Campaigns & Elections

On his October 6 Hardball program, MSNBC's Chris Matthews hyped a new NBC poll that shows Democrat Alison Grimes up two points on incumbent Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky). This represents a six-point swing from a recent poll showing Grimes down by four, Matthews enthused. But let completely unmentioned during Monday's Hardball was a hidden video of Grimes campaign operatives admitting they…

Some days it seems like the Daily Beast prides itself on being a sounding board for utterly off-the-wall political ideas. Witness contributor Jillian Keenan's argument today that teens old enough to work and pay taxes -- but too young to vote -- should be granted the franchise. 

While interrogating Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, host Chuck Todd spat out a nasty attack line against the GOP regarding a new Texas law requiring abortion clinics to have hospital-level medical standards: "One of the things about the Republican Party is you don't like a lot of regulation on businesses, except if the business is a…

The polling partnership of the Associated Press and GfK Public Affairs & Corporate Communications conducted its final pre-early voting survey of the American electorate during the five days ended September 29. It would be pretty hard to argue against the idea that the polling effort searched for answers it could use, while avoiding getting — or at least publishing — answers it wouldn't like…

Talk about a conflict of interest. Meet the Press moderator Chuck Todd sat down with former Senator Jim Webb (D-V.A.) for an interview Sunday morning and set up the discussion by declaring how his wife worked on the Democrat’s 2006 Senate campaign. The NBC News Political Director introduced the Virginia Democrat by highlighting how Webb is “a successful author and screenwriter and has written…

On Thursday, President Barack Obama did something Republicans have inexplicably been reluctant to do. He nationalized the impending midterm elections by telling a friendly audience at Northwestern University that "I am not on the ballot this fall ... But make no mistake: These policies (of my administration) are on the ballot -- every single one of them." That evening on Fox News's Special…

It appears as though former Obama official Van Jones has taken Rahm Emmanuel’s belief that you never “want a good crisis go to waste” to heart during a Sunday appearance on ABC’s This Week w/ George Stephanopoulos. During a panel discussion on the upcoming midterm elections, Jones suggested that Democrats should point out that the “Ebola thing is the best argument you can make for the kind of…

On her Thursday Fox News show, Megyn Kelly interviewed the State Department's Jen Psaki. Psaki's thankless and impossible task was to defend the administration against former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's assessment that U.S. troops completely left Iraq too early. Video and the damning portions of the transcript follow the jump:

Perhaps eager to restart the so-called Republican "war on women," Time magazine claimed to have found the "most sexist Republican ad of the year." Writer Charlotte Alter was outraged at a spot by the College Republicans National Committee promoting Florida's Rick Scott in a Say Yes to the Dress parody. 

Incumbent Democratic Senator Mark Begich has a lifetime American Conservative Union score of eight. Yet, NPR qualifies the Alaska politician as "conservative" on many issues. The October 2 segment featured no mention of Begich's widely condemned campaign ad that accused his Republican opponent of being indirectly responsible for a sex crime. 

There was a good reason for Democrat-friendly networks to skip Obama’s economic speech yesterday, as Curtis Houck reported. Washington Post political reporter Chris Cillizza was shocked the president seemed to hand Republicans a ready-made TV ad in the speech. His headline was “28 words that Democrats really wish President Obama didn’t say today.”

Kasie Hunt, MSNBC’s Political Correspondent, appeared on Thursday’s Morning Joe to promote her recent trip to Colorado, where she covered the highly contentious Senate contest between incumbent Democrat Mark Udall and his Republican challenger Congressman Cory Gardner. Hunt began her prepackaged report by playing up how “Washington Republicans were thrilled when Gardner decided to ran against …

Why would PBS devote over six minutes to a midterm election race that looks to be headed towards a blowout? Perhaps it's because examining the Mississippi Senate race on the PBS NewsHour allows the network to dig into the bitter primary battle between Tea Party-backed Chris McDaniel and the victor, incumbent Thad Cochran. 

The Washington Post on Wednesday highlighted Democratic campaign e-mails for the 2014 midterms, admitting that liberals are sending out "frantic" e-mails about potential losses in the House and Senate. Writer Ed O'Keefe reasoned, "With Democrats expected to lose seats in the House and slipping behind Republican opponents in key Senate races, a sense of frustration and near-panic would be…