Well, I am. Just a little. It's a long time since I found myself traipsing through a General Motors plant in deepest Michigan with Mike Huckabee and wife Janet looking their finest in oversized safety goggles. Janet had blue masking tape around her wedding ring too, another work-place precaution.
Huck stayed longer in his nomination race than perhaps he should have (hmm, who else has that disease?) but finally bowed to the inevitable. Disappear totally he did not, however.
I am just returned from American Legion Field here in downtown Indianopolis - a stunning natural arena of grass with the city's monumental World War Memorial at one end, where the Obama rally happened. I was perplexed going there. My hotel is far from the park, certainly a mile, yet the end of the line to get into the event was virtually at my front door, snaking from one end of downtown to the other. A LOT of people - white, blacks, old and young - were willing to wait a LONG time to see the man. The local news says the head count was 21,000. And when he got on stage finally, Obama seemed like the candidate he used to be before all that tricky stuff - Wright, bitter voters and so forth - shattered his focus. Aides told me the line to get in actually stretched two miles. They also said that in the course of a day attending events here and in North Carolina, Obama also squeezed in 22 media interviews.
If there are moments when you think you might scream if you hear another syllable about the nomination fight between Barack and Hillary that never ends, spare a thought for the voters in the primary states. The television ads are more obnoxious that you could imagine. And they never stop coming. She's a liar, no he's a liar. Lift the gas tax, don't lift the gas tax. And on and on and on. If I could open my hotel window here in Indianapolis, the ageing TV set would already be in a million pieces on the pavement below.
Anyway, it's time to leave my room and find some entertainment. It's Obama time! It's a super tight race here in Indiana - the CW says she will win by a small margin - so he is having another of his mega-rallies downtown. It's a beautiful evening, it's a few blocks away and I'm out of here. Of course I know what he will say more or less, but these things are pretty festive. But there's more. The local TV news reader tells me (between ads) that there will be surprise major star on stage with him. Who?
It is possible that by 25 May the Clinton-Obama drama will be resolved and we will have a Democrat nominee for 2008. (I stress possible, depending partly on what happens next Tuesday.) If so, political junkies will not need to despair thanks to the cable network HBO which on that date will release Recount, a film starring Kevin Spacey, Dennis Leary, Tom Wilkinson and Laura Dern about another not so distant episode of high anxiety (and, for some, pure despair) in American presidential politics.
If I mention hanging chads, the Supreme Court and Florida, you will know which one I mean.
He has been so quiet we almost forgot he was still out there, but finally Michael Dukakis, the '88 Democratic nominee (hapless eventually, if you remember) has offered some thoughts on the tug of war that knows no end between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. If he doesn't actually spell out who should win the nomination, he does make pretty plain which of the two he thinks is most likely to.
His answer, dropped during an interview at his Brookline home (just outside Boston) to the New York Observer does not carry the initials HRC but rather BO. "All I can tell you is at this point it looks as if he is likely to be the nominee," he tells the newspaper. He adds that it will surely be all over for Hillary if the man from Illinois scores a double whammy in North Carolina and Indiana next week. (Polls tonight show them pretty much neck and neck in the latter and Obama holding a healthy-ish but narrowing advantage in North Carolina.)
Sitting in the media room inside National Constitutional Center in the historic district of Philly waiting for tonight's debate between Hillary and Barack to begin. It's nearly seven weeks since they were last on stage together (and I was similarly waiting) in a much chillier Cleveland, Ohio. Best I can remember that turned out to 0-0 draw more or less. Hillary, of course, went on to win that state by 10 points.
A few more numbers in no particular order of insignificance. Tonight's debate will be the 20th in 15 months of full-out campaigning between Democrats. There may or may not be one more in North Carolina on 27 April. Hillary says she will be there (NC votes on 6 May) while Barack has not said if he will play.
For a candidate so intent on bridging the political and social divides in America, Barack Obama has sometimes seemed oddly deaf to the gay and lesbian community. Mark Segal, publisher of the Philadelphia Gay News, became so infuriated by his inabilty to secure an audience with Obama he left part of the front page of his latest issue blank - white space where the interview would have appeared. It was a good tweak - and it seems to have worked.
