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So that happened. The hostages have been released, Leeland Eisenberg has been arrested, and the citizens of Rochester, N.H., are now safe. That means we can finally get to the postgame analysis of who wins and who loses. (Too soon? Too late!)
Winners:
Hillary Clinton. Hands down. The most obvious reason: attention. She steals headlines from today’s DNC event (not to mention all the other campaigns), cancels her speech there, and gets enough traction to carry over into the Sunday talk shows. The one downside is the timing: Friday afternoon is a notorious black hole for news. Also, remember how Giuliani played up his close call with the mob? Well, it looks like bad guys are going after Hillary, too. What now, Rudy? Lastly, there’s the sympathy factor. Or, as a friend insensitively put it: “Hillary really is sticking with this victim theme, huh?” People will now send cards, flowers, chocolates … and votes. That said, crazy man Leeland Eisenberg could have picked a better location. Hillary already has a solid lead in New Hampshire, whereas her numbers in Iowa have been slipping.
New Hampshire. OK, so maybe nut-job bombers aren’t great press for the Granite State. But with every national news organization sending their camera crews over from Des Moines, New Hampshire steals a little bit of Iowa’s pre-caucus thunder. Plus, voters are reminded how seriously the people of New Hampshire take politics.
Local journalists. By the end of this weekend, everyone will know what WMUR is.
Rudy Giuliani. Suddenly the mayor’s record on gun control doesn’t seem so offensive. Look for other Republicans to focus on keeping weapons out of the hands of mentally ill people—which, of course, doesn’t include you.
Bill Richardson: The first Clinton “opponent” to release a statement on the situation: “Our thoughts and prayers are with the hostages, their families, Senator Clinton, and her campaign staff.” Is this guy a VP lock or what?
Losers:
Commentators. All that language about “attacks,” “taking shots,” and “explosive statements” is temporarily off limits. Sorry, guys.
Republicans. Especially if the human bomb turns out to be one.
Second Amendment advocates. Eisenberg wasn't carrying a gun, but he might as well have been. Has “Live Free or Die” ever sounded like a worse motto?
The Secret Service: Agents' jobs just got a lot more stressful, as campaigns are likely to be on extra high alert over the coming weeks.
Mike Huckabee. The insurgent candidate was also in New Hampshire today. The press corps has most likely abandoned him. If only he had brought Chuck Norris.
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Tomorrow night the Democrats are having a debate in Iowa. Who knew? See, you probably can’t watch it, even if you wanted to, since the event is airing on HD Net, the Mark Cuban-owned channel that broadcasts only to HD-ready sets. Seven million people get HD Net as part of their cable packages.
The forum itself, a caucus-season tradition called the Iowa Black and Brown Forum, sounds pretty engaging. It asks candidates to focus on issues that matter to African-American and Latino communities. It will be simulcast in Iowa for almost everybody who subscribes to MediaCom cable—about 450,000 people.
Of the 7.5 million who could watch, only a few hundred thousand, at most, will. The CNN/YouTube debate that took place earlier this week pulled in 4.4 million people—the most ever for any primary debate. CNN is in nearly a hundred million households.
But these days, a debate’s reach hardly matters. As long as someone can get the eight candidates together and turn on a camera, you can be sure that anything newsworthy will finds its way to YouTube. And from there, into the political press. And from there, to the talk radio shows. Just think back to how Hillary’s cackle infiltrated the mainstream press a few months ago. That first happened on the Sunday talk shows, which the average American doesn’t tune in to.
And really, who wants to hang out with Dennis Kucinich on a Saturday night, anyway? Mike Gravel on the other hand…
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"The Democrats, for once, have had a fairly quiet week ..."
-- Marc Ambinder, Nov. 30, 9:42 a.m.
And then this. Local networks are reporting that a man strapped with a bomb took campaign workers hostage at the Clinton campaign's Rochester, N.H. offices. Two hostages have been released, but there's still a standoff between the man, who's apparently a well-known local wacko, and the police. The man reportedly demanded to speak with Hillary. The Obama and Edwards campaigns have evacuated their offices. You can watch a streaming local broadcast here.
