The Kicker

Yes, we hear there is serious news to be found at these conventions. But there’s also ample opportunity for the biggie political pressters to get face-time and build a little name-rec with their journalism colleagues, and the politicos who love them. To that end, Campaign Desk is inaugurating what we’re afraid will be a regular […]

Whoever labors in the least cushy conditions wins…Respect? Legitimacy? That “blue collar” vote?” Something, apparently. Pity the 38 Washington Post reporters in Denver who, Howard Kurtz reports, are working in “conditions [that] are hardly glamorous: makeshift desks in an air-conditioned tent with ill-fitting floorboards.” Soldier on, Kurtz et al, “ill-fitting floorboards” and all (just don’t […]

Ah, labels. They’re good for summing up large, complex populations with a snazzy phrase and reducing people’s lives to an anachronistic prop. Enter the lunch bucket. Since Barack Obama chose Joe Biden to be his running mate, this charming term has taken center stage. “In Biden, Obama chooses a lunch-bucket Democrat with deep foreign policy […]

Wall-to-wall cable convention coverage. It can make even Chuck Todd (MSNBC’s “goateed guru”) look less-than-sharp. During a David Shuster report on Michelle Obama getting her bearings at the convention podium (or, “Michelle Obama Walks Through Pepsi Center Just Hours Before Speech”), Todd asked: David…you can usually tell when people do these walk-throughs, they’ll go back […]

Last week, Vanity Fair polled hair stylists on Whether John McCain Has A Comb-Over (“from certain angles, it looks like a frozen waterfall, or maybe a clamp designed to keep his big angry head from bursting”) and, if so, Whether It Might Matter to Voters. Less than 24 hours after Obama named Sen. Joe Biden […]

You want to attract some reporters? Hang up a sign that says “Spin Room” or “War Room” (“Where We Help You Write Your Story Room?” “Get Your He-Said Here Room?”) The Associated Press’s Andrew Taylor reports on the Republican “war room” where “a staff of two dozen has set up shop in temporary workspace up […]

Presidential nominating conventions are eminently mock-able. (The Pomp! The Puffery! The retina-searing sea of red, white, and blue-sequined cowboy hats!) The conventions’ delegates and other participants–and those who trail them for the week in the Service of Democracy–are generally the first to admit this. In place of smog (there is none! Green City, and all!), […]

Why? Why, these conventions? Why 15,000 journalists at these conventions? What are we doing? What is this all about? This week is all about an Oprah Winfrey sighting. Thanks to MSNBC’s Courtney Hazlett for clearing that up just now.

Just received the “List of Prohibited Items for Members of the Media” from the Republican National Convention. Among the items reporters may not bring “inside the security perimeter” in St. Paul: “weapons, knives (regardless of size),” “fireworks, explosives,” “tasers, stun guns, or similar devices,” “coolers,” “knitting needles,” “strollers,” “tired narratives,” “herd mentality,” and “fixation on […]

Must every cable channel bring us convention coverage from a jam-packed restaurant? What’s the thinking here? “Authentic” backdrop complete with “Real People” (and fries)? I can barely hear Joe Scarborough — no low-talker, he — with all the background noise and bustling at Sam’s No. 3 Bar and Grill in Denver from whence Morning Joe […]

August 22, 2008 Dear Shark, We’re writing to express our gratitude for letting us jump you today. We couldn’t have produced “Going to the End of the Line” without your help, and sincerely appreciate your cooperation in the endeavor. We look forward to working with you again in the future. Perhaps on another interactive feature, […]

This morning, the front pages of The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and the LA Times—among many others—reported that the United States has agreed to remove combat troops from Iraqi cities by next June. And from the rest of the country by the end of 2011. Which means: not only […]