The Kicker

That Barack Obama is so coy. We’ve been waiting for months for the Democrats’ Intended to reveal his choice of (running) mate to the watching-and-waiting American public. And so far, you know, zilch. As we’ve been collectively plodding through one of the most drawn-out public courtships in Nominee Bachelor history (the awkward group dates! the […]

Recently The Atlantic’s James Fallows took on the laudable but unenviable task of watching all 47 of the primary debates. He arrives at some fascinating conclusions about these vaudeville inquisitions—conclusions that were hard to see when the debates machine gunned through the early part of the season. For example, take this explanation of the evolution […]

Barack "Hollywood" Obama

On the run with Steve Harrigan

Earlier this week, CJR received a nice invitation for a party on the eve of St. Paul’s Republican National Convention from the folks at the Minneapolis-based Utne Reader, or as I like to call it, the Readers’ Digest of the Left. Tucked inside a (handmade in Rwanda, of recycled materials) elephant-bedecked card is a note […]

So does some fat guy

“What always impresses me are the people who are obsessed. People who are gifted, perhaps, but people who are obsessed. And they can’t even imagine themselves doing anything other than covering the political campaign or writing about the war in Iraq or Afghanistan or, for that matter, writing fiction at the level of an Alice […]

For Radar’s September issue (excerpt online), Ana Marie Cox explains how “the press corps” really feels about Michelle Obama: Michelle seems to have intrigued the press corps as much as her husband has, albeit in a less obvious way. She is treated like a combination of a misbehaving movie star and a lottery winner: exceptionally […]

Jack Schafer bemoans the flock of “pressies” who descend on the typically newsless political conventions (“Slate, I’m embarrassed to admit, is sending a team of eight to Denver and six to St. Paul. Attention! Don Graham! We’re spending your cash like it’s Zimbabwean bank notes!”) and offers a few suggestions for how to report at […]