There's continued buzz about the New
York Daily News item that reported The Donald will likely ditch his undeclared shot at a Reform candidacy within the next two weeks. This,
despite the fact that Trump unveiled a health care plan Monday that, among other things,
would give health care vouchers to the unemployed.
Gore claims he's the comeback kid
In the run up to South Carolina and
Fat Tuesday, all the candidates are playing not-so-subtle positioning games. Suddenly, George W. Bush is calling himself a "reformer with results," while Al
Gore has become "the comeback kid."
Bradley part of the vast right-wing conspiracy?
Ever since New Hampshire, the subject of vendetta politics has preoccupied columnists, journalists
and the politicians themselves. Joe Conason thinks that
Bill Bradley is running against Al Gore because he hates Bill Clinton. A
spokeswoman for the South Carolina Democratic party said that some party members
may have voted to cancel the party's primary there simply to "screw Bush over."
Then
there's Steve Forbes who, many party stalwarts claim, is a spoiler just by
staying in the race.
Bush, McCain square off
Bush and John McCain are trading accusations of
negative campaign tactics, particularly through the use of the "push poll" when a campaign smears a candidate through telephone calls under the guise of giving a voter poll. The
level of discourse has declined accordingly. McCain spokesman Howard Opinsky was
quoted as saying, "Like pornography, you know a push poll when you see one."
Media tilted toward McCain
According to Hotline, Rush Limbaugh is calling people who disagree with his criticisms of McCain "Whining
McCainiacs." Limbaugh is also quoted in the Arizona Republic
as saying "The media's orgasm over [McCains]
victory in New Hampshire is frightening, absolutely frightening." The Chicago
Tribune's Jim Warren has dubbed reporters covering McCain "POAs -- Prisoners of
Access."
The media valentines don't stop there. Time,
Newsweek, U.S. News and The Economist all give John McCain the cover
slot for their Valentines Day issues.
Hillarys name recognition
A Salon editor noticed that the
Associated Press has stopped referring to Hillary Rodham Clinton as Mrs. Clinton on second reference, and now refers to her as "Clinton."
Which candidate has 150 arrests?
According to the Associated Press, Joseph Oliverio, a candidate in West Virginia's gubernatorial race, announced Monday that he had been arrested 150 times for fighting, received 60 speeding tickets, "inhaled,"
abused alcohol and lost his driver's license. Oliverio contends that his
scrapes with the law have "made me a stronger person," and doesn't feel that he
has anything to hide. "I may be embarrassed by some of the stuff I have done.
I've never done anything terrible. I never raped. I never murdered. I never had
children out of wedlock. I've been married for 20 years."
Quotable
"And the message that got out, and they say by mistake -- and
sometimes, if you read Freud, that can be the most powerful message -- the
message that got out by mistake is 'Let's say yes to drugs.'"
New York Mayor Rudy
Giuliani, on why Billy Joel's "Captain Jack" was played at the event where Hillary
Clinton's announced her senate campaign.
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