Thompson: Law & Disorder

After his sad 16 percent in South Carolina, it looks like Fred Thompson will be calling it quits before closing arguments in the next real presidential trials: Florida, and then February 5’s Super Tuesday. But he has only himself to blame. When former senator Thompson was playing district attorney Arthur…

Delegating Denver #27 of 56: Minnesota

View larger image Minnesota Total Number of Delegates: 88 Pledged: 72 Unpledged: 16 How to Recognize a Minnesota Delegate: Most Americans’ knowledge about Minnesota comes from the movie Fargo, which was written and directed by natives Joel and Ethan Coen. Actress Frances McDormand (real-life wife of Joel) won the 1996…

Obama Courts the Juggalo Vote. Seriously.

Imagine yourself on February 5. It’s caucus time in Colorado and you and your fellow Obama supporters have gathered at your local Democratic Party precinct and are ready to start making your argument for why the Illinois senator is right for Colorado, right for the Democratic Party, right for America…

Mike Huckabee Rocked Red Rocks

No matter what you think about cute-as-a-kewpie-doll Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, you have to hand it to the former Arkansas governor for rocking out on the campaign trail. His classic rock cover band, Capitol Offense, has performed semi-regularly throughout Huckabee’s presidential run, caressing audiences with tunes like “Free Bird,”…

Delegating Denver #26 of 56: Michigan

View larger image Michigan Total Number of Delegates: 157 Pledged: 128 Unpledged: 29 How to Recognize a Michigan Delegate: Michigan has a lot to answer for. Two of the nation’s greatest problems, aside from Mitt Romney and Madonna, can be blamed on industries based in Michigan. Global warming is the…

City Pages Liveblogging New Hampshire Primary

Get all the news you need, and more, from the New Hampshire primaries tonight at the Elephants In The Room blog of our Minneapolis sister paper, City Pages, as they liveblog all the ins and outs of this evening’s masterpiece of political theater. Sure they’re 1,000 miles away, but this…

New Hampshire: Vote for Toothbrushes, Against Flying Monkeys

The choice is clear, New Hampshire. At least for those of you Granite State Republicans. Vermin Supreme. Vermin is officially on the primary ballot, and with such pledges as mandatory toothbrushes, time traveling to forceful abort Mrs. Hitler’s gestating catastrophe, and no flying monkeys in the city of New York,…

Stuff It!

New Hampshire votes today, but Denver still has plenty of work to do before February 5, or Super Duper Tuesday as it’s known, when Colorado and 23 other states pick their nominees for president. The Democratic Party, especially, needs to build a massive base of volunteers, and not just wonks…

Delegating Denver #25 of 56: Massachusetts

View larger image Massachusetts Total Number of Delegates: 121 Pledged: 93 Unpledged: 28 How to Recognize a Massachusetts Delegate: Massholes. It’s the name that everyone from Maine to Maryland loves to call the residents of Massachusetts. Oh, sure, it’s funny, but it’s not entirely true. Well, it’s true on weekdays…

Delegating Denver #24 of 56: Maryland

View larger image Maryland Number of Delegates: 99 Pledged: 70 Unpledged: 29 How to Recognize a Maryland Delegate: Chesapeake is the Susquehannock Indian word for “great blue crab bay.” So when the land surrounding the bay was granted to Lord Baltimore in 1632, he wanted to call his new colony…

Delegating Denver #23 of 56: Maine

View larger image Maine Number of Delegates: 34 Pledged: 24 Unpledged: 10 How to Recognize a Maine Delegate: Most Americans’ perception of Maine starts at the Discount Outlet Stores in Kittery and ends at the parking lot of the Discount Outlet Stores in Freeport. This sixty-mile stretch of U.S. Highway…

Recreate 68 Offers Rhyme (Sort Of) With Reason

The Recreate ’68 alliance (profiled in the October 25 feature, “Recreate ’68 Plans to Do Just That”) has just issued a curious holiday manifesto. A take on the 1834 Clement Clarke Moore poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” the alliance has crafted the following holiday missive, meant, presumably, to stir…

Tancs for the Memories, Tom

It was fun while it lasted. Tom Tancredo just made official what had been rumored for 24 hours: He’s pulling out of the Republican presidential race. Although he never really had a chance of reaching the White House, Tancredo’s already won: He made immigration a focal point of the campaign…

Delegating Denver #22 of 56: Louisiana

View larger image Louisiana Total Number of Delegates: 67 Pledged: 56 Unpledged: 11 How to Recognize a Louisiana Delegate: The surface of Louisiana may properly be divided into two parts: the swamplands, and the quagmires, which include the townships and parishes built on the bribes and embezzlements of organized political…

Delegating Denver #21 of 56: Kentucky

View larger image Kentucky Total Number of Delegates: 59 Pledged: 50 Unpledged: 9 How to Recognize a Kentucky Delegate: Kentuckians insist that they live in the south, even though the majority of the state’s population lives along the northern border, mainly in Louisville and the suburbs of the solidly Midwestern…

Tom Tancredo Stumbles On an Effective Campaign Strategy

In National Public Radio’s December 10 story about the previous night’s debate, a Republican presidential candidate forum in Miami sponsored by Univision, Tom Tancredo was mentioned first. How did the double T pull off this long-awaited coup? By not showing up — ostensibly because appearing at such a “Spanish-speaking” event…

The Early Bird Catches….Hell

Today the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee upheld the Democratic Party’s right to enforce its primary rules — and spanked the Florida delegation for pushing up its state vote to early January “We’re pleased the court ruled in our favor, recognizing the constitutionally…

Tancredo: Tancs for the Memory

Tom Tancredo will unveil a new commercial in Iowa this afternoon, a month out from the vote there. His last ad tossed a bomb into the campaign, but the shockwaves didn’t raise Tancredo above the bottom of the pack. Still, his quixotic presidential run has had its effect: The first…

Delegating Denver #20 of 56: Kansas

View larger image Kansas Total Number of Delegates: 41 Pledged: 33 Unpledged: 8 How to Recognize a Kansas Delegate: Claim jumpers from Leavenworth, Kansas, laid out their town on theSouth Platte River and named it after Governor James W. Denver, inthe hopes that he would make Denver City the county…

Calling All Comrades to Minneapolis

In Minneapolis, the RNC Welcoming Committee – the protest-planning counterpart to Denver’s DNC-dissing Recreate 68 – recently released this hilarious, self-spoofy recruitment video as part of its efforts to draw comrades to the Twin Cities to screw with the Republicans next September. Nationally, an umbrella group to these umbrella groups,…

DeGettin Busy

Diana DeGette has laid claim to the unusual distinction of hosting a Democratic National Convention physically located entirely in a single congressional district: Hers. In the past, conventions have overlapped multiple districts, the congresswoman said Wednesday during a roundtable discussion. The 2008 convention, which takes place next August in Denver,…

Delegating Denver #19 of 56: Iowa

View larger image Iowa Total Number of Delegates: 56 Pledged: 45 Unpledged: 11 How to Recognize an Iowa Delegate: Iowa is the smartest state in the union, topping the annual list for national ACT and SAT scores. That’s only fitting, since the national ACT offices are in Iowa City, and…