The Clinton campaign released this statement: "There is an ongoing situation in our Rochester, NH office.
We are in close contact with state and local authorities and are acting
at their direction. We will release
additional details as appropriate."
UPDATE 5:44 p.m.: Still no word on whether or not there are still hostages inside. Local police captain Paul Callaghan's press conference yielded no new information. The hostage taker is being identified as Leeland Eisenberg, a local kook "well-known to police." (Initial reports said he was Troy Stanley.) Regular updates here and here.
UPDATE 6:17 p.m.: The standoff seems to be over. Just watched Leeland Eisenberg surrounded by a SWAT team, arrested, and pushed into a police vehicle. He came out of the building right after a last hostage, a young man, was released.
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Since when did Chuck Norris go from badass killing machine to Sarah Lawrence visual arts major? Behold:
UPDATE 1:47 p.m., Dec. 26: Embedded image removed.
(Source: Screenshot of an AP photo from the Washington Post's The Trail.)
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Team Hillary hosted a conference call this morning to discuss a letter they wrote to Barack Obama’s campaign (available here). The letter asks Obama to take down a political ad claiming that his health-care plan would “cover everybody.” In fact, they say, his plan would leave about 15 million people uninsured.
Obama spokesman Bill Burton blasted back that “[t]he Clinton campaign didn't say a word when this ad was released a month ago, and the only thing that's changed since then is the poll numbers. The truth is, Barack Obama would offer health coverage to every single American who can't afford it.”
But the real problem, as Paul Krugman explains in his brickbat of a column today, isn’t lower income Americans. It’s that young, well-off Americans who are generally healthy and therefore don’t have to buy insurance will drive up costs for everyone else. Hillary and John Edwards both have ways of enforcing their mandates—requiring proof of enrollment on tax forms, say, or anytime someone seeks medical treatment. Obama’s plan, on the other hand, would allow them to remain outside the system.
The upside to this kerfuffle is that—are you sitting down?—it’s substantive. In the Obama campaign’s response, they call Hillary’s move an “attack.” Yes, there’s clearly a political purpose to demanding that the ad come down. But this dispute isn’t about Obama’s patriotism, or his religion, or the “politics of hope”—it’s about policy, and that’s a nice change from previous scuffles. For Obama’s team to dismiss it as a cheap shot ignores the fact that they goofed.
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Slate's Garin K. Hovannisian sends in this dispatch from New York:
“Is Jesus in the house?” “Yes!” roared the capacity crowd at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. “Louder!” yelled the founder of the Harlem Gospel Chorus. “Is Jesus in the house?” Yes, yes, yes, Jesus was certainly in the house. But at 8:06 p.m., more than an hour after the scheduled start time, Barack Obama was nowhere to be found.
A revolt had nearly erupted earlier, when Obama’s organizers had announced to the press that “America’s next president” wouldn’t be arriving until 9. The members of the media lined the back entrance of the Apollo and breathed steam and fury into each other’s faces; some had been standing in the New York cold for hours.
As packs of Sean John-sporting VIPs were escorted through the doorway, the Metro reporter yelled, “I’ve been to 60 damned Obama events. This is the worst by far.” Asian TV decided to shift its angle to Obama’s organizational incompetence. A South African journalist texted her editor begging a release.
Those of us who eventually made it inside were treated to “Amazing Grace,” “Happy Days,” and the full repertoire of gospel hits. A reverend came on stage to “thank God for Barack Obama—a messenger of peace in a world of strife; a messenger of strife in a world of false peace." We then heard a violinist, then some grass-roots organizers, then—since Obama still hadn’t arrived—the violinist again.
After a state senator spoke, the moment to which the entire night had been logically crawling finally arrived: no, not Obama. Cornel West. The Princeton professor/MC/Matrix star rapped and flapped his arms and said that Obama “is his mama’s and daddy’s son, and we must accept him for it.” West then introduced Chris Rock, who called Obama “a smart guy,” cracked a few jokes, and brought the Apollo to its feet.
By the time Barack Obama stepped on stage to blame Katrina on compassionate conservatism and to brandish his fresh preacherly inflection, the show was pretty much over.
