Exit Richardson

The thinning of the Democratic presidential candidate field continues, as New Mexico governor Bill Richardson is expected to end his bid for the nation's highest office tomorrow.

Richardson has an impressive resume: Diplomat, cabinet member, governor, and congressman, but his lack of charisma sunk his quest.

He'll appear on the media's short list of vice presidential hopes, as he did four years ago, but I don't see it happening. Hey, did you know he lacked charisma?

Also, one of the few times he drew notice on the campaign trail was when he suggested that the arid Southwest should tap the Great Lakes for water, declaring that "states like Wisconsin are awash in water."

He backed off his stand after concerned residents of the Great Lakes states, as well as some newspapers and politicians, including Democrats, erupted like an geyser and denounced his suggestion.

If he's on the fall ticket, Republican operatives in the swing states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Ohio will be be quick to remind voters of what he said about those inland seas.

Thanks for the link:

The Moderate Voice

Technorati tags: politics 2008 election Democrats Wisconsin water conservation Bill Richardson Great Lakes water Ohio Minnesota

Romney looks to Michigan

There is some good news for Michigan today--a state that hasn't had much of it since the Detroit Tigers won the American League pennant two years ago.

The Great Lake State is plagued by high unemployment and people there are voting with with their feet. Michigan and Rhode Island were the only two states to lose population in 2006. The continuing turmoil involving the domestic automobile industry is to blame.

Of course decades ago, Romney's father George was the chairman of American Motors, and later, governor of Michigan.

And Michigan is where Romney hopes to score something he desperately needs--a primary win in next week's vote there.

Unfortunately for Mitt his ties to Michigan, like Hillary's Clinton's to Illinois, are ancient history.

On the flipside, he's an excellent communicator, and Michiganders may thank the former Massachusetts governor for the attention he plans to give the state he was born in. Romney has "moved back" to Michigan for a week, and will only leave it to attend tomorrow's Fox News debate.

But John McCain, whose campaign was invigorated by his win in yesterday's New Hampshire primary, plans to make his presence in Michigan a strong one as well.

Technorati tags: elections 2008 Hillary Clinton Hillary McCain Romney Republican New Hampshire Michigan

Chicago Sun-Times in trouble

Chicago used to be a multiple major-daily paper town. Although the metropolitan area has some worthwhile regional dailies, for thirty years it's been just the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times that have been covering the city and the sprawl.

Viewing this subject from a business perspective, the Chicago Tribune's strength has been its up-scale readership, which of course makes it easier for the Trib to attract advertisers.

Which makes it not surprising that it's the Sun-Times that is struggling.

From the Chicago "free registration required" Tribune:

Readers of the Chicago Sun-Times picked up a smaller paper Tuesday, the latest tangible sign of the economic struggles engaging metropolitan newspapers around the country.

The tabloid's physical shrinkage, by about 1 inch to save newsprint costs, is more easily accomplished than the pending staff cuts that will pare editorial positions by 19 percent, the largest local newsroom layoff in recent memory.

The Tribune will also shrink the size of its paper next week as well.

The Sun-Times is still shaking from the turmoil from the days when Conrad Black was publisher of the paper. Black was convicted of various fraud charges last year. The Sun-Times was part of Black's Hollinger newspaper empire that included the London Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post, and the National Post of Canada. Hollinger is defunct, ironically the rump of it is the Sun-Times News Group, which of course includes the paper as well as a bunch of suburban publications.

But the Sun-Times staff can't blame all of their problems on Black. Demographics, new media, and of course being #2 in the Second City hurts. If an advertiser can afford only one placement in Chicago, common sense says its the Tribune that will score the ad.

I hope the Sun-Times makes it out of this mess. Ask not for whom the bell tolls...

Related posts:

Cincinnati Post publishes final edition on New Year's Eve

Northwestern J-school dean faces resistance as he drags it into modern times

Conrad Black gets 78 months in prison

Technorati tags: Conrad Black Media Chicago Chicago Sun-Times journalism business advertising

Two reasons why it was a bad Tuesday for Obama

Of course the news that Senator Barack Obama was not able to plunge the wooden stake into the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign will be one of the stories coming out of yesterday's New Hampshire Primary.

But that's not the only bad news for the Obama campaign. Tony Rezko, his friend, one-time property neighbor, and perhaps his first political sponsor received the news that his trial will go on as scheduled on February 25.

Rezko's lawyers say they need more time to sort through documents, claiming that there are 1.5 million of them to review.

The trial will probably last a few weeks, and will therefore be taking place while the ballots are cast in these March Democratic primaries: Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas Vermont, Wyoming, and Mississippi.

Rezko, a prolific fundraiser for Democratic candidates, is on trial for steering state business to campaign contributors of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, a scheme that US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald called "Pay to play on steroids."

Related post:

President Obama, January, 2009: Who will he appoint as US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois?

Technorati tags: democrats elections 2008 Obama Barack Obama politics Illinois Tony Rezko corruption Patrick Fitzgerald

Hillary, McCain win in the Granite State

Well who wrote this about Hillary Clinton's prospects in the New Hampshire Primary on Monday afternoon?

Don't count her out just yet. The people of New Hampshire relish their "first primary in the nation" distinction, and some votes may come her way courtesy of some very self-conscious Granite Staters

Oh, that was me.

Of course, sometimes I'm wrong.

But at least for now, it's premature to press the delete button on the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign. Not by a huge amount, but she edged Barack Obama (more on him in the next post) in the New Hampshire primary.

John McCain won on the Republican end. I pretty much wrote him off last summer in this post, where I compared the McCain campaign to the 18th Century partition of Poland. (Yes, I'm wrong sometimes.) That's McCain up on top giving his victory speech in Nashua, New Hampshire, taken from a TV monitor in front of Dulles Airport's gate D15, as I waited to board my flight back to Chicago last night.

The big loser last night was Republican Mitt Romney, who spent tons of money and time in New Hampshire, as well as in Iowa, and ended up on second place both times. Romney of course is the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, and the bulk of New Hampshire's population is whithin the broadcast reach of Boston radio and television stations.

Technorati tags: democrats elections 2008 Hillary Clinton Hillary Obama Barack Obama McCain Romney Republican New Hampshire