Thousands Switch Parties: Is There A Primary Reason?
Thousands Switch Parties: Is There A Primary Reason?
Posted: 01 Jan 2008 10:20 AM CSTTampa Tribune
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Sunday, December 30, 2007
The Battle For New Hampshire
Posted: 29 Dec 2007 06:33 AM CST
Things took a nasty turn yesterday between Mitt Romney and John McCain in the battle for
RCP Update
Obama Transcends Racial Confinements Posted: 30 Dec 2007 12:00 AM CST |
World Conflicts Should Weigh On Voters' Minds Posted: 30 Dec 2007 12:00 AM CST |
Posted: 30 Dec 2007 12:00 AM CST |
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 10:26 PM CST LOWRY: Welcome back to HANNITY AND COLMES. I'm Rich Lowry, siting in for Sean Hannity tonight. Joining us now is GOP presidential hopeful John McCain. Senator, thanks for being with us.... |
Breaking Down The Closing Arguments Posted: 28 Dec 2007 10:23 PM CST (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JAVED IQBAL CHEEMA, PAKISTAN INTERIOR MINISTRY SPOKESMAN: There is no external body inside |
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Criticism Aside, 'FairTax' Boosts Huckabee Campaign
Criticism Aside, 'FairTax' Boosts Huckabee Campaign
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 10:31 AM CST
Fred On Air - For Now
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 01:19 PM CST
The Thompson campaign announced it has raised enough money to get on air in Iowa, though it's not clear for exactly how long they'll be able to keep this ad running:...
A One Way Conversation
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 08:46 AM CST
Peter Nicholas of the LA Times reports that Hillary isn't taking any questions on her final "Time to Pick a President" tour of
The Daily 2008
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 08:30 AM CST
On this day in 1856 Woodrow Wilson is born in
Ad War: Romney vs. McCain
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 07:32 AM CST
The ad war between Mitt Romney and John McCain is heating up in
Chatter in the Blogosphere
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 07:02 AM CST
2008 is just around the corner, and
Bhutto, what are they saying now?
What the newspapers are saying about Bhutto
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 07:31 AM CST
Yesterday we heard statements from the presidential candidates on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the former prime minister of
Friday, December 28, 2007
Today's RCP Articles
Republican Race Twists & Turns Even Before Bhutto Assassination
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 12:52 AM CST
Even before the death of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on Thursday, there were signs of continued churning in the GOP race, with Arizona Senator John McCain pulling even with and ahead of...
The Legacy of Benazir Bhutto
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 12:50 AM CST
AVON, Colo. -- Try to imagine a young Pakistani woman bounding into the newsroom of the Harvard Crimson in the early 1970s and banging out stories about college sports teams with the passion of a cub...
When an Assassin Succeeds
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 12:41 AM CST
The roll call of U.S. allies in the Middle East and its neighborhood has always read like a target list: Maliki, Karzai, Sistani, Musharraf. One bullet or one suicide blast could wipe out all our...
A Crisis Intrudes On Iowa
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 12:40 AM CST
DES MOINES, Iowa -- The assassination of Benazir Bhutto came as a brutal reminder of the gravity of the decision Iowa's voters will be rendering in their caucuses next Thursday night. Its impact may...
What the Campaign Vets Are Saying
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 12:36 AM CST
LOS ANGELES -- At Christmas dinner at my friend Lynne's, the talk was politics. What else? Scattered around the room were veterans of more campaigns than anyone wanted to count, and the best news,...
Obama & the Burden of Liberalism
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 12:33 AM CST
"If you want conventional Washington thinking, I'm not your man. If you want rigid ideology, I'm not your man. If you think that fundamental change can wait, I'm definitely not your man. But if you...
The Real World Intrudes
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 12:25 AM CST
The next to last assassination attempt on Benazir Bhutto came on Dec. 13, when a man in the crowd got the former prime minister's attention. He was holding a 1-year-old baby -- Bhutto said later she...
Annus Horribilis Ahead?
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 12:20 AM CST
With the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8, and the Iowa caucuses dead ahead, the nominees of both parties may be known in two weeks. Surely, after Feb. 5, when a slew of primaries are held, both races...
My 'Persons of the Year'
Posted: 28 Dec 2007 12:20 AM CST
WASHINGTON -- While I was in Fallujah, Iraq, embedded with a U.S. Special Operations Command Task Force, Time magazine gave Russian President -- and soon to be Prime Minister (and long to be ruler)...
