Shailagh Murray

Don't want to miss out on the latest in politics? Start each day with The Post Politics Hour. Join in each weekday morning at 11 a.m. as a member of The Washington Post's team of White House and Congressional reporters answers questions about the latest in buzz in Washington and The Post's coverage of political news.

Washington Post national political reporter Shailagh Murray was online Monday, Oct. 29 at 11 a.m. ET.

The transcript follows.

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Archive: Post Politics Hour discussion transcripts

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Shailagh Murray: Good morning everyone, and what a fine morning it is, especially if you're a sports fan from New England.

But our subject today is politics. ... How does Obama take the gloves off tomorrow night? Is Huckabee surging? Bring on your questions.

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Arlington, Va.: U.S. Government class was a long time ago, so pardon my ignorance, but John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone. Has anyone ever raised the question of his eligibility based on the natural-born-citizen clause in the Constitution? My old government teachers were never clear on that. Thanks for chatting.

Shailagh Murray: All you experts out there, please weigh in on this -- but I think the key is that you must be a citizen from the time you are born. It's about status, not location. Plus, if he was born in a U.S. military hospital, that probably counts as U.S. territory.

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Just a Suggestion: Hi Shailagh -- given that a majority of what passes for reporting on the '08 election seems to focus on the polling data, may I suggest that washingtonpost.com bring your polling guru (Jon Cohen, I think his name is) into these chats on a fairly regular basis? The polling data is sometimes contradictory and it would be helpful to have some guidance from an expert. Pass it on please. Thanks.

washingtonpost.com: Cohen comes on whenever a new washingtonpost.com poll comes out ( here is the most recent transcript); I suspect that will become more frequent as the election progresses, but we can look into having him on more often.

Shailagh Murray: I can handle rejection.

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Washington: Hi Shailagh. After last week's Florida poll that showed Giuliani beating Clinton head-to-head in the state, I'm wondering if there have been enough state polls to get a feel for possible electoral college results in head-to-head contests, as opposed to more generalized national polls? As 2000 showed, the national popular vote doesn't always mean much.

Shailagh Murray: Most state polls I've seen, beyond the early primary states, more or less track with the national polls. That's probably inevitable until the candidates are chosen and start competing head to head. As all you political junkies probably know, the site realclearpolitics.com does a great job tracking poll data.

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From a fellow former Richmonder: Shailagh: So does the latest Iowa poll put an end for a while the "Hillary is inevitable" media analysis? I would point out that with a margin of error of 5.5 percentage points, even Edwards is in reach of her. I know it's a fine line for the media to analyze, predict or predetermine, but I wish most of the pundits would back off and let the voters decide.

Shailagh Murray: That poll certainly makes you think, doesn't it?

As much grief as Iowa and New Hampshire get for being first in line every time, the voters there do have a terrific history of ignoring conventional wisdom and picking candidates as they please. I'm happy to get out of the way this year too.

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New York: Just a suggestion for "The Trail." Can y'all put the byline at the top, so I know who writes which posting? It's annoying to have to click through on the longer posts and scroll to the end to find who wrote the darn things.

Shailagh Murray: Okay Mom.

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Washington: Especially on the Republican side there is a lot of undecideds in the early primary states. Is there an historical trend of what candidates undecideds tend to break for, or do political reporters have a sense of who they may be leaning for?

Shailagh Murray: Most political reporters would probably agree that the Republican field this year is about as murky as it gets. It's just not a typical GOP field. My hunch is that Huckabee could wind up doing really well in Iowa -- the new Iowa poll released this morning has placed him alongside Giuliani, and if Huckabee can turn that into fundraising gold, he could be the late breaker on his side. He's the one long-shot on either side that many reporters believe could break into the top tier, because of his appeal to Republican evangelical voters who have no natural home this cycle.

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Roseland, N.J.: "Obama taking the gloves off" -- if he's really serious, he better come up with something better than "she isn't specific enough about Social Security." You don't take the gloves off so you can show folks your calculator.

Shailagh Murray: Memo to Chicago...

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Clifton, Va.: U.S. citizenship and Panama Canal Zone -- the Panama Canal Zone was considered a U.S. territory until we gave it back to Panama. Can't remember what year this began in, but McCain is a U.S. citizen by birth and eligible to run for president. If you were born in the Philippines during a certain timeframe I believe same thing was true. There should be a Constitutional amendment to make it so that only natives of the 50 states, U.S. territories or DC are eligible to run for president.

Shailagh Murray: One reader's legal analysis, plus a bit of editorializing ... thanks for weighing in. I guess you would rule out Ah-nold.

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Silver Spring, Md.: I see that Rep. Duncan Hunter has vaulted from "asterisk" to "viable long-shot" in the GOP nomination race (he's up to 2 or 3 percent in most of the latest polls). He's no Mike Huckabee perhaps, but it seems like more than noise. Is this fallout from the immigration debate heating up?

