A couple of issues in the presidential campaign may have gotten severely shaken up this week, courtesy of a couple of unexpected sources: stem cell scientists and the U.S. Supreme Court.

First off, scientists reported Tuesday that they had turned human skin cells into what

  Â

appear to be embryonic stem cells without having use human embryos, which could have the effect of taking the issue off the table during the general election campaign. That’s a potential boon for the Republican nominee, given the fact that the general public is at odds with the GOP’s base, which has generally abhorred stem cell research on moral grounds.

Next, the justices announced that they would decide whether the Second Amendment of the Constitution grants individuals the right to keep guns in their homes for private

 Â

use, with their ruling expected to land squarely in the middle of the campaign. That could make the Democratic nominee cringe, because the party’s base generally favors gun control and pro-gun advocates can be expected to make hay from the issue regardless where the ruling lands.

Overnight, the blogosphere and the MSM pundits put the pedal to the metal in an attempt to discern What it All Means.

On stem cells:

Over at the National Review, the new development was hailed as both a vindication of President Bush, and, of all people, Rush Limbaugh. The Washington Monthly’s Kevin Drum was a bit more nonplussed about the full-throated cheering. And the New Republic’s blog also wishes the triumphalists on the right would just shut up. The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan gingerly poked at the moral ambiguities of the whole debate.

On guns:

Glenn Reynolds, Mr. Instapundit himself, weighed in on the political signifcance of the case in the New York Post. ScotusBlog picked through its intricacies. And not surprisingly, the editorialists at The Washington Times and The New York Times reached perfectly polar opposite conclusions.

 

 

Â

Thanks to the Coen brothers, Fargo has been something of a punchline for the better part of a decade. Now, however improbably, it’s also become a kind of a mini-Ground Zero of

 Â

the presidential campaign.

Democratic candidate Barack Obama will open his North Dakota field office there on Saturday, just a week after Republican Rudy Giuliani blew into town for a quick fundraiser. (Giuliani beat Obama to the organizational punch, opening his own Fargo field office last summer, the first and until now, only other presidential candidate to do so.)

Given its tiny population and deeply red hue (voting for the Republican candidate in every election since 1968), North Dakota might seem like an odd place for a Democrat to spend time and money. But it’s part of the jackpot on Feb. 5, the so-called Super Duper Tuesday when nearly two dozen states (Minnesota among them) hold their primaries and caucuses. Steve Hildebrand, a deputy manager of the Obama campaign, told reporters on a conference call Tuesday that “a lot of states the size of North Dakota are going to voice their wishes on Feb 5 … It’s important that rural voters have the opportunity to play a real role in deciding who the party puts forward as a nominee for president.”

Although Obama’s North Dakota campaign will be headed by a former state Democratic chairman, his Chicago-based organizers initially weren’t geographically astute when they announced the opening of the Fargo office. Their web page originally superimposed “Fargo, N.D.” over a map of Pennsylvania, a flub merrily lampooned by a conservative North Dakota blogger earlier this week. By this morning, the map had been corrected. Â
 

Â

   Â

As Thanksgiving Day approaches, the presidential campaigns are starting to wind down and (however temporarily) go dark as most Americans turn their attention as far away as possible from politics to turkey, family and football. Most of the candidates’ schedules being released for this week show campaign stops on Monday and Tuesday — with a few events sprinkled during the day on Wednesday.

But two indefatgable Dems — Chris Dodd and Joe Biden — don’t plan to let something like a national holiday get in the way of their longshot campaigns.

Iowa Radio reports that they’re staying put in the state and combining the feasting with politicking.

“We’re going to spent Thanksgiving with my family and we’re going to be with good friends of ours in Iowa,” Dodd told the radio network. “They’ve got a huge family and they’ve invited my huge family. We’ve got some coming from Utah and Connecticut and the staff out in Iowa. We’re going to spend a wonderful Thanksgiving Day.”

Dodd, whose wife and two young children have moved to Iowa for the duration of the campaign, will take his family to a farm near Monticello with a family who will have more than 100 members of their own family there, plus the Dodd contingent. “A great Thanksgiving, Midwestern dinner so we’re looking forward to it,” Dodd says.

Biden and his family will be spending Thanksgiving Day in Des Moines, Radio Iowa reported. They will hold canned food drives on Wednesday, then the Biden family and his campaign staff will get together on Thursday for a Thanksgiving meal.  

Makes you wonder how these folks will spend Christmas Day.

.mail-box { margin-top: 10px; width: 150px; } .emailform-visible { } .emailform-hidden { display: none; } #email-form { border: 1px solid #aaa; margin-top: 8px; padding: 10px; width: 300px; } #email-form .title { font-weight: bold; font-size: 11px; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 4px; color: #1266a6; } #email-form form { margin: 0px; padding: 0px; } #email-form .prompt { font-size: 10px; color: #555; } #email-form .field { margin-bottom: 4px; } #email-form .field input { border: 1px solid #ccc; margin: 2px; padding: 3px; width: 265px; height: 23px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; } #email-form .field textarea { border: 1px solid #ccc; margin: 2px; padding: 3px; width: 265px; height: 75px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; }

  Â

 

Yes, tonight’s Democratic presidential debate (the 453rd of the cycle?) is being relentlessly hyped (CNN, which is broadcasting it, breathlessly notes that the candidates “are taking off the gloves and it’s going to be a fight to the finish in Las Vegas!”). But given the recent dynamics of the race, it promises to be a good show.