Iowa And New Hampshire: Same Old, Same Old
Posted: 27 Dec 2007 09:00 AM CST
One definition of crazy is to keep doing diligently the same thing over and over when it's not working. By that definition America's presidential primary system is seriously loony, for with respect...
How McCain Wins
Posted: 27 Dec 2007 08:11 AM CST
If you've been watching the news or reading the paper in the past couple days, you're sure to have noticed a new tone emerging when reporters and pundits discuss John McCain. "He can win", "McCain...
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Mitt v. McCain, McCain v. Mitt, and on and on
by Jill Zuckman
Henniker, N.H. – What if you went to a popular New Hampshire spot and couldn't find anyone who actually votes in the state?
That's what happened to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney Wednesday when he visited Pat's Peak, a popular ski area where he says he taught his five sons to ski. The place was packed with children, a.k.a non-voters, as well as vacationers from places such as Ireland, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Israel and Canada, a.k.a. non-New Hampshire voters.
But perhaps the real point of his visit was to level a couple zingers at Sen. John McCain, his closest rival in the New Hampshire primary. Romney said it is "totally appropriate" to "compare and contrast" the candidates' positions before criticizing McCain on illegal immigration and taxes. He also accused McCain of sending a mailer to voters that attacked him personally.
The back and forth between the two campaigns and the dissecting of comments went long past the Pat's Peak visit and into the night. Let's review the bidding.
Romney launched the first salvo, saying that McCain was "wrong to say all illegal aliens can stay here permanently" and "he was wrong to vote against the Bush tax cuts."
McCain mocked Romney, saying his campaign is in a "tailspin," and called his attacks "desperate, flailing and false."
Full Story: http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2007/12/mitt_v_mccain_mccain_v_mitt_an.html
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
2008 Presidential Race in crunch time
| Iowa Races Entering the Home Stretch Posted: 26 Dec 2007 10:59 AM CST Los Angeles Times |
| Mitt, Huckabee Present Stark Choice for Iowans Posted: 26 Dec 2007 10:56 AM CST Wall Street Journal |
| Courting Students, And Hoping They'll Cast Votes Posted: 26 Dec 2007 10:52 AM CST Washington Post |
| Edwards Gets Demerits for Tardiness on the Trail Posted: 26 Dec 2007 10:50 AM CST New York Times |
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
A Web Troll's Toll on the Clinton Campaign
By T.W. FARNAM
December 24, 2007; Page A6
FORT MITCHELL, Ky. -- In Norse mythology, trolls steal babies and leave their own shape-shifting offspring behind. On the Internet, they just steal attention.
As candidates increasingly use the Internet to build political bridges, their message boards have become homes for trolls, users of an online community who leave messages that are ideologically opposed, off-topic or off-color.
| WSJ's Timothy Farnam delves into the furtive life of an Internet troll. He meets Brian O'Neill, a 33-year-old student at Northern Kentucky University, who posts anti-Clinton comments and links on the candidate's campaign website. |
Brian O'Neill, a 33-year-old part-time bartender and full-time college student, has been marauding on Sen. Hillary Clinton's Web site for the past few months, even though his posts attacking the candidate are frequently scrubbed from the site within hours. Mr. O'Neill turned to Mrs. Clinton's site after being booted from online forums of former Sen. John Edwards, Sen. Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee.
Although Mr. O'Neill says he isn't familiar with the term "troll," he has been labeled as one -- and not just once. "I thought they were calling me like the, you know, little garden trolls," Mr. O'Neill says, "and I'm, like, 'I'm not a garden item.' "
Mr. O'Neill, who lives in this small town outside Cincinnati, has a "special blogging place" two levels underground at the library on the campus of Northern Kentucky University in nearby Highland Heights. On a break between classes, he sits down at a bank of computers in the back corner of the stacks, places his large cup of nutmeg-seasoned French roast coffee on the table and logs on.
While many of the students browse the social-networking site MySpace, Mr. O'Neill gets right to work posting an unfavorable article from the online Drudge Report to a bulletin board on Mrs. Clinton's site. He keeps looking for disparaging news before finding a link to her personal financial disclosure filing. He adjusts his chair and leans in toward the screen, muttering, "Let's get me some dirt." Grabbing a piece of unlined copier paper left on the desk next to him, he begins scribbling notes about her stock holdings for his next raid.
