Craig To Resign From Senate

GOP insiders from Idaho are telling the AP and CNN that U.S. Senator Larry Craig will leave his office on September 30.

Craig, who had been under fire for his arrest for lewd behavior in a Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport bathroom, is expected to be replaced by Idaho Lt. Governor Jim Risch in the Republican-safe seat.

Is the Nevada Caucus Already DOA?

Dennis Myers over at the Reno News & Review takes an in-depth look at the floundering Nevada caucus and why it is fast becoming the Rodney Dangerfield of 2008 presidential events.

Myers' notes how in 1976 California governor Jerry Brown was pinning his hopes on the new Nevada primary for a boost to his campaign, prompting one pundit to quip "Brown's problem may not be winning Nevada, but rather making it seem that he has accomplished something if he does." Brown did win, and it did nothing to stop Jimmy Carter.

Myers does hold out hope down the road, noting it took South Carolina years before its "First in the South" mystic took hold among campaign strategists.

All in all, a good read.

McCain Video Highlights POW Experience

No matter what one thinks of John McCain's politics, I'd like to think most can agree that the man has made sacrifices for his country that few politicians have done.

So while most of today's politicians, who were draft eligible during the Vietnam War, were either enjoying school/family deferrals or had joined the National Guard to avoid going overseas, McCain was spending over five years of his life as a prisoner of war.

Though probably too late to resurrect his campaign, the Courageous Service video does remind us of what McCain the man did for his country.

New Way To Measure Presidential Campaign Web Presence

In the never-ending quest to quantify all things political, a company has step forward touting a new technology to track how the 2008 presidential candidates stack up on the internet. Not surprisingly, Barack Obama and Ron Paul were leading their respective parties.

The Spartan Internet Political Performance (SIPP) Index supposedly looks at "650 quantitative factors measuring the level of support and how well each candidate is connecting with individuals across the Internet." The results equal an overall internet market share for a candidate.

Obama was the top candidate with a 21.29% share for the week of 8/16-22. Paul was second at 11.51%, Hillary Clinton third with 11.36%, John Edwards 10.73% and Mitt Romney fifth at 9.48%.

Remembering Aaron Russo

When we first moved to Nevada, the 1998 election was in full swing and one the most colorful candidates I had seen, who actually campaigned, was a Republican named Aaron Russo. He apparently had the temerity to challenge the "anointed one," Kenny Guinn.

I remember Russo's ads telling casino workers that tips should be consider gifts not taxable income and he would fight the IRS for that distinction, and had Jack Nicholson being "Jack" in radio spots for him.

Guinn, meanwhile, basically ignored him, until late in the race when a poll came out showing some surprising progress by Russo. Guinn then unleashed the "dangerous for Nevada" ads that showed clips of Russo ranting and raving like Sam Kinison in a video he made called Mad As Hell. Russo finished with 26% of the vote in the GOP primary.

But that wasn't an end of his political career, as he came within a hair of winning the 2004 presidential nomination for the Libertarian Party. Winning the first ballot, but not with the necessary majority, it took two more before the convention chose a candidate. Unfortunately, Russo came up just short, losing to Michael Badnarik.

Russo continued to be involved with politics, endorsing Ron Paul for president this year and producing the documentary America:Freedom to Fascism.

But he is, perhaps, best known as a talent manager, music promoter and film producer, winning numerous awards and guiding the careers of Bette Midler, Manhattan Transfer and others.

Russo, 64, died August 17, 2007 after a six-year battle with cancer. He is survived by longtime girlfriend Heidi Gregg and two sons, Max and Sam.

The Great Kara Tsuboi Mystery Is Officially Solved

Granted, this has absolutely nothing to do with politics. But for the small core of internet surfers who have a neverending fascination with former KOLO-8 news anchor Kara Tsuboi (and find themselves on Dullard Mush), this is the moment you have waited for.

We have found Ms. Tsuboi. And, for the more prurient reader, there are bikini shots for your enjoyment.

