UNION CITY, Calif. — This morning’s event was called a “roundtable” discussion, but the table John McCain sat at was actually shaped like the wings of a B-2 Bomber–two rectangles jutting out at an obtuse angle. As promised, however, there was a lot of give and take between McCain and his fellow panelists, which included a star-studded …
No one releases a new type of toothpaste on the Friday before Memorial Day. It is what news editors and marketing reps consider a publicity black hole, a time when the nation’s attention turns from televisions and newspapers to filling swimming pools and driving to the beach. So it is no accident that the much delayed release of John …
John McCain can be applauded for establishing a clear, public policy defining the conflict of interest rules for lobbyists and vendors who work in his campaign, even if it comes pretty late in the cycle. His campaign is right to say that the policy is, in some ways, a stricter one than what Obama has announced. In some ways, it is also …
Of George Huntington Hartford II, remembered today in the New York Times as the heir to the A & P empire, who lost an estimated $80 million of his $90 million fortune over his lifetime, who described himself as “Horatio Alger in reverse,” who built one of New York’s most oddly distinguished buildings at Columbus Circle, who …
What is the most important factor to winning a presidential campaign? More popular issue positions? A better message? A better stump performance? More discipline and endurance? More money? A greater ability to disqualify your opponent?
The conventional wisdom in Washington D.C. has long been that George Bush beat John Kerry in 2004 not …
1. The New York Times’ Adam Nagourney argues that micro-problems can add up to macro-losses in national political campaigns. He lists eight relatively small factors that added up to big worries for Hillary Clinton. In no particular order: the timing of the Edwards endorsement; Michigan and Florida; Bill Clinton; The Drudge Report; the …
Democratic pollster Paul Maslin has reduced the coming Obama-McCain contest to 17 key states, and then gamed out routes for Obama victory. For those who like to play the numbers game early, this article in Salon is essential reading. Here is his conclusion:
States that strongly favor Obama (“strongly” in the context of close states,
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This was supposed to be John McCain’s green week, when he went to the Pacific Northwest, hung out with the forest people, and made clear to America that he is not George Bush. Yesterday’s Back-To-The-Future prediction that the war in Iraq would be essentially won by 2013 was icing on the cake.
Then George Bush goes to Israel and forces …
Has there ever before been a political ad that looks so much like the trailer for a science-fiction movie?
I half expected to see flying cars and a cameo from Judge Dredd.
Alice Park and I have a story up on this topic here. It’s also coming soon to a newsstand near you. (Come on, admit it, there is something nice about reading stories from an actual magazine, right?)
Later today, John McCain will deliver a notable speech in the Greater Columbus Convention Center. Here is his conceit: “It is important that the candidates who seek to lead the country after the Bush Administration define their objectives and what they plan to achieve not with vague language but with clarity. So, what I want to do today …
The New Yorker’s Malcolm Gladwell has a very Gladwell-esque piece out about “simultaneous discovery”–the idea that lots of big thoughts are initially thought at roughly the same time by multiple people in different places. In 1611, for instance, four different people discovered sunspots in four different countries. Two Frenchmen created …
On a conference call just now, Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, who runs the NRCC, was asked to diagnose the grim situation of the Republican Party in the wake of a third special election loss, this time in the 1st District of Mississippi. His answer:
You have to get beyond campaign tactics and take a long hard look: Is there something wrong
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