Mr. O'Neill is hardly alone. Although the number of trolls can't be measured, they regularly haunt online political sites, which have mushroomed in recent years. Technorati, which follows blogging trends, now tracks 40,000 English-language politics blogs. "The ability of trolls to gain attention, to secure an audience, if ever briefly, is much greater than before," says Derek Gordon, a former vice president at the company.
TROLLS ON THE LOOSE
Who they are: "Trolls" disrupt Internet message boards with postings that are ideologically opposed, off-topic or off-color.
Counteroffensives: Many sites fight trolls by banning them, but they often return by setting up new accounts. Mainly, it's a matter of policing the posts and yanking offensive ones.
Mushrooming: Although the number of trolls can't be measured, they have proliferated along with political blogs.
Sites try various weapons to combat trolls. Campaign trolls popped up en masse in 2004 on Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean's Web site. Dean supporters batted them back with a "troll goal," donating money to the campaign's coffers each time they spotted an offending post. The supporters crowed about each sighting, eliminating the trolls' incentive to disrupt.
Most campaigns and individual bloggers invite readers to report offensive comments, and others approve each comment before it appears. At the liberal discussion Web site Daily Kos, "trusted users" can block people whose comments regularly offend members.
Daily Kos has another tactic: the recipe. When a troll attempts to start a conversation at that site, loyalists post recipes instead of engaging them. With so many trolls, the recipes have proliferated -- enough so that Daily Kos compiled a 144-page "Trollhouse Cookbook," including crab bisque inspired by President Bush's second inauguration and "Liberal Elite Cranberry Glazed Brie."
While that approach seems comical, the problem is real. Michael Lazzaro, a Daily Kos contributing editor who goes by "Hunter," says about 10 people are banned each week, but many return by setting up new accounts. One person, easily identified by his writing, has opened more than 100 accounts since 2005, he says. "He basically comments for awhile really nicely and then out of the blue he'll start ranting about women or Jews or something like that," Mr. Lazzaro says.
The Clinton campaign simply yanks the posts of Mr. O'Neill and others. "We have very clear-cut terms of service that we ask people to read before posting to the site," says Peter Daou, the Clinton campaign's Internet director. The terms of service prohibit content that is "harmful" or "defamatory," among other things, and lets the campaign delete comments for any reason. Mr. Daou declined to comment on Mr. O'Neill's posts or the extent of the abuse at the site.
Readers on the Clinton site often take measures into their own hands. "Its nice to see you here on Hillary's sight, [sic]" one wrote to Mr. O'Neill. "It shows your fear that Hillary can win."
![[Brian O'Neill]](http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/HC-GL189_ONeill_20071219230122.jpg)
Mr. O'Neill, who goes by the handle "thepoliticalguy," doesn't let the comments get him down. "If they think I'm a troll, then so be it," he says, before immediately rejecting this premise. "It's wrong! It's wrong! Where's the freedom of ideas?" He pounds the table. "If you're on a site and you're just agreeing with each other all day, where's the argument?"
Mr. O'Neill has lived in northern Kentucky since he was 6, save for a few years spent in the Army. He worked 12-hour shifts for seven years, he says, keeping baggage flowing underneath the Cincinnati airport.
He returned to college three years ago, where he started to follow domestic politics with newfound zeal. "It's the arguments," he says. "I love to argue."
When he returns to his one-bedroom apartment, Mr. O'Neill flips on the computer and checks Mrs. Clinton's Web site. His comment on her stock portfolio is already gone. His brief disappointment gives way almost immediately to elation. "Wait a second!" he says, jumping to his feet, "I still have the little piece of paper." He retrieves the notes from his backpack near the door. "We'll just rewrite it."
He re crafts the post, and titles it "Hillary Clinton, the Oil, War and Fox News Profiteer." He lists Mrs. Clinton's ownership in BP PLC, Chevron Corp., Boeing Co. and News Corp., despite the fact that the candidate and her husband liquidated their blind trust in April to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest. "So the truth comes out," Mr. O'Neill concludes, "if she is elected, looks like we may spent a couple more years in Iraq, so someone can make more money on there stock dividends and guess what, its not Bush."
Mr. O'Neill's comment is back on the Clinton site in 20 minutes. And off again.
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