March 26

The White House's defensive playbook against Richard Clarke's 9/11 claims seems now to be solely along the lines of attacking him for 'selling a book'. Bill Frist on the senate floor tonight said that Clarke should give up any profits from the book and suggested that he had changed his story.

Meanwhile, flush with unity from their $11m love-in last night, the Democrats have - quite understandably - had a go at Bush over his remarks at the correspondents' dinner.

The president's 'skit' about the inability to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq raised the hackles of Dems, including John Kerry who, according to the Post, noted: "George Bush sold us on going to war with Iraq based on the threat of weapons of mass destruction. But we still haven't found them, and now he thinks that's funny?"

According to ABC's The Note, Howard Dean's endorsement of Kerry yesterday didn't extend to allowing the candidate access to Dean's 700,000-address email list.

A study by the Wisconsin Advertising Project at UWM finds that, taken in combination, TV ads thus far by the Bush campaign and by Kerry's team and other anti-Bush organisations together appear to be roughly on a par while there seems to be a consensus emerging on which are going to be the battleground states.

March 25

The ramifications of the Clarke testimony contiunue to make life tricky for the Bush campaign, but the balancing of the evidence to the 9/11 commission seems to suggest that in the bigger picture, people who were pre-supposed to support the President will likely continue to do so, while those who weren't, will just regard the 'revelations' as confirming what they knew anyway.

Despite an estimated $1m fundraiser in John Kerry's backyard the President didn't exactly have everything his own way today.

"It's a sad situation that you have to close off school because of a fund-raising event," said a local headteacher.

Dick Morris, meanwhile, finds that, according to poll numbers, the latest Bush ads are helping narrow whatever gap had been established by Kerry.

While Bush had a polite, scripted laugh at the expense of his staffers at the Radio and Television Correspondents' dinner the other night, the real fun is sure to come as the campaign unfolds with both candidates fair game for the sharp-as-shrapnel writers over at the Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Stewart, who has easily taken over the mantle of funniest man on late night television from Letterman and Leno, as well as being a 'primary source' of election news for a disturbingly large number of people, this week signed a four year contract extension with Comedy Central, the cable station.

March 21

Bush's campaign kick-off rally in Orlando yesterday gave the impression, as the Post noted, of seeming more like a 'final push'.

Afterward, 400 supporters marched out of the Orange County Convention Center and onto buses to knock on 20,000 doors, recruit volunteers and register Republicans. Others stayed behind to work 300 cell phones, and reached 80,000 people whose voting history suggests they lean to the GOP, the campaign reported.

With the 9/11 commission evidence heating up this week, the Bush campaign could have done without the publicity surrounding Richard Clarke's new book.

Meanwhile, John McCain and Joe Lieberman warned that a negative campaign could have the effect of turning off voters on both sides.