PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
PAtownhall.com
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Pennsylvania's Marketplace of Ideas
Mon, August 25, 2008by Salena Zito
UNITY, Ohio --- On a billboard in this small eastern Ohio town, white letters on a black background read: "I saw that." The message is signed, "God."
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Mon, August 18, 2008by Salena Zito
Rumors of a contentious Democrat convention appear to be greatly exaggerated.
David Morehouse, a senior campaign adviser to Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential campaign, says the threat of ... [View Full Article]
Mon, August 11, 2008by Salena Zito
A longtime Western Pennsylvania politician once said, "You run with the top of the ticket when you can, and run away from it when you have to."
Which ... [View Full Article]
Sun, August 03, 2008by Salena Zito
An old political adage says, He who sets the debate wins the election.
If the presidential election was held tomorrow, it would be hello President Barack Obama because, so far, John ... [View Full Article]
Sun, July 27, 2008by Salena Zito
It's complicated.
Pennsylvania is a "purple" state that must go Democrat blue instead of Republican red for Barack Obama to win the November election. John McCain does not need ... [View Full Article]
Mon, July 14, 2008by Salena Zito
The clashing worlds of razor-sharp discipline and campaign fatigue are an ever-present factor in the daily lives of presumptive presidential nominees Barack Obama and John McCain.
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Mon, June 30, 2008by Salena Zito
By all accounts, Barack Obama should win this election. He and his brand control the image, the message and, to a large extent, the media of this election cycle.
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Sun, June 22, 2008by Salena Zito
When Howard Dean crashed the party in the summer of 2003, his quixotic approach to trying to win the Democrat nomination for president was so outside the box that no one really knew what to make of ... [View Full Article]
Mon, June 16, 2008by Salena Zito
Could Pennsylvania be the keystone to the vice presidency?
Both Tom Ridge and Ed Rendell are reported as in the hunt to be on the national tickets of their parties' presidential nominees. Ridge ... [View Full Article]
Mon, June 02, 2008by Salena Zito
Maybe it's time John McCain got another person to run on the Republican ticket with him besides George W. Bush.
Branding is a big part of campaigning. So far, the ... [View Full Article]
Tue, May 27, 2008by Salena Zito
Say it's the Tuesday after Labor Day weekend, the Democrats' convention is over, Barack Obama is their nominee, and the campaign season has officially begun. What's the first thing Obama should do ... [View Full Article]
Mon, May 19, 2008by Salena Zito
If you wonder why Barack Obama did not try to compete in West Virginia, his dismissal of the Mountain State had nothing to do with giving Hillary Clinton one last hurrah.
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Mon, May 12, 2008by Salena Zito
On a hot summer night in July 1980, an unorthodox idea floated around the halls of the Republican National Convention in Detroit.
Started by the party's ... [View Full Article]
Sun, May 04, 2008by Salena Zito
Sunday, May 4, 2008
One of the constants of the Democrats' contest between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is the daily announcement of endorsements by the ... [View Full Article]
Mon, April 14, 2008by Salena Zito
Every other story written by journalists across the country gives a spreadsheet of reasons why Hillary Clinton should step out of the Democrats' campaign.
Yet in ... [View Full Article]
Mon, April 07, 2008by Salena Zito
To win Pennsylvania, Barack Obama must pull off a "Missouri" -- that is, do what he did in the Show Me State: win a handful of heavily populated, liberal-centric counties and call it a day. ... [View Full Article]
Sun, March 30, 2008by Salena Zito
In a campaign year full of Lazarus moments, one rebirth that American voters will not see is the second coming of Al Gore. Not as the reluctant candidate on a white horse, saving the day at the ... [View Full Article]
Mon, March 17, 2008by Salena Zito
Rep. Jason Altmire figured 2008 was going to be a tough year. After all, it is the first time he will have to defend the congressional seat he won in the 2006 midterm elections.
Altmire, a ... [View Full Article]
Mon, March 03, 2008by Salena Zito
What do Hillary Clinton, Mike Huckabee, John McCain and Barack Obama have in common, besides wanting to be the next commander in chief?
They are all of Scots-Irish descent, an ethnic and ... [View Full Article]
Mon, February 25, 2008by Salena Zito
The first rule of politics is, "Never count out the Clintons." Their political conglomerate, Clinton Inc., is like Glenn Close in that bathtub scene in the movie "Fatal ... [View Full Article]
Sun, February 17, 2008by Salena Zito
Of the cluster of primary dates calculated in advance to be a deciding factor in this year's race for the White House, Ohio never was one.
