A couple of weeks ago, as most of the political world knows by now, “Saturday Night Live” did a skit mocking the perception that news outlets were tougher on Hillary Clinton than Barack Obama. The Clinton campaign loved the skit, promoted it heavily, and Clinton began referencing it frequently, including in a nationally televised debate. […]
Bush hands McCain the baton
John McCain and George W. Bush have always had a relatively awkward relationship, especially given the Bush team’s willingness to smear McCain during their 2000 primary fight. (They got along far better in 2004.) But this afternoon at the White House, with Bush formally endorsing McCain, the relationship took yet another turn. In a press […]
There’s no reason for Clinton to bolster McCain’s ‘experience’ argument
We talked earlier about Hillary Clinton benefiting from a “kitchen-sink” strategy, but of all the things the Clinton campaign threw at Obama over the last week or so, few criticisms were as annoying as the charge that John McCain’s background is preferable to Obama’s. If you’re just joining us, at a press conference on Monday […]
John McCain and the ‘disaster’ of his health care plan
Last night, in a speech to supporters in which he effectively claimed the Republican nomination, John McCain immediately mocked Democrats on one of their strongest issues: “I will leave it to my [Democratic] opponent to propose returning to the failed, big-government mandates of the ’60s and ’70s to address problems such as the lack of […]
Clinton raises specter of a ‘dream ticket’ with Obama
As I understand it, both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are regularly asked about whether they’d consider running together on the Democratic ticket. Both have become quite adept at giving non-committal answers. It’s why Clinton raised a few eyebrows this morning on CBS’s “The Early Show” when she gave an answer that was outside the […]
Wednesday’s campaign round-up
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: * How’s that delegate race shaping up? According to an MSNBC analysis aired this morning, Clinton “could net anywhere from seven to a bit over 10 delegates. This, obviously, is hardly major progress, […]
With March 4 behind, looking at the road ahead
Hillary Clinton, you’ve just won the Ohio, Texas, and Rhode Island primaries. What are you going to do now? “I’m going to Wyoming!” Sure, the political world was eyeing the March 4 contests for weeks, but those contests are so yesterday’s news. What’s next? We have two contests in the next six days — the […]
McCain drops the ‘presumptive,’ while Huckabee exits stage right
By any reasonable measure, the primary excitement this week (and for the next couple of months) is on the Democratic side of the aisle, with the Battle of the Titans poised to continue on through the convention. But I’d be remiss if I neglected to mention that the Republican race is officially over, and John […]
When you get hit with a kitchen sink, it hurts
Hillary Clinton clearly won some impressive victories in Texas, Ohio, and Rhode Island yesterday, but how did she pull it off? I’ve been thinking the last few days about this piece that ran in the New York Times last Tuesday. After struggling for months to dent Senator Barack Obama’s candidacy, the campaign of Senator Hillary […]
Buckle your seatbelt … Clinton takes three of four
There was a point, about a week ago, at which Barack Obama looked like an unstoppable force. Hillary Clinton’s double-digit leads in Ohio and Texas had evaporated; Obama, the winner of 11 consecutive contests was drawing the biggest primary crowds anyone had ever seen; superdelegates were lining up behind him in greater numbers, and all […]