It’s the first rematch since last month’s debate, where frontrunner Hillary Clinton’s foes were for the first time able to draw blood and both Barack Obama and John Edwards have been turning up the rhetorical heat ever since. Even Clinton herself has conceded, “I wasn’t at my best,” and her campaign has been stumbling ever since.

Here’s the nickel analysis by CNN correspondent Candy Crowley: “Anyone paying attention in the days since the last debate would hear the sounds of a calendar closing in. The rhetoric in both the Edwards and Obama campaigns has hit new decibels, aimed at driving down Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers. From Clinton’s two-week struggle to explain her position on driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants, to the planted question in one of her town hall meetings, Clinton has given them new ammo.”

Other members of the chattering class were also weighing in today. Notes the Washington Post, “with Democrats heading into another debate tonight in Las Vegas, the race is more fluid than it has been in months.” Per the New York Times, the debate “offers opportunities for all three candidates, but Mrs. Clinton has the most repair work to do.”  USA Today offered up a scorecard on the debates to date.

The show starts at 7.

As usual, The Onion nails it. ‘Nuff said.

Ole Savior, a Minneapolis resident who has long been described as a “perennial” candidate for governor or U.S. Senator, is now officially a candidate for president. A self-described writer, poet and artist, he fired up his fax machine this week to blitz his hometown news media with news that the New Hampshire Secretary of State has accepted his declaration of candidacy to run as a Democratic candidate in that state’s primary and will be listed on

Â

the ballot as “O. Savior.”

To date, Savior is zero-for-nine in his statewide runs for office and most recently unsuccessfully ran for mayor of Minneapolis, despite his declaration a few years ago that “I don’t fool around with small offices like mayor.”

In an information packet Savior sent around with the news from New Hampshire, he noted that his favorite movie is “Lord of the Rings,” his favorite book, the Book of Revelation and his favorite actress Mariyln Monroe.

Savior, who has often bristled at being described as a gadfly or repeat loser (going so far as to once suing the Star Tribune for $100 million), also is trying to get on the ballot in Iowa, North Dakota, Texas and Arizona. No word from him (yet) on whether he’s been successful.

Â

The campaign’s big story this weekend was the Democrats’ Jefferson-Jackson Day blowout in Des Moines, where 9,000 of the party faithful showed up to cheer on their presidential candidates. The problem is, it was big news that happened late Saturday night, too late, in many cases for more than snippets and squibs to appear in the Sunday newspapers and morning talk shows.

With the Iowa caucuses less than eight weeks away, the speechifying was widely

Â

considered to be the kick-start to the final stretch of a long, long campaign. And the overnight consensus was that Barack Obama blew the hall away, with a rhetorical performance that could provide him with some momentum during those final weeks.

Here’s a sampling of the reviews, starting with a rapturous one from David Yepsen, the Des Moines Register’s dean of political gurus. Should he win the caucuses, “Saturday’s dinner will be remembered as one of the turning points in his campaign here.”

The New Republic’s Michael Crowley also crowned Obama as the winner of the evening. So did Time.com’s normally-snarky Ana Louise Cox. The Politico’s Roger Simon was less impressed, but gave the night to Obama by backhanding his foes.

And the Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan, still in the throes of a swoon over Obama and the man’s prospects as president, rounds up bloggers and videos of the speech.

Â

When Michelle Obama hit Minnesota Wednesday afternoon, acting as First Surrogate for her husband, she lavished her attention and smiles on a couple of dozen students and staffers at the Hope Commiunity in south Minneapolis. She chatted about community organizing, empowerment, that kind of thing, for more than an hour.

But no, her spokeswoman said, no time to take questions from the gaggle of journalists standing by and watching the photo op. A shame, in a way, because she can be candid to a fault, like the time recently when she said Hillary Clinton was a polarizing figure and questioned the so-called inevitability of her nomination. “Sometimes we wear the same suit even if it’s got holes in it,” she said. “We need a new suit, not just a new tie or new pants.”

Typical self-centered journalist quibble, right? Not exactly, because it brought to mind the hermetic bubbles that both Barack Obama and Clinton have sealed themselves in for months on the campaign trail, a phenomenon examined this week by the Washington Post’s Ruth Marcus.

Would a little give-and-take on the campaign trail be such a terrible thing? Wouldn’t it be nice to hear the candidates unlimber and expand beyond the 30-second sound bite? (Which, ironically enough, Michelle Obama mocked during her Minneapolis visit.)