UPDATE: The results have been updated. This weekend, the convention of the National Federation of Republican Women was held in California. They held a straw poll. I don’t have complete results yet, but the top-line result is pretty solid. Rudy Giuliani won an outright majority. Giuliani did speak to the Read more…
Fred Thompson raised $8m in Q3. I assume that the release now is because they are happy with their numbers.
Patrick Ruffini, former E-campaign director for the RNC, and Dean Barnett, former driver for Mitt Romney in his 1994 Senate campaign, are debating the relative merits of activism (Ruffini, an activism activist, here and here) and punditry (Barnett, a punditry activist, here and here). I basically agree with Patrick, as Read more…
John McCain gave a conference call from Michigan where he had spoken to a Hispanic business group. He says that the campaign is moving along well. "We have a long, hard slog." He talked about Iraq, and described Petraeus as "convincing enough to give our troops more time." McCain calls Read more…
Jan. 5: Iowa caucuses both parties Jan. 8 New Hampshire primary both parties Jan. 12 Nevada caucuses both parties Jan. 15 Michigan GOP primary; Dem beauty contest Jan. 19 South Carolina primary both parties Jan. 29 Florida GOP primary; Dem beauty contest Marc Ambinder reports the schedule. The most interesting Read more…
Yesterday, the Biden-Brownback plan passed the Senate with 75 votes. For the first time, someone on both the left and the right can claim genuine progress on pulling out troops. As Marc Ambinder points out, this is a good talking point for Biden, where Joe Biden is counting that liberal Read more…
This weekend, I was an attendee at the European Ideas Network, an annual 3 day seminar of center-right European politicians, think tankers, academics, and business leaders. There were sessions about a huge range of topics. I can’t imagine a similar forum in the states in either party. One of the Read more…
Rep. Terry Everett (R-AL) just announced his retirement. I just got off the phone with a party leader in Alabama. It is looking like a two-way primary, at least. One option is George Wallace Jr. The other is State Senator Harri Ann Smith. She is an up-and-comer, while he is Read more…
Jesse Walker of Reason Magazine on Mitt Romney: Romney isn’t an ordinary flesh-and-blood candidate, after all; he’s a machine calibrated to say whatever is most likely to emerge from a focus group of Republican primary voters.
I wasn’t going to write about this, but at today’s conservative blogger lunch, Gary Marx said that I, by name, would not get to vote in Mitt Romney’s make your own ad gimmick. Romney’s problem is, of course, his stage managed personality and values. The most remembered video out of Read more…