Graydon Carter’s Response to Bill Clinton: ‘Meh’

In a quick e-mail, the 'Vanity Fair' editor dismisses Bill Clinton and his camp's complaints about the magazine's new Clinton article.

Posted 06/04/08 in Daily Intel : Early and Often

Tags: bill clinton, early and often, graydon carter, jay carson, politics, todd purdum

We Would Totally Get Bill Clinton's Back in a Fight

The online media is in a tizzy over Bill Clinton's tirade against 'Vanity Fair' scribe Todd Purdum. But we think it was totally awesome.

Posted 06/03/08 in Daily Intel : Early and Often

Tags: bill clinton, early and often, hillary clinton, jay carson, politics, todd purdum, vanity fair

Hillary’s Communications Guru Takes the Long Way Round

Chances are, many of you know who Clinton's communications director, Howard Wolfson, is. Probably fewer of you know that he is afraid of flying. But among campaign reporters and workers, it's no secret. He hasn't flown on a plane since 1999, when he flew on Air Force One during Hillary's New York senate campaign. But he's never really talked about it until now, when he admitted all his neuroses to Observer reporter Jason Horowitz.

“It’s all mishegoss — fear is not rational,” said Mr. Wolfson when asked to explain the root of his now decade-long aversion to air travel. “I could point to a couple of things but at the end of the day it just ascribes a level of rationality to it that doesn’t exist.”

You'll recall that this primary schedule is one that requires moving from, say, Iowa to New Hampshire or South Carolina to Nevada with great speed. While the rest of the campaign is in the air, Wolfson is driving alone, often up to seventeen hours at a time, in his BMW. One could argue that this is a severe detriment to his usefulness on the trail. One could also argue that since everybody has a phone and a BlackBerry these days, it doesn't really matter. Regardless, we really like that Horowitz is letting us into the secret world of the Hillary press camp. First Hillary's hipster, and now this. He's all up in their bidness! No wonder he's around when they get important phone calls. The Spokesman Who Couldn't Fly [NYO] Related: Hillary's Press Guru Is More Hipster Than Thou

Posted 01/22/08 in Daily Intel : Early and Often

Tags: campaigns, early and often, hillary clinton, howard wolfson, jason horowitz, jay carson, new hampshire, observer, politics, primaries

Hillary's Press Guru Is More Hipster Than Thou

When we saw today's Observer headline about Clinton traveling press secretary Jay Carson, we couldn't help but smile. "Hillary's Hard-Hitting Hipster" was the title of the story, which featured a picture of Carson wearing jeans and a blazer. We well know how the press is quick to stereotype people as hipsters. But once we read the story (burdened by the overwhelming feeling of reverse Schadenfreude we had at young Carson's meteoric success), we realized, it's pretty hard to argue with his hipster cred. Quoth the Observer: • Mr. Carson wore slim jeans, a fitted striped sweater, a trim beard and black high-top Converse All Stars that, according to his close friend Beau Willimon, he spent 30 minutes scuffing in the first after purchasing to achieve a more authentically "punkified" look.

Posted 12/05/07 in Daily Intel : In Other News

Tags: bill clinton, hillary clinton, In Other News, jay carson, observer