A few weeks ago, before the North Carolina primary, Jonathan Martin noted the counties in Appalachia that had voted in the Democratic primaries, and Hillary Clinton’s unusually strong performance in these counties as compared to Barack Obama. Since then, we’ve seen additional evidence that this is a specific region that has overwhelmingly preferred Clinton to […]
House Republicans meet every Wednesday morning to talk about strategy and direction, and most of the time, the meetings seem to improve GOP morale. Two weeks ago, Roll Call noted that Minority Leader John Boehner received a standing ovation when he explained to the caucus that they had nothing to worry about. At a minimum, […]
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: * If this morning is any indication, the results from the West Virginia primary have not slowed down Obama’s momentum with superdelegates. Three more announced their support for the Illinois senator this morning: […]
The president has made all kinds of head-shaking comments over the years, but I’m really not sure what to make of this. For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families. “I don’t want some mom whose son may have recently […]
The presidential primary in West Virginia was certainly a high-profile contest, but the eyes of the political world were largely focused further south, where a special election in Mississippi was poised to tell us a whole lot about the Republicans’ congressional strategy for 2008. A few months ago, GOP congressional leaders came up with a […]
Following up on the last item, by any realistic measure, Hillary Clinton’s landslide victory in West Virginia, while impressive, has not changed any of the metrics of the Democratic race. Barack Obama currently leads in pledged delegates, superdelegates, popular votes, states won, fundraising, and poll numbers. Clinton won big in a state where she was […]
Bill Clinton, campaigning in West Virginia last week, argued that Mountain State voters could “make the earth move” and fundamentally change the nature of the Democratic presidential race if they supported his wife with 80% support and a turnout of 600,000 voters. Needless to say, yesterday’s results were impressive for the Clinton campaign, but not […]
It took about a second or two after the polls closed in West Virginia for the networks to call the state for Hillary Clinton tonight, surprising absolutely no one. Hillary Rodham Clinton coasted to a large, but largely symbolic victory in working-class West Virginia on Tuesday, handing Barack Obama one of his worst defeats of […]
Today’s edition of quick hits. * Horrific devastation in China: “The toll of the dead and missing soared as rescue workers dug through flattened schools and homes on Tuesday in a desperate attempt to find survivors of China’s worst earthquake in three decades. The official Xinhua News Agency said the death toll exceeded 12,000 in […]
John Nance Garner, a former House Speaker who became one of FDR’s vice presidents, is widely credited with having said that the VP’s office isn’t worth “a warm bucket of spit,” though reporters are rumored to have changed the spelling of the last word to make it appropriate for publication. Of course, that was nearly […]