Water Glasses? Hofstra Sweats the Debate Details

Brett O'Donnell was getting too much credit: Politico

(NEWSER) - Today's lesson in the stroking of political egos: Team Romney has dropped newly added debate coach Brett O'Donnell, the man widely credited with engineering Romney's more aggressive (and successful) approach in the last debate, reports Politico . The problem? O'Donnell had been getting too much credit for the debate turnaround, and that was ruffling feathers within the campaign, GOP sources tell the website. Another insider tells much the same to CNN , calling O'Donnell's role "vastly overblown." The next scheduled debate isn't until Feb. 22. 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."

Let the crowds make noise: David Weigel

(NEWSER) - The Republicans debate again tonight , and there's plenty of carping about how there's too many of these things. Not from David Weigel at Slate . He wants more, more, more. If they weren't debating, the candidates would be in choreographed campaign mode, which reveals little. "The ideal campaign moment comes when a candidate answers questions with cameras pointed at him and no possibility of escape," he writes. "No control over conditions, or setting, or who does the interview: The candidate is trapped." More»

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»

Republicans so busy sniping, they help Obama shine: Barnes

(NEWSER) - The GOP presidential debates have distracted Americans so badly with their primetime drama that Republicans have created an unlikely winner: President Obama, sighs Fred Barnes in The Weekly Standard . "The GOP candidates have reduced themselves to supplicants whose weak points are probed by media questioners," Barnes writes. "Meanwhile, they’ve given President Obama a free pass to set the terms of the 2012 campaign." More»