Fifteen hundred voters nationwide participated in the survey, which followed a hypothetical congressional race between Jane Smith and Dan Jones. Respondents were given a profile of both candidates and straightforward stories about their positions on an education bill. The coverage on Smith included either a positive, negative, or neutral description of her appearance, or no description at all. Articles about Dan Jones mentioned nothing about his looks.

In terms of electability, what have we learned from Mayor Bloomberg? Well, for one, you don't have to come from a political background to win three terms as the head of New York City government. Two, being a billionaire can be a viable campaign strategy (sorry, Mitt Romney). Three, political loyalties mean nothing (read: Republican turned Independent). And four, mayoral races in this town are absolute conundrums that we will never really wrap our heads around.

In a new poll commissioned by the New York Daily News, 400 city Dems said that they would pick Clinton, who beat Barack Obama by 17 points in the state's 2008 primary. Fifteen percent of voters are undecided.

The stats come just as discussions have surfaced in the Democratic party about a potential Clinton-Cuomo face-off.

Pollsters have clarified that New Yorkers still like Cuomo, but that Clinton just happens to be way more popular.

In what we'd like to think of as an "antidote" of sorts to Holly Van Voast's surge in boob-flashings at Barnes & Noble book signings (a target of which recently included Hillary Clinton's husband, Bill), a man surprised the Secretary of State with his own version of an homage recently in Honolulu.

It's been a rough couple of weeks for Hillary Clinton! First there were those allergies that caused her to cover her mouth in the iconic Situation Room photo taken by White House photographer Pete Souza as the administration watched the raid on Osama Bin Laden. Then she was unceremoniously removed from the photo by ultra-Orthodox Hasidic newspaper Der Tzitung (as was Audrey Tomason, director of counterterrorism) because a photo of a woman "could be seen as sexually suggestive." Now a second paper has joined in. De Voch, which means "The Week," is another ultra-Orthodox magazine, and apparently its publishers are not very good with Photoshop, or Hillary left a smudge (woman stain!), or something. Hence, this.

via FailedMessiah

via AP

• ​Following a shift by Hillary Clinton, President Obama spoke from the White House yesterday to take somewhat of a harder line on U.S. intervention in Libya: "If Colonel Qaddafi does not comply with the resolution, the international community will impose consequences. The resolution will be enforced through military action." Said resolution has been approved by the U.N. Security Council. In the event of military action, we'd be joining up with the U.K., France, and a group of Arab states. However, Obama also said that there wouldn't be a deployment of ground troops. According to MSNBC, this means that the U.S. would provide the coalition intelligence and surveillance planes and aerial refueling, as well as naval power, including two nuclear submarines. [NYT, MSNBC]
• Making the above even more of an immediate concern is that Qaddafi forces have stormed rebel-controlled Benghazi, rebels say. A rebel fighter jet was shot down, and Qaddafi's tanks and artillery bombard the city. The Libyan government denies this and claims to be sticking to the ceasefire its foreign minister announced yesterday. World leaders will meet in Paris today to discuss whether Qaddafi's latest actions justify military intervention. [Reuters]
  

Lazio needed health care in 2000 when he fell and busted his lip in front of everyone on the first day of his futile Senate campaign. See Jon Stewart's clip.

Gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio's "Stop Obamacare" campaign sounds suspiciously like one of his fearmongering strategies from his days in Congress.

The Voice dug up an internal Lazio strategy memo from his first House re-election campaign, in 1994, that says health-care reform "would be a great issue to use misinformation against targeted groups to frighten them."