"No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money," Samuel Johnson declared back in the 18th-century heyday of print, and while an army of blogheads has recently refuted this claim, at least partly, the principle of defiant professionalism, however embattled, is still sound.
"Score one (at last) for the Election Integrity movement!" he declared, back on message.
Michael Howard was forced yesterday to expel four rebel Tory peers from the party after they declared their backing for the far-right UK Independence party.
In a coup for the Conservatives, the lead singer of Coldplay, Chris Martin, has declared his backing for David Cameron, releasing a song that the party hopes will become the Tory answer to Labour's 1997 anthem, Things Can Only Get Better.
But to the dismay of his admirers in the west, he went on to claim that Ukraine was being used as an excuse by the US to victimise Russia and declared his backing for Putin.
Speaking to the Guardian the day before her supporter and Scotland's only remaining Labour MP Ian Murray declared his backing for Yvette Cooper, Dugdale herself refused to be drawn on her preference, though she offered serious reservations about Corbyn's candidacy.
Norman Lamb's campaign to become leader of the Liberal Democrats has received a significant boost after another former party leader, Sir Menzies Campbell, and a large group of other former MPs, declared their backing for the Norfolk MP.
The soft-spoken former diplomat became the talk of Egypt's chattering classes, as scores of prominent intellectuals declared their backing for him, and membership of a Facebook support group rocketed to 160,000.The reasons for the surge in his popularity are evident.
Six days before the election, when it looked like Wu, a Columbia law professor (who has contributed articles to this site), had a chance of winning the race for lieutenant governor, de Blasio and Mark-Viverito both declared their backing for his opponent, Hochul.
Labour leader Ed Miliband declared his backing for the target last week.
On Monday, the head of special forces in second city Benghazi declared his backing for Gen Haftar's group.
