Politics

According to Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark's pollster Geoff Garin, Clark appeals less to women than men voters. Part of the campaign's effort to decrease this "gender gap" is to change Clark's wardrobe. "Gone are his navy blue suit, red tie and loafers, replaced by argyle sweaters, corduroys and duck books," reports the New York Times.

Jay Rosen thinks coverage of the 2004 presidential election is shaping up as an exercise in "Horse Race Now! Horse Race Tomorrow! Horse Race Forever!" In this time-dishonored tradition of political journalism, reporters use sports as a metaphor for reporting on politics, relying for insights on political insiders who have learned how to spin the "race" as a game of "inside baseball." The result: "An army of sentries encircles the game, guarding every situation from which a glimmer of fresh truth might be allowed to escape."

A Los Angeles woman who came forward during the California gubernatorial campaign to accuse Arnold Schwarzenegger of previous instances of sexual harassment has sued the former star of "True Lies" and "Conan the Barbarian," claiming that he and his campaign smeared her as a convicted felon when she made her charges.

"For a long time, Bush's poor job approval ratings on domestic issues were more than counterbalanced by his strong approval ratings on international issues. But that formula for political success is falling apart," writes Ruy Texeira. The latest polls show that only 48 percent of the public approves of his handling of foreign policy and Iraq. A majority believes the war with Iraq was not worth the cost and that the Bush administration was hiding information or lying about what it knew when it made the case for war.