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The lead
story (as of 4:30 p.m.) on CNNPolitics.com has a headline that seems like a veiled insult at Politico.com, its
web-journalism competitor. Referring to Politico's agenda-setting
story on Giuliani's questionable expense allocations after trips to the
Hamptons, the story's headline reads, "Giuliani: Web site report a 'hit
job'"
Guys, that's pretty Web 0.0 of you. Sure the story originally appeared on a web site, but if Congress
wasn't out of town, it would have been published in Politico's print edition, as well. (Politico suspends its
hard-copy daily when Congress is in recess.) To refer to it as a "web site
report" rather than something like the "questionable expense report" or the "Hampton flap" only makes the story sound illegitimate. I understand it was probably unintentional, but it's
an interesting glimpse into CNN's psyche, nonetheless.
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Both Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are out with new ads today, following up on yesterday’s debate in which the two candidates tussled like hyperactive siblings.
Rudy’s, titled “Promise,” is pretty straightforward, pitching his experience in New York lowering taxes, shrinking government, and otherwise saving the city from its liberal self. Romney’s, called “Historic Choice,” pulls back to look at the broader challenges of security, the economy, and family values. It hits all our favorite imagery: the barbed wire, the Chinese assembly line, plus Romney's trademark sleeve roll. The narration culminates with the line, “Ordinary isn’t good enough,” at which point we see a shot of … the Statue of Liberty.
The viewer's first thought: That can't possibly be a swipe at Giuliani. His second thought: How can it possibly not be? Just when political attacks were starting to get explicit—i.e., fun—Romney goes back to the coy subtlety thing. Instead of referring to his wife as "sweetheart" 80 times per speech, why doesn't he just come out and say he thinks Giuliani is a family-wrecking sleaze? Instead of slyly talking about "triangulation," why doesn't he just call Hillary a conniving you-know-what? All this euphemism is exhausting.
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The best part about Mike Huckabee’s surge in Iowa—and his resulting increase in speaking time during last night’s debate—is that we’re bound to hear more Huckabee-isms. No, not those cute jokes about Jesus being too smart to go into politics. I’m talking about his penchant for vivid imagery that, while hilarious, often feels slightly unsettling.
Take the time Huckabee told MSNBC that because his opponents’ levels of support didn’t match their fund-raising, they would “have to be sitting in a warm tub of water with razor blades.” He upset a few suicide prevention groups, but it never turned into a real flap. Other morbid images: “You never put the cross hairs on a dead carcass,” he said, after rivals attacked him last month. Then at the Oct. 21 GOP debate in Florida: “I am more than content to let them fight all they want tonight, shed each other's blood. …” And then last night, responding to a question about space exploration, Huckabee suggested that “maybe Hillary could be on the first rocket to Mars.”
The reason these bizarre quips fly is simple: He smiles the whole time. Yes, he may have suggested that the former first lady should be sent on a likely fatal mission to a faraway planet. But look at those dimples! He’s the class clown who gets away with wisecracks just by being so darn likeable.
Indeed, his good nature might be Huckabee’s best defense. Last night, Romney accused him of supporting tuition breaks for illegal immigrants. But even Romney had to preface the attack by admitting, “I like Mike.” The other candidates mostly left him alone, despite Huckabee’s controversial support for the Fair Tax, his unorthodox immigration stance, and ethics investigations during his time as governor of Arkansas. Laying off Huckabee is smart, at least for now: It’s not just that he’s quick with a riposte; it might also make the attacker look like a bully, or a nag, or a bore. A Huckabee line is likely to end with the audience laughing—a weapon even the best debaters have trouble combating.
Things could change if Huckabee’s supposedly notorious temper decides to make an appearance. But for now, he seems about as threatening as Pooh Bear.
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Using transcripts from CNN and the New York Times debate analyzer, I crunched some stats from last night's GOP debate.
- 3: Number of times Hillary Clinton was mentioned
- 4: Number of times Bill Clinton was mentioned
- 2: Number of times Mitt Romney mentioned health care
- 0: Number of times any other candidate mentioned health care
- 5: Number of times Rudy Giuliani said "Islamic"
- 3: Number of times any other candidate said "Islamic," "Islam," or "Muslim"
- 4: Number of times Duncan Hunter addressed Anderson Cooper as "Cooper." No other candidate followed suit.
