McCain to Pick VP This Week: Romney or Jindal?

Bob Novak is reporting that John McCain is planning to announce his vice presidential choice this week, presumably in an attempt to grab the press spotlight back while Barack Obama is being feted overseas. He notes that "Mitt Romney has led the speculation recently." Meanwhile, Chris Cillizza says "McCain will huddle with vice presidential aspirant Bobby Jindal during a trip ...

Sam Nunn Joins Veepstakes

In the long months between now and the conventions, one recurring theme we'll see in the press and the punditocracy is speculation of who Barack Obama and John McCain will chose as running mates. None of us have any idea, of course, other than that Dick Cheney is not on anybody's list. But it's still fun to speculate. For ...

NYT Columnists Need Better Editors

Think Progress' Matt Corley notes that for the NYT has been forced to append a correction on a Bill Kristol column for an egregious factual error. Citing Obama's 41 point loss in West Virginia, Kristol exclaimed, "I can’t find a single recent instance of a candidate who ultimately became his party’s nominee losing a primary by this kind of ...

McCain’s Vice Presidential Candidates

John McCain is vetting potential vice presidential candidates over the holiday weekend, Adam Nagourney reports for the NYT. Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts and a one-time rival for the Republican nomination, have all accepted invitations to visit with Mr. McCain at his ranch in Sedona, these Republicans said. This ...

Third Party Candidates and Wasting Your Vote

Doug Mataconis rejects the idea that Bob Barr and other third party candidates should defer to the major party candidate most closely aligned with them ideologically. If McCain loses, it won’t be Bob Barr’s fault anymore than Al Gore losing Florida in 2000 was Ralph Nader’s fault. It will be because he didn’t convince enough people to vote for him. Well, "fault" ...

Huckabee Leading VP Contender?

While Democrats debate the likelihood of a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton "Dream Ticket," the latest word is that Mike Huckabee is currently at the top of the list to be John McCain's running mate. James Pethokoukis attributes this information to "a top McCain fundraiser and longtime Republican moneyman who has spoken to McCain's inner circle." The rationale? 1) He is ...

Press Not Doing Its Job?

Elizabeth Edwards, who despite no public policy credentials other than having been married to a one-term senator and yet oddly seems to get op-ed space in the major papers whenever she requests it, has a rather strange editorial in today's NYT whining about how the mainstream media is failing in its duty to inform the public. The first several paragraphs make ...

Randi Rhodes Suspended For Calling Hillary ‘Big F-ing Whore’

The bitterness of the Democratic presidential race kicked up another notch yesterday, with the discovery that popular Air America radio host Randi Rhodes recently performed a profanity-laced standup routine in which both Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton were repeatedly referred to as "big f-ing whores" (minus the sanitization, naturally). (She also called Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and Dick Cheney racists ...

Democrats Breaking Up over Obama-Clinton Fight?

As the bitter nomination fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continues, many of their supporters are threatening to take their ball and go home. A new Gallup poll shows that 28% of Clinton backers and 19% of Obama's claim they vote for John McCain if their candidate is not the nominee. Along those same ...

Press Bias and Campaign 2008

Kevin Drum cites several instances of John McCain acting in ways inconsistent with his maverick image and yet surviving with the image more-or-less intact, a situation he ascribes to a fawning press corps. He asks, "And what window do Democrats go to to get the same treatment the press gives McCain?" In reality, all of the remaining major candidates have ...