The story on the local ABC station turned out pretty well. We got past the usual back & forth and get into what separates effective and ineffective attacks, something I’ve been talking about for years. Saying campaigns go negative because it works ignores the fact that sometimes it doesn’t work. For a political attack to work, it …
In the News
KVUE: Slap fight or smear campaign?
Can Mitt Romney take a punch?
Last night, as Black Walnut became last month’s flavor, Republican voters saw they had a choice as clear as apples and oranges. The Republican primary is now a two-man race between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. Regardless of whether Romney had effective responses to some of Perry’s attacks, the Texas governor won the debate when …
Throwing the Book at Perry
Molly Ivins isn’t around to warn the world about Rick Perry, Jason Stanford said. “And that’s a shame.” So the Austin-based political consultant has teamed up with James C. Moore to pen a book about the governor. The book, entitled “Adios Mofo: Why Rick Perry Will Make America Miss George W. Bush” originated when Stanford …
Debate advice for Rick Perry
Governor, I can’t take it anymore. The Rick Perry on stage in those debates looks more like an old man taking a dump in his Depends than the Republican who has been pounding Texas Democrats since 1990. The Rick Perry we’re watching debate is not the Rick Perry we in Texas have come to know …
Black voters in 2012
If you really want to get depressed these days, strike up a conversation with a Democratic pollster. I did the other day with a friend of mine who told me the saddest story I’ve ever heard in my 20 years in campaigning, but at least he explained why Barack Obama is having a problem with …
Don’t like negative ads? Blame independents
A few years ago, I spoke to some political operatives in Germany who asked me why American campaigns were so negative. I almost laughed in their faces because, after all, these were the grandchildren of Nazis. But they were right. Since surrogates for John Adams and Thomas Jefferson played out their rivalry in newspapers, American …
Texas tales of Perry go national
Hardly a day has passed since Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced his presidential candidacy that Austin-based writer Jim Moore hasn’t found himself made up, miked up and holding forth to a national television audience. Moore is the co-author, with Jason Stanford, of the forthcoming “Adios Mofo: Why Rick Perry Will Make America Miss George W. …
No we can’t
Picture an American president. Young and handsome, he’s atop the political heap with a smart wife and an adored daughter by his side, but the reports, both true and rumoured, of his hypersexuality long ago became part of his public persona. Now imagine that a government shutdown requires most paid White House staff to go …
Would Obama rather run against Perry or Romney?
Being president of the United States is not the sweet gig it used to be. You still have Air Force One, but the country is running out of gas money. Unemployment is stuck around 9 percent, your approval ratings recently dipped into the 30s, and the Republican Congress keeps threatening to shut down the government …
New books about Gov. Rick Perry coming
NEW YORK (AP) – Rick Perry has the book world’s attention. The Texas governor and recently declared GOP presidential candidate is the subject of new book by James C. Moore, co-author of best-seller “Bush’s Brain,” and Jason Stanford, an Austin Democratic political consultant. Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Henry Holt and Company , announced Tuesday …