- 2: Number of times the candidates mentioned President Bush
- 26: Number of times, according to CNN's transcript, the audience laughed
- 5: Number of times the audience laughed after watching a question from a YouTube user
- 7: Number of times the audience laughed after a Fred Thompson joke
- 4: Number of times the audience laughed after a Mike Huckabee joke
- 0: Number of times the audience laughed after Ron Paul or Duncan Hunter said something
Also, a breakdown of which candidates speak the fastest. Mitt Romney's mouth was a-flappin', while Fred Thompson, unsurprisingly, was the slowest talker.
| Talker |
Words |
Seconds |
Words/sec |
| Moderator |
2174 |
812 |
2.68 |
| YouTube Questioners |
2398 |
942 |
2.55 |
| Giuliani |
3163 |
945 |
3.35 |
| Huckabee |
1942 |
587 |
3.31 |
| Hunter |
918 |
293 |
3.13 |
| McCain |
2034 |
670 |
3.04 |
| Paul |
1288 |
431 |
2.99 |
| Romney |
3223 |
831 |
3.88 |
| Tancredo |
830 |
221 |
3.76 |
| Thompson |
1841 |
625 |
2.95 |
If you'd like, feel free to compare the words-per-second statistics to the Democrats'.
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We'll leave it to the experts to declare winners and losers. But we hope everyone can agree that 1) Huckabee came across well, despite not being really pushed, and 2) Romney took every opportunity to choke.
And judging from activity in the Romney press shop, everyone was on Red Alert. Check out this inbox, which may or may not belong to a friend from a rival publication (some lines blacked out for privacy):
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Mitt Romney finished off a dreadful debate with an awful last word. The former Massachusetts governor, supposedly a member of Red Sox Nation, said that the Red Sox waited 87 years in between championships. It was 86. This won't sit well in New Hampshire.
UPDATE 10:24 p.m.: Uhh, Chris blogged about this, too. It's like one of those classic Highlights games where there are two images, but one has six things the other doesn't. Can you spot all of the differences?
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Mitt Romney, referring to how long the Red Sox had to wait to win the World Series: "We waited 87 years ..."
Eight-six years, Mitt. It's 86. Botching a major statistic known to every resident of his supposed home state--Romney couldn't have found a worse note to end on.
UPDATE 10:19 p.m.: Ah, the perils of tag-team liveblogging.
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Mike Huckabee: “I will accept the support of anyone and everyone I can get.”
Cut to Chuck Norris sitting in the audience. Someone give these CNN directors a raise!
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Brig. Gen. Keith Kerr asks a question about gays in the military. He is gay; he was in the military. Romney's answer is painful to watch. Anderson points out that in the past, he said he looked foward to getting rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell. Now, he refuses to denounce it. He may have looked forward to it, but, he says, "This is not that time." When will we be ready? Well, he'd have to consult with military experts and find out.
Again, it's like his "meet with my lawyers" answer from a few months back. The boos say it all.
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Through 23 questions, the breakdown of the main characters in the questions:
White men: 15
White women: 6 (including the woman from Alabama wearing a hijab)
Black men: 1
White cartoon character: 1
No Latinos, thus far.
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... On the question of whether waterboarding is torture. Romney says he doesn't want to get into specifics as a presidential candidate. He might as well have said he's going to consult his lawyers. As Romney speaks, McCain looks like he's getting ready to water-board him right then and there. McCain's response: "I assume Romney doesn’t know what waterboarding is. ... If we’re going to get the high ground in this world, we’re not going to torture people."
Earlier, McCain looked like he was nodding off behind the podium. He appears to have woken up.
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That question from FoxBrosStudios--the one that one of the candidates scolded for exercising poor gun safety--is a low-concept offering from the award-winning team that brought you the under-the-radar hit Vigilantes. The Web-based comedy series takes place on the U.S.-Mexico border, and a cursory glimpse suggests it follows the Citizen Border Rangers, a fictional version of the Minutemen vigilantes that keep watch on the border for illegal immigrants. There's a lot of swearing (bleeped out) and a lot of jokes about the ineptitude of border security, both among vigilantes and the government.
