If the people of Louisiana are lucky, both the governor and the mayor will appoint personal representatives who will work with one another, … In other words, they can get the bad blood out of...

This is Kaine’s debate. It’s Kaine’s audience. It’s probably Kaine’s region, … one of the most one-sided debates I’ve ever seen.

Is he running purely because of personal ambition, or is he the head of a movement? … We remember the heads of movements.

The amazing thing is that they have permitted their consultants to run a vicious and nasty race,

[Republicans are] probably looking at the ’06 elections and saying, ‘How can we respond to the tsunami that’s coming?’ … Without an energized base, they’re sunk.

McCain has been playing a double high-wire act.

At this point, nothing President Bush says is going to have much impact. The only thing that is going to change public opinion is an improvement in the situation on the ground in Iraq.

This is both a substantive and a stylistic problem for Bush. Stylistically, he needs to convince people that he is in charge now and he gets it now .

Absolutely, … The Republican campaign in Virginia will tell you that, at least privately. The president chose to nationalize that election by showing up on election eve. You don’t want to do that unless you...

But his greatest problem is that it is hard to see him as offering voters anything other than George W. Bush’s third term. And even Bush Republicans realize that the American people don’t want that.

It does cause problems for successors. Then the next person feels obligated to do the same thing.

It’s a show. Maybe in the beginning of a presidency it matters, maybe after something like 9/11 it matters, but generally speaking, it’s more of the same.

It’s good news for Tester and it’s good news for Burns.

[National Security] is an advantage for Republicans, it’s just that the advantage has been reduced somewhat due to the war in Iraq and the eavesdropping issue.

Most of these people have done well because of their connection with DeLay, and DeLay has actively tried to place them in key positions knowing that it would help him and the Republicans in Congress,...

He starts out as a clear favorite, and he’ll be a heavy favorite if the congresswoman doesn’t run again him,

They shore up the party base, making sure that the faithful turn out, and they show that they think the races are important, which sometimes they aren’t.

When you’re worth a couple hundred million it’s less of a problem than most people.

I don’t think it’s restricted to the odd, occasional, off-year location election. This is a way of life in some of those communities.

This is going to be a very expensive race between an incumbent and a quasi-incumbent.

Only the activists, liberal and conservative, will remember this vote.

The loser will have millions of people nursing that grievance for four years, and that will prove invaluable.

There’s no way that someone who’s never been in politics is going to defeat Robert Byrd after all this time and with all this seniority.

We can always go too far, and frequently do. Is it a harbinger? Who knows. But it’s unadulterated bad news for Bush and the Republican Party and great news for Democrats as they attempt to...

Can he attract the 90-percenters? Or will they drift to someone else with a better chance of winning?

The Bush administration simply cannot let this happen. They have to stop this one way or the other. It would make a mockery of much of what President Bush has about our creation of a...

It could have an effect, … It will certainly make it more difficult to reach a consensus on immigration.

He bottomed out on Iraq even before Cindy Sheehan’s protest started. Look at the poll numbers, Americans have been increasingly disaffected.

That would make sense. Norman is obviously the national party’s choice.

This is a classic one.

That is a major problem for President Bush and the Republicans. The Democrats are bound to benefit from it in the mid-term elections of 2006. The question is, to what degree?

When you’ve got this many people maneuvering, it eliminates the period of governing that used to be guaranteed between elections.

Say anything. Even something mildly critical would have no doubt helped in his primary.

He continues to do it because when he gives a series of high-profile speeches, his numbers go up, but as soon as he shifts focus, the numbers return to a lower level.

The national media will talk about (national problems) because it’s something that everyone in all 50 states can understand, but the reality is these are minor factors. These are local races. … The issues tend...

For Bush, it’s a manmade political disaster on top of a natural disaster. The Bush administration could not have done much worse, it really couldn’t. They appeared detached and slow to realize the seriousness of...

If Warner can’t swing the election to his own lieutenant governor with a popularity rating of 75 percent, then Democrats have the right to ask, ‘Can this guy really swing any Southern states or was...

It’s completely transparent that he’s testing the waters and would very much like to run. He’s wanted to run for president for years, and 2008 may be the best opportunity he has.

The gap could shrink but I doubt very seriously they will eliminate it.

If you end up separating yourself from the president of your party, you are going to turn off a certain number of partisans.

I doubt that they will every be as unanimous as they once were.

It’s the first time we have seen it since Bush became president.

A majority of Americans living today, a surprisingly small majority because of the large youthful population, still remembers Watergate. And when we hear the word eavesdropping, those of us who lived during Watergate, we think...

It does follow a pattern. Voters want good government, but they also want it within their ideological framework.

Very worried, … They really are in danger of losing a substantial number of seats in Congress and, more importantly, key governorships in 2006.

It splits his base, and it will be endless trouble for him if it goes forward, and I’m sure he won’t let it happen.

He’s come across as a Giuliani-type leader. He’s risen to the challenge and he clearly has the leadership gene.

Clearly, Americans love golden oldies, but this golden oldie will have much more difficulty hitting the charts this time around.

Expect this protracted race to get down and dirty, with both parties yet again spending freely in Southern Indiana media markets.

They’re trying to get the public’s attention again and remind them of the arguments that once worked with the public.