That's what film director Spike Lee will tell anyone asking whether the Democratic nomination should - against all the odds - be Hillary Clinton's. More pertinently, that's what he has told the latest issue of New York Magazine. Should we surprised that Spike is fired up about Barack Obama? Guess not, but he does admit that he was once a Clinton groupie.
It has taken a former Democratic nominee, George McGovern,to pose - and dare to answer - the question that has been hovering above countless dinner parties for months now. Is it more of a handicap when running to be US President to be black or to be a woman?
Look at that, an email this morning from Elton John no less. And he is inviting me to a party. This is a turn-up because there was a time when I sort of knew Sir Elton.
It is not WHEN he was born that might cause John McCain problems come the general election in November - let's face it, he is pretty vigorous for a child of 1936 - but rather WHERE. We all know that drawing your first breath on United State soil is a must if you ever want to become president. A "natural born citizen" is the precise wording in the US Constitution. Arnie Schwarzenegger could conceivably work harder at erasing his Austrian accent but the path to the White House will always be forbidden to him anyway.
No kidding when they say that the candidates' schedules are tight. This morning we - the travelling press - are rushed from the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Cleveland on buses to the airport in a driving blizzard. Two planes in the livery of ATA Airlines are on an executive jet apron.
One for Obama gets off quickly, though colleagues on board tell us by email that thanks to the weather he is already an hour late for his next event in Columbus. Finally, the de-icer lorries get to us. Maybe because they are rushing they squirt the anti-freeze into the ground generator and the plane suddenly goes dark. If it was a metaphor for the Clinton campaign, it at least wasn't long before the lights came on again.
There are several hundred folks crammed on street corners outside the Wolstein Center at Cleveland Statue University, the site of today's Obama-Clinton debate tonight, screaming their political lungs out to anyone who will listen. Nothing unusual about that - you see them at all the debates waving banners for their favourite candidates as the audience and media arrive. But tonight is different.
Note to the Clinton team: maybe you should consider challenging the vote tally in Hawaii last night. Correct procedures were not always followed. Hell, it was utter pandemonium at most caucus sites on Tuesday night. Party registration forms ran out. Ballot papers ran out. Good Lord, at some sites, officials were tearing pages out of notebooks bought at corner stores to write out makeshift ballot papers in ballpoint pen. Who could tell if people were voting once or 10 times?
What better place to hold your Super Tuesday election night party than New York City, the fast-beating heart of the media world? That is Hillary's boast tonight and here we are on the seventh floor of the Manhattan Center Studios waiting for the first returns and - eventually - for her to take the stage.
Americans this weekend can be forgiven for being in a super mood. Only those in solitary confinement without television privileges cannot be feeling at least a twinge of adrenalin ahead of the national match-up just around the corner between - wait for it - the New England Patriots and the New York Giants.
Yes, this is not political sport they are looking forward to but American Football. The Super Bowl is this Sunday and more than half the nation is expected to watch it.
That would be me. When you've been following a primary you eventually have to decide which of the candidate's results watch parties to attend. Hopefully, you pick the one who eventually wins. Well, so far, I have an unbroken record in that regard. Thanks Hillary and Mitt and thanks - tonight - John McCain.
Kudos to the Senator. His music was kinda cheesy but well-chosen - the Rambo theme to welcome him to the stage (you may remember how Sly endorsed him) and "Johnny Be Good" when he had wrapped up. The beer and sandwiches for the press were free. And the speech?
We can't say goodbye to Florida and it's primary tonight without at least mentioning hanging chads once. Remember? Of course you do. It is eight years since Florida singlehandedly sabotaged the 2000 presidential election - and Al Gore - with its disputed vote counts and hanging chads (or was it dimpled?). When the whole mess was cleaned up, a certain Bush (with help from the Supreme Court) ended up claiming Florida by a margin of barely more than 500 votes and thus the White House.
You will not be surprised to learn, therefore, that the old punch-card system of voting that gave all those half-indented chads was long ago done away with in Florida. The state spent boatloads introducing zippy touch-screen voting machines. Even the Zimmer-frame folk from Palm Beach could surely work those. Certainly if they had ever used a cash machine they could.
