So last night I stopped by a book party for Kristin Gore, who has written a second novel. The party was thrown by her parents. A lot of old Gore hands were there. I know, of course, that by attending a book party in Washington, and one thrown by a (former) politician to boot, I have reinforced all the stereotypes out there about how …
Our friend and former colleague, John Dickerson, has posted a story over at Slate analyzing the new Edwards campaign ad, in which Elizabeth Edwards delivers a testimonial about her husband. Dickerson’s conclusion — that Elizabeth obliquely references her family’s suffering to make a point about her husband’s toughness — prompted …
It’s true that national polls this early in a race don’t tell us much about who’s going to win. But the polls testing the Republican presidential candidates do say something pretty amazing about the state of the GOP. Rudy Giuliani, while still usually coming in first (but now, occasionally, second) in the national polls, has nevertheless …
Chris Cillizza over at The Fix has an intriguing post about Bill Richardson’s slow and steady progress towards the top tier of the Democratic field of presidential candidates. He’s raised a respectable amount of money, hasn’t spent it all, has a solid organization in Iowa and is polling a reasonably strong fourth both there and in New …
Your eyes aren’t deceiving you. That’s how the headline reads above Bill Kristol’s piece in yesterday’s Outlook section of the Washington Post. Allowing that he’s exposing himself to ridicule, Kristol decides to take on not just conventional wisdom or the current polls but a growing consensus within his own party by suggesting that …
Just about, I’d say. I’m all for underdog would-be presidents getting exposure, but there are simply too many candidates right now – in both parties – for the debates and forums that include all of them to yield much of anything of value to voters. So I’m sympathetic to the whispered co-conspiring between Senators Edwards and Clinton …
Poor Mike Hayden. As luck would have it, the CIA director’s weekly briefing to the president took place this morning. One imagines Bush was holding the front page of the Washington Post and scowling when Hayden walked (sheepishly?) into the Oval Office. You see, according to Bob Woodward, when Hayden spoke to the Iraq Study Group last …
Given his passionate biases, it’s not often I find myself persuaded by a Dick Morris column. But in The Hill today he writes a fairly cogent and sober piece arguing that President Bush’s only hope of saving the GOP from devastating losses in 2008 is to begin withdrawing troops now. Despite Morris’ intemperate loathing of Sen. Clinton, …
Before today’s staff massacre, a frequent complaint one heard from the McCain campaign in recent months was that the national press had turned against them, that the coverage of their guy had become hostile, unfair and unbalanced. Putting aside the irony of that charge (in 2000 McCain and his aides used to say, only half in jest, that …
On behalf of the Swampland regulars, as well as everyone at Time.com, I offer thanks and props to Mudcat Saunders for his blogging this week. His time here was brief but, I would say, electric — for him and for all the readers and commenters he attracted. He staged what might be the greatest comeback in blog history — having won over …
Sick of Washington’s inability to get anything done? So are a lot of governors and mayors across the country. Two of the them in particular, New York’s mayor and California’s governor, are doing big things on big issues that Washington can’t seem to tackle. Bloomberg and Schwarzenegger are the cover subjects of the new issue of the print …
As reported in the NYT this morning, Romney is spending a boatload of money running television ads in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and on national cable. No other candidate is on the air. Romney’s aides say the ad buys are the reason Romney has leapfrogged over McCain and Giuliani in (some) Iowa and New Hampshire polling. They may …
In case you were wondering whether anyone over at Hillary HQ was worried about the new Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll — which shows Barack Obama performing far better than Senator Clinton in head-to-head match-ups with potential GOP nominees — Hillary pollster-strategist-guru Mark Penn has issued a memo to “interested parties” …