Shailagh Murray: Whew, this is news to me. Must make Chris Dodd feel great.

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Washington: Hi, Ms. Murray! Okay, so you don't do polls, but that makes me wonder, what's the difference between your position at The Post (national political reporter) and the spots of the other chatters here? Weisman is a "congressional reporter," Balz is a chief political reporter (or something like that), Solomon does the money angle, etc. Are your titles just reflective of your "beats," or do you work your way up from Congress to the White House to the national desk? How does your day-to-day job differ from the other reporters who check in here each day? Does being on the national desk make you something of a Renaissance woman? Will you be changing topics soon, like Michael Fletcher (who's going from covering the White House to national economic issues)? Just curious about how it all works there after having read these chats for about a year...

Shailagh Murray: Good question. Let me try to explain.

We start with Dan Balz. He's our senior everything. The rest of us are assigned to particular realms of the political world -- John covers campaign finance, Mike, Bram and Peter cover the White House, etc. Lois is a political reporter, but for the Style section. Jonathan and I have been covering Congress together all year, but I've always gone back and forth between Congress and politics, depending on the season (including at my old paper, the Wall Street Journal) and I'm doing the 2008 campaign now, along with Anne -- another regular chatter -- and a bunch of other reporters. I hope that makes sense. Other than Dan, we're all just reporters -- the titles are meant to be descriptive but they're not official.

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Kettering, Ohio: G'morning Shailagh. Obama says he is going to challenge Hillary in the coming weeks, but do you really expect any heavy-duty ordnance being fired? Given the potential for a lot of negative baggage to be brought with her to the general election and the fact she is close to a lock for the nomination, wouldn't the party be pushing for kid gloves instead of real punches regarding her war vote, her very real negative baggage and her inability to come clean on anything?

Shailagh Murray: It's a big mystery, how much fire he has for this sort of fight. I would think that the Democratic establishment, to the extent that it holds a consensus view on anything, would want their nominee to be battle-tested before he or she faces the Republican firing squad. I don't know how many of you watched the GOP debate last week, when they all piled on gleefully, that was just a warm up act.

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Prescott, Ariz..: Yesterday Mike Huckabee stated that he thinks there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and we just haven't found them yet. I know you Beltway media types like Huckabee because he serenades you with his wicked bass chops and is an amiable guy, but at what point would crazy conspiracy theories overrule general politeness and force you to concede the guy has some pretty mockable positions?

Shailagh Murray: Mike Huckabee isn't the only Republican I've heard express that view. This is a very hawkish group of GOP candidates, reflecting a hawkish voter base.

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Columbia, S.C.: Where does this fear come from that Evangelical Christians won't come out in forceful numbers to back the GOP candidate in the national election? There won't be a third-party candidate, and all these people do is vote. They'll back any GOP candidate in droves.

Shailagh Murray: Of course there is that theory that conservative voters will be so motivated to prevent Clinton from winning, that they will swallow hard and support just about anyone for Republican nominee.

I personally don't buy it. Not to promote the competition, but check out David Kirkpatrick's great story on the fraying of the Christian right as a political movement, in the New York Times Magazine yesterday.

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Washington: I used to live in New Mexico and I am a big supporter of Bill Richardson. Does he have any chance at all? Why is this race all about Hillary, Obama and John Edwards? Why hasn't Bill Richardson gotten as much press? Thanks.

Shailagh Murray: Gov. Richardson is doing pretty well, actually -- better than Dodd and Biden, that's for sure. I think the new Iowa poll has him at around 7%.

As for whether he has a chance, they all have a chance. But it definitely helps to have money and buzz. I also think Richardson hit an off year when being a governor isn't a big advantage, because of the huge focus on foreign policy.

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Pittsburgh: Did you seen the fine suggestion in The Post by Charles Darwin's great-grandson that a presidential debate be held on scientific issues? As an American I find it humiliating that in the 21st century we have a [resident as well as candidates who take pride in their scientific ignorance, and I'm sure it makes the U.S. the laughingstock of the developed world. Why do you think so many Americans have respect for scientific ignorance?

Shailagh Murray: I love that idea. Talk about Darwinian -- that would surely be one way to clear the field, given how hard it is to bluff on gene therapy.

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Mt. Lebanon, Pa.: A debate is on tomorrow night -- time/network, please? The woman who keeps me asked that question. Will the Dems ever relent and let Fox News host a debate or two between now and the election 12 months on? Assuming Rupert Murdoch doesn't just buy all of his competitors outright by then. Thanks much.

Shailagh Murray: The time is 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., the network is MSNBC, the moderator is Brian Williams. Enjoy!

Thanks to all for participating, and see you in a couple of weeks. Cheers.

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