The World is Talking. Global Politics

“I haven’t said I won’t run. I think about running every single day.”

– Wesley Clark, in an interview with The Politico, on a possible presidential campaign.

A new Siena Research survey in New York finds Sen. Hillary Clinton leading the Democratic presidential race with 42%, followed by Sen. Barack Obama at 13%, Al Gore at 13% and John Edwards at 7%.

Among Republicans, Rudy Giuliani leads with 50%, followed by Sen. John McCain at 12%, Fred Thompson at 8%, Mitt Romney at 7% and Newt Gingrich at 7%.

In general election matchups, Democrats prevail over all Republicans.

A thrilling NASCAR ride in a yellow taxi deposited my wife and me, our contents slightly unsettled, at the steps of what some confirmed cynics consider a mausoleum of culture, Lincoln Center. It is no mausoleum to me, nay, it…

Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) survived his primary challenge but starts the general election campaign as a 16 point underdog in his re-election bid. According to a new Rasmussen Reports poll, former Lt. Gov. Steve Beshear (D) leads Fletcher, 51% to 35%.

The results of the latest reader survey tell me that Political Wire readers are very highly educated, politically active, and reasonably well off. Some key highlights:

• Education: 42% have a post-graduate degree, 38% graduated from college
• Profession: 20% work in politics or government, 5% in the media, 22% in education
• Income: Median family income is between $90,000 and $120,000
• Gender: 85% are male, 15% are female
• Age: 54% are between the ages of 21 and 45, 35% are between the ages of 46 and 65
• Location: 42% live in cities, 38% in suburbs, and 19% in small towns or rural areas
• Political activity: The vast majority are politically active
• Party affiliation: 78% are Democrats, 13% independents, and 6% Republicans
• Race: 89% are white
• Religion: 57% never attend church, 24% make it just a few times a year
• Television: Your favorite shows are the Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report
• Computers: 80% use PCs at home, 20% use Macs

If you’re an advertiser that wants to reach this audience, you can buy a Blog Ad in two flavors: premium ads sit at the top of the right hand column while regular ads rotate randomly in the spots below. Special advertising opportunities — such as leaderboards above the header — are also available by contacting pw at blogads.com.

Many thanks to the readers who completed our recent reader survey. By learning who you are and what you like, we can build an even better Political Wire.

Andrew Sullivan: “Critics will no doubt say I am accusing the Bush administration of being Hitler. I’m not. There is no comparison between the political system in Germany in 1937 and the U.S. in 2007. What I am reporting is a simple empirical fact: the interrogation methods approved and defended by this president are not new. Many have been used in the past. The very phrase used by the president to describe torture-that-isn’t-somehow-torture - “enhanced interrogation techniques” - is a term originally coined by the Nazis. The techniques are indistinguishable. The methods were clearly understood in 1948 as war-crimes. The punishment for them was death.”

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“I’m getting bruises. I’ve never had so many emails.”

– World Bank President-designate Robert Zoellick, quoted by the Wall Street Journal, noting he had to turn off the BlackBerry he typically keeps on vibrate mode and wears on his belt.

In part two of this series, I began listing what quotes in journalism mean in terms of journalistic intention. The first three…

While news in Japan this week has been understandably fixated on the sensational suicide of Agriculture Minister Matsuoka Toshikatsu, another story revealed in a blog entry by Diet member Hosaka Nobuto slipped by with little fanfare last weekend. In the post, Hosaka outlines the latest step in moves by the government to implement a “citizen judge system” in Japan. This step, he claims, would allow the prosecution to effectively disqualify, through a “thought check” screening process, all citizens judge candidates who express doubt about the trustworthiness of police investigations.