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These questioners make Tim Russert look like Larry King. One of them asks whether Jesus would support the death penalty. Huckabee has the best answer: “Jesus was too smart to ever run for public office.” Cooper moves on. I like that if your joke is funny, the moderator gives you a pass. If it’s not funny, it looks like a dodge, and he presses you to answer.
Anderson doesn't ask: What would Joseph Smith do?
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Scratch that earlier quip about Rudy not having to answer the question of diverting bills to city agencies. Looks like Anderson Cooper came to play hardball. Here’s what Rudy said about the report (paraphrased):
It’s not true. I had 24 hour security. They followed me every place I went. There were threats, some have become public, some haven’t. I had nothing to do with the handling of the agencies’ records. As far as I know, the bills’ handling was perfectly appropriate.
Anderson Cooper, the reporter who made his name asking tough questions during Hurricane Katrina, doesn't follow up.
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Did both Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani just say they support corn subsidies because we could face a devastating food shortage?
Romney: “We don’t want to find ourselves in the same position with food supply as we are with energy supply.” Giuliani: “We have to have our own supply of food.”
There are plenty of arguments in defense of ethanol subsidies. As far as I know, impending famine is not one of them.
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Even Mitt Romney admits that, and the audience seems to agree.
Huck puts up a damn good first showing, answering a question about whether he gave tuition breaks to children of illegal immigrants. The money line—“We’re not going to punish a child because their parent committed a crime”—gets applause.
Mitt, seeing a looming shape in the rear view mirror, pounces: “Mike, that’s not your money. That's the taxpayer’s money.” Nice to see they put Mitt and Huck next to each other—it lets you watch the battle for Iowa in a single frame.
Also, notice how Huckabee declines to attack Romney on the illegal gardeners question. No wonder he likes Mike.
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Throughout the evening, we'll be doing spot background checks on some of the YouTube questioners' video libraries.
Emilyekins, who wants to return to the small government of the GOP's past, is a blank slate on YouTube. She is a new aunt, though, and judging by her favorite videos, she's a Ron Paul kind of gal. She's a graduate student in political science at UCLA. Google freaks me out sometimes.
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ConservativeVoiceUSA, who asked the amnesty question, is a brooding vlogger. Every video on his YouTube page has the same dimly lit background that made for the awful-looking image you saw on your TV. He's 49, a Fred Thompson supporter, and has video titles like "ILLEGAL ALIENS MURDER 12 LEGAL AMERICANS DAILY 4380 A YEAR." Something tells us he fancies Tom Tancredo, too.
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Rudy accuses Mitt Romney of employing illegal immigrants in his home, saying he not only had sanctuary cities in his state, but that Romney even lived in a "sanctuary mansion," in which he employed six illegal immigrants.
Romney: "Mr. Mayor, you know better than that."
Rudy: "You did."
Romney then asks whether he's supposd to check the papers of every foreign-sounding worker. Mitt should really work in a quip about Giuliani checking that pedophile priest's papers. ...
I also like how Mitt Romney quotes Rudy Giuliani "almost verbatim." Those Bain guys sure are precise.
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Throughout the evening, we'll be doing spot background checks on some of the YouTube questioners' video libraries.
First up, pudgenet, who sang a nice little diddy for the candidates. Pudgenet, né Chris Nandor, is a budding musician who sings Lisa Loeb in his spare time. Nandor is the man behind the scenes at Slashdot, according to his Wikipedia page. The rest of his political-themed songs are up at a snazzy-looking Web page. Insta-judgment tells me that "Osama bin Laden, You Ruined My Birthday" is worth a listen.
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So they're doing the staggered entrance thing again. John McCain is making everything awkward by trying to shake each candidate's hand as they come onstage.
Also, speaking of making things awkward: The Politico broke news earlier today that Rudy Giuliani billed obscure New York City agencies for expenses he accrued while making trips to see his then-girlfriend Judith Nathan in the Hamptons. He's probably thanking God right now that all the questions are pre-selected YouTube videos. ...
