Dean Barnett

In the 1960s, history called the Baby Boomers. They didn't answer the phone.

Earlier in the day, I pointed out how Harry Reid's irresponsible not to mention idiotic comment about an unnamed insurance giant that was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy had caused insurance company stocks to stumble on an industry wide basis. At midday, the damage was only half as grave as it…

In stumping for the needed (though flawed) bailout bill yesterday, Harry Reid warned that an unnamed American insurance firm was teetering on bankruptcy. Those of us who cover Washington for a living have long since learned to ignore Harry Reid's every utterance. Unfortunately everyone can't afford…

Barack Obama yesterday: "I don't think me calling House Republican members would have been that helpful. I tend not to be that persuasive on that side of the aisle" Barack Obama today in Wisconsin: "I've been reaching out to leaders in both parties to do whatever I can to help pass this plan."

Jeff Dobbs over at the excellent Voice in My Head blog makes a great catch. Here was Barack Obama on "60 Minutes" a full nine days ago: KROFT: Why you? I mean, why do you think you would be a good president? OBAMA: Well, I was going to get to that. KROFT: Go ahead. OBAMA: You know, I'm a, I'm a…

"I don't think me calling House Republican members would have been that helpful. I tend not to be that persuasive on that side of the aisle." - Barack Obama, acknowledging he doesn't know how to do bipartisanship and that his whole post-partisan gestalt is about as fact-based as the Easter Bunny.…

From Ezra Klein's blog comes this lovely"let them eat cake" gem from Robert Borosage, co-Director of the lefty activist group Campaign for America's Future: The bail out will take place simply to avoid that depression. But depressions have some salutary effects - the scoundrels go belly up, the…

SO HERE'S THE state of play as the Great Depression redux edges ominously closer. The Paulson Plan failed today, with a solid majority of Republicans voting against it. The opposition Republicans fall into two camps:

So here's the state of play as the Great Depression redux edges ominously closer. The Paulson Plan failed today, with a solid majority of Republicans voting against it. The opposition Republicans fall into two camps: 1) The Mike Pence doctrinaires who welcome a free market curative like a…

And it's a whopper! Jules Crittenden provides the report: Washington Post's live fact check finds Obama out-and-out wrong on several counts but has to parse and pick apart assiduously to find McCain at fault. Whatever. A telling exercise. Where it gets bizarre is in the grand finale, this…

Far be it from me to differ with the punditocracy's mainstream, but I happen to feel that last night's debate was a pretty big win for John McCain. I'm aware that most observers have called it a draw, agreeing that both men performed rather ably. I'm also aware that the polls show a majority of…

Far be it from me to differ with the punditocracy's mainstream, but I happen to feel that last night's debate was a pretty big win for John McCain. I'm aware that most observers have called it a draw, agreeing that both men performed rather ably. I'm also aware that the polls show a majority of…

It's Joe Biden spokesman David Wade's thankless job to defend his garrulous gaffe-master of a boss. Here's Wade in action: "Joe Biden is getting the job done every day, and I guarantee Joe Biden will be Mr. October. He's a closer. He's the vice presidential nominee you want slugging it out in the…

Please don't construe what follows as an endorsement of the richly flawed Paulson Plan, but… Over the years, we've all gotten accustomed to Democrats referring to every single spending boondoggle as "an investment." You know the drill - we need to invest in infrastructure or we must invest in…

"Our nation has a long and proud tradition of news organizations that are ideological and partisan in nature, the Huffington Post and the New York Times being two such publications." --- The McCain Report

Mark Steyn has some rather pointed observations regarding John McCain's political maneuvers during the economic crisis: I dunno about a nine-point lead, Kathryn, but clearly the Obama campaign self-destruct effort managed to stall during Bailout Week. As a general rule, when economic matters are in…

Blogger "Angry Bear" has received an explosive communiqué: Dear American: I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude. I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need…

