Garance Franke-Ruta

A PET PEEVE. Dear Pollsters, Al Gore is not running for president. He is not going to run for president. Could you please stop running polls with him in the race? Thanks ever so. Most gratefully yours, –Garance Franke-Ruta

SPEAKING OF LOBBYISTS. Christina Davidson of IraqSlogger (via TPM Muckracker) has this important scoop on the way Republican lobbyists are trying to influence American foreign policy and oust the Prime Minister of Iraq, and how the firm of America’s former envoy to Iraq is now working against the Iraqi leader backed by the American president: […]

NEWBIES AT THE CAUCUSES. Since I noted the stories of some women who were being drawn deeper into Iowa’s intensive political architecture by Hillary Clinton and who had not caucused before, I should also note that between 40 and 60 percent of caucus-goers each election cycle are first-time caucus goers, and that it’s not unsual […]

THE CULTURE OF CORRUPTION IN ILLINOIS. A reader writes in to point out that, despite Barack Obama‘s good intentions and successful sponsorship of what Ruth Marcus yesterday called “a far-reaching ethics and campaign finance bill in the Illinois state Senate”, the campaign finance laws now on the books in Illinois remain much in need of […]

THE ANTI-LOBBYIST. To Ruth Marcus‘s excellent, beyond the rhetoric column on the Democratic presidential candidates’ records with regard to campaign finance reform and lobbying — which concludes that “Obama leads the pack” on this issue — I have only this to add: That’s the front of That’s the front of Barack Obama‘s downtown Des Moines […]

MS. PRESIDENT & THE GIRL SCOUTS. Also at the Corn Boil in Clinton, Iowa, I met some Girl Scouts — Haley, Hunter, Cameron, and Chrissy — who were set to be given a merit award by Sen. Hillary Clinton for the “Fit and Fabulous” program they’d run for girls at the local YMCA. More interesting […]

CLINTON’S APPEAL TO THE NON-COLLEGE EDUCATED. Clinton, Ia. — Survey after survey shows Hillary Clinton wiping the floor with Barack Obama when it comes to attracting non-college educated Democratic voters, especially white women who haven’t gone to college. At Iowa State Rep. Polly Butka‘s 12th Annual Corn Boil fundraiser on Saturday, the reasons for that […]

OBAMA’S INNER CHURCH LADY. One cool thing about listening to candidates on the stump is that you get to see them do and say all kinds of things that don’t have news value — and so won’t generally get reported — but which are nonetheless interesting and revealing. For example, Barack Obama, who is often […]

THIS SHOULD MAKE THINGS INTERESTING. The Associated Press reports: The son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is preparing for deployment to Iraq next year. Capt. Beau Biden, a Judge Advocate General in the Delaware National Guard and the state’s attorney general, is part of the 261st Signal Brigade that has been told to prepare […]