Ed Muskie

Ran into Mike Murphy, the Republican polical consultant and talking head, at the Radisson in Manchester this morning. "President Clinton? Never gonna happen," he said. "She loses here, but she keeps trying. She turns into Ed Muskie in a pantssuit. There's your money quote."  read more »

Every four years, all of the presidential candidates descend on New Hampshire. And so does City Councilman Eric Gioia.

“I go up every presidential cycle,” Gioia, who worked in the Clinton White House, told me late yesterday. “I was up there for Muskie!” (Joke.)

"‘99 was the first time I was up there,” Gioia explained.  read more »

Go ahead and call Hillary Rodham Clinton the front-runner for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomin  read more »

Mystery Pollster (a blogger whose identity, as a professional pollster, Mark Blumenthal, is no longer a mystery) adduces some actual data (!) to find that the blogospheric unhappiness with Hillary's stance on the Iraq war has had zero effect on her popularity among Democrats. In fact, she's particularly popular among liberal Democrats at large, 94% of whom view her favorably.

His conclusion: "[M]ost Democrats simply like Hillary, know her stands on issues only vaguely and do what voters typically do, those who like her tend to project their own ideological identity on to hers."  read more »

He leaves open the possibility that the blogs will lead opinion, just haven't yet. And Mickey Kaus rejoins that she's really the second coming of Edmund Muskie. Hmm.