The New Republic

Apropos of my post yesterday on electability, Mark Blumenthal of Pollster.com had an interesting post about this a few weeks back. His conclusion: Electability is mostly a function of a candidate's experience (or at least perceptions of it) and how they're faring in campaign coverage (which is often a function of national polls). READ MORE >>

Just another quick point about that Washington Post/ABC poll out yesterday, which shows John McCain up seven points since late September. It's telling, I think, that white evangelicals are at the forefront of the McCain resurgence. Here's how the GOP candidates are doing among evangelicals (this is not actually posted online): READ MORE >>

One of the little-foreseen consequences of the Internet era is the decline of an august institution called the spin room, the place to which campaign aides run after each presidential debate to talk up their boss's performance. There was a time, not too long ago, when the typical spin room looked like the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on a day that the Dow was in freefall. But, with campaigns now mostly engaging in e-mail combat, and with reporters rushing to post instant wrap-ups on their websites, there's little appetite READ MORE >>

The latest Washington Post/ABC poll finds that Hillary has a 62-15-14 lead over Obama and Edwards among Democratic voters on the question of who has the best chance of being elected president. That's up from 57-16-20 in late September and 43-21-26 in June. It's worth pointing out, as the rival campaigns will tell you, that electability numbers often closely reflect a candidate's overall standing in the polls. READ MORE >>

Just a quick thought about that Obama "Saturday Night Live" appearance you've no doubt seen by now. The obvious punchline is that Obama is comfortable enough in his own skin to show up to a Halloween party as himself, as opposed to Hillary, who is constantly rooting around for a winning persona. "I'm not going to change who I am just because it's Halloween," Obama says. READ MORE >>

The sharp-eyed Ben Smith observes that Obama has become much more explicitly anti-Bush on the campaign trail lately, most notably in his speech in South Carolina this weekend. I agree, and think it's long overdue. READ MORE >>

The big question heading into tonight’s debate was how aggressively would Barack Obama and John Edwards hammer Hillary Clinton’s character, which recent internal-polling suggests is her greatest vulnerability. The answer was: very aggressively. Obama and Edwards spent much of the evening firing away at Clinton’s honesty and trustworthiness. And, yet, in a way, the debate seemed less about Obama and Edwards versus Clinton than Obama versus Edwards, with Clinton as a bystander. READ MORE >>

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Pretty much everything you needed to know about tonight's GOP debate--and much of what you need to know about the GOP race--happened in the first 15 or 20 minutes. That's when Fox News correspondent Chris Wallace invited each of the leading candidates to attack their rivals--and the candidates took him up on it. READ MORE >>

This afternoon's Republican debate in Dearborn, Michigan went pretty much the way the entire campaign has gone lately: A lot of hype about Fred Thompson, but ultimately a contest between Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. READ MORE >>