No, we didn't find her at Oprah, Inc. like we speculated a few months back. It was, in fact, what Ed Pearce told us many months ago (is Ed ever wrong?). She was working in the Bay area on a travel/cooking show.

The series, Taste for Adventure, is set for a Fall debut on the Fine Living Network. In it, Tsuboi visits Tahoe, Hawaii, Key West, Moab and takes a dip in Lake Powell (hence, the necessary bikini shots).

All the details on the 13 episodes and other Kara facts are on her recently launched website, karatsuboi.com.

Update (11/17/07): She also started working for CNET's News.com.

MTV Looking For Nevada Citizen Journalist

If you've actually ever thought of getting paid to report on the 2008 presidential campaign in Nevada, plus get a free trip to New York City, then saunter on over to MTV's Choose or Lose site and put in your application.

A project of MTV and the Knight Foundation, one citizen journalist from each state and the District of Columbia will be chosen, outfitted with gear and trained in NYC to file weekly reports on presidential campaign happenings. The reports, either written, photos or video, will be posted online with the possibility of airing on MTV's networks.

Requirements:

• You must be at least 18 years old by December, 2007.
• You must reside in the state you are covering from January to November, 2008.
• You must have the time and ability to travel within your state and file at least one video, written or photographic story per week.

Deadline is September 21, 2007. Here is the actual application.

Yucca Mountain(?) At The Nevada State Fair

One of things that I always thought was a little strange was the fact that Nevada's State Fair is so unbelievably small. I've been to fairs in counties that barely register 2oK in population that have twice as many exhibits and events. And, it only seems to get worst. It's like Reno is hosting the Incredible Shrinking Fair.

Nevertheless, we tempted fate today and venture out to the fairgrounds. And, I was pleasantly surprised. Though still small, it looks like they may have at least stemmed the tide, and the carnival rides seemed cleaner and newer than most. Couple that with the kids discovery zone (complete with reptiles, kaleidoscopes, koi, a mound of sand for castle-making, bubbles and even a place to make your own cement stone with baubles) and the always helpful 4H and FFA members with their animals and it had all the makings of an enjoyable outing, especially for children.

But one thing that I did notice, however, was the vendor dynamics. While there were the usual cookware demonstrators, a toy called Mister Squirmee and a couple selling a Bluetooth hands-free cell kit in the shape of your rear-view mirror (only $120 while they last!), there was also something almost in more abundance -- government agency booths.

It was as if we had stumbled into a recruiting fair. From federal correction officers to local law enforcement, it ran the gamut. The only agency that seemed to be missing, and they have been for the past couple years, is, inexplicably, Nevada's Commission on Tourism. Maybe Jerz can put a bug in someone's ear.

In fact, if you are of the more strident version of liberal you might just want to avoid the whole area. With Hummers advertising for the Army and National Guard, the Border Patrol taking applications and the Nevada Mining Association sponsoring the stonemaking (as well as giving kids candy, frisbees, stickers, etc.) it could send some over the edge.

But, perhaps, the most bizarre booth is the one concerning Yucca Mountain. Sponsored by the Dept. of Energy, the booth features DVDs, CDs, piles of pro-Yucca literature and even plastic replicas of the pellets they are hoping to store there. I almost felt bad for the lady manning the table (she looked like everyone's favorite grandmother), but she told me there hadn't been any problems so far, though she thought most Renoites were against it. I told her to wait for the weekend.

Finally, what story on a fair can neglect the food. Unfortunately, unlike the Iowa Fair we heard all about, there didn't seem to be any of the culinary classics like fried Snickers, Twinkies, pork chops, Coke, etc. However, if you do manage to make your way to the food court, check out the booth on the Northwest corner and order a Cajun Ripper with Veggies (and at $5, a fair bargain) and a sweet tea.

Top 10 Presidential Candidate 2008 Search Terms

You do know who is going to win this, right?

