The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

The Recklessness of Joe McGinniss

Having already discussed his unspeakably vile “Jungle Fever” smear on Sarah Palin, now we learn — via Ace of Spades — that McGinniss expended considerable effort pursuing a story that depicted her father Chuck Heath as having created “a lynch mob mentality.” Rob Port at Say Anything was contacted by McGinniss because Port’s father was […]

‘Fired Up’ for Palin?

One of the great things about being both a blogger and a journalist is the opportunity to recycle what I’ve previously blogged for a different readership, as in my Tuesday column for The American Spectator: The dismissive sneers of Palin’s detractors were, quite literally, front-page news in the local press. “You tend to get a sense […]

A Special Kind of Stupid

The New York Times has a story about how major news organizations are assigning kids right out of college to cover the presidential campaign: For decades, campaign buses were populated by hotshots, some of whom covered politics for decades, from Walter Mears to David S. Broder to Jules Witcover. It was a glamorous club, captured […]

Hard Times Spreading Just Like the Flu …

. . . Watch out, homeboy, don’t let it catch you: In the occasionally prickly world of media reporting, it’s hard to find anyone who does not love, respect and, yes, slightly fear Jack Shafer. So widespread is the love that American Journalism Review published a valentine to him earlier today, devoting 2,500 words to figuring […]

He Only Steals From the Best

NEWTON, Iowa When I showed up at the state capitol Tuesday for the Tim Pawlenty event, T-Paw had already split the scene and I found myself talking to Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle, who explained that Pawlenty had avoided reporters’ questions while making his early exit. Joe and I started talking about the […]

Mitt-Mania In Des Moines

Gwen Ifill and Charlie Cook talk to each other while David Weigel talks to Iowa Republicans at Wednesday’s Polk County GOP fundraiser. NEWTON, Iowa One of the things that gets lost in all the horse-race coverage of a political campaign — who’s up? who’s down? — is the sense of what a campaign actually looks […]

The Cain Train Keeps Rolling

Herman Cain speaks at Monday’s rally in Council Bluffs. Last night there was no time to blog about the late-afternoon Herman Cain rally at Bayliss Park in Council Bluffs. Dave Weigel, who had been there for Michele Bachmann’s earlier event, said Cain actually drew a slightly larger crowd than Bachmann. But I didn’t have time […]

Santorum’s Hope

From my American Spectator column today: SIOUX CITY, Iowa — Perhaps 50 voters showed up Saturday for a campaign event held in a barn on a dirt road amid cornfields near Roland, about 20 miles north of Ames. While a few dozen voters isn’t much of a crowd by Republican presidential campaign standards, the audience […]

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