So Mitt Romney has won a number of straw polls by packing them. Reporters get the joke and have stopped covering them, but the Romney campaign knows that it can put these victories on mail pieces and ads. Normally, the question is whether the damage that occurs over the bad Read more
In Q1, the refrain from the 2nd tier was that the only fundraising number that really matters is Q2 Cash on Hand. The reasoning for that was Ames. The amount of money that a campaign has right now limits the amount of money it can spend at Ames, and there’s Read more
When the good news is that you lose your Iowa campaign chair to the OMB, you know you had a bad day. But how bad? So bad that your South Carolina campaign chair is indicted for conspiring to peddle crack cocaine? (Another reason I’m happy I made phone calls in Read more
You have to love this headline from the Concord Monitor: Frontloaded primary takes stuffing out of Iowa’s straw poll And the lede: So far, the New Hampshire primary doesn’t seem to be suffering from the front-loading of the presidential nominating calendar. For some candidates, the New Hampshire events may be Read more
Brownback really whacks him: Mitt Romney is a good man. But there are many differences between us on the issues. I am for a three state political solution in Iraq. He is not. I am pro-life. He is not. I am opposed to gun control. He has not been. I Read more
This morning, after Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the straw poll, a Romney staffer told Marc Ambinder: "We shouldn’t be disqualified or criticized for their campaign strategy and tactics," a Romney adviser insisted to me this morning. But after John McCain drops out because it will be meaningless, Romney declares Read more
Well, Rudy Giuliani will not be at Ames. Neither will Fred Thompson. One has to wonder whether other campaigns will reconsider their commitments. Let’s look at what this all might mean. Here are some possibilities. Ames will select the most important 2nd tier candidate It is clear that the straw Read more
Marc Ambinder has an interesting post about Romney’s performance in Iowa. He argues that voter contact is what is moving the numbers. I have made a similar argument in the past. InMuscatine recently participated in one of the tele-townhalls in which Romney answers questions for about a while. After talking Read more
The Politco’s Mike Allen had the scoop on Fred Thompson yesterday. Race42008’s HeavyM pulled out a couple of important points but did not really elucidate. So let’s work on some details. First, the fundraising. As I said in April: Fourth, look at the timing that is being discussed. Novak says Read more
Well, well, Fred Thompson gets in and flip-flopping pandering Mitt Romney drops the hammer on Thompson over campaign-finance reform. You will recall that this is the same Mitt Romney who was against public funding of campaigns in 1994, for it in 2002, and now against it. And the same one Read more