Of course it's Republican Ron Paul in a landslide for the month ending August 18, according to Hitwise. Interestingly, there is a good percentage of people who don't know how to spell Hillary Clinton's first name (must be the Hilary Duff factor) and prefer just plain old "Obama" when searching for Barack news.

Top 10 Presidential Candidate 2008 Search Terms
1. Ron Paul 11.26%
2. Barack Obama 5.85%
3. Mitt Romney 3.90%
4. Obama 3.85%
5. Hillary Clinton 3.82%
6. Joe Biden 3.40%
7. John Edwards 3.30%
8. Hilary Clinton 2.88%
9. Mike Huckabee 1.61%
10. John McCain 1.52%

Kate Marshall In Cracked!

Thirty years ago and this would have been the epitome of cool for Nevada's State Treasurer. OK, MAD would have been the epitome of cool. But hey, Cracked was the best of the second-tier MAD humor magazine wannabes (and I spent many an allowance on all of them).

Sadly though, much like Sick and Crazy, Cracked Mazagine (yes, that's how it was spelled, just like my four-year-old pronounces it) has recently disappeared from the publishing scene. But thanks to the internet, Cracked lives.

OK, so it's not the same Sylvester P. Smythe magazine of old (now think Maxim-style writing with "10 Worst Celebrity Bands"-type lists). But still, in a post on the "12 Worst Candidate Websites" Nevada's own Kate Marshall is in a review of Hillary Clinton's site. It even features a graphic from the Clinton camp's press release announcing "Nevada State Treasurer Kate Marshall Endorses Clinton For President".

Of course, being a humor site and all, you know there has to be more. There is.

Under "Weirdest Moment":

"More so than any other candidate, Clinton touts ridiculously meaningless endorsements, like this poo-poo approval from the Nevada state treasurer."

Just think what they would have said if they had read this endorsement release.

Mike Huckabee's Blogger Momentum

In a down week for blogger posts on the presidential race, one second-tier candidate actually managed to carry over some interest from the prior Ames-enriched week.

Mike Huckabee appears to be riding the good news from his surprising second-place finish in the GOP Ames Straw Poll to continued interest by bloggers. While other candidates saw precipitous drops in blog mentions (e.g., Duncan Hunter going from 1,906 to 309), Huckabee stayed above the 4K level for the week of August 13-20.

Other than that, the week was pretty much the same. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on top for the Dems, Ron Paul and Mitt Romney for the GOP.

Last week's numbers are in parentheses.

Republican Presidential Results

1. Ron Paul 11,205 (18,796)
2. Mitt Romney 9,829 (14,004)
3. Rudy Giuliani 9,507 (11,254)
4. Fred Thompson 6,754 (6,077)
5. John McCain 5,022 (6,402)
6. Mike Huckabee 4,134 (4,731)
7. Sam Brownback 1,391 (3,159)
8. Newt Gingrich 1,319 (2,144)
9. Tom Tancredo 1,164 (2,961)
10. Duncan Hunter 309 (1,906)
11. Chuck Hagel 259 (189)

Democratic Presidential Results

1. Barack Obama 15,000 (20,689)
2. Hillary Clinton 14,674 (17,998)
3. John Edwards 10,789 (10,970)
4. Al Gore 6,536 (8,686)
5. Bill Richardson 3,179 (4,710)
6. Dennis Kucinich 2,266 (2,981)
7. Joe Biden 2,202 (1,984)
8. Chris Dodd 1,698 (2,614)
9. Mike Gravel 1,175 (2,080)
10. Wesley Clark 240 (1,121)

Independent Presidential Results

1. Michael Bloomberg 1,682 (1,879)
2. Ralph Nader 365 (398)

Numbers were for a candidate's full name in "quotes" and taken from Google's Blog Search. Our survey does not differentiate between positive or negative posts. Since Chris Dodd, Wesley Clark and Michael Bloomberg are also frequently referred to as "Christopher Dodd," "Wes Clark" and "Mike Bloomberg," both variations were used and the results combined.

