This week’s TIME cover story, “The Mother of the Mitt Campaign,” tells the tale of how Lenore Romney’s 1970 run for U.S. Senate may have made a bigger impression on the Republican presidential candidate than his years …
2012 Election
Ed Rendell’s 2005 ‘Kiss of Death’ Endorsement of Mitt Romney
Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell weighed in Monday on the Obama campaign’s Bain Capital attacks and, alas, another would-be Obama surrogate bit the dust. “I think they’re very disappointing,” Rendell told Buzzfeed about the negative ads by Chicago. “I think Bain is fair game, because Romney has made it fair game. But I think how you …
Why Can’t President Obama Get Surrogates You Can Believe In?
It’s one of the great unexplained frustrations of the Obama presidency: Perhaps the most telegenic political leader of his generation has not been able to recruit a bench of top-flight, telegenic spinmeisters–called “surrogates” …
Obama’s Health Care Box
Alec MacGillis of the NewRepublic has been doing some fine campaign reporting this year and here he offers a smart look at what may be the most important state of all in November–Ohio. The most striking part of the piece for me, one that illuminates an essential conundrum for Barack Obama, occurs when MacGillis goes door to door with a …
The Fact Checking Fun House: Crossroads GPS vs. Team Obama
Have you seen the latest Crossroads GPS fact check of the Obama Campaign fact check of a Crossroads GPS ad that relies on a fact check by Politifact, but fails to point out that Politifact called the same ad “mostly false”?
No? Well, then. You have come to the right place. Though we must caution: If you continue reading this post, you …
Romney vs. the GOP’s Cultural Warfare Wing
Fox News is slightly less predictable than its reputation–there’s Shep Smith, and Bill O’Reilly can surprise–but nothing on television resembles authoritarian state-run media quite like Hannity. Nothing about Sean Hannity’s …
Romney Stands Up
As the Jeremiah Wright ad campaign zooms into the dustbin of history, it must be noted that Mitt Romney promptly and firmly did the right thing. He denounced it:
“I want to make it very clear: I repudiate that effort,” Romney said at a news conference. “I think it’s the wrong course.. . . I hope that our campaigns can
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If the Court Repeals Obamacare, Republicans Don’t Need to Worry Too Much About Replacing It
A rash of news stories have been published this week examining how the GOP will handle things if the Supreme Court votes next month to overturn the Affordable Care Act. Amazingly, they all leave out the single most important and …
Vice President Biden Responds To Rev. Wright Super-Pac Proposal
On his way home from a two day swing through Ohio, Vice President Joe Biden stopped off at Hog Father’s Old Fashioned BBQ in Washington, Penn. After working the crowd, and trading stories with patrons and waitstaff, he made his way to the back of the restaurant, where I asked him about the report today of a planned Super-PAC ad campaign …
How Ugly? Really, Really Ugly
There’s a front-page story in the New York Times about the possibility that a right-wing super PAC will launch a racially charged attack against President Obama centering on his relationship with the dreadful Rev. Jeremiah Wright. This is the campaign that John McCain famously, and honorably, refused to launch in 2008. I suspect it …
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 …
Why Romney Is Dodging the Press
Joe, the Romney campaign’s control-freakery makes for bad democracy, but I suspect it’s a smart strategy. Consider the way Mitt’s personal approval rating has bounced back over the past several weeks. As the GOP primaries wrapped …
Crossroads, Super PACs and the Incumbent Advertising Gap
In a recent piece about the Obama-Romney ad wars, Michael Scherer made the smart point that this election is different from past ones in that the incumbent no longer gets a free hit on his rival during the period immediately following the primary. The reason: super PACs have the cash to cover that gap while the challenger collects enough …