Campaigns & Elections

Here's something you don't see every day: an Associated Press writer actually publishing something negative about a Democrat...let alone one named Obama.But, there it was Saturday, with a headline even more curious: "Analysis: Biden Pick Shows Lack of Confidence." The Obamessiah lacks confidence? Such wrote Ron Fournier (emphasis added, photo courtesy AP):

Well, well. The portion of Joe Biden's Wikipedia entry relating to his 1988 presidential campaign has been worked over a bit. Specifics relating to his undergraduate grades have strangely disappeared. There are other subtle changes as well.Comparison pics are after the jump.

As my colleague Mark Finkelstein reported Saturday, the racial slurs/gaffes of Sen. Joe Biden have already been discussed as "one of his strengths."Despite this surprising segment on Saturday's special edition of MSNBC's "Morning Joe," one has to wonder just how much coverage the various racially insensitive remarks by the Delaware Senator are going to get in the coming days as press members…

You know the old software programmer's excuse: "that's not a bug.  That's a feature!"  John Harwood of CNBC/NYT has produced a political variation on the theme to buff up Joe Biden.  Biden's gaffes, including the racially-insensitive ones, are actually . . . "a strength."Harwood was chatting with Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on a special Morning Joe edition today, and the topic of Biden's…

That didn't take long.  Exactly five minutes before Obama's official text message went out this morning, Howard Fineman had an article up at Newsweek praising the process by which Obama picked his running mate.  He even turned lemons into lemonade, claiming Hillary really didn't want to be considered and that Obama "did her a favor" by not doing so. R-i-g-h-h-t.First, the praise:The minute-by-…

An ABC affiliate in Kansas City, Missouri, is reporting that a printing company in Lenexa, Kansas, has already started creating bumper stickers promoting "Obama Bayh '08": After weeks of speculation and days of intense rumors, the answer to who Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would name as his running mate may have come down to a bumper sticker printed in Lenexa.KMBC's Micheal…

Barack Obama at a town hall meeting in Lynchburg, North Carolina, August 20, 2008. Photo Reuters/Jim Young.

Even by MSM standards, Harry Smith's "interview" of Barack Obama was a disgrace.  How soft were Smith's lobs?  Had this been a slow-pitch league, Harry might still have been booted for insufficient MPH. CBS aired Smith's chat with the Dem candidate, conducted yesterday, on this morning's Early Show.  After a clip of McCain saying he questioned Obama's judgment, not his patriotism, Smith teed it…

Barack Obama is planning to announce his VP pick via text message to his supporters.  So in the spirit of the times, let's text message something to Sen. Obama:Brck: b fraid. b vry fraid. hlry stl h8s u.That's what we glean from Hillary's startling statement in Florida today.  Chris Matthews aired it at the top of tonight's Hardball:HILLARY CLINTON: I am doing everything I can to campaign for…

On Thursday’s CBS Early Show, correspondent Dean Reynolds reported on Barack Obama’s upcoming announcement of a running mate and also highlighted John McCain’s criticism of Obama’s foreign policy: "But McCain is seen by most voters as better on foreign policy and much more likely to be an effective commander-in-chief. That may explain why he's been hammering Obama on the Iraq war, all the while…

Here's what's at the top of Drudge's middle column at the moment: Actually, I count seven previous cover appearances since December 10, 2007, less than nine months ago:

Via Drudge we get the recognition that Time Magazine has once again placed the Obamessiah on its cover. This makes the 7th time in the space of a year that Obama has graced the cover of Time Magazine. Thus far, McCain has found the favor of the front cover precisely two times. In the tank much?

In my post on Tuesday, I wrote about Stanley Kurtz's efforts to access the Annenberg Challenge files housed at the University of Illinois-Chicago. These files documented an educational initiative started by Bill Ayers and chaired by Barack Obama.At that point, only AP writer Pete Yost had written anything about the story. Additionally, U of I rep Bill Burton issued a press release. Since that…