Top of the Ticket, the start of Year Two

On this, the first anniversary of our Top of the Ticket blog, we are reminded of the mercurial, unpredictable nature of U.S. politics -- part of what makes what we do so fascinating.

Our goal -- one of us on the East Coast and the other on the far more important or at least less humid West Coast -- was to write about Campaign '08 virtually around the clock.

Our second-ever posting, 12 months ago today, previewed an upcoming L.A. Times/Bloomberg Poll; later in the day, we detailed the results of the nationwide survey. The findings were in line with other polls of the time.

In the Republican presidential race, which then seemed the most likely to last deep into the primary season, Rudy Giuliani was perched in first place. His lead wasn't overwhelming, but it was strong enough that he appeared certain to remain a major contender.

His liberal record on social issues loomed as an obvious liability within his party, but his tough-on-terrorism message was attracting substantial support from moderates and GOP-leaning independents.

His major headache among rivals last June was an as-yet-undeclared candidate who was riding a wave as the great conservative hope -- Fred Thompson. He ran a strong second in the poll.

Lagging far behind were John McCain and Mitt Romney, each barely with double-digit support. In our preview posting, we were especially scornful of McCain, noting sarcastically (and foolishly, as it turned out) that in the poll, he found himself "in heated competition with the 'Don't Know' category."

Meriting no mention from us was Mike Huckabee, one of several back-of-the-pack candidates barely earning any support across the country.

The Democratic race, at that point, seemed so much more cut-and-dried.

Hillary Clinton was the clear front-runner; Barack Obama was just as clearly ...

How the mighty -- and not so mighty -- have fallen

The resignation Wednesday of Geraldine Ferraro as a fundraiser for Hillary Clinton got us thinking. There have been an awful lot of staff/advisor resignations from presidential campaigns this cycle, people done in by everything from unleashed tongues (Ferraro) to sex scandals (see below).

So, let's review, in alphabetical order, shall we? For the sake of fairness, we'll separate the ones who fell through impolitic talk -- the Ferraro group -- and those whose troubles involved lawyers. If we left some out, let us know in the comments section.

But remember, we're focusing on those who were forced out of presidential campaign roles, so people like Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana are not included because he was not forced from his role in the Rudy Giuliani campaign over revelations of old liaisons with prostitutes.

Without lawyers involved:

Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwan, both bloggers, dropped off the John Edwards campaign more than a year ago after complaints surfaced about pre-campaign, anti-Catholic blog-posts.

Phil Martin, one of four co-chairs of Fred Thompson's campaign, stepped down in November after revelations of a criminal records. Martin had pleaded guilty in 1979 to selling 11 pounds of marijuana, and entered a "no contest" plea in 1983 to cocaine trafficking and conspiracy charges. Until he quit, Thompson was using Martin's private plane to get to campaign events.

Samantha Power, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author for her book on genocide, "A Problem From Hell," quit as a foreign policy advisor to Barack Obama last week after ...

Oops, Obama was for decriminalizing marijuana before he opposed it

Here's that uncomfortable old video problem again for presidential candidates.

The Washington Times has unearthed a video of a debate in Barack Obama's initial Illinois campaign for the U.S. Senate in 2004. The debate tape from Jan. 21, 2004, at Northwestern University shows Obama proclaiming the war on drugs an "utter failure."

"We need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws," he said to scattered applause. "But I'm not somebody who believes in legalization of marijuana. What I do believe is that we need to rethink how we're operating in the drug war. Currently, we're not doing a good job."

OK. Fine.

But then in a Democratic debate last fall, Tim Russert asked all the party's candidates if anyone disagreed with Sen. Chris Dodd's idea to decriminalize marijuana. Obama, standing center stage, was one of several candidates who raised their hand, albeit not very high.

An Obama spokesman told the newspaper the other day that the senator has "always" favored decriminalization as he said in the 2004 debate, meaning he mistakenly raised his hand as an opponent for the national TV audience.

A spokesman for the campaign of Hillary Clinton, Obama's sole remaining Democratic opponent, said she opposes decriminalization. Both videos are available here.

-- Andrew Malcolm