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Inside the 2012 Super PACs
Tweet Share on Facebook December 7, 2012 CommentCAMBRIDGE, MASS.—The so-called "super PACs" had quite a year. They were initially painted as the Bond villains of the 2012 campaign: mysterious figures with apparently unlimited resources determined to dominate the political world. Then after the election they were written off in some quarters as political wastrels, burning through enormous sums of money without apparent return. To hear the masters of the super PAC universe tell it last week however, neither descriptive applied.
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Herman Cain's Campaign Says It Knew of Sexual Harassment Charges
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2012 CommentCAMBRIDGE, MASS.—As Herman Cain's improbable presidential campaign imploded a year ago over allegations of sexual harassment when he was head of the National Restaurant Association, one question that lingered was why his team wasn't better prepared to deal with the charges. Did they not know what was in his past? They did, it turns out, they just didn't think it would matter.
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Rick Perry Miscalculated Timing of GOP Race
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2012 CommentCAMBRIDGE, MASS.—Texas Gov. Rick Perry either should have gotten into the 2012 presidential race much sooner or much later, his top strategist said last week.
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Farewell, Dave Brubeck
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2012 CommentSeveral years and a few jobs ago—way back in the early '00s—my boss called me into his office and asked if I had any interest in tickets he couldn't use to see the Dave Brubeck Quartet perform at George Washington University. I expressed amazement that Dave Brubeck was still alive—and then eagerly snatched up the tickets.
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Ron Paul and Mitt Romney Really Didn’t Have a Primary Alliance
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2012 CommentCAMBRIDGE, MASS.—Really, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney did not have an alliance during the 2012 Republican presidential primaries. That was the word from both camps last week at a campaign 2012 postmortem at the Institute of Politics at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.
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How the Obama Campaign Sabotaged Romney in the 2012 GOP Primary
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2012 CommentCAMBRIDGE, MASS.—During the prolonged 2008 Democratic primary between then Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Rush Limbaugh gleefully launched "Operation Chaos" encouraging Republicans to vote in the Democratic primary in order to extend what was assumed to be a harmful race for the Democrats. Four years later Obama's team decided to inject a little chaos of its own into the Republican presidential primary.
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Behind the Scenes in the Obama-Romney Campaign
Tweet Share on Facebook December 5, 2012 CommentCAMBRIDGE, MASS.—For all the talk over the past year of the unfathomable expense of the 2012 presidential election, the two campaigns were painfully aware of the finitude of their financial resources. And that led to a key strategic split between the two campaigns: Was it better to spend early or husband resources for the final push? The Obama campaign made a $65 million bet on going early, and it paid off.
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White House Petitioned for a Death Star
Tweet Share on Facebook December 3, 2012 CommentI've written previously about some of the wacky petitions that are cropping up on the White House's "We the People" website but I came across one today which should really get bipartisan support as a massive government jobs program which liberals could love while also appealing to prodefense conservatives. I refer, of course, to the petition demanding that the United States start construction of a Star Wars Death Star by 2016.
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No, Obama Didn’t Win Because of Massive Voter Fraud
Tweet Share on Facebook November 21, 2012 CommentDo you remember Dean Chambers? He was the mastermind behind the website that tried to "unskew" presidential polls which, he and his allies argued, too heavily favored President Obama and so didn't reflect the state of the election. When the real world got the chance to weigh in and sided decisively with the "skewed" polls, Chambers got credit in some parts for acceding to reality. My how a couple of weeks can change things. Chambers has launched a new website devoted to proving (or "proving") that Obama in fact won because of voter fraud (h/t TPM). It's called barackofraudo.com (Barack O'Fraudo … because the president is Irish, or something) but it would more properly be titled unskewedreality.com.
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Ron Paul Is Wrong, Secession Is Not a 'Deeply American Principle'
Tweet Share on Facebook November 20, 2012 CommentTexas Rep. Ron Paul is deeply wrong when he says that secession is a "deeply American principle."
During the freak-show circus that was the 2012 Republican primary process, Paul attained a kooky uncle sort of charm—he was an oddball among an underwhelming collection of loons and shysters, but he did it all with a bemused grin. That distinguished him from the rest who were busy competing to see who could generate the most foam at the mouth over their apoplectic disdain for President Obama. So Paul's comments yesterday about secession-chic are a useful reminder that he leaves politics the same way he practiced it—not as a charming gadfly but a crank.
