The only time the prospect of another attack made campaign headlines was when Charles Black, a senior adviser to Arizona Sen.

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Joe the Plumber made headlines during the 2008 presidential campaign by asking then-candidate Obama a difficult question.

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The New York senator's campaign is staying optimistic, despite countless headlines that have all but crowned Obama the nominee.

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While Greece has been back in the headlines there has been a much less reported propaganda campaign going on within Germany aimed at winning voters over to the idea that Mrs Merkel is right on Europe.

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Edward Kennedy and former Clinton loyalists such as New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson began to back Obama, with their announcements driving potentially damaging headlines off the nation's front pages at critical moments in his campaign.

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In other words: Over the years, semiregular flashes of Norquist defiance have tended to be one of those Washington obsessions that grab big headlines to little permanent effect, sort of like open-mike profanity on the campaign trail.

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His fiery YouTube video last month drew more than 200, 000 views, was the basis of headlines in the Los Angeles Times, and rallied the food police to renew their campaign for more government regulation against his sole stated cause of obesity: under-regulated corporate peddlers of inexpensive calories.

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