Dowd Dumped From Straight Talk Express

They're trying to turn Obama into Willie Horton, Dowd writes

(NEWSER) - Before Karl Rove, Maureen Dowd reminds us, it was Lee Atwater who masterminded the Republican smear campaign, and his demolition of Michael Dukakis was his greatest, dirtiest success. Atwater painted the 1988 candidate as a weak Harvard-educated elitist with a weird last name, a man who supported "the Scary Black Man" and was not on "the American side." Watching John McCain's ugly campaign, the New York Times columnist asks simply, "Sound familiar?" More»

CNN anchor rips McCain's 'delicate flower' treatment

(NEWSER) - Another rant on sexism has political bloggers buzzing today, Mark Silva notes in the Swamp. Only in this one, CNN’s Campbell Brown lays into the McCain campaign for clamping “chauvinistic chains” on Sarah Palin by not letting her take questions from the media as other candidates do. More»

Upcoming tour aims to rally media attention

(NEWSER) - John McCain is now in a race for media coverage, packing in a full slate of public events through April, Politico reports. The press corps tailing the famously accessible senator has dwindled since he sealed the Republican nomination. Though campaign aides say his Democratic contenders “would rather be us,” McCain's often news-free days aren't pulling in as many front pages. More»

And Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin is still pretty scary: reactions

(NEWSER) - If you thought Julianne Moore's Sarah Palin was terrifying in the first Game Change teaser , wait until you see her in the full trailer, where she utters lines such as, "We have to win this thing. I so don’t want to go back to Alaska." Watch below, then read on for some reactions:

• This will clearly be "a Frankenstein-esque story about McCain’s staffers coming to regret the choice they made in bringing a little-known governor into the limelight," writes Jon Bershad at Mediaite . "The full trailer ... gives us even more famous actors getting their turn to stare in horror at the 'monster' they’ve created."

HBO debuts first teaser

(NEWSER) - For all of you who have spent the past nine months wondering how Julianne Moore’s Sarah Palin impersonation will stack up against Tina Fey’s , you finally have your answer. HBO debuted its first teaser trailer for Game Change, the film due in March that's based on the Mark Halperin-John Heilemann book about the 2008 presidential election. Neither Ed Harris as John McCain nor Woody Harrelson as top adviser Steve Schmidt sound much like their real-life counterparts, notes David Jackson in USA Today , but Moore’s Palin is spot-on: Numerous publications including People , New York , the Huffington Post , and Jezebel are fairly impressed. More»