Dullard Mush Debuts New Site -- Campaign Emails

One of the hazards in asking questions of presidential candidates, besides them rarely responding, is finding yourself automatically placed on their email list.

So instead of finding out their position on, say, Yucca Mountain or the deficit, you are bombarded with donation requests and breathless announcements that only the most ardent supporter would devour without choking.

As my inbox begin to fill, I began to wonder if anyone ever a) actually read them, or b) ever posted them as is. After an, albeit brief, Google search, it appeared few if any had taken on the daunting task of posting the missives of campaign operatives.

So Campaign Emails was born (thanks to domain squatters and my reluctance to pay $8.95 for a name I didn't like, I just went the cheap route with campaignemails.blogspot.com).

Among the first findings since starting in late July is my mistaken belief that cutting and pasting email would somehow be a piece of cake. It is the rare email that doesn't entail a myriad of editing changes, like paragraph breaks, to look as it did when it arrived (damn that John Edwards with his bold type).

Plus, not all campaigns email with the same frequency. Surprisingly, online sensation Barack Obama has only sent two in three weeks, and one of those was just for Nevada. Of course, that is two more than Sam Brownback and Tom Tancredo have sent.

Did Any Candidate Win The Iowa Democratic Presidential Debate?

Perhaps Barack Obama has the right idea, either that or he read this. But considering the results from this Sunday's Democratic presidential debate in Iowa, maybe there are too many candidate forums.

One could almost cut-and-paste today's results from prior debates. The Big Three all did well, Joe Biden cracked about his verbosity, Chris Dodd sounded presidential, Dennis Kucinich complained (rightfully so) about a lack of questions thrown his way and Mike Gravel said something crazy. About the only difference from the other debates was that Bill Richardson did well for once.

That said, there was analysis. Here are some of the highlights:

• Time's Mike Halperin does the grading thing again and bestows an A on Obama, A- to Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, B+ to Biden, B to Richardson, B- for Dodd, C+ for Kucinich and a D for Gravel.
• The Politico felt Obama had the few high points in the debate, noting "So it was that kind of debate. Dull. (Was that woman in the audience behind ABC moderator George Stephanopoulos actually sleeping or just resting her eyes?)."
• The Fix thought the debate "reinforced the status quo in the race" and that neither of the Big Three hurt themselves and only Richardson "seems to recognize that his best chance to move into the top tier is through distinguishing himself from his rivals on Iraq, and he did that successfully today."
• For a minute-by-minute analysis, both ABC and the Huffington Post were live blogging through the debate.
• And for a meaningless online poll, ABC has Kucinich taking the lead with just under 30,000 votes cast this evening. Could it have anything to do with this email?

Should Obama and Edwards Start Skipping Debates

With a Democratic presidential debate slated for Sunday and two candidate forums supposedly set to run in Reno this week, are the plethora of events actually harming guys like Barack Obama and John Edwards?

That's the premise floated by the Tote Board's Steven Stark, who points to the fact that so far Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton has only increased her poll leads through the early debates. Stark notes Obama's style as being more conducive to stumping and not the 60-second response, while Edwards suffers from Kucinich outflanking him on the left every time he tries to differentiate himself from the Big Two.

Clinton Nevada Endorsement Juggernaut Continues

Add two more Nevada politicians, or former ones, to the seemingly never-ending Hillary Clinton endorsement roster.

This time it's former Las Vegas mayor Jan Jones and current Sparks city councilman John Mayer.

Jones notes “Hillary Clinton has the experience, the vision and the intelligence to restore our nation’s place in the global economy,” while Mayer also drops the "vision" word by stating "Senator Clinton’s vision, advocacy and dedication to our children make her uniquely qualified to fix our broken educational system and ensure that all American children have the opportunity to succeed."

Worst Political Candidate Music Video Ever?