Located at the back of the primary pack, with Texas at ... [View Full Article]
Mon, February 04, 2008by Salena Zito
ST. LOUIS
If one great communicator -- the eloquent Ronald Reagan -- could build a coalition of disaffected Democrats that swung both of his presidential elections his way, can an almost-great ... [View Full Article]
Sun, January 27, 2008by Salena Zito
So much for "Big Mo."
Bush the Elder coined that phrase to describe political momentum after his 1980 Iowa Caucuses victory over Ronald Reagan. And until ... [View Full Article]
Tue, January 22, 2008by Salena Zito
Pennsylvania's April 22 presidential primary, usually written off as meaningless, could mean everything this year.
If no clear front-runners emerge in either party ... [View Full Article]
Sun, January 20, 2008by Salena Zito
If "change" is the word overused by every presidential candidate,
"brokered convention" is the overused political concept of the moment.
The ... [View Full Article]
Sun, January 13, 2008by Salena Zito
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. -- Not much is certain in politics. Not exit polls, forecasts or punditry. Yet one thing that is for certain, coming out of New Hampshire, is that the 2008 presidential race remains ... [View Full Article]
Mon, December 31, 2007by Salena Zito
Hands down, John McCain is the buzz in New Hampshire. After a political freefall in the summer, the man who swept Granite State Republicans and independents in 2000 has gone and done a Lazarus, ... [View Full Article]
Mon, December 24, 2007by Salena Zito
The little girl sat at the living room window, nose pressed stubbornly against the cold pane as she strained to see any sign of her father's car coming up the cobblestone street.
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Mon, December 17, 2007by Salena Zito
Karen Hughes is leaving Washington for the last time -- for the second time.
Hughes became the Bush administration's first communications director in 2001 but left ... [View Full Article]
Mon, December 17, 2007by Salena Zito
With fewer than 20 days until the Iowa caucuses, three men in the Republican Party stand to get their tickets punched out of the Hawkeye State.
While everything is ... [View Full Article]
Mon, December 10, 2007by Salena Zito
The most intriguing aspect of the Republicans' road to the nomination for president is its unpredictability. It's a buckle-up race that won't be decided early or easy. About the only thing for ... [View Full Article]
Mon, December 03, 2007by Salena Zito
Got God? If you're running for president of the United States in 2008,
you'd better.
God matters. More specifically, faith matters for our presidential
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Sun, November 25, 2007by Salena Zito
With the wind of surging campaigns at their backs and New Hampshire on
the other side of their current Iowa momentums, they have nowhere to go
but forward, to see where potential Iowa ... [View Full Article]
Mon, November 19, 2007by Salena Zito
It's the economy, stupid -- again.
Americans are more worried about their pocketbooks than the war in Iraq or Iran's nuclear program, suggests a recent poll by the ... [View Full Article]
Mon, November 12, 2007by Salena Zito
Clintonese, Clintonspeak and Clintonesque.
Three words that describe the art of political triangulation are back in the American lexicon, thanks to Hillary ... [View Full Article]
Mon, October 29, 2007by Salena Zito
Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee may have elevated his candidacy to his party's upper tier -- at least in his and his supporters' minds -- but his choice of campaign accommodations and ... [View Full Article]
Mon, October 22, 2007by Salena Zito
(WASHINGTON DC) Rudy Giuliani took a step last week to convince some of the more sensible folks who hold rock-ribbed conservative values to re-examine his candidacy: He won an endorsement from ... [View Full Article]
Mon, October 15, 2007by Salena Zito
How do you stop the Bush-Clinton, Bush-Clinton inevitability?
Well, if you're Barack Obama, you continue to begin each speech in Iowa with the phrase, "If you ... [View Full Article]
Mon, October 08, 2007by Salena Zito
At a recent combined fundraising-campaign stop in Pittsburgh, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson said he believed his debate performance in New Hampshire the night before had been the "breakthrough ... [View Full Article]
Mon, October 01, 2007by Salena Zito
Candidates and their strategists always look for a way to get inside the head of the voter, especially one who is undecided or has specific negative opinions of a candidate.
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Sat, September 22, 2007by Salena Zito
Thirteen days ago, a full-page ad questioning the patriotism of Gen.
David Petraeus was placed in The New York Times by the liberal anti-war
group MoveOn.org. It added real heat to the 2008 ... [View Full Article]
Sun, September 09, 2007by Salena Zito
(DURHAM, N.H.) On the morning of the first fall debate in this college
town, students, residents and politicos awoke to a landscape
transformed.
By the ... [View Full Article]
Mon, September 03, 2007by Salena Zito
Labor Day is here and the political hunting season is in full swing. Never mind that this traditional Labor Day kick-off to the presidential election is 14 months, not two months, before the main ... [View Full Article]