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The Democratic National Committee wants another "macaca" moment, bad. So bad, in fact, that it launched a new site today, Flipper TV, which compiles footage of the GOP front-runners on the campaign trail.
Here’s how it works, in theory: Web-savvy Democrats comb hours of raw footage, discover telling or embarrassing moments the media missed, mash them up into digestible YouTubes, and unleash them upon unsuspecting Republicans. In theory.
In execution, I see problems. First of all, the footage comes from DNC trackers—people paid to follow candidates and film their every move. If they watch an event and then upload the footage, how are they not going to spot key moments? (Not to mention the media—most of the events on the site are public.) Second, the footage is crap. Wobbly cameras, grainy sound, and, more often than not, some guy’s giant head obstructing the view. And third, who in their right mind is going to sift through hour after hour of shoddy, home video detritus in hopes of finding the gold nugget everyone else overlooked? If someone needs embarrassing shots of Mitt Romney, he’s not going to find it in a video of the Ames straw poll.
Don’t get me wrong, open sourcing raw footage is a great idea. Just look at the glorious results of Romney’s create your own ad contest. And it never hurts to make extra B-roll footage available. But if it’s gotcha moments the DNC is expecting, they’re in for disappointment. More likely, they’ll end up with a lot of Democratic supporters being forced to watch hours of Fred Thompson praising tax cuts.
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"He talks in the third person a lot. That's just the way he speaks. It can make it hard for him to connect to the listener."
-- Hillary Clinton strategist Mark Penn on Barack Obama, speaking to reporters after the Hanover, N.H., debate in September.
“Every place is Barack Obama country once Barack Obama's been there.”
-- Barack Obama, speaking on ABC's Nightline Monday night.
Bob Dole would be proud.
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Is Duncan Hunter even trying any more? Examples A, B, and C:
- His home page has "60 second Daily Updates" that purport to be daily podcasts of what's happening in the Hunter campaign. The date above the play button changes every day, but the content does not. The feature hasn't been updated since October.
- The "Iowa Virtual Headquarters" page has a countdown timer that says it's counting down to the Iowa caucuses. Unfortunately, it's counting down to the wrong date. The Iowa GOP is holding its caucus on Jan. 3, not Jan. 15. Unsurprisingly, New Hampshire's countdown is also incorrect.
- The "Bloggers for Hunter" page is empty. As in, there are no bloggers who support Duncan Hunter. Don't worry, it's "Coming Soon !!"
Not to be harsh, but when you can't keep track of the primary calendar, it's time to wave the white flag.
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The Republican presidential debates are starting to look like Lost, in which each character gets his own episode. First there was the Thompson debate, with all eyes on Fred. Then came the Hillary debate, in which her name was invoked more than 40 times.
So you'd think, given the recent emergence of Mike Huckabee as a front-runner in Iowa and Ron Paul as a major fund-raiser, that those two candidates might dominate tonight's discussion. But if that’s the case, CNN’s podium lineup (exclusive!) doesn’t reflect it:
Tancredo
Huckabee
Romney
Giuliani
Thompson
McCain
Paul
Hunter
Shouldn't Huckabee, the guy statistically tied for first in Iowa, get a better position than McCain, the guy polling third in New Hampshire and invisible in Iowa? Maybe it would just be too sad a statement to take McCain out of the Middle Four.
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John Edwards unveiled a new Web site today that asks voters not to vote for any candidate who takes money from lobbyists or Political Action Committees.
Sorry, let me rephrase that. Edwards unveiled a Web site today that asks voters not to vote for Hillary Clinton.
Championing his own commitment to a lobby-free lifestyle, Edwards wants to rally a million Americans around an anti-lobby pledge. The Web site is the culmination of a campaign-long initiative by Edwards to move fund-raising away from lobbying and PACs. A noble goal, certainly, but this is chiefly a political gesture, and the politics of the move aren’t that sound.
