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Joe notes below, and has said in the past, that Obama represents the post-Baby Boomer generation in American politics. Hold on a minute! Obama was born on August 4, 1961. There is no official end date for the Baby Boom generation, but some still argue that it encompasses those born from 1946-1963. Others say the final year is 1960, or …

Ana, I think Hillary has renounced her support for the war as often as Joe Biden has announced that he’s running for President…She’s also renounced the surgescalation. The question is, what now? Is she for John Edwards’ immediate 50,000 troop reduction? Is she for an Iraq Study Groupish gradual drawdown? The latter, I’d guess. But I …

No question Obama is in. He leaves not a hint of a doubt in his virtual announcement. (See text and video here). My first impression is that he’s smart to do it this way rather than, as Ana and I had suggested, on Oprah or some other contrived venue. And it’s wise to make the formal announcement in Illinois. Obama may transcend a lot of …

Surprising no one: Hillary’s presser today — thought by some to be a prelude to renouncing her support for the invasion of Iraq — has been canceled, presumably to avoid a news cycle show-down between the long-reigning frontrunner and a certain junior senator from Illinois.

UPDATE: Staffers have put the word out that the press …

So much for our career as a political consultants. As for announcing online — it might seem like an appeal to those young people we keep hearing about but it’s really old school: First Brownback with the flat tax, now Barack’s virtual venue: Who knew Steve Forbes would turn out to be the campaign technique trailblazer?

This just in:

OBAMA FORMS PRESIDENTIAL EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE
U.S. Senator Barack Obama today filed papers with the Federal Election Commission establishing the “Obama Exploratory Committee.” A formal announcement of his decision will occur on February 10th in Illinois.

What the professional political class will be watching:

One thing …

As I’ve written here before, the 2008 map is a nightmare for Senate Republicans, who have 22 seats to defend, compared with only 12 for the Democrats. Wayne Allard in Colorado has been at the top of their endangered species list, considering that both of his earlier victories had been by less than five points. Today’s announcement by …

This, from a reader:

“Obama stumbles” is the title. Since when is HOW someone delivers a policy idea (in your opinion) more important that what the actual policy is? What kind of analysis is that? McCain was wrong in a presidential way, and that’s impressive to you?

Sorry but, in the television age, if you can’t sell a policy …

Best of the Sunday shows was the sequential face off between Senators John McCain and Barack Obama on Face the Nation. From where I was sitting, McCain got the better of it–not because he had the better argument (he didn’t), but because he was clear, concise and confident. It was, in fact, classic McCain, actually criticizing the …

Remember the ethics issues that made such a difference in last year’s election? The Senate is hoping you don’t.

The Iraq debate appears certain to dominate everything else this week–which is good news for the newly Democratic Senate, which will be (slowly) moving ahead on its ethics and lobbying reform package. The only people paying …

Comments here and elsewhere have criticized our highlighting the exchange between Condi Rice and Barbara Boxer as either sexist or as a distraction from the “real debate,” i.e., the war itself (and its probable expansion). I’ll grant that “womb wars” was probably not the most accurate description of the issue that’s at stake here; namely, …

NYT raises possibility that Senator Clinton is going to renounce her Iraq war vote, and picks up on an all-but-ignored quote from her Today Show appearance just before Christmas (relevant sound bite comes in the last nine seconds of the 10-minute video). They might want to get a larger room for this news conference, which Clinton, …

Here’s an interesting point from a reader, marred by some really dopey vitriol at the end:

I saw a DoD chart a few days ago that shows that violence always drops in Iraq in Jan., Feb., and Mar. of any given year (as to why is an interesting question, is it cooler? Don’t crimes in the U.S. spike when it is hotter out?). So I am thinking …