Harvard University Kennedy School of Government professor and Obama adviser Samantha Power, whose events have popped up on Bostonist many times and who has a rep as an extremely smart person, lost some brain cells and called Hillary Clinton a "monster" while a reporter's tape recorder was running. She didn't do Obama any favors. Boston Daily quotes elements of the interview with a Scottish newspaper. The offending lines were mind-boggling: "She is a monster, too......

Elections are expensive this year, and it turns out that former Massachusetts governor and former presidential aspirant Mitt Romney paid a pretty penny for each delegate he received before dropping out of the race. Foon Rhee reports that Romney put in $42.3 million of his own money into his presidential campaign. As of last October, he had already put in $17.5 million, suggesting that he made a massive money push in the last days.......

Presidential candidate Barack Obama used lines that Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick used during his campaign for governor while Obama campaigned in Wisconsin over the weekend. Here's what Obama told Clinton: “Don’t tell me words don’t matter,” Mr. Obama said, to applause. “ ‘I have a dream’ — just words? ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’ — just words? ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’ — just......

We meant it as a joke when we said that former Romney aide Jay Garrity was the only one on the team having a good week. But it might be true. WBZ is reporting that Romney is "suspending" his campaign. Leave it to Romney to use the euphemism "suspend" instead of "drop out." WBZ explains that he can keep his delegates "if something happened to front-runner John McCain's campaign." The language makes the situation sound......

Republican presidential aspirant and former Massachsuetts governor Mitt Romney is the projected winner of the state of Massachusetts over John McCain this Super Tuesday, according to CNN. And that victory was by no means a given since Romney didn't exactly leave Massachusetts wanting more. However, Romney is still fighting for states, and Mike Huckabee (plus buddy Chuck Norris) is racking up enough votes that neither one can catch up to the front-runner, John McCain. Huckabee......

With Rudy Giuliani out of the way, the remaining Republicans were free to catfight at the Reagan Library last night. Much of the debate involved front-runners John McCain and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney trying to out-Reagan one another. No matter what they said, each moment felt like this: Romney: "I'm more like Ronald Reagan than you are!" McCain: "No, you're not, you helmet-headed bitch!" Romney: "Nancy just checked me out, so that proves......

Somebody better check on Mitt Romney because he's not acting like himself. The campaign bus for Mr. I-Eat-My-Wife's-Granola-Every-Morning pulled into a Kentucky Fried Chicken. Reporters rejoiced. The LA Times declared, "Mitt Romney is human!" That all depends on how you look at it. Plenty of people might argue that eating KFC indicates you actually have a Teflon tummy instead of a human stomach. But when Romney strays from the script, he doesn't go that far.......

Hot on the heels of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg's endorsement of Barack Obama, Senator Edward M. Kennedy has also endorsed Barack Obama for president. Voters likely saw it coming when Kennedy told ex-president and First Campaigner Bill Clinton to stifle himself and let Hillary Clinton do her own campaigning. The Globe's Political Intelligence analyzes Kennedy's decision as a big "up yours" to the Clintons: The coveted endorsement is a huge blow to New York Senator Hillary......

Riding high from his Michigan victory and the continued defeats of rival Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney is on a tear through Florida, and he's trying to connect with the young people. Unfortunately, Romney's pop culture references are stuck as far back in time as his well-preserved face. He buddied up with African-American teens and tried to sling lingo that he thought they would like. In fact, he uttered the immortal line, "Who Let the Dogs......

Hillary Clinton has a strong chance of becoming president, if it weren't for the continued momentum of Barack Obama. However, no matter how much hope and Oprah Obama ladles on the land, Clinton will always have one strong advantage--former president Bill Clinton. Is that entirely fair? Massachusetts senator Ted Kennedy, who knows a thing or two about political dynasties, says no. Kennedy hasn't bestowed his endorsement on anyone, but he has, according to Jonathan Alter......

Say what you will about Mitt Romney, the man never loses his cool. Even if it seems like he loses his cool, such as in the ad in which he went jogging and his hair got mussed, the stray hairs were on purpose. But a reporter got under Romney's skin at a Staples in South Carolina this morning when Romney said lobbyists didn't run his campaign. The reporter, Glen Johnson, said that was bull. Alas,......

The state of Michigan has performed CPR on the flagging presidential campaign of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, according to MSNBC and CNN. He is the projected winner of the state's primary. John McCain came in second. Maybe it was Romney's Michigan roots? Maybe it was his business experience? Maybe it was Muffy? Maybe it was the MittGram? He needed this one. It was obvious from the banner on his official campaign homepage, which......

Mitt Romney is pulling out all the stops in order to get votes. First, he's talking about how he's going to rescue the American auto industry from the doldrums.* And now he's letting people leave custom voice-mail messages for their friends, frenemies, or enemies using his voice. You can describe how you know the person who will receive the MittGram and specify exactly how Romney should greet them. Do you want him to say "hello"......

Political junkies have divided the last few months between obsessing over Iowa and New Hampshire and complaining about how much energy is wasted obsessing over Iowa and New Hampshire. Those states, the argument goes, are too white and too small and too rural to represent the country at large. But, while true, it always seems dismissive and elitist (possibly because we're writing this on a iPhone while stopped at a light in a Prius Zipcar.)......

Former Massachusetts governor and presidential aspirant Romney is putting his New England Spanking behind him and focusing entirely on winning the Michigan primary. He has pulled advertising from South Carolina and Florida and is going whole hog. Michigan seems to be loving the attention, at least according to the AP. Writer Glen Johnson declared that Romney received a "Hero's Welcome." But it's still not the kind of welcome Romney was expecting only a few weeks......

