Taegan Goddard's Political Wire

September 01, 2009

Candidate Jokes About Shooting President

Rex Rammell (R), an Idaho gubernatorial candidate seeking the GOP nomination, criticized Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter (R) at a campaign event for not making good on a promise to buy wolf tags for hunting the gray wolf, the Spokesman Review reports.

When an audience member shouted out a question about "Obama tags," Rammel responded, "Obama tags? We'd buy some of those."

However, Rammell refused to apologize, saying "I was just being sarcastic. That was just a joke. I would never support him being assassinated."

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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