Steve Schmidt, the strategic manager of John McCain’s 2008 campaign, got a friendly New York Times profile over the weekend, complete with some funny vision quest photos of Schmidt amid trees. The story is notable mainly for the perfectly sardonic way he summarizes the art of modern campaign strategy: “I’m not sure I want to spend …
Romney
Gentlemen M.I.A.: What the Loss of Campaign Decorum Means for America
Gentlemen, it seems, need no longer apply for President of the United States. The Obama and Romney campaigns no longer pretend that 2012 election will be a respectful, dignified ordeal. There will be little dialog. It won’t be …
Dire Jobs Report Throws Washington into the Pressure Cooker
It’s bad, man. The May unemployment report released Friday morning didn’t just announce one month of lethargic job growth — 69,000 added, fewer than necessary to even keep up with population growth. The government’s regular …
Romney, Obama and Syria as a ‘Leadership’ Issue
The latest massacre in Syria, this one featuring the horrific execution of dozens of children, has done little to change American policy toward the brutal regime in Damascus. But it may have escalated Syria as an issue in the presidential campaign, with unpredictable results.
In a statement yesterday, Mitt Romney accused Barack Obama …
The Phony War: Obama and Romney Are Debating Character, Not Policy
More than five months from Election Day, the back-and-forth about Mitt Romney’s record at Bain already feels played out. Unfortunately, there’s good reason to expect the campaign continues in this vein indefinitely. Neither …
Obama Stumbles? Why the President’s Right to Talk About Bain
The meme of the day in journo-world is that President Obama has stumbled at the outset of the general election campaign. The evidence for this? Well, uh, there isn’t very much, really–except that a few Democrats have criticized …
As Joe Biden Visits Ohio, Mud Flies Over Chicken Parm
Steubenville, Ohio
Any last hope that this year’s election would be anything but an unprecedented wallow in muck, misstatement and disrespect was lost Wednesday, at a neighborhood spaghetti joint on the border between Ohio …
Bashing Bain: Why Obama’s New Attacks on Romney Might Not Work
The Politics of the JPMorgan Mess: A Footnote for Obama and Romney’s Existing Attacks
Forget the particulars of JPMorgan’s $2 billion blunder, if it might have been stopped by a robust Volcker Rule or who would’ve done what differently. Here’s what you need to know about how the incident relates to the …
Six Months Out, President Obama’s Campaign Still Faces Stiff Headwinds
The week began here on Swampland with Mark Halperin’s optimistic dispatch from Chicago, “Why The Obama Campaign Is Confident About Beating Romney.” So perhaps it is appropriate that the week get bracketed by a report by William …
Obama Launches His 2012 Campaign With Nostalgic Tribute to 2008
Barack Obama branded his 2012 campaign kickoff speech Saturday in Ohio a “Ready to Go Rally.” For the uninitiated, this is a reference to something that happened five years ago in Greenwood, South Carolina. A retired nurse named Edith S. Childs began an unprompted chant that interrupted then-candidate Obama. “Fired up, Ready to …
The View from One Prudential Plaza: Why the Obama Campaign Is So Confident About Beating Romney
Chicago
Barack Obama’s decision to base his re-election campaign outside of Washington seems to be working pretty darn well. The campaign’s massive, high-rise headquarters in Chicago’s Loop achieves a fine balance between …
Voters Beware: What the Obama Campaign Doesn’t Tell Julia
The Obama campaign came out with a nifty, interactive online graphic Thursday that guides America through the life of Julia, a hypothetical young web designer who appears to have been drawn by Chris Ware or Dan Clowes. She has …