Dean Reynolds

What a gigantic crybaby.

I just finished read The Boys on the Bus, which is a pretty vicious account of the press corp. during the 1976 campaign. If anything, it appears that things have gotten worse.

McCain outspending Obama?

In Missouri, at least:

Since his visit to southwest Missouri last week, presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain has aired more than three times as many campaign ads in the state as his Democratic rival, Barack Obama.

Why is this?

Russert

I know some pretty awful people. First, moments after Tim Russert's death, my father sends me an e-mail saying "Well, this proves Hillary definitely has a 'hit-list'".

And then my friend Steve sends me this screen shot from MSN.

All I can say is, election coverage is going to be a lot better this year.

"Baby Mama"

Hey, look: Racism!

All fifty

Hmmm

Obama's 50-state strategy: It's official, his campaign will be everywhere - On Politics - USATODAY.com: "Democrat Barack Obama's deputy campaign manager, Steve Hildebrand, just announced in an e-mail to supporters that the campaign will compete all over the country this fall.

'Today, I am proud to announce that our presidential campaign will be the first in a generation to deploy and maintain staff in every single state,' Hildebrand said in the letter."

The guy that runs the blog should probably tell the guy who writes political articles for the AP. Readers could get confused.

Confusion

By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY, NYT:

A Republican strategist said that, according to party monitoring services, Mr. Obama’s campaign had inquired about advertising rates in 25 states, including traditionally Republican states like Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina. That would constitute a very large purchase. President Bush, whose 2004 campaign had the most expensive advertising drive in presidential history, usually ran commercials in a maximum of 17 states.

By Charles Babington, AP:

From now on, the great majority of Americans can be excused if they barely realize a presidential election is under way. They will see virtually no TV ads, visits by candidates or local news coverage.

That's because this campaign, like the last two, will focus on about 15 competitive states. Both parties see the other states as reliably in their camps and not needing attention, or totally out of reach and not worth the effort and expense of trying to win them. In either case, these states will largely be ignored.

So, who's lying to whom, about what, and why? Cui bono? Considering that Obama's campaign is in the habit of bragging about its 50-state strategy, it appears that both of these stories rely upon Republicans as sources. It could be that they're trying to minimize what Obama's going to do. But that doesn't make any sense, after all, people are going to notice a nationwide ad blitz.

Most likely: Republican operatives, and the media scum they inform, have no fucking clue what's coming next.

And we can be reasonably sure that Mr. Charles Babington is an idiot.

Ignored Media Narratives

Several things things that will be crucial to the outcome of the 2008 election are just being ignored by the media. I will attempt to explain these in greater length:

1. The real reasons Hillary Clinton lost.

2. The nationalization of the Democratic and Republican parties.

4. The shift towards a "Responsible Parties" model of government.

5. The Hispanic vote.

6. Explaining and understanding the "Eight year itch".

7. Deterministic models predict the election months in advance — finding the holy grail of political science.