Both Massachusetts senators, John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, have close experience with presidential campaigns, so who can blame them for waiting a little bit to make an endorsement? Kerry's dominance in the last go-round came as a surprise after the Dean campaign collapsed in Iowa. The field of Democrats is deep this year, and, like Deval Patrick, our Senators have to be cautious about making endorsements since the Clintons are such a powerful force. But......

It seems that Bostonist's call for submissions inspired you. Say hello to Gerard Sloan, who is already working the political beat! And we hope you'll meet more writers in the next week. Interested in joining the team? Read our call for columnists and e-mail jobs@bostonist.com. Despite polls showing large leads for Barack Obama in the Democratic primary, the Granite State used its moment in the national spotlight yesterday to give Hillary Clinton a narrow victory......

Update: No winner for the Democrats yet, which makes CNN look bad because they were calling it for Obama all day. But, even more embarrassing, Rudy Giuliani is thisclose to getting beaten by Ron Paul, 9% to 8% as of 10:00 pm. Update to the Update: CNN has projected Hillary Clinton as the winner of the New Hampshire primary, a huge comeback after Iowa. (The "Iron My Shirt" dudes can stuff it.) Obama wasn't far......

Don't cry, Hillary. No, seriously, don't. You probably already heard that Hillary Clinton cried at a campaign event (Globe), and it took Bostonist a while to process. When a woman in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, asked Clinton how she stayed so upbeat, Clinton started crying and said (among other things), "It's not easy. It's not easy. This is very personal for me. It is not just political. It is not just public. I see what's happening.......

HubTrotter has a great report from New Hampshire. He paid close attention to the license plates and spotted a trend: "Looking around at the cars parked at the Clinton rally, there were quite a few out-of-state plates. Probably no more than two-thirds (and I think it was closer to one-half) of cars had "Live Free or Die" on the plates. And as is the case at many rallies, there seemed to be two reporters......

Don't cry, Hillary. No, seriously, don't. You probably already heard that Hillary Clinton cried at a campaign event (Globe), and it took Bostonist a while to process. When a woman in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, asked Clinton how she stayed so upbeat, Clinton started crying and said (among other things), "It's not easy. It's not easy. This is very personal for me. It is not just political. It is not just public. I see what's happening.......

Today Republican presidential candidate/Iowa caucus winner/Romney rival Mike Huckabee faced a heckler who clearly forgot that where there's Huckabee, there's Chuck Norris. The man had a right to speak, but, as Charlie Savage writes, he wouldn't shut up and kept yelling, "Why is Richard Haass, the president of the Council of Foreign Relations, your political adviser?" Then Huckabee unveiled his not-so-secret weapon and said, "Don't make me send Chuck back there!" Chuck Norris still......

The political epicenter has shifted from Iowa to New Hampshire, right next door. The state is erupting in general chaos as the politicians who are still in the race are fighting for attention. Every reporter, pundit, talking head, and his or her brother is in town. Eventually, New Hampshire might regret rolling out the red carpet for some of them. Bill O'Reilly just had a massive hissy fit at Nashua North High and attempted to......

Update: Deval Patrick can rest easy. Obama took 38% of the Iowa caucus vote. For some reason, Bostonist couldn't get Huey Lewis' "If This Is It … Please Let Me Know …" out of their head while watching the Iowa caucus returns on CNN. So many middle-tier candidates will get their rejections over with tonight. CNN and Fox News projected early that Mike Huckabee won the Iowa caucuses with a come-from-behind victory that had little......

If things don't work out for former Massachusetts governor and current Republican presidential aspirant Mitt Romney, he can always follow in ex-candidate Bob Dole's footsteps--as a spokesman for Viagra. CBS News' From the Road blog reports that Mitt Romney had this to say about his wife, Ann: “She’s a cute girl, I’ll tell ya,” Romney told the Iowa crowd that was packed into a small coffee house here. “She’s hot, too. Wow!” Romney then appeared......

--New England Confectionery Co., aka NECCO, was sold to a company in Bethesda, Maryland. So, will the name be changed to Maryland Confectionary Company, or MACCO? We certainly hope not. [Boston Globe] --More reasons to give up your car. On New Year's Day, tolls at the Allston-Brighton and Route 128 plazas will go up from $1 to $1.25. The price jump is even higher for the Ted Williams Tunnel and the Sumner Tunnel: $3 to......

Bostonist has always been a little creeped out by Kerry Healey, icy ex-lieutenant governor and former gubernatorial candidate. She is best known for staying politely in Mitt Romney's shadow during his stint as governor and for getting into madcap verbal spats with rival Christy Mihos during the governors' debates. (Seriously, their fights were comic gold.) Healey lost for many reasons. For starters, the victor, Deval Patrick, was dynamic, whereas Healey had all the pizzazz of......

Recently, the world learned that Ann Romney, former First Lady of Massachusetts, is an equestrienne and that one of the Five Brothers gave presidential candidate Mitt Romney a horse mask so Momma Romney would give Daddy Romney a little more attention. Riding the ponies has also helped Ann better manage Mitt, as shown in a public exchange in Rochester, New Hampshire: The evening opened, though, with Romney introducing his wife, who said she could tell......

There's so much to say about former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential aspirant Mitt Romney's looks. His political views may be ever-changing, but one things for certain--some people find him attractive. And some people like to get a little closer. First, an Iowa tweenager probably just becoming acquainted with her hormones got close enough to Romney to ask to touch his hair. Romney took her hand and placed it, probably to make sure that she......

As any Massachusetts resident well knows, former governor and Republican presidential aspirant Mitt Romney can transform himself overnight. One minute, he's the moderate governor of a liberal state. The next, he's a staunch conservative who claims that he somehow tamed the residents of that state. In the second and last installment of the Year in Mitt Mashups, we'll look at the various disguises Romney wears: An Osmond Mitt Romney has never shied away from being......