Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers:
* Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) endorsed Obama this morning: “Leahy likened his support of Obama to the 1968 presidential campaign, when as a young prosecutor he endorsed Robert Kennedy over Hubert Humphrey. ‘He was bringing us a sense of hope, bringing us together,’ Leahy said. ‘I know those are intangibles, but it encouraged me to go against the establishment in my own state, and go with Bobby Kennedy.'”
* Does it seem like there’s more interest in the presidential campaign this year than in previous cycles? There’s evidence to bolster the suspicion: “American voters, to borrow a candidate’s phrase, are fired up and ready to go. Turnout in the opening Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary this month smashed records. By 2-1, those surveyed in a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll say they’re more enthusiastic than usual about voting this year. Nine in 10 say it makes a difference to them who is elected president.”
* When it comes to media attention, John Edwards is getting screwed: “The Project for Excellence in Journalism has done a study of which candidates have gotten the most media coverage in recent days. It found that poor John Edwards has gotten the least attention of any major candidate from either party.” There’s only so much media oxygen, and outlets seem content to let Edwards gasp.
* Let’s hope this is the final word on the subject: “High-profile Hillary Clinton supporter Bob Johnson is apologizing to Barack Obama for comments he made last week regarding the Illinois senator’s acknowledged drug use as a teenager. Johnson said he sent a letter to Obama Thursday morning and said he was also reaching out by phone…. Johnson told CNN Clinton did not ask him to apologize nor leave the campaign. Johnson said he quickly realized his comments were a mistake ‘made in haste in an attempt to be funny.'”
* Slipping in South Carolina polls, Mitt Romney is giving up on the state and focusing his efforts on the Nevada caucuses.
* Speaking of Romney and Nevada, he picked up the endorsement today of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the largest paper in the state.
* And speaking of Nevada, Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, is trying to manage expectations by insisting that Clinton should be considered the “prohibitive favorite” in Nevada due to her strong support within the state party establishment and her large lead in early polling.
* Even Rudy Giuliani’s backers in New York and New Jersey are losing hope: “[A]s Mr. Giuliani has plummeted from first to fourth — or worse — in some national polls, as he finished near the bottom of the pack in the nation’s earliest primaries, and as his lead evaporated even in Florida, the state on which he has gambled the most time and money, those Republican leaders are verging toward a grim new consensus: If Mr. Giuliani loses in the Florida primary on Jan. 29, they say, he may even have trouble defeating the rivals who are encroaching on his own backyard.”
* Let no one tell you that Hillary Clinton lacks a good sense of humor. She’s actually quite funny.
* And anti-immigration group called the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC apparently hopes to draft CNN’s Lou Dobbs into an independent presidential campaign.
* A Mississippi judge ruled this week that Gov. Haley Barbour (R) “exceeded his constitutional authority by setting the special election” to replace former senator Trent Lott for Nov. 4. The judge, however, ruled that the election should be held “within 90 days of the governor’s Dec. 20, 2007 proclamation of writ of election…on or before March 19, 2008.”
* And in Minnesota, Al Franken has launched his first two TV ads. His DFL primary rival, Mike Ciresi, has already been on the air.