McCain camp’s highest-paid employee in first half of October? Palin’s makeup artist

Michael Luo writes at the NYT’s The Caucus blog:
“Who was the highest paid individual in Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign during the first half of October as it headed down the homestretch? Not Randy Scheunemann, Mr. McCain’s…

Must-read: Jane Mayer on how Washington outsider Palin angled to become Washington insider

The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer has published what is so far the most detailed account of how Sarah Palin engineered her rise to national political prominence.

Throughout the campaign, Palin has mocked what she calls “the mainstream

…

SNL Thursday: Bush endorses McCain/Palin

Will Farrell returned for a cameo as George W. Bush on last night’s Thurday edition of SNL weekend update. The video, for sizing reasons, is below the jump.

The Al Franken Senate campaign: How to sit still in the polls — and win

In politics as in the intensive care unit, a flat line is usually a sign that something bad is happening. At the moment, however, I’m looking at the essentially flat — actually slightly declining — arc of Al Franken’s polling performance in the Minnesota US Senate race, and that line describes a very different story: the transformation of Franken from also-ran to frontrunner without ever budging more than a couple of points in poll standings.

How did this happen?

Photoshop funnies: Michele Bachmann does Anita Bryant

We noticed this image at the blog Eat Read Play when it linked to our 2006 Michele Bachmann video from yesterday. Anita Bryant, for those too young to remember, was the 1950s beauty queen who went…

TPT doc airing tonight goes up close and personal with Minnesota Senate candidates

Tonight at 8 on Twin Cities Public Television, reporter Mary Lahammer files “3 Big Moments,” a half-hour profile of US Senate candidates Dean Barkley, Al Franken and Sen. Norm Coleman. The subject of the Barbara Walters-style…

MnIndy video: In 2006 speech, Michele Bachmann said God told her to run for Congress

Here, presented for the first time, is a complete version of Michele Bachmann’s controversial 2006 speech from Living Word Christian Center. Captured by Ken Avidor of Dump Bachmann, it offers a remarkable portrait of the Minnesota congressional representative who has been thrust into the spotlight in the past week by her assertion that Barack Obama and numerous unnamed members of Congress were “anti-American.”

In a church setting, Bachmann is extremely candid about the right-religious basis of her politics and her political career, telling listeners God instructed her to get into politics and that it’s the job of Christians to “suit up… sign up [and] do what He is calling us to do” in the battle against radical Islam.

The Schultz Report: Hard to say whether ‘anti-Americans’ dustup could beat Bachmann in conservative 6th

David Schultz, who’s been in Europe on a speaking tour about the US elections, is back with us again for a new installment of the Schultz Report. In this edition, we talk about the recent tightening in some of the national presidential polls, the Minnesota Senate race between Norm Coleman, Al Franken, and Dean Barkley, and — of course — the controversy engendered by Rep. Michele Bachmann’s rant about Barack Obama and other “anti-Americans” last Friday.

Video: Bachmann, on WCCO-TV, defends ‘anti-American’ remarks and withdrawn Vennes pardon letter

In full-on damage control mode, Michele Bachmann sat down with WCCO’s Esme Murphy Sunday for an interview about the media firestorm occasioned by her claim on Hardball Friday that Barack…

Michele Bachmann’s ‘Hardball’ blowup: Minnesotans knew it was only a matter of time

Following Rep. Michele Bachmann’s appearance with Chris Matthews yesterday, America is learning what many in Minnesota already knew, which is that putting Bachmann in front of a live microphone is like handing an excitable 15-year-old a bottle of gin and a loaded gun. The only question is when something unspeakable is going to happen.

Bachmann is no stranger to the hysterical off-the-cuff reaction.