The Election — In a Word
Mike Allen, for those who don't know, is Washington's insiders' insider.Mike Allen, for those who don’t know, is Washington’s insiders’ insider. Every morning, sometimes as early as 4 a.m., the Politico.com editor sends out, via e-mail, a newsletter called the Political Playbook, a heads-up for the capital’s political junkies.
The Playbook summarizes what Allen considers the top-of-the-morning news and analysis from inside and outside the Beltway, original interviews, and a schedule of what’s happening around town during the day. It is required reading in a city where taxi drivers are listening to National Public Radio or C-SPAN radio, even if they can’t speak much English. They know that their passengers do.Allen outdid himself last Wednesday morning with five pages under this segmented headline:“OBAMA II: ‘You voted for action’ — REPUBLICANS IN FREE FALL: Knives are out; Senate, White House wipeout worse than GOP’s worst case scenario …”The lead then is a Rembrandt of compression:“WINNERS: President Obama … October surprises … the auto bailout … the polls … early advertising … Nate Silver … defining your opponent … Bill Clinton … Hispanics … women … Rob Portman … ‘Saturday Night Live’ … Chris Christie … Twitter … takeaways … Michelle Obama … Marco Rubio … the DSCC … David Axelrod’s mustache … the Mormon church (no one cared) … David Plouffe … data mining … Jim Messina … Stephanie Cutter … early voting … Priorities USA … Paul Ryan.“LOSERS: Mitt Romney … super PACs … millionaires and billionaires … the Bush map … male Republican candidates musing about rape … Michael Barone … the NRSC … poll deniers … Gallup … Clint Eastwood … the Bain brand … Tim Pawlenty … Rasmussen … Donald Trump … the Des Moines Register endorsement … quote approval … Paul Ryan.”I know a couple of those references are obscure or even impenetrable to outsiders and other civilians, but they do speak volumes in Washington. And Allen has asked his readers and ordinary Americans, too, to send him their one- or two-word descriptions of who’s in and who’s out. His e-mail is [email protected].© 2012 Universal Uclick
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