Informed Speculation

You can’t live in the Texas Hill Country and not appreciate the legacy of the widow of Lyndon Baines Johnson.  Lady Bird, who died today at the age of 94, was almost as big a figure in this area as her husband, and she left one gift for posterity that is evident every time you [...]

It really is hard to avoid the impression that McCain is just about done: The once-promising presidential prospects of Republican Sen. John McCain suffered another blow on Tuesday, as two top advisers departed a campaign that has struggled with lagging poll numbers, lackluster fundraising, close identification with an unpopular war and a clash with his [...]

…if your last name is Giuliani or Clinton, as Rudy and Hillary have maintained their national leads: • In the race for the Republican presidential nomination, former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani has a 10 percentage point lead nationally over former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., maintains his place in third. [...]

…provided the definition of some is ‘none’, Chuck Hagel is dropping out, kind of: Don’t count on the possibility that Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., might run for president next year as an independent. In May, Hagel said people might want to consider an independent ticket that paired the senator with New York City Mayor Michael [...]

…and perhaps more than that. If this article in the L.A. Times is to be believed, and it appears pretty authoritative, Fred Thompson not only lobbied against the abortion ‘gag rule’ at clinics that receive federal funding, he is lying about it now: Fred D. Thompson, who is campaigning for president as an antiabortion Republican, [...]

#1. When all stories about you refer to your ‘former’ frontrunner status… #2. When the legislation you are most identified with in recent memory coincides with the most hated legislation of your base… #3. When Ron Paul (Ron Freakin’ Paul!) has more cash on hand than you do… …then it’s safe to say you’re in [...]

There has been a consistent belief (or at least, a fond wish) among many Democrats who are either outright opposed to Hillary Clinton or afraid that she is unelectable that Al Gore would come riding in to save the day (it should be noted that many of these same Democrats, while sympathetic to John Edwards, [...]

No words can explain the day more than these: When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of [...]

From the Giuliani campaign: The Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee reported today it has outraised every other Republican campaign and has over $18 million cash on hand. The campaign raised over $17 million in the second quarter, for both the primary and general election, and ended the quarter with zero debt. Romney was a close second, [...]

It’s official: Scooter Libby will not go to prison. President Bush today commuted the prison sentence of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Cheney’s former chief of staff, sparing him the 30-month term to which he was sentenced last month for lying to federal investigators about his role in the White House leak of a [...]

…while Edwards whiffs, despite his team’s best efforts at the spin game: Aides to Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said today that their campaign’s strategy of aggressively cultivating small donors was the key to meeting their $9 million second-quarter fundraising goal. But with Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, expected to raise about triple [...]