Excerpt: Bill Clinton was America's first black president. Or so we thought. Until recently, John Edwards was running to be America's first woman president. Now, shocking word that Barack Obama may be in line to be America's first Jewish president. Discussing... [continue]

GOP Official: Wright Will Not Be Used In Ads

By Russell Berman | Wed, 23 Apr 2008 at 12:29 PM

Excerpt: With a rebuke of state party officials for using Senator Obama's former pastor in a television ad, the Republican National Committee and the McCain campaign are beginning to define what will be fair game in a general election match-up with the Illinois... [continue]

Faux 'Nazi Skinheads for McCain' Group Registers with IRS

By Josh Gerstein | Tue, 22 Apr 2008 at 9:21 PM

Excerpt: A political group registered last week with the Internal Revenue Service, "Nazi Skinheads for McCain 2008," is aimed at skewering the presumptive Republican nominee, not backing him, an organizer said yesterday. "I'm not a Nazi skinhead. I'm not a... [continue]

Clinton Backer Says of McCain: 'It's No Old Man's Job'

By Russell Berman | Wed, 16 Apr 2008 at 12:02 PM

Excerpt: WASHINGTON — A prominent backer of Senator Clinton, Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, veered a bit off-message when introducing her this morning in Washington, saying in regard to Senator McCain that the presidency is "no old man's job." Mr. Murtha, a... [continue]

Senator Clinton's First Lady Schedules to Drop Tomorrow

By Josh Gerstein | Tue, 18 Mar 2008 at 12:11 PM

Excerpt: More than 11,000 pages of Senator Clinton's schedules from her eight-year stint as first lady are going to be released tomorrow by the National Archives, which operates the Clinton Presidential Library, a spokeswoman said today. The records are to be... [continue]

Amid Gaza Crisis, McCain Urges Cease-fire, Negotiations

By Josh Gerstein | Mon, 3 Mar 2008 at 1:54 PM

Excerpt: The all-but-certain Republican nominee for president, Senator McCain of Arizona, seemed to call this morning for negotiations to end the crisis caused by repeated missile attacks on Israel from Gaza and by retaliatory military strikes Israel has carried... [continue]

Limbaugh Defends Clinton and Obama on Iraq

By Josh Gerstein | Mon, 4 Feb 2008 at 5:27 PM

Excerpt: Talk show host Rush Limbaugh is so exasperated about Senator McCain's surge in the Republican presidential contest that he is coming to the defense of Senators Clinton and Obama. On Mr. Limbaugh's program today, he said people should not be rushing to... [continue]

Lieberman: McCain Could Keep Bloomberg Out of Race

By Russell Berman | Thu, 31 Jan 2008 at 3:21 PM

Excerpt: Senator Lieberman says the increasing likelihood that Senator McCain will win the Republican nomination could keep Mayor Bloomberg on the sidelines of the presidential race this fall. "My feeling all along has been that if he ran, it would be because... [continue]

Indy Campaign Vet Says Bloomberg Could Win

By Grace Rauh | Mon, 7 Jan 2008 at 1:13 PM

Excerpt: At former senator David Boren's forum on bipartisanship and political independence at the University of Oklahoma there is chatter galore about a possible presidential bid by Mayor Bloomberg. Dean Barkley, a former senator who ran the campaigns of... [continue]

"Breakthrough" Seen on Clinton Library Records

By Josh Gerstein | Thu, 8 Nov 2007 at 5:28 PM

Excerpt: The process for releasing records from President Clinton's library in Little Rock seems to have gathered speed in recent days as the issue hit center-stage in Senator Clinton's presidential bid. "We have had a breakthrough," a National Archives... [continue]

Bloggers' Notebook: Potential First Spouses

By Josh Gerstein | Tue, 23 Oct 2007 at 11:51 PM

Excerpt: Five of the potential first spouses who could occupy the White House in 2009 were publicly auditioned Tuesday by California's first lady, Maria Shriver, at an annual conference she holds to discuss women's issues. Ms. Shriver, a former NBC broadcaster,... [continue]

That Ridiculous Giuliani Map

By Ryan Sager | Wed, 3 Oct 2007 at 10:22 AM

Excerpt: You may have seen that ridiculous Giuliani campaign map yesterday that attempted to show how a Giuliani-Clinton race would put the former mayor in the catbird seat — that is, counting only Vermont and Massachusetts as definite Clinton wins, while... [continue]

National Journal on the Interior West (and Virginia)

