All of this John Edwards business has got me thinking about early voting. I am registered to vote in Texas, where Election Codes 81.001 and 82.005 specify that I can ”vote early” – up to seventeen days before any federal election. Say, hypothetically, that John Edwards had rallied for a victory in South Carolina and [...]

I’m watching the debate right now and it is wildly mildly exciting. Some of the questions have been mildly humorous but also serious (see: snowman) although most have been stupid or very serious. The best answer thus far has been Barack Obama’s response to whether or not he would work for a minimum wage. Overall, [...]

Over the course of the coming weeks (months?), Kedar and I will be profiling major candidates seeking their parties’ nominations for the Presidency. You will be able to find all of these profiles in the new category “2008 Candidate Profiles.” We hope we might be able to explain what it would take for each of [...]

A recent MTV poll found that 68% of young Americans would vote for a candidate who has used marijuana. Good news for Obama. 25% would vote for a gay candidate, but only 22% would vote for a candidate who has used cocaine (bad news for Tom Tancredo). 41% of youngsters have favorable opinions of Hillary [...]

I uploaded both the Republican and Democratic polls over at the Election 2008 Tracker. Try clicking on the charts to see a bigger view, I’m testing a new script that should add a pretty neat effect to the pictures when you click on them.
In the democrat’s poll, you can see a clear-cut frontrunner (Clinton) and [...]

This morning, a friend of mine directed me to the blog of Matt Browner-Hamlin, who works for Presidential Candidate Chris Dodd (D-CT). It seems that Browner-Hamlin has recorded (and graphed!) how much time has been devoted to each of the candidates during the New Hampshire Primary debates. The Democratic “talk clock” can be found here, [...]

The winner of yesterday’s Democratic debate was Al Gore, who presumably napped in New York while Clinton and Kucinich stood (literally) on soapboxes.
On the whole, the few candidates who seemed even remotely likable appeared that way for mere seconds, and even then only while spewing rehearsed and prodigiously irrelevant nonsense. I was most charmed [...]

My thoughts on the Democratic debate tonight:
First, the frontrunners (Clinton, Obama, Edwards) certainly played it very safe. I suppose you could say that they approached it in classic politician format: not giving any definitive answers. Playing it careful is probably a good idea, but it’s giving too much ground for the fringe candidates to grasp [...]