And the winner is. . .Despite having ancient looking graphics that can be seen from across the street, a set that looks like it is from a station in Iowa, and a love of sprinkling kicker stories throughout the newscast, WABC’s Eyewitness News and the station overall is yet again at the top of the ratings among the big three for February. Most notably, WNBC has lost almost half of its viewership in the early......

In an echo of its 2006 article about her Senate re-election campaign spending, the NY Times finds Hillary Clinton donors are concerned over her campaign's spending. Some of the line items that emerged after her campaign finance report was published: $100,000 in party platters and shovels for Iowa caucus parties (where Clinton placed third - and where it did not snow), $25,000 in hotel rooms at Las Vegas' Bellagio, $275,000 to a South Carolina firm......

The above photo is a living replica of the Statue of Liberty, painstakingly recreated with 18,000 people at Camp Dodge in Des Moines, Iowa. The image is from 1918, and is one of many "living photographs" by Arthur Mole and John Thomas, who attempted to "recover the old image of national identity at the very moment when the United States entered the Great War in 1917." Flash forward to present day, shed some clothes,......

Photograph of Barack Obama at a rally in Virginia Beach by Rick Bowmer/AP Barack Obama won yesterday's Maine caucus, with about 57-60% of the vote to Hillary Clinton's approximate 40-42%. This makes Obama's fourth win in a row, after sweeping the Democratic contests in Louisiana, Nebraska, and Washington yesterday. About 8 inches of snow fell in Maine, but voters were still lined up outside some doors. Politico's Ben Smith writes:Obama's victory comes despite being......

The specter of a Mormon multimillionaire as president has been lifted; Mitt Romney announced his withdrawal from the Republican primary race this afternoon. Romney used his speech to the Conservative Political Action Committee to declare: “If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win.” Wonkette liveblogged the speech to great......

Rudy Giuliani's poor showing in the presidential campaign has plenty of people giving their opinions on why it all went wrong. Bronx residents gave the NY Times an earful about the former mayor ("I was waiting for this moment — he stinks...Giuliani was always for himself, never for the people.") while the Daily News reported on the "hick" comments of Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who said, "The New York lifestyle hasn't gone over [in]......

Photograph of Giuliani, with wife Judi next to him, speaking to supporters in Florida by John Raoux/AP After early results put John McCain and Mitt Romney in a "too close to call" race, McCain won the Florida primary. Rudy Giuliani, who once led national polls, looks like he'll finish in third place (though Mike Huckabee is a close fourth as of 10PM), which is actually his best finish after the primaries and caucuses in......

Today, the Republican presidential hopefuls are vying to win the Florida primary (the Democrats aren't allowing Florida delegates to count at the convention, because Florida moved its primary up). Polls close in two hours, and many believe that the state will be contested between John McCain and Mitt Romney. Our former mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has spent much time in Florida, instead of campaigning in South Carolina, Iowa or New Hampshire (though he did......

People have been wondering about former mayor Rudy Giuliani's campaign for a long time (his presidential campaign plan notebook went missing last January! he pays more attention to his friends' advice versus that of election consultants). Now, with the Florida primary on the horizon, it seems his New York-based supporters are starting to worry. The first few weeks of the new year have brought Giuliani embarrassing finishes in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Michigan as......

Top aides with the Giuliani for President campaign are declining January paychecks, while insisting that it's not because the former Mayor's organization is strapped for cash. Rudy Giuliani is currently stumping in Florida after very lackluster performances in the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. Iowa was not a surprise; Giuliani had written off the midwestern state as a poor use of time and resources. A very poor performance in New Hampshire had to have been......

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is busy trying to rally support in Florida, one of many big states with primaries in the coming weeks. He didn't really focus on the Iowa caucus (where he placed fifth - after Ron Paul) or New Hampshire (so he claims; he managed to place 4th, ahead of Ron Paul) and flew out of the Granite State before the polls were closed. His poor showing in the first two political showdowns......

Senator John McCain won the Republican primary in New Hampshire, with the race being called for him early on. Senator Hillary Clinton beat Senator Barack Obama by a few thousand votes in a very close race. Comebacks all around! Update, 11:06PM: During her victory speech, Clinton thanked the voters of New Hampshire and asked them to give the country the comeback it needs. Unlike her Iowa background of friends like Madeline Albright and Wesley......

Mayor Michael Bloomberg spent yesterday in Oklahoma, discussing the state of politics today at a bipartisan political forum at the University of Oklahoma. Bloomberg lamented the way things are going these days:Government is dysfunctional. There is no collaboration and congeniality. There is no working together. No 'let's do what's right for this country.' I think there is no accountability today. Nobody is holding themselves accountable and to the standards of what they promised when they......

At last night's ABC News/Facebook debate in New Hampshire, both parties' candidates held debates. After the Thursday's Iowa results presented Barack Obama as a winner and Hillary Clinton as a disappointing (to her campaign) third place, some interesting things transpired during the Democratic debate. Obama and Iowa runner-up John Edwards apppeared to team up against Clinton. The NY Times called it an "allegiance of convenience" and noted that the defining moment was when Clinton......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an abduction on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn, a double shooting at West 151st St. and Walton Ave. in the Bronx, and a pursuit/crash/bailout on 95th St. and the West Side Highway in Manhattan. The disbarred lawyer accused of murdering his wife and blaming it on a random carjacking admitted to cops that he'd sent flowers to his girlfriend that day and had various small affairs and used escorts outside......

