Today’s episode of Martha Stewart’s talk show–due, we can only assume, to some combination of its host’s continuing attempts to redefine her role in the cultural conversation, its employment of politically astute booker-producers, and some kind of rupture in the space-time continuum–features as its guests…Ben Smith and Jonathan Martin. Yes, the Politico bloggers. Which, just…there […]

Earlier today, on Campaign Desk, I posted an assessment of an article by The New York Times‘s Jeff Zeleny–an article that does, I think, a great job of reporting on the Obama campaign’s economic-messaging strategy. Well, just wanted to add to the props-giving: Another NYT piece, this one by Michael Cooper, does a similarly commendable […]

Or, how to take the "er" out of "strategery"

Perusing the Times today, I came across this sad little headline: “Supreme Court’s Global Influence Is Waning.” Yeah. Not only is our executive branch wallowing in lame duck-hood and our legislative branch often stalled in partisan gridlock–now, it seems, we’ve gone and made our declining influence into a hat trick. The judicial branch? Lame. In […]

Focusing on the Fiorina gaffe wastes everyone’s time

The New York Post is reporting that another major paper is in danger of demise. This time, it’s the Star-Ledger, New Jersey’s largest daily. Sigh. The paper’s owners, the Newhouse family, according to Keith Kelly, “will issue notices to all employees later this week saying that the paper will be sold or – failing that […]

The TrooperGate story isn’t partisan. Let’s stop treating it that way.

Remember Passport-Gate? That tense moment in which the media were fixated on the fact that Barack Obama’s—and Hillary Clinton’s!—and John McCain’s!!!—passport files had been hacked into? You’d be forgiven if you don’t. After all, the whole scandal—from Breaking News Item #1 to Breaking News Item #5—played out in, basically, one evening. One hyped-up, nervous, melodramatic […]

In the great state of Ohio, early voting in the presidential election is set to begin on September 30. (No, not a typo: September 30. Exactly two weeks from today.) In light of that fact, and in light of the fact that, “while the national electoral terrain appears to be broader than it was in […]

It’s a hopeful headline. Will it prove accurate?