Throughout the campaign we have been gathering the top political writers in the country, and asking them to discuss the presidential race. Today they discuss the Democratic National Convention. Seattlest: Thank you for taking some time off in Denver to speak with us. What are your impressions of the convention so far? Tom (The Wall Street Journal): First off, there's an EDWARD Kennedy? Where has this asshole been hiding?! Mark (CBS News): I had the......

Throughout the campaign we have been gathering the top political writers in the country, and asking them to discuss the presidential race. Today they discuss the media’s role in American politics. Seattlest: How do you feel the media has covered this year’s campaign? Jeff (NPR): I'm still waiting for the shoe to drop on the media's coverage of the anointed one, Barack Obama. He's like a perfect storm of taboo topics. I remember watching Daily......

">Throughout the campaign we have been gathering the top political writers in the country, and asking them to discuss the presidential race. Today they discuss the end of the Democratic primary, Senator Clinton's future, and a brief look at the general. Seattlest: It's been a very eventful week, with Senator Obama wrapping up the nomination and Senator Clinton set to end her campaign, where do you see the race going now? Ryan (Time Magazine): Finally.......

This whole thing started way back on January 3, a gray, rainy winter day with a high of 47. Now, six months later in the heat of a gray, rainy summer day with a high close to 60, it will come to an end. Remember how all those states moved their primary/caucus dates up so they would be important, how did that work there, Florida/Michigan? Senator Obama has rented out the 20,000 seat Xcel......

Clinton, of course, would be a Boca-Burger. We all know the drill: you are what you eat. But does who you are also determine your presidential candidates? Are the late-night comedians right? Is Clinton butter to Obama's olive oil? According to a story in today's New York Times McCain's supporters shop at Safeway, Clinton's at Whole Foods, Obama's at farmers markets. (We have the feeling he'd do better in Fremont than Magnolia.) All too easy.......

Eric Alterman is the sort of liberal we like to refer to as a "Democrat," as in, capitol "D" Democratic Party stalwart. As such, this Nation columnist and Media Matters blogger was an arch-partisan prototype for those crazy kids at DailyKos, back in the days when armchair politicos were relegated to penning rants to the editor of their local newspaper. In advance of his appearance tonight at Town Hall to promote his new book, Why......

Over at the Slog, they've tossed some fresh meat to the slavering Obama and Clinton hounds: video of Clinton repeating three or four times that she and McCain have a lifetime of experience to draw upon, while Obama has "a speech he made in 2002." Which makes this TIME article about the value of experience especially topical:[Anders] Ericsson's primary finding is that rather than mere experience or even raw talent, it is dedicated, slogging, generally......

Over the weekend we got an email from our friend in Wisconsin asking, "Why does Washington have a caucus and a primary? I don't get it. How does this work?" Uh, it has something to do with a pissing match between the state legislature and the state parties? We really don’t know, so we sent her this article, and changed the subject. No Democratic delegates will be handed out tonight, and the Republican winner will......

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We have gathered some of the top political writers in the country and asked them to discuss the presidential race throughout the year. Today they discuss McCain’s new frontrunner status, religion in American politics, and Edwards’ departure. Seattlest: How do you handicap the Republican race following John McCain’s win in Florida? Mark (The New York Times): The GOP in Florida has given McCain true front runner status. It must suck to be a wacko Republican......