Karen Hughes

Ana Marie Cox, former Washington Editor of Radar, conducted a long interview with CBS News political analyst-turned-McCain-Palin campaign advisor Nicolle Wallace for Tina Brown and Barry Diller's Web site, The Daily Beast. (The Observer's Felix Gillette spoke with Ms. Wallace earlier this month.)

Early on, Ms. Wallace jokes that she walks her dog, Lily, "in Central Park with a group of wonderful, flaming liberals who I love and I love their dogs," but soon enough, Ms. Cox gets down to some serious questioning:

What are the media lessons people can learn from this election?

I think the networks have re-emerged as the arbiters of what story gets through.  read more »

John McCain isn’t the first presumptive presidential nominee to announce ahead of time when he will announce his running-mate.

Just as speculation over Barack Obama’s imminent V.P. selection reached fever pitch yesterday, McCain’s campaign not coincidentally leaked to the Politico news that the G.O.P. candidate will make his own choice public on August 29 – the day after Obama’s acceptance speech (and McCain’s 72nd birthday). The goal is to shift the focus away from Obama as soon as his speech ends, denying him (in theory, anyway) a post-convention bounce.

Actually, the announcement-of-an-announcement strategy has been used before – by Al Gore in 2000. Lagging behind George W.  read more »

Cal’s mission for America meets Olympian bureaucracy in Beijing.  read more »

That's how The New Republic's Ryan Lizza describes Hillary's operation, in a comprehensive look at Hillaryland that has the rare virtue of not understating the role of an operative who will, as always, remain nameless.

He can't quite decide if the operation is a tight band of (mostly) sisters or if internal strife is about to break out, but bets that ideology, not ego, will be the major internal fault line.

Also: Ann Lewis is the Democratic Karen Hughes?

An Italian friend living in N.Y.C.  read more »

Among the most admirable aspects of George W.  read more »