24 hours to go until the Iowa caucuses and the word is "fluid".
Dan Balz in the Washington Post succinctly explains why, given the nature of the contest.
Despite the traditional unreliability of Iowa polls, and the protestations of Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi that the latest Des Moines Register numbers - which give Kerry 26 per cent, Edwards 23, Dean 20 and Gephardt 18 - could be understating support by three or four points, the race is now officially too close to predict; and if it goes that way tomorrow night, expect some seriously intense caucusing.
Deborah McGregor, in my paper tonight, hits the nail on the head:
"A grim-looking Mr Dean seemed to be having trouble adjusting to the change in adjectives characterising his campaign. With their man no longer the ?front-running insurgent?, Mr Dean's aides struggled to understand what had happened. Some analysts speculated that the feistiness that played so well among young, Internet-savvy voters looking for a fresh voice did not sit as comfortably among Iowans, who traditionally prefer a polite candidate who can relate to them in their living rooms".
Just as Iowa is all about momentum, watch for the "negative momentum" that will hit the Dean campaign right between the eyes in the event that their man finishes third.
More details emerge on Carol Moseley Braun's withdrawal from the race and subsequent endorsement of Dean. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Braun is being "helped" with her campaign debt by the Dean camp in exchange for her and some of her key staffers working for Dean - particularly important ahead of the South Carolina primary on Feb 3rd.
That is, providing Dean is still around to contest it.
George McGovern endorsed Wesley Clark.
Nice piece in Slate about the 'lamest press releases of the campaign'. Particularly like number four....
In the playing card stakes, first Saddam, now Howard Dean....???
Elsewhere, MoveOn.org wanted to run an ad critical of President Bush's fiscal policy, during the Super Bowl, but was turned down. According to AdAge, it's not because the year's biggest sports spectacular has already been fully booked by spots claiming cures for erectile dysfunction, but because its apparently the policy at CBS - which of course came under fire recently over its proposed miniseries 'The Reagans' - not to air "issue or advocacy ads" on the network.
The Super Bowl broadcast, on Feb 1st, will, however, feature two 30-second "public service announcements" by the White House. In the past, these have been used to promote an anti-drug message.
MoveOn's ad attacking the budget deficit, wich won its recent contest, will run on CNN between Jan 17th and 21st.
By the way, some of you may have noticed a huge jump in intensity of the blog recently - there is a reason: I've just started writing a campaign blog for the paper. It's called ZeroFour and i'm writing it in draft form in the 'Firehose' blog before editing it for the paper's site. Hence what you're seeing here is my first draft, and will be this way for a while, until i start writing straight into the zerofour template. ok? thanks for forebearance....
Steve
Dan Balz in the Washington Post succinctly explains why, given the nature of the contest.
Despite the traditional unreliability of Iowa polls, and the protestations of Dean campaign manager Joe Trippi that the latest Des Moines Register numbers - which give Kerry 26 per cent, Edwards 23, Dean 20 and Gephardt 18 - could be understating support by three or four points, the race is now officially too close to predict; and if it goes that way tomorrow night, expect some seriously intense caucusing.
Deborah McGregor, in my paper tonight, hits the nail on the head:
"A grim-looking Mr Dean seemed to be having trouble adjusting to the change in adjectives characterising his campaign. With their man no longer the ?front-running insurgent?, Mr Dean's aides struggled to understand what had happened. Some analysts speculated that the feistiness that played so well among young, Internet-savvy voters looking for a fresh voice did not sit as comfortably among Iowans, who traditionally prefer a polite candidate who can relate to them in their living rooms".
Just as Iowa is all about momentum, watch for the "negative momentum" that will hit the Dean campaign right between the eyes in the event that their man finishes third.
More details emerge on Carol Moseley Braun's withdrawal from the race and subsequent endorsement of Dean. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Braun is being "helped" with her campaign debt by the Dean camp in exchange for her and some of her key staffers working for Dean - particularly important ahead of the South Carolina primary on Feb 3rd.
That is, providing Dean is still around to contest it.
George McGovern endorsed Wesley Clark.
Nice piece in Slate about the 'lamest press releases of the campaign'. Particularly like number four....
In the playing card stakes, first Saddam, now Howard Dean....???
Elsewhere, MoveOn.org wanted to run an ad critical of President Bush's fiscal policy, during the Super Bowl, but was turned down. According to AdAge, it's not because the year's biggest sports spectacular has already been fully booked by spots claiming cures for erectile dysfunction, but because its apparently the policy at CBS - which of course came under fire recently over its proposed miniseries 'The Reagans' - not to air "issue or advocacy ads" on the network.
The Super Bowl broadcast, on Feb 1st, will, however, feature two 30-second "public service announcements" by the White House. In the past, these have been used to promote an anti-drug message.
MoveOn's ad attacking the budget deficit, wich won its recent contest, will run on CNN between Jan 17th and 21st.
By the way, some of you may have noticed a huge jump in intensity of the blog recently - there is a reason: I've just started writing a campaign blog for the paper. It's called ZeroFour and i'm writing it in draft form in the 'Firehose' blog before editing it for the paper's site. Hence what you're seeing here is my first draft, and will be this way for a while, until i start writing straight into the zerofour template. ok? thanks for forebearance....
Steve
posted by Steve at 5:38 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home