Political Nanny : campaign managers

Political Nanny is Moving Out ... But Not Away

Madeline Holler — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:18:00 GMT

Political Nanny has packed up the candidates' clothes, toys and night-night blankets, loaded the moving van with their position papers, teleprompters and weighty political baggage, and sent change of address notices to their aides, managers, proxies and the press pool. In other words: Political Nanny has moved!

The good news is, she hasn't gone far. Just up and over to Strollerderby, where she'll still be keeping an eye on the last three candidates in her charge and everybody else around them. Political Nanny will still be there to give out cookies, put rule-breakers in the Naughty Chair and bulk up the babes with a little formula supplement on the issues.

The new digs won't change a thing! Political Nanny is still the one who stays awake to answer the phone at 3 a.m., she's fired up and ready to go, she wants change, too. It's too soon for nanny withdrawal, this surge into Strollerderby will work -- it's already working, my friends. She's staying in this race until November! Yes she can!

So reconfigure your RSS feeds and meet her upstairs at Strollerderby. See you there!

And a sidenote to all those who wrote her with concerns: smooch! Now wipe the lipstick off your cheek and go play.

Photo: sandiegohomeblog.com

Copy Cat!

Madeline Holler — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 22:05:00 GMT

Hillary Clinton's getting scrappy. Her campaign staff called out Barack Obama on a recent speech he gave in which he defended himself against her claim that the Obamentum he has created is based on "just words."

The defense of his "just words" just happens to be someone else's words, namely Deval Patrick, Massachussetts governor. You can see the two speeches side by side.

The Clinton camp is calling Obama a copy cat and says this calls into question his candidacy.

From TPM:

The Clinton campaign argues that this act of plagiarism fundamentally, along with the current arguments about taking public financing, seriously undermine Obama's candidacy. "So if you're asking the electorate to judge you on your promises and you break them, and on your rhetoric and you lift it," argued campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson on a conference call with reporters, "there are fundamental questions that are raised about that campaign and that candidacy."

Obama said that sure, they were Patrick's words and yeah, he probably should have credited him. But Patrick, an Obama supporter, said, nahhhh, not necessary.

From AP:

"I'm happy to give Deval credit, as I give credit to a lot people for spurring all kinds of ideas," [Obama] said. "But I think that it is fair to say that everything that we've been doing in generating excitement and the interest that people have in the election is based on the core belief in me that we need change in America."

Come to think of it, Obama lifted heavily for "Yes we can" too. But it's so good, why quibble?

Voters Kick Up Dust in the Campaign Sandbox

Madeline Holler — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 22:39:00 GMT

[WITH UPDATES] By now it's clear: no candidate for president of the U.S. goes down without a fight (except, of course, if it's Fred Thompson). The latest round of caucuses and primaries kicked up more sand in the faces of Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Barack Obama and Mike Huckabee, on the other hand, make friends everywhere they go, collecting delegates like Valentines.

Here's the dirt:

[UPDATE] Once it appeared Hillary Clinton would lose Maine on Sunday, her campaign manager stepped down. The Senator's longtime BFF Maggie Williams is taking over. The weekend was nothing but bad news for Clinton, since Obama handily won the caucuses in the states of Washington, Nebraska, Louisiana and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Primaries in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., on Tuesday could push Obama officially to the head of the line.

The ghost of John Edwards made a small reappearance too, in the form of reports that both Obama and Clinton met with him separately, presumably to ask him for an endorsement. Let's hope Hillary used her nice words, because we more than suspect Obama is his guy.

Back to voting: Mike Huckabee, with his charm, moxie and evangelical roots, stomped the dirty soles of his shoes all over John McCain in Louisiana and Kansas caucuses. He's still hundreds of delegates behind, but he's not leaving the race anytime soon (he also said he's not in this to become vice president). In the state of Washinton, [UPDATE]they called the win for John McCain, though not all precincts had reported. Huckabee thinks something's weird is going on. His staff is looking at challenging those results.

A more subtle game over on the GOP side is the one Ron Paul might be playing. What does this letter on his website mean? Will it clear the air of clouds of doubt? Will he, indeed, keeping on keeping on?

In a dust-up related to the campaigns (and what, right now, isn't related to the campaigns?):

A naughty MSNBC reporter was suspended indefinitely after making a comment that Chelsea Clinton was being "pimped out." He made two on-air apologies, but Clinton said that wasn't enough and threatened to back out of upcoming debates on the network.

“Nothing justifies the kind of debasing language that David Shuster used and no temporary suspension or half-hearted apology is sufficient,” Clinton wrote to NBC News President Steve Capus, who apparently had already called Clinton to personally apologize.

We all know you don't mess with a mom's kids. Or Political Nanny's. Making fun of political policy -- or illogic, or general silliness -- is one thing. Pointing and laughing just to fill air-time is entirely another.

Now candidates, since we've all contributed to this messy primary election season, we all need to pitch in a little and sweep up. Oh, wait. It looks like Barack already did!