With immigration the hot-button issue for the GOP, I always thought someday some candidate would get the brilliant idea to somehow use the Led Zeppelin classic "The Immigrant Song" for a campaign music video.

Well, that time has arrived. Only it's little known John Cox who has done the bastardizing. He even sent out a press release announcing its debut and, already, it is garnering ridicule like this post from John Cox - The Facts.

(Editor's Note: The founder of The Facts also holds the dubious distinction, besides starting the first anti-Cox site, of being the first person to actual find, read and comment on our new Campaign Emails site.)



Or, for the more discriminating music fan, how about Dread Zeppelin's exquisite Elvis/Reggae version.

Political Memorabilia Junkies To Hit Reno This Weekend

If you are craving a Dole/Kemp pin or trying to unload a "Mondale In '84" bumper sticker, then the place to head this weekend is the Atlantis Casino in Reno for the American Political Items Collectors' 2007 Western Regional Convention Show & Sale.

With thousands of buttons, badges and other campaign memorabilia available for viewing and purchase, the show should be a must-attend for political junkies of all stripes.

Running August 17-18, admission is $10 per person, or $20 per family, good for both days.

Romney Surges In Nevada, But Negatives High

Republican Mitt Romney received some good news and some bad with the latest Nevada poll numbers from Research 2000.

On the plus side, Romney saw his support in the Silver State increase from 4% in March to 28% in August. That number gives him a 10-point lead over Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani (who dropped a whopping 20 points in five months).

But the report also showed Romney's unfavorable numbers at 45%, as opposed to his 40% favorable rating. It's a problem afflicting Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton as well, as she currently sports a 44% unfavorable rating.

But that number didn't hurt her in the polling, though, as the New York senator led Democrats with 33%. Barack Obama was second with 19%. John Edwards, who is pulling staff from Nevada, was third with 15%, while Bill Richardson saw his support rise from 2% in March to a current level of 11%.

Ames Straw Poll Gives GOP Boost In Latest Blogger Buzz

Tommy Thompson reached his high-water mark in blogger interest this past week (8/6-13). Of course, being the second GOP presidential candidate to drop out will do that for you.

Ruling the GOP roost once again was Ron Paul, though Mitt Romney saw the biggest jump thanks to his Ames Straw Poll victory. Mike Huckabee, with his surprise second-place finish, also saw blogger interest increase.

But the candidate that excites bloggers the most is Democrat Barack Obama, who again cracked the 20K mark. Close behind in blogger mentions was Hillary Clinton who reached almost 18K. Bill Richardson and Dennis Kucinich also saw increases in activity.

Last week's numbers are in parentheses.

Republican Presidential Results

1. Ron Paul 18,796 (15,960)
2. Mitt Romney 14,004 (8,004)
3. Rudy Giuliani 11,254 (7,508)
4. John McCain 6,402 (5,789)
5. Fred Thompson 6,077 (4,727)
6. Mike Huckabee 4,731 (1,877)
7. Tommy Thompson 4,358 (502)
8. Sam Brownback 3,159 (1,879)
9. Tom Tancredo 2,961 (2,499)
10. Newt Gingrich 2,144 (1,905)
11. Duncan Hunter 1,906 (1,013)
12. Chuck Hagel 189 (265)

Democratic Presidential Results

1. Barack Obama 20,689 (20,658)
2. Hillary Clinton 17,998 (16,327)
3. John Edwards 10,970 (10,072)
4. Al Gore 8,686 (6,791)
5. Bill Richardson 4,710 (2,428)
6. Dennis Kucinich 2,981 (1,866)
7. Chris Dodd 2,614 (2,463)
8. Mike Gravel 2,080 (1,119)
9. Joe Biden 1,984 (1,753)
10. Wesley Clark 1,121 (715)

Independent Presidential Results

1. Michael Bloomberg 1,879 (1,316)
2. Ralph Nader 398 (327)

Numbers were for a candidate's full name in "quotes" and taken from Google's Blog Search. Our survey does not differentiate between positive or negative posts. Since Chris Dodd, Wesley Clark and Michael Bloomberg are also frequently referred to as "Christopher Dodd," "Wes Clark" and "Mike Bloomberg" both variations were used and combined.

