Plays for the Presidency™

 

Ballooning Drama:

April 22, 2007

Fred Thompson Tests the Political Breeze

On April 11, 2007 Fred Thompson, the former Tenn. senator and current Law & Order regular, announced with great import that he had fought off lymphoma. What was his play? A Lantern : a voluntary disclosure of less-than-flattering facts which clears the air. (You say it was also a Screen on Elizabeth Edwards” cancer fight? You get an A today.)

Crazy Ivan:

April 21, 2007

McCain Damns the Torpedoes

We didn’t expect to begin this blog with a Crazy Ivan – pound for pound, the riskiest of plays. Plays are the irreducibly simple stratagems that people and organizations use to influence one another, and this one operates at the margins of reason.

Scrappy Screener:

April 15, 2007

Edwards Takes on McCain While GOP Field Pauses

In our inaugural post we looked at how and why John McCain laid a collision course for skeptical conservatives and anti-war detractors. We closed by asking, "How will politicos respond to this crazy play?"

Carpet Screening

March 6, 2007

Hillary Plays Selma, Bill and Women for Full Effect

In 1963, when Martin Luther King, Jr. famously roared "I Have a Dream" at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial, the meaning — and the irony — was unmistakable. He was running a daring Screen , a short-term rental of a long-term symbol of fairness and equity.

McCain’s Mutiny

March 5, 2007

White House Hopeful Guesses Right on Conservative Conference

The Conservative Political Action Conference, held last week in Washington, D.C., is the preeminent annual All-Star outing for GOP politicos and pundits. If you”re in the business of wooing the right, you”d think it”s a must-attend in the run-up to 2008.