Patrick Ruffini and I were colleagues at Townhall.com; he's one of the smartest young conservatives on the web. Thus, I found the following blog post he authored utterly dismaying. Here it is in full: Republican incumbents in close races have the easiest vote of their lives coming up this week: No…

Oil prices soairng! Yes, in light of other event this really is good news. The Wall Street Journal reports: Oil prices soared were up more than $25 and their intraday high and finished with a gain of $16.37, or 16%, at $120.92 a barrel in New York as the likelihood of a bailout prompted bets that…

From Bloomberg, "How the Democrats Created the Financial Crisis" by Kevin Hassett This being a time of crisis, it is no time for finger pointing. Then again, why not? In this searing and much-discussed piece, Hassett explores who is responsible for enabling the twin ticking time bombs of Fannie Mae…

1) From the New York Times, "A Fine Mess" by William Kristol 2) From the American Scene, "Welcome to History" by Jim Manzi Is it a sign that we truly are approaching the End Times that the Boss and John Conyers agree on something of vital importance? Both find the administration's plan to give…

Good to see the Grey Lady is doing everything it can to deepen the economic crisis. Check out this amazing correction: An article about the effect of the Wall Street crisis on Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs cited two sources who were said to have been briefed on a conversation in which John J.…

Barack Obama has released a new two minute commercial in which he looks seriously at the camera and drones on about how he'll provide serious leadership for our serious financial crisis. The heart of the ad refers the viewer to his Plan, helpfully posted at his website. Given the Plan's utter…

When the Fannie/Freddie crisis simmered over a few weeks ago, I dismissed the possibility of it making a significant dent on the public consciousness. I figured Fannie and Freddie were too opaque for the common person to understand. After all, even genius congressmen like Barney Frank found the…

From Political Punch, "Does Obama Support the AIG Bailout" by Jake Tapper Barack Obama - still voting present after all these years. In dilating endlessly on the AIG bailout, Barack Obama declined to say whether or not he supported it. He did, however, condemn the bailout as sadly reflective on…

As John points out below, John McCain has released a commercial on the economy. The ad is titled "Enough is Enough." Did I miss the memo that says whichever candidate says this cliché the most times automatically wins? The video and the text follow: JOHN MCCAIN: The economy is in crisis. Enough is…

From the Politico, "As Markets Reel, The Blame Game Begins" by Jeanne Cummings First, let's start with this little passage that hits Washington right where it lives: We have to pity the government in a lot of ways," says Robert F. Bruner, dean of the Darden School of Business at the University of…

David Brooks adds to the conservative oeuvre of Sarah Palin doubt this morning: If the Bush administration was anything, it was the anti-establishment attitude put into executive practice. And the problem with this attitude is that, especially in his first term, it made Bush inept at governance. It…

Jeffrey Feldman is one of the savvier Daily Kos diarists. In a post today, he offers some advice to the moribund/struggling/bumbling/incredibly lame Obama campaign and the campaign's destructive supporters: STEP 1: STOP WITH THE ENDLESS PALIN DIARIES I'm talking to you, friend. That's right.…

From the Weekly Standard, "Tax Cuts, Real and Imaginary" by Newt Gingrich and Peter Ferrara As you know, I have a self-imposed guideline that prohibits linking to pieces that appear in our own magazine. No reason to offend my unlinked colleagues. Anyway, new rule - this guideline will not apply to…

Unlike me, I bet you don't read the left wing blogs. I don't blame you - I sort of get paid to read them. But even before I hopped aboard the Weekly Standard gravy train, I read the lefty blogs. I liked to know what my ideological (and temperamental) opposites were thinking, even if I did find them…

David Axelrod has released a memo this morning that points to the tough and substantive strategy that will guide Team Barry from this point forward. "We will respond with speed and ferocity to John McCain's attacks and we will take the fight to him," vows the brains of the Obama campaign, "but we…

From the New York Times, "Hanging on to Biden's Every Word" by John Broder The New York Times finally has noticed that a garrulous gaffe machine serves as Barack Obama's running mate: (Biden's) a human verbal wrecking crew. This is the fellow who nearly derailed his nascent presidential campaign…

Perhaps the best and most moving commercial/homemade YouTube of the campaign season. It's a must-see.

