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Air Force Two or a constitutional inconvenience?

By Sam Popkin
When vice presidents travel the world on White House assignments, be it to a foreign leader’s funeral, an international meeting not quite important enough for the president, or a “fact-finding trip” to give them exposure or soothe a rankled constituency, they are treated as the second most important person in America.

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Five pivotal moments from incumbent campaigns

By Sam Popkin
While a challenger’s presidential campaign can quickly adjust and adapt to shifting winds like a speedboat, an incumbent’s campaign behaves more like a battleship, maneuvering slowly and making very large waves. Instead of a core inner circle calling the shots from a “war room,” a president’s re-election team must coordinate with White House staffers and the President’s cabinet — all of whom have agendas difficult to change, control or coordinate.

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How will Mitt Romney fare in the general election?

Rick Santorum suspended his presidential campaign yesterday and the air in America is abuzz with what will happen next in the Republican nomination race. We sat down to chat politics with Sam Popkin, author of the upcoming The Candidate: What It Takes to Win – and Hold – the White House. We asked how Mitt Romney will fare in a general election and why he has been underestimated as a candidate.

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Who should Mitt Romney choose as his Vice Presidential running mate?

“The choice of Vice-President is going to be extremely difficult for Mitt Romney to game…” The GOP campaign has good reason to be nervous about the running mate choice. Will it be someone who previously sought the presidential nomination — Michele Bachmann or Rick Santorum — or someone out of left field, like Sarah Palin was for John McCain’s campaign? We spoke to Samuel L. Popkin, author of The Candidate: What It Takes to Win – and Hold – the White House, about Mitt Romney’s choices.

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