Here are a few things of note for the group in the lead up to our discussion on Friday:
1) Hillary Clinton and John McCain receive the endorsements of the Des Moines Register. Experience seems to be the name of the game for the editorial board at the paper. How else could you explain McCain getting the nod on the Republican side? Iowa hasn't been his strength in either 2000 or 2008. What impact will it have on the race? Well, Edwards got the paper's blessing in 2004 and that certainly didn't hurt him on his way to a surprising second place finish in the state. It is interesting that the write up of the endorsement made mention of this. And I will admit that I'm torn as to how to take the mention of the 2004 endorsement. Is the editorial board saying, "Well, this guy did well here four years ago and he's in this race as a top tier candidate too," or "This guy did well here four years ago and well, he's in third now." What does everyone else think?
2) And speaking of Hillary... Another of her surrogates, former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey, made the mistake of opening his mouth about Obama (then backed away from them). Fresh off the Bill Shaheen comments about possible drug use in Obama's past, the Clinton camp found another of its backers, Kerrey, highlighting the Illinois senator's middle name (Hussein) and Muslim background following an event with the former first lady. I thought it was the bloggers and members of the new media who were supposed to threaten the power candidates have over their own campaigns, not those within their camp.
3) Mitt Romney is making a rare stop in Georgia today. His swing through South Carolina closes across the border with meeting with the press in Savannah, GA. And who said Feb. 5 wasn't early enough for Georgia. [Blogger raising hand.]
4) Finally, if you don't already be sure and check out these other blogs:
The Fix (by Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post): US elections in general are covered.
The Caucus (The New York Times politics blog): Campaign 2008
The Primary Source (by James Pindell of the Boston Globe): All about NH.
Feel free to drop a comment or any news you have by clicking on the link below. This should be fun.
3 comments:
Rich,
I'm bumping your comment to this thread.
A Washington Post-ABC News Poll shows that the economy may be replacing the war in Iraq as the top issue of concern. How does this affect candidates who have focused on security and social issues rather than on the economy? Does Giuliani's 9/11 credentials mean less if concern for the economy supersedes concern for security?
If the economy tanks, and consequently becomes the focus, we have even more uncertainty in this thing than we thought. Maybe John Edwards will reap the rewards of economic angst.
--Rich Clark
Rich,
If you look at the top three issues of the last three polls, the economy is up 15% while the Iraq war and terrorism are down about that much combined. Incidentally folks, that's question #3 in the poll link in Rich's comment.
What does that mean? Well, Democrat X would look good if the economy tanked.
We've focused a lot in the discussion recently on the GOP side and I'll do that here as well. I can't help but think that Huckabee gains here as well. All his questions marks (alright, not all) are on issues of foreign policy. If people are shifting gears away from Iraq/terrorism, that can only help Huckabee.
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