The Five: An Eveningish Political Briefing

If people like this, I will start writing regularly... published around five... not meant to compete with either The Hotline's Last Call! (which is more comprehensive and funnier) or ABC's The Note, a prodigal son.

1. Tomorrow: the Dems debate in Las Vegas, all eyes on HRC's answers and Wolf Blitzer's toughness; Obama has two town hall meetings in Iowa before -- Ro. Gibbs: when does Obama prep??? The GOPers are in Feb. 5 mode: McCain's in California and Colorado; Romney's in California; Giuliani's in Florida; Huckabee's in Iowa and Tancredo's in NH. The Senate Judiciary Committee marks up the Rockefeller/Bush admin. FISA compromise tomorrow. Cue Chris Dodd. PS: Thursday's the deadline for Mass. residents to sign up for health insurance under the plan associated with Mitt Romney's gubernatorial tenure.

2. The cablers were all over Rudy/Kerik/Regan today; the campaign had no response; Rudy said little himself. John McCain fought with CNN over Rick Sanchez... come on, guys -- Rick Sanchez? Plus: mgr. Rick Davis sent a fundraising appeal... off of... Rick Sanchez.

3. Mike Huckabee's secret weapon? The media. This Matt Taibbi piece may not be as equanimous as one would like, but it gets at a central part of Huck's appeal.

4. A Romney adviser on reports of campaign infighting: "Zzzzzzzzz." But others say the divisions are real and are deeper than the campaign acknowledges. The Politico's Martin stands by his reporting, A side note: Both the Giuliani and McCain campaigns have also looked at proposed scripts that mention their opponents in a less than flattering light.

5. How to best understand the debate over strategy between the Giuliani and Romney campaigns? Think of the way historians separate themselves: some are lumpers and others are splitters.

The Lumpers: Giuliani bets that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts; that attributes matter more than issues; that each caucus or primary cannot be run without a national frame; that the delegate selection process is a cafeteria-style menu where all that really matters is the calories on the plate at the end.

The Splitters: Romney's campaign separates each part -- each caucus or primary, each issue, each part of the GOP base -- and aims to win it, master it, convert it discretely.

Comments

Great stuff, I can't wait for the GOP to attack each other... Democrats have started doing that long time ago, and the GOP is holding off on the fireworks.

Also noteworthy this evening, a new general election poll from Ohio has things pretty much as tied up as they could possibly be, as Republicans rebound from bad numbers in previous months. Check out the numbers here.

Posted by Daniel | November 14, 2007 3:22 PM

A 5:00 roundup like this would be much appreciated.

Posted by Will | November 14, 2007 3:32 PM

Dude you need a different title, Amanda Carpenter at Townhall already has "The Five"

Posted by Lawyer | November 14, 2007 4:26 PM

I like this. You could call it "five at five." Or "dinner."

Posted by SDM | November 14, 2007 4:29 PM

Good stuff, I like the new mini-feature. Although I agree that the title could be better.

Posted by Nomad | November 14, 2007 4:53 PM

Don't steal Amanda Carpenter's title!

Posted by Rightwing Joe | November 14, 2007 5:16 PM

Like the evening rundown but ... Marc, you should probably fact check in the future before you post it. Barack Obama is not in Iowa tomorrow. His wife, Michelle Obama is. One's a man, one's a woman. Get it? You may want to correct your snide, insidery first item. "Ro. Gibbs" and the boys would probably appreciate it.

Posted by Scribe | November 14, 2007 5:18 PM

I like this kind of thing. But links wherever possible are good.

Posted by Phoebe | November 14, 2007 7:19 PM

You know, HRC has hunkered down again to prepare for the upcoming debates. She is no where to been seen on the campaign trail. Whereas Obama is campaigning like usual. If she is so experience why does she need five days off to study up.

Posted by sonya | November 14, 2007 10:12 PM