Informed Speculation

Brownback’s out: Republican Sam Brownback will drop out of the 2008 presidential campaign on Friday, people close to the Kansas senator said Thursday. Brownback, a long-shot conservative contender, had trouble raising money to compete in the race. He is expected announce his withdrawal in Topeka, Kan.  He raised a little more than $800,000 in the [...]

Delayed because of a malfunction…Romney will, of course, win…the real question is how poorly Guiliani will do (or is he even eligible to get votes? I forget how these things work, that’s how much stock I put into ‘straw polls’ – though this piece says his name will be on the ballot), and how well [...]

Anybody else getting debated out yet? First, a quick aside: will Bush pardon Libby? Absolutely – bet the farm on it… But back to the debate. Here goes… Question selection: absolutely terrible. How often must Giuliani be asked about abortion, and was immigration worthy of 60% of the debate time? Maybe to some of you, [...]

Well, first of all, let’s skip the grading this time, in favor of some comments: Rudy won this one.  He was clear and honest on abortion, he didn’t hesitate; he was (rightfully) indignant when Ron Paul endorsed the Ward Churchill theory of 9/11; he stood up for his innate conservatism in the face of personal [...]

Hmmm…well, I wasn’t very satisfied with what I saw tonight.  Many candidates put on a face that I think is frankly unappealing to large parts of the country.  I hope we put the desire to elevate abortion and immigration into the main issues of the day behind us before the general election, or we shall [...]

…, this time from Gallup, shows Thompson in an even stronger debut than the Zogby poll we highlighted earlier: On the Republican side, former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson shook up the field when he said he would consider getting into the presidential race. These days, Thompson is familiar as the actor who plays District Attorney [...]

…while Rudy Giuliani remains the public favorite for the GOP: On the day that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton officially entered the 2008 presidential sweepstakes, a new Washington Post-ABC News survey shows her with a wide lead over her potential Democratic rivals. Clinton took 41 percent in a hypothetical primary field against 12 other Democrats, far ahead of [...]

It sure seems an awful lot of people decided to bury their campaign announcements under the Hillary juggernaut: add Brownback to the list of those politicians who apparently don’t understand the concept of ‘timing’. On a day when the political world was consumed with Hillary Clinton, Republican Senator Sam Brownback made his official foray into [...]

Social conservatives afraid of being forced to vote for Rudy or McCain in the primaries (or just stay home) can relax: they’ve got a dog in the hunt after all: Sen. Sam Brownback, a Kansas Republican and favorite son of the religious right, will officially enter the presidential race later this month in his home [...]