Who Is Invisible In Clinton's New "Invisible" TV Spot?

For a campaign spot whose theme is people who are invisible to the current administration, there is a strange omission in the people actually featured in it.

Save for one slightly dark-skinned little girl, there are no minorities in Hillary Clinton's "historic" first television ad.

Granted, the spot is for Iowa where 95.8% of the population is white, but it does seem to break the cardinal rule of political campaigns to feature someone from every ethnic background or at least have them present in crowd shots (my brother and I called it the "Be All You Can Be" style, in honor of the old Army TV spots that always featured an Asian, a Hispanic, an African-American, a Caucasian and a female together for some adventure. It seemed only the poor American Indian was excluded back then).

Cobbgobbler.com Goes EuroTrash

This post was originally going to be about the availability of Northern Nevada's late muckraking anti-Ty Cobb website, the Cobbgobbler, until two things happened.

One, despite the .net domain name expiring in late June, it wasn't released by the registrar, allowing the original owner a second chance to add a year to the registration. Apparently that eventually happened. (I wonder if it is the same person who checks my site through a Cobbgobbler link and has an IP address from Builders Association of Northern Nevada?)

Two, the quickly abandoned .com address, which was originally registered in the name of the candidate who worked at Builders Association of Northern Nevada, also became available this summer and while we briefly considered registering it we never did. But this past Friday someone else made the move and bought, or perhaps are just tasting, cobbgobbler dot com. The culprits? EuroTrashNames.com.

Editor's Note: Despite the above crack regarding the mystery of the Cobbgobbler, it is generally believed that people close to former AD-26 candidate Richard Disney were behind the site and had registered the .com domain in Mike Dillon's name fraudulently (leading to the registrar closing the .com site down).

Damning emails between Disney and a Sparks Tribune reporter, coupled with the fact that Dillon endorsed and contributed financially to Cobb's general election campaign, would seem to point to Cobbgobbler being a project of Disney and/or his supporters.

Giuliani, McCain Using New Google Referral System For Fundraising

When Google recently unveiled their new Adsense referral system, where advertisers pay publishers when an action (not just a click) is completed, one wouldn't think presidential candidates would be some of the first participants. But you would be wrong.

Both Rudy Giuliani and John McCain (who has been especially active online with Google) have joined up and are paying for click-thrus that result in actual donations.

Interestingly, when they first appeared publishers were receiving $7.69 for each Giuliani donation generated, but only $3.85 for McCain. But the free market prevailed and McCain is now matching Giuliani's $7.69. The Arizona senator also is paying ($1.35) for each email sign-up generated. Of course, these dollar amounts are what publishers receive (and who knows if all publishers are paid the same) and not the amount the campaigns have to pay Google.

So far, no Democratic candidates have signed up for the pay-per-action program, though some do participate in Google's Adsense program.

Obama Is King In Latest Blogger Buzz Survey

Barack Obama finally beat Hillary Clinton in something. Unfortunately, it's just the latest Dullard Mush weekly Blogger Buzz survey. But a win is a win. And for the week of July 30 - August 6, Obama was king of the blog mentions.

His 20K+ showing was one of the highest we've had as YearlyKos buzz and his dust-up with Clinton on foreign affairs contributed to his boom in posts. Clinton, too, saw an increase but not enough to beat Obama.

Sunday's GOP debate gave a big boost to declared Republican candidates everywhere except, strangely, Tommy Thompson. As is lately the case, the GOP blog mention race was a runaway victory for Ron Paul.

Last week's numbers are in parentheses.