The problem is, his attacks against Clinton, who has defended the role of lobbyists in politics, continue to help Obama. On a conference call this morning, Edwards’ staff had the chance to hammer Obama, but chose not to. A reporter asked Edwards’ staffers whether the pledge’s anti-lobbyist clause meant pledgers couldn’t vote for Obama. (Obama accepted lobbyist money when he ran for Senate and while he was a state senator.) The Edwards campaign dodged the question, but the pledge implies that since Obama had atoned for his lobbyist sins, he’s in the clear.
At some point, Edwards is going to have to realize that voters he shakes loose from Hillary’s grasp aren’t all flocking to him. And with Obama’s recent PAC flap in the news, he’s passing up a golden opportunity to go after Hillary and Obama. Sure, he doesn’t want to seem overly aggressive. But as Edwards himself likes to remind us, the Democratic primary isn’t a two-person race—certainly not between him and Senator Clinton, anyway.
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Here’s a shot of a young, lawyerly Fred Thompson from his most recent ad, “Marie”:
And here’s Javier Bardem as hypnotic serial killer Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men:
Hulking frames. Rumbling bass voices. Floppy Prince Valiant 'dos. Sign this man up for the inevitable Fred Thompson biopic.
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UPDATE 3:15 p.m.: I have to retract this entire post, which was wholly inaccurate. The Edwards campaign called me to rightfully inform me that the question in the conference call was about whether Hillary Clinton's support had peaked in Iowa and the rest of the country. They then responded that the "Clinton machine is very formidable, and that's what it is." I misheard the question.
I deeply regret the error. You can find full audio of the call here.
The original post, in strikethrough, is below:
During a conference call with the Edwards campaign this
morning a reporter asked an innocuous question: Does the campaign think Edwards’
support has peaked in Iowa?
Five seconds of silence followed. Finally, an Edwards staffer piped up. “Look, the Clinton machine is very formidable,
and that’s what it is.”
Way to be confident, guys.
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One fascinating aspect of the antiquated, convoluted Iowa caucus system is that each candidate has to teach his or her own supporters how to, er, caucus. (‘Tis the season where caucus becomes a verb.) The state parties also hold training sessions, but for the most part it’s up to the candidates to make sure people know how it works.
So far, Hillary and Obama have led the charge. Hillary released a web video earlier this month called “Caucusing Is Easy,” that explains which forms to fill out and what to do once you show up to the caucus. “It’s usually over early enough to get back for your favorite TV show,” says one lady. Unless, of course, your favorite TV show is the Orange Bowl.
Obama, meanwhile, has recruited a team of 73 “Caucus Pros” to train first-time caucus-goers across the state. But given that Obama’s Iowa organization depends largely on mobilizing younger voters, it seems bizarre that the average Caucus Pro is 62 years old. (The youngest is a sprightly 41.) If it’s young bodies they want, why not have Amber Lee Ettinger run the training? Obama also has his own caucusing-made-easy site.
While John Edwards has no high-profile caucus training program, he does have two big advantages: One is the Services Employees International Union, which endorsed Edwards in Iowa last month and has 2,000 workers it can mobilize in that state on his behalf. The other is that the majority of Edwards supporters have caucused before, compared to about half of Hillary and Obama supporters, according to a recent ABC News/Washington Post survey. So on the one hand, he seems to have a less developed caucus training program; but on the other, Ed-heads already know how it's done.
Republican candidates have an easier a job, since the GOP caucuses are much simpler: Show up, talk about your favorite candidate, vote, and you’re done. There’s none of the complicated group-forming and re-forming the Democrats deal with. It makes you wonder why they don't just suck in their pride and call it a primary.
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An upcoming issue of TV Guide has an amusing roundup of the 2008 presidential candidates’ favorite television shows. Nothing too surprising here: Hillary watches Grey’s Anatomy, Barack Obama likes The Wire (for the record, that’s the right answer), and John Edwards says his viewing guilty pleasure is "Fred Thompson on Law & Order."
But the collection is hardly comprehensive. We decided to make a few calls and fill in the cracks:
Mike Gravel likes the History Channel and Turner Movie Classics, according to a spokesman. Although Gravel, he says, “doesn’t watch a lot of TV.”
Ron Paul, according to spokesman Jesse Benton, “really only watches the news.”
Tom Tancredo watches “n