Today marks a special day at the Weekly Standard. Mary Katharine Ham, the Mary Tyler Moore of the blogosphere and the real star of the O'Reilly Factor, officially joins our team to fill the capacious blogging gap left by the on-leave Michael Goldfarb. (Actually, we expect her to more than fill the…

Quoth the film critic Roger Ebert: And how can you be her age and never have gone to Europe? ... Sarah Palin's travel record is that of a hopeless provincial. ... Palin is a shallow, chirpy person with those vaguely alarming eyeglasses. Now her fans all want a pair. Remember back when women wore…

From Real Clear Politics, "Obama On His Heels" by Jay Cost On Sunday, David Axelrod appeared on Fox News Sunday and declared that Team Barry wasn't running against Sarah Palin. This pronouncement signaled that the Obama campaign had finally realized that attacking John McCain's running mate (not to…

From the Wall Street Journal, "The Foreign Policy Difference" by Fouad Ajami An op-ed piece bylined by Ajami is always cause for excitement. You know you're about to read something packed with original insights and expressed with great elegance. Today's work is no exception, as Ajami tackles the…

The Boston Globe reports: Campaigning in Terre Haute, Ind. on Saturday, Barack Obama, mocking claims by John McCain and Sarah Palin that they will challenge their Republican Party if elected, got off a pretty good line. "Maybe what they're saying is, 'Watch out George Bush,'" Obama said with…

The noble son of Welsh coal miners has stepped in it again. At a fundraiser last night, Biden talked tough about the kind of questions he would put to Sarah Palin. He vowed he would ask her about "the superhighway of terror between Pakistan and Afghanistan where my helicopter was forced down...John…

The latest from Vets for Freedom On Capitol Hill, Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham are urging their colleagues to adopt a bipartisan resolution that recognizes the success of the surge. Say the senators in part: It was exactly one year ago today that General David Petraeus returned to Capitol Hill…

I'll tell you, the New York Times is a publication that really knows how to put lipstick on a pig. To put it simply, Barack Obama has been a darling of the derelict siblings Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while John McCain has not. Nevertheless, a Jackie Calmes article in today's ‘Paper of Record'…

Victoria McGrane reports: Biden had an awkward moment during a rally in Columbia, Mo., Tuesday. At the start of his remarks, he pointed out several state lawmakers in the audience for praise. When he got to Chuck Graham, a state senator from Green Meadows, Biden urged the lawmaker to "stand up…

From the Boston Herald, "Media Loves to Hate Sarah Palin" by Howie Carr Howie is something of a civic treasure up here in Boston - a great radio host and an even better writer. (His book on the Bulger Brothers is a tremendous read.) In this column, he hilariously documents the left's various…

Boston Things are pretty grim up here, and not just because John Kerry's reelection is a certainty. Many of us are sitting shiva for Tom Brady's knee while the TV sports anchors are replaying Tom Brady's injury like it's a latter day Zapruder film, pointing at his left knee and saying, "Down and to…

From the Washington Post, "You're Not Accountable, Jack" by Bob Woodward This gripping story recounts the amazing and pivotal role retired General Jack Keane played in getting David Petraeus the commitment he needed from the administration when the congressional vultures were circling above the…

Quoth Joe Biden in Green Bay yesterday: "She's going to have to answer questions," he says. "My plan is to do no different than I get ready to debate Elizabeth Dole on the floor of the Senate." He'll assume, he said, that she's "as smart as I am, as though as I am, and knows as much as I do." As…

