Different Priorities: [Steve Benen, The Carpet Bagger Report]: “But it’s worth remembering from time to time that there are two major wings of the movement: the principled and the political. Players like Dobson, Perkins, Land, and Weyrich care about specific social issues, and aren’t open to compromise. Guys like Robertson want to get invited to cocktail parties in the East Wing.”
Team Work: [Jeff Dinelli, The Left Coaster]: “Trippi is close friends with Obama advisor David Axlerod. The theory goes something like this: Axlerod and Trippi decide Edwards can't possibly win, so Axlerod sends Trippi to Edwards' campaign to put on a full-blown attack, and like a suicide bomber, Edwards blows up his own campaign, dragging Hillary down in the process with a rallying cry of ‘Hillary Must Not Win.’”
Two-Man Race: [Steven Stark, Real Clear Politics]: “That means that for all intents and purposes, Iowa now looks like it is in the process of getting reduced to a Huckabee vs. Romney contest, with the winner getting the pole position to become the alternative to Giuliani or McCain.”
Triangulation: [Kevin Drum, Political Animal]: “So: Politics 101. Stake out an ultra-extreme position so that when the rest of your party endorses a merely extreme position it looks like it's a moderate compromise. … Question: why don't liberals do this? The stock answer is that we're wimps, but I don't think that's it.”
--Ben Crair