View larger image New Hampshire Total Number of Delegates: 30 Pledged: 22 Unpledged: 8 How to Recognize a New Hampshire Delegate: “Live Free or Die” is the motto that New Hampshirites use to project their image of fierce independence. In truth, it briefly explains the state’s tax code, which exempts…
Beware of pollsters with agendas. A pollster is supposed to be someone just culling data from a statistically significant portion of the population, right? Someone with one eye on politics, and the other on science? Well, if you consider the efficacy of propaganda a scientific end, Frank Luntz is your…
Former Colorado Senator Gary Hart is not just any observer of the 2008 election campaign. He sees strong parallels between the contest pitting Democrats Barack Obama (who he supports) against Hillary Clinton and his own 1984 run for the White House. Back then, Walter Mondale, the former Vice President and…
View larger image Nevada Total Number of Delegates: 33 Pledged: 25 Unpledged: 8 How to Recognize a Nevada Delegate: Nevadans like to claim that their state was named for the Spanish word that means “covered in snow.” This, of course, seems deliberately misleading to anyone who has visited Las Vegas…
Dear John, The New York Times would like to endorse John McCain. And all of his affairs, scandals and conflicts of interest. They are totally breaking up. What a difference a few weeks makes in a political love triangle. Before Super Tuesday, the NYT was smitten, relatively speaking, with moderate…
Amy Holmes holds the pundit trifecta ticket: she’s black, she’s pretty, and she’s a Republican. Or so she’s espousing these days. She’s gone on record in the past to say that she’s registered as an Independent, and that she privately harbors some fairly liberal views, including being strongly pro-choice…
Chaos at the DNC, riots in the streets of Denver, 1968 relived – no, these aren’t just the protest slogans being voiced by the usual suspects in the local radical scene. They’re potential scenarios that were hashed out by high-profile Democrats on last Sunday’s Face the Nation. If Hillary Clinton…
Whether Barack Obama’s Speechgate is a nonissue, a callous Clinton attack or the tip of the iceberg of Obama’s rhetorical and ideological harvesting, the real political marvel of the season is the emergence of YouTube as a viable political cyberhatchet. Somehow, sandwiched in between videos of drunk kids destroying dorm…
View larger image Nebraska Total Number of Delegates: 31 Pledged: 24 Unpledged: 7 How to Recognize a Nebraska Delegate: Most Americans experience Nebraska only in passing. At 35,000 feet overhead or speeding through on I-80, the state looks flat and boring. It is neither, but that doesn’t stop the “flatter…
Image courtesy Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages Courtesy of barackobamaisyournewbicycle.com: Barack Obama helped you move a sofa Barack Obama built you a robot Barack Obama followed you on twitter Barack Obama held your hand when you were frightened Barack Obama is your new bicycle Barack Obama wrote on your fun wall…
For most of us, the college experience—what we remember—lives on in two neat categories: “Never Again” and “I Found Myself.” This formative process produces “Don’t Remind Me” and “The Best Time of My Life,” where high-minded philosophies mix with pragmatic acceptances that retain extraordinary influence on our decisions, hopes, fears,…
Dear Ron Paul supporters, I have a tip that you might find helpful – and, no, it doesn’t involve bunker-building or camouflage mouse pads. It has to do with graphic design. I’m not an expert in the art of campaigning, but I keep noticing all of these banners hung on…
View larger image Montana Total Number of Delegates: 24 Pledged: 16 Unpledged: 8 How to Recognize a Montana Delegate: Residents of the Treasure State think that their Last Best Place isthe Jewel of the Lower 48. On average, there are only seven Montanans per square mile of Big Sky Country,…
It’s somehow fitting that the last people to know Mitt Romney was dropping his bid for the presidency were his supporters in the room. At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, Romnites were still handing out buttons and wildly waving posters when Mitt took the stage for a stump…
While other reporters were wasting their time on Super Tuesday night tracking useless information like exit polls and delegate counts, the crack political team at Westword was focused on the issues the matter: namely, which Democratic candidate’s political apparatus throws a better post-caucus party. After a sleepless night of number…
In the days leading up to Super Tuesday, I kept waiting to get an off-white invitation in the mail from an older neighbor, preferably an active, sporty grandmother-type, who had looked up my political affiliation and requested my presence in her home for the Democratic caucus. I would show up…
Call it the most competitive, high-stakes game of Jenga ever, with nothing less than the leadership of our democracy hanging in the balance. Super Tuesday lived up to some expectations—a highly competitive Democratic race and a strong national showing for John McCain—while injecting more surprises and uncertainty into what promises…
I’m a walking Obama schwag-pack right now. If you punched me in the stomach, I’d spit up a sheet of red, white and blue, “Standing with Obama,” stickers. If you grabbed me by my New Balances and shook me upside down, dozens of Obama buttons would fall out, much to…
It’s an election year of Firsts. The First Female President. The First African-American President. The First Mexican President. The First Panamanian President. With Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton now deadlocked in national and state polls on the cusp of Super Tuesday, both are making desperate pleas to Hispanic communities in…
View larger image Missouri Total Number of Delegates: 88 Pledged: 72 Unpledged: 16 How to Recognize a Missouri Delegate: One explanation of how Missouri became known as the “Show Me” State claims that the nickname originated as a derogatory slur in Colorado. Untrained “scabs,” brought in from Joplin, Missouri, to…
“Age was never an issue when you stuck to your guns!” White House Communications Director Connie Spano reminds youthful President Whitmore minutes before spaceships begin demolishing all humans in that keenest of all political meditations, Independence Day. For John McCain, who loves guns and those who shoot them, his 71…
Rudy Giuliani couldn’t even quit first. So much for the know-it-alls who predicted big things still in store for John Edwards, whose small but solid support in the proportionally awarded Democratic primaries may have given him a powerful delegate voice at the national convention. Provided he pulled at least fifteen…
