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:<\/p>\n
* A new USA Today poll<\/a> shows that Americans, by a 2-to-1 margin, support John Edwards’ decision to stay in the presidential race despite his wife’s illness. The same poll, however, find that more than a third of those surveyed believe that Edwards eventually will be forced to withdraw from the campaign because of her cancer recurrence.<\/p>\n * On the other side of the aisle, the USA Today poll showed surprising support<\/a> for actor-turned-senator-turned actor Fred Thompson, who is reportedly considering the race. Nationally, Thompson drew 12% support, which placed him third behind Rudy Giuliani (31%) and John McCain (22%).<\/p>\n * Speaking of Giuliani, the AP discovered yesterday that the former NYC mayor’s campaign website included a serious design flaw<\/a>: personal information submitted by volunteers on the website was left vulnerable. Giuliani aides insisted that no personal information was compromised.<\/p>\n * It’s routine for professional fundraisers to take a generous commission from candidates, but Mitt Romney is launching a unique model<\/a>: participants in “Students for Mitt” will get to keep 10% of the money they raise for Romney, after the first $1,000. As the AP noted, “While candidates often offer professional fundraisers commissions up to 8 percent, campaign experts believe [Romney] is the first to do so with the legion of college students who have historically served as campaign volunteers.”<\/p>\n