Republican Presidential Results

1. Ron Paul 15,960 (8,481)
2. Mitt Romney 8,004 (5,781)
3. Rudy Giuliani 7,508 (4,011)
4. John McCain 5,789 (5,030)
5. Fred Thompson 4,727 (5,067)
6. Tom Tancredo 2,499 (299)
7. Newt Gingrich 1,905 (2,019)
8. Sam Brownback 1,879 (334)
9. Mike Huckabee 1,877 (338)
10. Duncan Hunter 1,013 (324)
11. Tommy Thompson 502 (307)
12. Chuck Hagel 265 (201)

Democratic Presidential Results

1. Barack Obama 20,658 (13,663)
2. Hillary Clinton 16,327 (14,622)
3. John Edwards 10,072 (8,720)
4. Al Gore 6,791 (5,696)
5. Chris Dodd 2,463 (1,470)
6. Bill Richardson 2,428 (2,381)
7. Dennis Kucinich 1,866 (2,094)
8. Joe Biden 1,753 (2,314)
9. Mike Gravel 1,119 (1,841)
10. Wesley Clark 715 (334)

Independent Presidential Results

1. Michael Bloomberg 1,316 (1,609)
2. Ralph Nader 327 (278)

Numbers were for a candidate's full name in "quotes" and taken from Google's Blog Search. Our survey does not differentiate between positive or negative posts. Since Chris Dodd, Wesley Clark and Michael Bloomberg are also frequently referred to as "Christopher Dodd," "Wes Clark" and "Mike Bloomberg" both variations were used and combined.

Maybe It Was The Shirt

Apparently some bloggers are being rubbed the wrong way by campaign operatives at the YearlyKos convention.

Dania Audax writes that her requests for candidate interviews were falling on deaf ears, noting that the John Edwards staffer looked at her with a "you must be small, I've never heard of you AND I'm 26!" attitude. Likewise she wasn't impressed with her treatment by the Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton camps.

Overall, she wonders whether campaign staffers, despite their professed love of the netroots, had been educated on the proper way to deal with actual bloggers.

Perhaps, though, she found her own answer when she huffed "Just because I'm wearing a 'Worse than Watergate' t-shirt, doesn't mean I don't expect professionalism."

Clinton and Romney Are Online Big Spenders

Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney lead the presidential pack in online spending, with each doling out more than $1.2 million so far this year.

Almost $5.0 million has been spent by all candidates, with the GOP surprisingly leading the way with a combined $2.87 million.

But while the GOP has spent more overall, Democrats are spending more on in-house staff (36% to just 8%). Democratic candidates have a total of 39 staffers dedicated to web operations while Republicans only have 18.

Giuliani and Thompson Edge Clinton In Poll; Clinton, Though, Leads Dems Big

In a world of constant bad news for Republicans, the Rasmussen Reports gave them a glimmer of hope with a series of polls showing Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson beating Hillary Clinton in a general election.

The July 30-31 poll has both the Republicans edging Clinton 46% to 45%, though there is a margin of error of +/- 3.5 points.

In match-ups against Barack Obama and John Edwards, Thompson and Giuliani trail by as much as 11 points.

However, when it comes to the Democratic nomination, the Rasmussen Reports have Clinton up by 22 points on Obama and a whopping 31 on Edwards. The Wall Street Journal (pdf) and NBC News agrees, as their poll shows virtually the same result -- a huge Clinton lead.

Leslie Explains Obama Endorsement; Myrna Runs For Reno Mayor

Reno and Its Discontents found out why Nevada Assemblywoman Sheila Leslie bucked a Silver State trend of women pols backing Hillary Clinton.

Telling R&D that she "definitely felt pressure to endorse Clinton," Leslie ultimately went with Barack Obama because "I want to support someone I believe shares my values on peace and social justice issues."

Minx To Challenge Cashell?

And just when you thought presidential campaigns were long, R&D's Myrna the Minx announced she is exploring a "run" for Reno mayor -- in 2010! Campaign shirts are already in the can.