News Digest, 2/4/08: The Big Buildup

From bad economic indicators to the shifting Super Tuesday climate, the last few days have been brimming with news.

The economic news continues to be bad following fed rate cuts and information on poor economic growth: on Friday, the Labor Department revealed that jobs declined in the month of January, the first net national employment decrease in years. Considering that this week will also be full of financial news on trade, Bush's proposed budget, and various reports about activity in January, you can bet that more disconcerting news bits are in the pipe.

In unrelated finance news, the FEC reports started to roll in last week, and Hillary Clinton outraised her rivals in the last quarter of 2007 by bringing in $27 million. Obama came closest to her totals, of course, raising $23.5 million. I have been trying to imagine what the finance numbers might look like for the first quarter of 2008, and I'm having trouble wrapping my brain around the possibilities.

John McCain and Mitt Romney did not have as much luck with raising money. Romney has had to put tens of millions of his own money into his candidacy, and he will probably be spending even more of his own money hand over fist in preparation for Super Tuesday. This story does not carry the same sort of high-profile, anecdotal narrative that the story about John McCain's finances do, though. McCain had to get a $3 million loan that required a life insurance policy, giving rise to stories from a few sources (including this one) with cheery titles like "You Bet Your Life."

And the National Republican Congressional Committee has some financial and economic troubles of its own. Honestly, how bad do things have to be for you to call the FBI on yourself? That sends a bad signal around which I'm not sure you can construct a positive message.

Speculation and analysis on the state of things ahead of Super Tuesday continues in earnest from a legion of sources, and I found two of them (California as Democratic battleground, and the GOP outlook) particularly interesting. There is enough uncertainty built in to the Democratic contest on Tuesday, though, to be reasonably certain that it won't be over after tomorrow. In that spirit, some talk has already started about Texas mattering in this year's presidential candidate selection process. So get ready: candidates may be coming to your town.

If you're bored with reality shows, I have good news for you: the Writers Strike is starting to look like it might be close to some sort of resolution. Everyone is being cautiously optimistic, and I think one of the big motivations here is the Academy Awards. The Screen Actors Guild has already said their members will not cross the picket line to attend the Oscars, and that has become such a focus of the reportage on the strike as to indicate that the Oscars are hugely, hugely important to the industry. Here's hoping everyone gets what they need and everyone can go back to work.

Lastly, our mailbag on Friday included much on whether everyone might end up as everyone else's VP choice, and included an answer from Patrick McLeod, our new contributing editor. And Grace Stevens rounded out the weekend with a new episode of On The Record, featuring an interview with John McClelland, a Democratic candidate for state representative.