Mori Dinauer

Sam noted this Ben Smith article in today’s Politico demonstrating the Obama campaign’s determination to be competitive in 14 Red states, helping local Dems downticket. The Chicago Tribune ran a similar story today, detailing voter resgistration drives in nine states that could significantly boost turnout amongst youths and African Americans. Tom Edsall has an informative […]

John McCain gave a big speech on energy in Santa Barbara, CA, this afternoon. A number of protesters showed up to challenge McCain’s calls for lifting the federal moratorium on offshore drilling. (The Los Angeles Times reports that McCain could have picked a better venue, given that Santa Barbara was the site of a disastrous […]

As Tom mentioned earlier, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will hold their first Unity Rally, appropriately enough, in Unity, NH, where each received 107 votes during the primary. The Washington Post has a front pager on Obama’s efforts to reintroduce himself for the general campaign and a deeper look at the GOP’s apprehension over John […]

Hillary Clinton will officially begin campaigning on behalf of Barack Obama starting next week. In a conference call with her top donors yesterday, Clinton urged them to open their wallets for Obama and took responsibility for the money she loaned her campaign during the primaries while bluntly asking for help with her other debts. In […]

As commented on by Tom and Paul below, Barack Obama has a new general election campaign ad touting his strong American values. Schmaltzy for sure, but aggressive too — the ad is running in mostly red states, even deep-red states like Alaska, which Nate at 538 argues Obama should make a push for. In less […]

Barack Obama has formed a National Security Advisory Group made up mostly of Clinton-era appointments. Michelle Obama appeared on The View this morning, earning mostly positive reviews for a uncontroversial performance. The world of potential First Lady polling tells us that Obama has a 48 percent approval rating compared to Cindy McCain‘s 39 percent, but […]

MoveOn and AFSCME have put together a new ad that directly attacks John McCain‘s militarism. A young mother holding her baby, Alex, asks, “when you said you would stay in Iraq for 100 years, were you counting on Alex? Because if you were, you can’t have him.” Responding to criticisms from the Obama camp on […]

Via fivethirtyeight.com, I’ve learned that the National Press Club has a blog. Good for them. Unfortunately, I also learned that one of their bloggers is Jeff Gannon. Remember him? The former male escort planted in the White House Press Corps to pitch softball questions to the administration when they were riding high in 2005? Apparently, […]

Former Vice President Al Gore is officially endorsing the candidacy of Barack Obama, appearing with the presumptive Democratic Nominee in Detroit, Michigan rally tonight. The Obama campaign announced a number of top campaign staff positions today, including former Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle in the role of VP nominee chief of staff and former […]

Meet The Press anchor Tim Russert has died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 58. Barack Obama is sending his Iowa organizational guru, Mitch Stewart, to Virginia. It’s another sign he intends to make the state competitive this Fall. A Diageo/Hotline poll [PDF] shows that while 30 percent of Obama voters would prefer a […]