Atlantic contributing editor Marc Ambinder is co-writing a book on national security and secrecy. More
It's so tempting to say that Mitt Romney has a double digit lead in Iowa because he's run $850,000 (by our estimate) worth of television ads there. But that's the unlikliest of what are two explanations: Romney's Iowa state operation has spent the past three months making hundreds of thousands of personalized voter contact calls. The TV ads are solid but ho-hum. Personal contacts are personal contacts. So I'd guess that the latter has had more of an impact than… More »
I agree with Patrick Ruffini: this is the coolest thing he's ever done, and useful, too. It's why the Giuliani campaign was lucky to have him as a consultant. Before he resigned. More »
Big news? First major national poll to show Barack Obama in a dead heat with Hillary Clinton? Recall that blue collar, downscale Dems like Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama's leading the field among Dem-leaning independents. So a poll sample that includes 160 independents -- about a fourth of the sample -- is likely to skew in Obama's direction. In New Hampshire, independents can vote, and Obama's campaign is recruiting them. But to the degree that Iowa's caucuses… More »
The New York Times today becomes the first mainstream press outlet to pick up the Nation's reporting that Hillary Clinton's senior strategist, Mark Penn, is president of a company that has helped corporations crush union organizing drives. Since The Nation published its article, the Clinton campaign has been content to let the story die a natural death; Penn's activities are separate from Hillary Clinton's. In Detroit on Saturday, Clinton holds a town hall… More »
Bill Gates's multi-million dollar effort to influence the course of the presidential election is about to grow: next Monday, the "One" Foundation, a global anti-AIDS and anti-poverty coalition fronted by Bono, will launch ONE Vote '08. Ex-Majority Leaders Tom Daschle and Bill Frist will launch the project on Capitol Hill. Gates's foundation will contribute an unspecified amount to the project, according to a ONE official. ONE calls itself "the campaign to make… More »
In Washington last night, a brave interest group, Sojourners, used its clout to insist that only the most viable Democratic candidates participate in its presidential forum, and much value was extracted. The topic was supposed to be poverty; this was placarded throughout the auditorium at George Washington University. But most of the questions, including several astoundingly blunt ones from narrator Soledad O'Brien, probed the content of the candidates'… More »
The death of Sen. Craig Thomas of Wyoming tonight will provoke, after a period of mourning, a most interesting battle for succession. By statute, the governor, Democrat Dave Freudenthal, "shall" appoint a successor from among three Wyomingians sent to him by the Republican Party. Potential nominees include Rep. Barbara Cubin, state treasurer Cynthia Lummis, Colin Simpson, the son of ex-Sen. Al Simpson and WY state sen. John Barrasso. In 2008, the seat is up, and… More »
No preamble needed. I'm Marc Ambinder, and this is a reported blog about the 2008 presidential election. So -- let's begin. More »
A look at how New Jersey's most conservative G.O.P. chairman may have just saved Giuliani's campaign millions
Candidates who invoke the spirit of Reagan may live to regret it
The intelligence brief on the apparent accident was three sentences long, and it scared the hell…
