Free Republic

<p>So who better to call for the latest inside-the-porkway poop on which Democrat is going to win than Tucker Carlson, the co-host of CNN's "Crossfire"?</p> <p>Carlson, a fine writer and straight-talker whose book "Politicians, Partisans and Parasites" recounts his crazy career in cable news, was in Los Angeles yesterday for a little R&R when he answered the Trib's desperate call for professional analysis.</p>

In This Campaign, South Carolina Is the Belle of the BallBy RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLDPublished: December 21, 2003 HARLESTON, S.C., Dec. 19 — "Let's see now," the Rev. James Darby said, trying to recall which Democratic presidential candidates had stopped by his church, the largest African-American congregation in the state. "Lieberman, Kerry's sister, Edwards twice, Dean twice, Sharpton did a town hall, Clark came by." "We are being treated like the belles of the ball in South Carolina," Mr. Darby, the politically active pastor of Morris Brown African Methodist Episcopal church here, said with a laugh. The same is true in...

On New Year’s Eve 2002, who would have expected that a little-known Vermont governor named Howard Dean would become the Democratic presidential front-runner on the strength of 200,000 individual donors? Probably no one, not even Dean. The questions for the New Year are: Will Dean keep a steady hand on his candidacy, and will his vaunted grass-roots organization turn out the voters in the primaries? Likewise, who’d have thought that President Bush and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist could take the Medicare issue off the table for 2004 by enacting a new prescription drug benefit? But is the issue truly...

If all this is true, and next spring finds Bush announcing troop withdrawal schedules in Iraq while unemployment falls at home, the GOP, not Democrats, will be looking forward to November.

Get drunk on political discourse! This Thursday evening, the nine remaining candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination will meet in Phoenix for the fourth debate of the year. If these events have started to blend together, why not grab a bottle or two of your favorite tipple and bring on the blurriness by playing Slate's debate drinking game. Cheers! Take one drink if: A candidate mentions an ordinary American by name A candidate mentions Bill Clinton A candidate mentions John Ashcroft A candidate mentions John McCain A candidate mentions Enron A candidate mentions Halliburton A candidate mentions a member of...

Kevin Schmidt, a conservative living in Iowa, has capitalized on easy access to all of the Democratic presidential candidates vying for attention in his state. Schmidt started a website, ninedwarfs.com , designed to document the Iowa Democratic primaries from "a conservative point of view." Schmidt states the following on his site:"I am striving to meet all of the nine presidential candidates, speak with them, and have my picture taken with them. That’s where the ninedwarfs.com comes in. I am considerably taller than every one of the candidates and they look of rather short stature standing next to me, hence ninedwarfs.com."...

DES MOINES, Iowa, July 29 —  When I arrive at John Kerry’s campaign headquarters Saturday afternoon for a “Kerry Country BBQ,” the candidate’s staff is buzzing about a tall young blond man who has arrived for the event. They want to prevent him from getting anywhere close to the candidate. Before I came to Iowa, I was conditioned to think of Howard Dean as the unpredictably exciting, insurgent candidate and to think of Kerry as the aloof, preprogrammed establishment contender. This is my first taste of what the differences look like up close. What's all the fuss about the blond...