right now, though, the immediate, tawdry issue for the Obama campaign is this: How will the media play it? What will the sound bites be on the evening news tonight (especially the local evening news)? After all, [...]

He was very smart not to just go with Romney’s speech. It was a more sedate speech than I’d expected, but one suspects that too much passion might be misinterpreted. As for the content, he said some things that echo arguments liberals (not just black politicians) have made in the past: Wright’s comments are rooted [...]

With a shoutout to Swampland commenters here.

As it were: Clinton has said in her stump speech, “We used to say in the White House that if a place is too dangerous, too small, or too poor, send the First Lady.” Sinbad scoffed at this statement as well: “What kind of president would say ‘Hey man, I can’t go ’cause I might [...]

He’s started. Here’s the text. Obama seems to be speaking with deliberate, almost forced calm. But it’s a remarkable speech on paper. And my guess is that he will be amping up the emotion toward the end.