+Barack Obama | 1264 days ago

Surprisingly Downbeat Democrats…

By wpcomimportuser6

I had a drink yesterday with a smart Democrat mega-donor. I got a little lost looking for him in one the Big Cheese hotels and stopped in the bar. I wound up talking to a decent assortment of smart political types, ranging from a cagey former statewide office-holder in a very key swing state, to [...]

+Barack Obama | 1265 days ago

A Mini Preview of Obama’s Speech

By Jay Newton-Small

Given Obama’s statements in Moline that he wasn’t aiming for soaring rhetoric in his acceptance speech tomorrow, it’s not entirely surprising that a reporter on Obama’s flight in to Denver from Billings, Montana today asked David Axelrod: Is Obama aiming for boring? Axelrod laughed and snarkily replied: “Yeah, that’s why it’s taken so long, because [...]

+Barack Obama | 1265 days ago

PUMAs Without Claws…

By wpcomimportuser6

I know a rock-ribbed Republican operative who was a key Reagan sergeant back during the heated Reagan – Ford primary in 1976. He is still so mad that the Mississippi delegation switched to Ford that he promises physical violence should he ever by chance run into the guy who chaired that delegation. No doubt, these [...]

+Barack Obama | 1266 days ago

Slouching Toward Denver

By Jay Newton-Small

Billings, Montana Here’s a dispatch from the road on Obama’s migration west. As I note in the story, Gore made a surprise stop to the floor of the convention in Los Angeles when he arrived that Wednesday to see his daughter speak. Obama is currently not scheduled to set foot in the Pepsi Center but [...]

+Barack Obama | 1267 days ago

Re: Bill Clinton’s Convention Role

By Jay Newton-Small

Moline, Illinois In a press conference on the tarmac before leaving for Kansas City, Obama just batted down stories that there’s any dissention between himself and the Clintons. “She could not have been more clear today, she could not have been more clear in the course of the last several months,” Obama said. “President Clinton [...]

+Barack Obama | 1278 days ago

Re: Obama’s Shortened Veep List

By Jay Newton-Small

The convention folks just put out a list of Wednesday speakers (release after jump) that would seem to either knock three of the top contenders out or make the case that someone’s going to be speaking twice. Noticeably absent from a line up of veterans and foreign policy experts are Reed, Clark and Kerry. An [...]

+Barack Obama | 1279 days ago

Obama’s Shortened Veep List

By Jay Newton-Small

As we learn more and more about the speakers at the Democratic convention — a brilliant PR move on behalf of the Obama campaign that has kept the press lapping up the details like my dog begs for Puperoni – it occurs to me that, unless someone speaks twice, the announcements are whittling down Obama’s [...]

+Uncategorized | 1281 days ago

Denver: The Parties

By Jay Newton-Small

Denver is shaping up to be quite the party. In a schedule obtained by TIME there are already more than 300 events and parties starting the Saturday before the convention and ending in what will surely be the wee hours Friday morning. Attendees will get treated to daily midnight broadcasts of the Daily Show live [...]