Thanks Sly, but two of our campaign horses will be able to trumpet endorsements considerably more important than his this morning. The Grey Lady has spoken. In its editorial pages tomorrow, the New York Times will identify which candidates it prefers from each party. Any great surprises in the way she turns? Not really. One New Yorker gets the newspaper's nod...and one Arizonan.
Reporters always have a license to ask. What, I wanted to know, was the police officer doing emerging from his cruiser by the beach in Boca Raton with a fistful of rainbow coloured hoola-hoops? And why does he proceed to plant them edgewise in the sand to create what effectively is a long tube? Poodle training? Wave action energy generation? Dolphin trap? And why isn't he with every other member of the town's police force preparing to direct traffic for tonight's Republican primary debate?
Scour the calendar of Democratic primaries beyond South Carolina this weekend and you will find no mention of Kensington or Calcutta. Not surprising, really. Last time we checked, foreigners were not invited to participated in the US presidential elections, although maybe they should given that the identity of the next occupant of the White House matters to more than just America. (I will spare you my usual rant as a green card holder here who pays his taxes and can't play either. Did I hear, "No taxation without representation"?) No, this is about Americans living abroad who will shortly be participating in a first-ever expatriate primary via the Internet.
It's been several days since I've seen Hillary on the stump and the withdrawal symptoms are severe. (Night sweats, loss of appetite, empty notebook.) How thrilling then to open the post today and find a glossy invitation to the New York premiere this Thursday of Hillary: The Movie, followed by swanky reception at the Bryant Park Grill. Never heard of it. But count me in.
My igorance is shocking. Turns out that this 90-minute documentary sponsored by a conservative group called Citizens United has been generating some early headlines and not just because of its less than charitable message. (The film reportedly trots out every Hillary-hater in the land from Dick Morris to Ann Coulter to explain why her becoming President would lead America into the abyss.) Rather it was plans by the producers to run TV ads about the film in states preparing to hold primary elections that the drew the ire of the judges. Either disclose who financed the film, they said, or forget the ads.
Did I say it was going to be a long night? Wrong again. Barely 10 per cent of Michigan's precincts had reported when NBC, CNN and the AP projected Mitt Romney the winner. So here we are, yet another Comeback Kid. Mitt is talking to his supporters down the corridor right now, the usual country club Republican crowd bathing in the light from their favourite candidate's starched white shirt.
Mitt! Mitt! Mitt! The chant is a bit skimpy, but the joy is real. You wonder what the Republican Party grandees are thinking right now however. Who the heck is the Republican front-runner now? And we haven't even reached the Florida primary, where Rudy Giuliani is still running strong in the polls. This is proving the most unpredictable race on the Republican side in nearly 60 years. Or just call it a mess.
Most polls in Michigan are closing right now. Mike Huckabee and John McCain have both decamped for South Carolina, which votes Saturday, but Mitt Romney has stayed behind, holed up in a room in the hotel a few floors above all of us here in the media room.
Will Romney be rewarded for staying put until the bitter end? Well, who knows, is the cautious answer. All we have so far is an exit poll cited on the Drudge Report showing him six points ahead of Mr McCain.
Still, there is still no cheering from across the atrium where all his supporters are currently coralled (with cash bar and nibbles). They know better than to take Drudge as gospel. Indeed, if this ends up being close, it could be a very long night.
While most of us wait in the snow to see which Republican will come top of voters' lists in Michigan, a fine little mess is developing in far-away Nevada where MSNBC, the cable network, is battling for its right to exclude marginal (but never boring) candidate Dennis Kucinich from a live debate this evening between Dems. Producers think three people slugging it out - Clinton, Obama and Edwards - is quite enough. They reason that Kucinich stands zero chance of winning the party's nomination. True, but...
As I write, Dennis - married, btw, to a British woman - is on a plane from Ohio to Las Vegas intent on participating anyway. A fools errand?
You see a lot of gyms following the presidential candidates through the primary process. Lots and lots of school gyms, usually pasted with banners that children had been obliged to paint up for their esteemed visitors in red, white and blue (not unlike the one shown here...) Kalamazoo for McCain! Upton for Huckabee! Occasionally, we get to see the inside of a town hall or old peoples' centre.
It can get better than that, though. I still remember skimming the trees of Kentucky with then incumbent President George Bush Snr in 1992 in US Army helicopters during his doomed effort to fend off Bill Clinton in the general election.
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