Mori Dinauer

William Kristol, more a surrogate than an opinion columnist, advises the McCain campaign to “liberate” Sarah Palin in preparation for her debate with Joe Biden on Thursday, in order “to use her political talents and to communicate in her own voice.” The McCain campaign is largely following this advice, intensively prepping Palin down in Sedona […]

Despite bailout negotiations being still very much up in the air, John McCain is de-suspending his campaign — contradicting his Wednesday promise to stay in Washington until a deal was reached. The Obama campaign is playing the expectations game for tonight, raising the bar quite high for McCain (“If he slips up, makes a mistake, […]

President Bush met with candidates Barack Obama and John McCain at the White House today to discuss the bailout deal that is crystallizing in Congress. Meanwhile, McCain’s “suspended” campaign continues to chug along, with surrogates remaining on the offense on the cable networks and the candidate himself giving a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative […]

Apparently John McCain doesn’t believe multitasking is a particularly strong skill for a president to have, as he calls off Friday’s foreign-policy debate, “suspends” his campaign, and invites Barack Obama to return to Washington with him to “come together to solve this problem.” Meanwhile, the Obama campaign has indicated that it expects the debate to […]

John McCain lays out his “bailout principles” in Michigan today, while Barack Obama describes “four conditions” that should accompany the bailout. Meanwhile, Rasmussen finds that only 35 percent of the public thinks the bailout will help the economy, and that 49 percent trust McCain more, to Obama’s 43 percent. Pew, on the other hand, reports […]

Over the weekend the magnitude of the Bush/Paulson $700 billion blank check bailout plan sunk in, with a number of economists and financial commentators coming out strongly against it. Unsurprisingly, the Bush plan was the product of intense lobbying by the financial sector, leading Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi to come out against the bailout […]

At the time of the Palin VP pick, a few of us wondered whether it might backfire on McCain. Then a couple weeks went by as Palin-mania grew. Now, as Sam summarizes below, it does appear to have been a high-risk, high-reward pick, consolidating the conservative base and turning just about everyone else off. Ezra […]

In yet another display of ignorance covered up by mindless bluster, John McCain surrogate Randy Sheunemann explains that McCain knows Jose Luis Zapatero is the prime minister of Spain, knows Spain is in Europe, but still insists that the would-be president refuses to “commit to a White House meeting” with the Spanish PM. Of course, […]

The reaction to Barack Obama‘s latest ad on the economy appears mixed (see Tim‘s take). It’s not terribly wonky, which is good, but it isn’t light on specifics, either. The next logical step is to argue that you can’t trust John McCain on the economy, which ought not to be too hard given McCain’s many […]

For whatever reason, a number of John McCain‘s campaign surrogates have either stumbled or gone completely off message today. First you’ve got Carly Fiorina remarking that Sarah Palin, while perfectly qualified to be vice president, never could handle the duties of being a Fortune 500 CEO. Fiorina later clarified her remarks, insisting that both McCain […]