Slate.com‘s John Dickerson has an article on the recent controversy at Iowa’s Grinnell College, where presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s staff directed students as to what questions to ask.
From the Grinnell Scarlet and Black Student Newspaper:
After her speech, Clinton accepted questions. But according to Grinnell College student Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff ’10, some of the questions from the audience were planned in advance. “They were canned,” she said. Before the event began, a Clinton staff member approached Gallo-Chasanoff to ask a specific question after Clinton’s speech. “One of the senior staffers told me what [to ask],” she said.
While this is a fairly common practice among politicians (see: President Bush), Dickerson gives a great indictment of why it’s a serious problem.
Former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee appears to have the market cornered on random-but-awesome celebrity endorsements. He recently securing the endorsement of “Walker, Texas Ranger” megastar / phenomenon / indestructible karate master Chuck Norris (which may also help him capture the coveted “Wilford Brimley” demographic), and made this mind-boggling T.V. ad:
The night included questions about which candidate hates taxes the most, which candidate hates immigrants the most (hint: it’s Tancredo), and which candidate loves guns the most (another hint: it’s not Giuliani). I’m sure Duncan Hunter also said some stuff.
The debate also included a surprising number of personal attacks, spread out between all of the relevant candidates (Romney, Giuliani, Huckabee, Thompson, and McCain). The most interesting moment of the night was a spat between Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani over which one of them was the most complicit in hiring illegal immigrants.
While Democratic candidates have recently been dropping like sorority girls at pledge night (zing!), it appears that the lefties finally have a true frontrunner in every college kid’s favorite candidate, Barack Obama. The race looked a lot closer after Hillary Clinton won the New Hampshire primary a few weeks ago, but Obama’s convincing, 28-point victory in South Carolina, despite Bill and Hillary’s best efforts, clearly puts him back on top in the Democratic race.
The Republican race is still much closer, with John McCain as the tentative frontrunner, although Giuliani’s strategy of campaigning in only one state for the duration of the primaries appears to be making him decreasingly relevant as a candidate (great idea, Rudy).
In other news, Ron Paul still may or may not be crazy.
The presidential race continues to get tighter, with two more major candidates dropping out over the past two days. On the Democratic side, Clinton/Obama third wheel John Edwards conceded defeat after failing to make a real dent in the primaries. It could have been because he seemed fake even when being sincere, or because of his campaign’s focus on poverty while he received $400 haircuts.
Former Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani also dropped out after finishing tied for third in Florida. Again, this is what happens when you campaign in only one state.
MSNBC became relevant for a little while after one of its pundits on Tucker Carlson’s show implied that Hillary Clinton was ”pimping out” her daughter Chelsea on behalf of her campaign. (cue outrage from liberal uber-blog Huffington Post here). Clinton’s campaign called these comments ”beneath contempt,” and threatened to pull out of any future debates on the channel because of them.
While there might have been some overreaction to these comments (as there inevitably will be in the news-media, especially of the 24-hour variety), it does seem somewhat unfair, and that people wouldn’t talk this way about any other candidate’s children. Cut Hillary some slack?
Following some disappointing Super Tuesday results, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney dropped out of the race for the Republican nomination, leaving John McCain as the very likely candidate for the GOP in November.
Romney looked really good on paper, being successful in pretty much everything he’s done. He’s super rich, he was a well-liked Republican governor in the bluest state in the union, and he even succeeded in bringing the Olympics, the biggest celebration of diversity on the planet, to Salt Lake City, Utah. So why’d he lose?
Last year’s Wake Forest graduation speaker David Brooks says it’s because he was an orthodox Republican in an unorthodox election year. Newsweek’s Howard Fineman says it’s because Romney was a fake. Slate says it’s because Republican voters just didn’t like him. The Boston Globe implies that it was because the GOP’s Evangelical base wouldn’t vote for a Mormon.
On second thought, maybe Mitt wasn’t such a strong candidate on paper.
Slate.com‘s John Dickerson has an article on the recent controversy at Iowa’s Grinnell College, where presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s staff directed students as to what questions to ask.
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Last night’s 