Barack Obama's historic Iowa caucus win is giving him momentum for the New Hampshire primary, but it's also prompting discussion of how other black candidates have failed in the past. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, who won a number of primaries in 1988, ultimately lost the nomination to Michael Dukakis, and the Reverend Al Sharpton didn't gain many delegates in 2004. On CNN, conservative commentator Bill Bennett made some comments that suggested America doesn't want......

The most famous undeclared presidential candidate, our very own Mayor Michael Bloomberg, has weighed in about the Iowa caucus results. Okay, so Mayor Bloomberg claims he's not running for president, but when you swipe at the actual candidates, have a staff that's investigating the possibility of running a campaign, and have a billion dollars to spare... The Mayor discussed the results(he didn't mention candidates by name) during radio show on WABC (MP3). Well, sort of......

As last night's Iowa caucuses heralded the beginning of the heated drive to presidential nominations and general election, news of Barack Obama's Democratic win and Mike Huckabee's Republican win is naturally front page material. The Daily News and Newsday both take "BAM" as their headlines, though the News focuses on Obama while Newsday offers a split Obama-Huckabee cover. The NY Times has two large photographs of the winners, but emphasizes Obama's win a little......

That just happened! Senator Barack Obama won the Democratic Iowa Caucus with at least 37% of the vote (projections are changing). Former Senator John Edwards got 30% of the vote while Senator Hillary Clinton got 29%. The media is playing this as a huge failure for the Senator from New York, given how powerful the Clinton machine has seemed. Also stunning: There were 82% more Democratic voters in this year's caucus compared with 2004,......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on Richmond Ave. on Staten Island, an injured corrections officer at Rikers Island in the Bronx, and a gas leak on East 68th St. in Manhattan. Chris Booker, the NY radio DJ boyfriend of Philly news personality Alycia Lane who allegedly punched a female NYPD police officer after calling her a dyke, says that she's being singled out because "[she's] a babe." Or it's because she......

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani is in Florida today, skipping the Iowa caucus that his team never counted on anyway. Still, his staffers are trying to remain relevant in Iowa by "contacting reporters, reminding them that even though the former New York mayor is lagging badly [in Iowa]...he will remain a player in the big states that hold their primaries in upcoming weeks." We kept Giuliani on the brain by reading Elizabeth Kolbert's New Yorker......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery on 20th Ave. and 37th St. in Queens, a hate crime on East 9th St. and Ave. H in Brooklyn, and a missing child on Decatur Ave. in the Bronx. Hyperactive performer Robin Williams is David Letterman's guest tonight, in his first new show in weeks. Letterman, as well as Craig Ferguson, have worked out pacts with the Writers Guild of America, allowing writers to come......

Mayor Bloomberg still claims he's not running for President, but he's spending thousands of dollars to run a full page ad in The Des Moines Register--Iowa's largest circulation local paper--with his face on it. One can see the full ad here. The Mayor also placed an identical ad in The New Hampshire Union Leader. We're running this ad to the Bat Cave, to see if there are any subliminal "Mike Bloomberg '08" messages! According......

Sometimes we refer to Mayor Bloomberg as Mayor Bling because with a net worth with $5.5 billion (according to Forbes), why not? And what's frequently mentioned is how his staff is looking into the possibility of Bloomberg running for president - though he denies it all the time - because he would have about $1 billion to spend on a third-party campaign. Former president Bill Clinton mentioned Bloomberg's wealth with respect to needing to reign......

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani was hospitalized for flu-like symptoms at a St. Louis hospital last night. But it turns out he doesn't have the flu. Giuliani was flying out of the Show Me State back to New York, but then turned the plane around because he wasn't feeling well. His communications director Katie Levinson said, "After precautionary tests the doctors found nothing of concern at this time and Rudy will be going back to......

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani visited Barrington, New Hampshire store The Christmas Dove yesterday during various campaign visits in the Granite State and bought a ceramic angel. Perhaps it was an angel of mercy, as he has begun to pull back NH-related advertising in order to concentrate on the Florida primary, implicitly acknowledging that he doesn't have a chance against Republican front runner Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain, who has surged into second place......

Former New York City Mayor and Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani is finding that his campaign for highest office is foundering in Florida--the state that his campaign has identified as a crucial crucible. The primary vote in the Sunshine State will occur on Jan. 29, and with approximately six weeks to go, Rudy's trailing competitors Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. According to a survey conducted by pollster Scott Rasmussen, Romney is tallying 27% support, followed by......

Tim Russert has invited all the presidential candidates to appear on Meet the Press, and yesterday former Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared. We imagine many New Yorkers watching the program gnashed their teeth and/or swore at the TV (we happened to do both), as Giuliani tried to answer questions ranging from the straightforward (Giuliani's Iowa poll numbers, Russert asked, "Fifth place, is that a problem?") to the interesting (Russert on Giuliani's consulting business: "A Las......

Oprah Winfrey introduced one of her favorite things people at what the NY Times called "the largest spectacle of the campaign cycle" - the Oprah for Barack Obama rally in Des Moines, Iowa. Winfrey said, "For the very first time in my life, I feel compelled to stand up and to speak out for the man who I believe has a new vision for America," and told the audience of 15,000 said, "I am......

Senator Barack Obama might be back in Iowa on the campaign trail, but New Yorkers are still buzzing over his coffee - and bacon and eggs and toast - klatsch with Mayor Bloomberg on Friday morning. The meeting was supposedly caught Senator Hillary Clinton off guard - and not just because it was two blocks away from her midtown offices. Bloomberg's press secretary Stu Loeser said Bloomberg wanted to talk national policy with Obama,......