The Note: Political Eye-Teeth
WASHINGTON, Nov. 5, 2004 — -- FUTURES CALENDAR
76 Days Until Inauguration Day
The Note doesn't mind the loss of the Brad Woodhouse e-mails, but will we really never hear from Steve Schmidt again???!!!!
The Note wonders what kind of personal or professional obligation it would take to cause Senator Allen to turn down an appearance on FNC.
And today, The Note courts simultaneous lawsuits from Slate and the National Journal Group Inc.
Per ABC News' Daniel Arnall: "U.S. businesses added 337,000 jobs to their payrolls during the month of October. The number exceeds economists' expectations of 175,000. In fact, it exceeded the highest 'guess' of 325,000! The nation's unemployment rate added a tick, rising to 5.5%."
Adds ABC News' Betsy Stark: "This is a very strong number, with gains across the board in every sector but manufacturing. Economists think it may have gotten a boost from the Post -hurricane reconstruction boom in Florida but even without that special circumstance it's impressive. It's been a good week for the economy. Today's job number tops off a welcome drop in oil prices and gains in the stock market. The outlook for Christmas, previously bleak, improves with this report."
The Washington Post 's Dan Balz deftly fuses the politics and policies of Bush II. LINK
The New York Times Purdum and Kirkpatrick try admirably, but the world awaits the ultimate Karl Rove biography. LINK
Jim VandeHei and Glenn Kessler fill the Washington Post with the kind of gossipy, whose-in-and-whose-out-in-the-second-term rigmarole that the forty-third President of the United States railed against at his press conference and/but is catnip for the undisciplined members of the Gang of 500. LINK
The Washington Post 's Jonathan Weisman runs the deficit figures and Chad Kolton of the OMB creates his own special reality in the last three paragraphs. LINK
En vogue for Democrats who want to avoid the Hillary Clinton Problem: blaming Gavin Newsom (since it's too hard to remember the names of all those Massachusetts Supreme Court Justices).
Barney Frank saying he is vindicated by the election results — and other anti-Newsom recriminations — can be found most precisely in Dean Murphy's New York Times article. LINK
And there's the New York Times ' Goodstein and Yardley on the president's diverse tapestry that is a coalition of faith. LINK
The Washington Post 's Finkel on the same deal — just more Ohio micro. LINK
Iowa's cherished electoral votes remain unclaimed, with the president still in the lead.
The Hawkeye State is first in the nation and, apparently, last in the nation, writes Lynn Campbell in the Des Moines Register . LINK
The number of Google News hits returned by searching "There was probably some skepticism in your beady eyes there" at 8:00 am ET: 4.
The number of Google News hits returned by searching "There was probably some skepticism in your beady eyes there" at 8:45 am ET: 3.
Paul Krugman's ironically headlined last column until January (He's off to write a textbook!!) is called "No Surrender," and it suggests that the chip that Karl Rove had implanted in Ralph "400,000 Man" Nader's brain has been moved to Krugman's cranium. LINK
Glen Johnson in the Boston Globe leaves open a world of possibility for the political future of Senator John Kerry (D-Liberal MA) . LINK
In the Raleigh News and Observer, Rob Christensen and Martha Quillin speak to friends of Elizabeth Edwards to attest to her resilience, grace, and determination to beat cancer. LINK
We've seen all those traits too in her. Get well soon, Mrs. Edwards.