Nate Silver charts 2012 contenders, puts Pawlenty in the middle

Nate Silver of the New York Times’ FiveThirtyEight graphed the potential 2012 presidential contenders based on their insider/outsider status and their position on a moderate-to-conservative scale. Not surprisingly, Rep. Michele Bachmann took the conservative extreme. Tim Pawlenty, on the other hand, was rated smack in the middle of the More…

Joe Sestak, Comeback Kid?

Can Rep. Joe Sestak (D-Pa.) make two improbable comebacks in one election season? Some internal polls released last week indicated that he was closing the gap considerably in his race to catch former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), but they were quickly dismissed by pundits who pointed to a More…

Are Third-Party Presidential Bids a Pipe Dream?

Third-party candidates face dizzyingly steep odds of ever claiming the presidency, which accounts in part for all the criticism that was unleashed on Thomas Friedman’s Sunday column that half-pined for and half-predicted that a serious outside challenger would emerge in 2012. But FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver, known for More…

Redistricting Looms Over GOP Efforts to Take Back Statehouses

With midterms fast approaching, most eyes are trained towards Congress and the question of which party will grab a majority of seats. But, as the New York Times points out today, the battle for statehouses around the country may have a far greater lasting effect.

That’s because Republicans, if More…

The Neverending Mosque Debate

President Obama’s comments on Friday and Saturday concerning the right of what’s now commonly referred to as the “Ground Zero Mosque” to break earth in downtown Manhattan continue to drive the day. Anyone who’s anyone has staked out an opinion on the matter, with the exception of some congressional Democrats More…

Marriage Equality’s Long March

Gay marriage advocates may have lost a number of battles at the ballot box this past year, but it appears they’re winning the war.

The Fall of Strategic Vision

Mark Blumenthal has delved back into one of the year’s political mysteries: What happened to Strategic Vision, the Republican-leaning polling company that seemed to freeze up after being criticized by 538.com blogger Nate Silver? It’s a must-read, especially for the role of an anonymous source who blew the whistle More…

Specter Reconsidering His Position on OLC Nominee Dawn Johnsen

Earlier this year when Arlen Specter was still a Republican, the Pennsylvania senator was among the harshest critics of Dawn Johnsen, the Indiana University law professor who is President Obama’s pick to head the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

The OLC is the office that housed such More…

Another Republican Breathes Life Into Climate Bill

It’s hard to dispute the game-changing nature of the joint New York Times op-ed by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and John Kerry (D-Mass.) in favor of climate legislation this past weekend, which brought the chances of a truly bipartisan bill from near zero to, well, somewhere much higher. Not More…

Franken Now the Slight Favorite in Minnesota?

Following up on Chris Steller’s elucidation of the Senate recount in Minnesota that’s left most pundits scratching their heads, several new reports show Al Franken might be the slight favorite to take the seat.

Yesterday, Talking Points Memo reported that the Franken campaign’s numbers show the Democratic candidate More…