By Ryan Sager | Tue, 2 Oct 2007 at 12:47 PM

Excerpt: National Journal takes a look at the interior West (a topic near and dear to my heart) and Virginia and how they'll play in the 2008 election. Long story short, Independents and Goldwater Republicans have become disaffected by today's GOP out West.... [continue]

Kerry Takes a Shot At Romney

By Seth Gitell | Mon, 1 Oct 2007 at 4:58 PM

Excerpt: Mitt Romney commenced his run for president at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. Mr. Romney emerged as a point man critical of the Democratic proceedings in Boston and John Kerry. Today, in a major speech on his plans for America's... [continue]

The Third Party Threat

By Ryan Sager | Mon, 1 Oct 2007 at 4:49 PM

Excerpt: John Fund gives a rundown of just how hollow is the threat of social conservatives running a third-party candidacy against a Rudy Giuliani topped GOP ticket: Threatening a third-party campaign is easier said than done. The task of securing a place on... [continue]

Quote of the Day

By Ryan Sager | Mon, 1 Oct 2007 at 2:41 AM

Excerpt: "There are two kinds of people in Montana: those who are for gun control, and those who run for public office." — Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer (D), quoted by the Los Angeles Times in an article about Western Democrats' concerns about the 2008 ticket... [continue]

The GOP and Latinos

By Ryan Sager | Tue, 18 Sep 2007 at 12:46 AM

Excerpt: The Republicans continue to shoot themselves in the feet with Hispanic voters: [Immigration] appears to be the root cause of a Hispanic migration from the GOP. In 2004, Bush got about 40 percent of that bloc—a high that largely resulted from an intense... [continue]

Life Imitates the Onion

By Ryan Sager | Sun, 16 Sep 2007 at 12:09 PM

Excerpt: As sent in by Sun Albany correspondent Jacob Gershman: "Rudy Giuliani's spokeswoman, Maria Comella, dismissed the Clinton campaign's response to their web ad, in which a Clinton spokesman argued that Giuliani's attack was the lashing out of a desperate... [continue]

Bush's Iraq Speech

By Ryan Sager | Thu, 13 Sep 2007 at 9:18 PM

Excerpt: Here's the president's speech on Iraq. Mitt Romney responded before the speech was over: "President Bush understands that our most crucial objective in Iraq is to make sure it does not become a safe haven for al-Qaeda and Jihadist terrorists. But that's... [continue]

Political Video of the Day II: Don't Mark Warner

By Ryan Sager | Thu, 13 Sep 2007 at 3:37 PM

Excerpt: The Republicans are pretty worried about Mark Warner... The NRSC already has a Web ad attacking him for raising taxes (and a Web site: Don'tMarkWarner.com):... [continue]

Political Video of the Day: Mark Warner for Senate

By Ryan Sager | Thu, 13 Sep 2007 at 10:38 AM

Excerpt: Mark Warner is running for Senate in Virginia. Rep. Tom Davis and former Gov. Jim Gilmore are potential Republican contenders for the competitive Senate seat. Mr. Warner made his plans known in this video sent to supporters and posted on a new campaign... [continue]

Interior West Watch: Nevada Democrats Gain Advantage

By Ryan Sager | Sun, 9 Sep 2007 at 1:34 PM

Excerpt: Over the last two years, I may have written a few times about the emerging "purple mountains" — that is, the interior West becoming a political battleground as it becomes less solidly Republican and more open to Democratic advances. There are a number... [continue]

Mayor Bloomberg Has No Reason To Run for President

By Ryan Sager | Tue, 28 Aug 2007 at 4:58 PM

Excerpt: After all, Hillary Clinton and Mike Huckabee both support a national smoking ban.... [continue]

Bloomberg

By Ryan Sager | Mon, 27 Aug 2007 at 3:43 PM

Excerpt: Fred Siegel has a great post up at Commentary's blog, Contentions, about all the hype over the idea of a Michael Bloomberg candidacy for president. (In particular, he's responding to this David Broder column.) Mr. Siegel basic point is that, despite all... [continue]

Pew: Giuliani More Popular Than Clinton

By Ryan Sager | Thu, 23 Aug 2007 at 2:48 PM

Excerpt: Hillary Clinton is popular with her base. Rudy Giuliani is not as popular with his. However... Mr. Giuliani is popular with the electorate as a whole. Mrs. Clinton is far less so. All that and more in the latest report out from Pew.... [continue]

