by WonkoKevin

Could Rudy Giuliani’s Shaggate be the first big scandal of the 2008 campaign that has some stickiness?  As you can see from the Wonkosphere buzz share graph below, Giuliani’s buzz share has increased since the story broke 2 days ago, especially amongst liberals who are hovering like sharks.

It’s not like it’s only the left–conservative bloggers are also buzzing on it. This comes at the tail end of a bad week for Giuliani in Wonkosphere. Check out the tone in both liberal (blue) and conservative (red) blogs; the gray band represents the average tone of buzz amongst all candidates. According to these data, bloggers are talking more negatively about Rudy now than any other candidate… although he has not yet reached the McCain line (tone = 0.05; McCain was below this for almost a week during August, post Iraq cafe story). 

by WonkoKevin

Rumors are beginning to show up in Wonkosphere today that hint of a possible John Edwards’ affair.  We’re not giving credence to such rumors here–but it is an emerging story in the political blogs and obviously it has significant implications.  True or false, this is a story with legs.  Yoshi at the Western Standard has a good summary of the rumor and who’s been talking; it’s only fair for me to point out that Yoshi does not appear to be a John Edwards fan…

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by WonkoSteve

The discourse in Washington about Larry Craig sounds almost genteel, what with the President saying he is “disappointed.” In the Wonkosphere the story has created what can only be described as a sh*tstorm.

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