Political Video of the Day: The First Green President

By Ryan Sager | Wed, 22 Aug 2007 at 4:22 PM

Excerpt: A new ad in Iowa, from the League of Conservation Voters:... [continue]

Political Video of the Day: Clinton Says the Surge Is Working

By Ryan Sager | Tue, 21 Aug 2007 at 2:03 PM

Excerpt: This should make the Kos Krowd happy: Not only does Hillary Clinton say the surge is working, she says we constantly need to be preparing for the next war. While what she's saying sounds prudent to conservatives, it won't sound too great to liberals... [continue]

Quinnipiac: Hillary Inches Up in Swing States

By Ryan Sager | Wed, 8 Aug 2007 at 10:01 AM

Excerpt: Here's the newsflash from Quinnipiac's latest swing-state poll, released this morning: "New York Sen. Hillary Clinton has inched ahead of her top Republican foe, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in Florida and Pennsylvania, and ties Giuliani... [continue]

Family Matters

By Ryan Sager | Mon, 6 Aug 2007 at 1:11 PM

Excerpt: Is Caroline Giuliani, daughter of Rudy, supporting Barack Obama? Slate's got her belonging to the Facebook group "Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)" — at least until Slate made an inquiry this morning.... [continue]

70% Want Independent Bid

By Ryan Sager | Fri, 3 Aug 2007 at 10:46 AM

Excerpt: According to the WSJ: Some 53% back the idea of building a third party to mount presidential candidacy. Support is strongest among men, those younger than 50, professionals and Northeasterners. Seven of 10 say an independent would enhance the... [continue]

New York Polling

By Ryan Sager | Tue, 31 Jul 2007 at 10:19 AM

Excerpt: The Sienna College Poll out of New York today has some relatively unsurprising findings in the primaries: GOP Giuliani: 40% McCain: 13% Thompson: 11% Gingrich: 9% Romney: 7% Dem Clinton: 48% Obama: 14% Gore: 10% Edwards: 7% In the general election,... [continue]

GOP: Down the YouTubes

By Ryan Sager | Fri, 27 Jul 2007 at 4:30 PM

Excerpt: The Republican presidential candidates could hardly do anything stupider than skipping the CNN YouTube debate after the Democrats stepped up to the plate earlier this week. Only John McCain and Ron Paul — brothers in desperation — have signed up so far.... [continue]

Obama, Rudy, and Cabbies

By Ryan Sager | Thu, 26 Jul 2007 at 12:20 PM

Excerpt: May God strike me dead for citing an Ann Coulter column — but I'm actually citing it (really, truly) for an insightful point she's made, not for her normal, racist, faux-provocativeness (though, there's plenty of that in there, too). I didn't get into... [continue]

Women and the Draft

By Ryan Sager | Wed, 25 Jul 2007 at 5:31 PM

Excerpt: A very biased source (one with half a dozen daughters) points this out to me, and it's probably worth notice: Why hasn't a bigger deal been made over Senators Clinton and Obama saying during the Democratic YouTube debate that women should have to... [continue]

More on Bloomberg

By Ryan Sager | Wed, 25 Jul 2007 at 12:54 PM

Excerpt: I should add a quick explanation of why I think Mayor Bloomberg has a greater potential to hurt Republicans than to hurt Democrats in 2008. It's actually pretty simple: Democrats are hyper-motivated and ready unite behind any candidate who wins the... [continue]

Interior West: Patience, Grasshopper

By Ryan Sager | Mon, 23 Jul 2007 at 1:38 PM

Excerpt: The Denver Post laments that the interior West has yet to become a battleground in the 2008 election. As the originator of all this interior West talk, let me say a few short words in its defense... It has nothing to do with the primaries. The interior... [continue]

Bloomberg the Spoiler

By Ryan Sager | Thu, 5 Jul 2007 at 10:34 AM

Excerpt: According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, Rudy Giuliani still leads in New Jersey — but a Mike Bloomberg independent candidacy would throw the state to a tie. Yet more evidence that Mr. Bloomberg could serve as a spoiler for Republicans in 2008, not... [continue]

CFG vs. MRB

By Ryan Sager | Tue, 26 Jun 2007 at 8:35 PM

Excerpt: The Club for Growth really doesn't like Mayor Bloomberg, and really doesn't want him in the presidential race. (Remember, as recently as yesterday, the Club was out in the press attacking Bloomy's record on spending...) So, what's up with that? Well, I... [continue]

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