From the Washington Post, "Too Cool to Fight" by Richard Cohen Before reading on, please be advised that I will not be held responsible for the coffee you are about to spit over your monitor. Proceed at your own peril. Richard Cohen has served up a piece of pro-Obama fluff so ludicrous in its…

From Townhall.com, "Is Trig at the Heart of Media's Reaction to Palin?" by Mona Charen Charen offers an excellent contribution to the growing field of theories as to why the left has suffered such a complete meltdown over Sarah Palin: Fully 80 percent of parents who receive a diagnosis of Down…

Blogger Beldar has an excellent idea for the McCain campaign: I respectfully suggest that the McCain-Palin campaign announce - simultaneously with Sen. McCain's carefuly considered change of position on drilling in ANWR, preferably from some of the mud flats there so that camera crews can capture…

From the Washington Post, "Program Aids Veterans Entering Corporate World" by Keith Richburg This is one of the most interesting and inspiring stories you'll find out there today: NEW YORK -- Ed Pulido joined the Army at 18 and spent 19 years in uniform. He lost his left leg four years after being…

Here's Obama in Flint, MI today, obviously rejecting David Axelrod's command that he's not running against Sarah Palin: Well, how about Gov. Palin? She's you know, an up and comer from Alaska. She - they're starting to run an ad now saying she opposed the bridge to nowhere. Well now, let's get the…

From Mother May I Sleep With Treacher, "Here's how Palin should handle those who are trying to destroy her, sometimes known as 'the press'" by Jim Treacher Treacher, one of the sharpest and funniest guys on the web, knows how Palin should handle the jackals in the press if/when they should escape…

From the Daily Kos, "Tie-Breakers. Advantage Obama. Advice? Take Nothing for Granted" by Joe Trippi Having scrubbed itself of the ugly Trig Trutherism that more prestigious publications still wallow in, the Daily Kos is still able to host diaries written by respectable people like Joe Trippi.…

From the New York Times, "A Heartbeat Away" by William Kristol The Boss and I both found David Axelrod's Fox News Sunday declaration, "We're not running against Governor Palin," to be rather pregnant with implications. After ten days of wild and sometimes unnervingly insane thrashing, the Obama…

Blogger Charlie Martin has helpfully compiled all of the smears that the left has hurled at Sarah Palin. 54 and counting! Given that we're more than halfway to the century mark in Palin smears, I think it's time to take another brief look at the left's method of smear dissemination. Yesterday on a…

From the Iowa Hawk, "When America's Communities Need Organizing, America's Community Organizers Will Be There to Organize Them" by David Burge We all knew Dave was the most brilliant satirist on the internet (or anywhere in the media for that matter). What we didn't know was that Dave is also a…

Obama did get something done as a community organizer! It was the first step in an informal partnership between Obama's constituents and Friends of the Parks that led to renovations and increased security in a handful of far South Side parks and playgrounds. Ensuring that swings have seats and…

Personally, I credit the green jell-o backdrop. The Gallup tracking poll is in and like Rasmussen before it, Gallup is showing a big bounce for McCain. McCain is up three from yesterday, and now trails Obama by four points. More importantly, both polls consist of three day rolling averages. Only…

As you know, the Republican party bravely cast aside the massive community organizer vote this week. Some have questioned whether the serial shots that RNC speakers took at community organizing were fair. Since I've been sarcastically referring to Barack Obama as "the longtime community organizer"…

1) The Speech - In case we needed a reminder that the great orator in the race represents the other party, Senator McCain's acceptance speech provided it. Soaring rhetoric and a mastery of the teleprompter aren't this candidate's strong suit. The general mediocrity of the speech and the…

1) I know I'm waddling in late here, and my tardiness presents a bit of a problem. There aren't many ways of saying, "It was a great speech!" that haven't already been exhausted. But it was a great speech, a campaign altering speech. For reasons still unknown, the Democrats based their entire…

From the Wall Street Journal, "Why McCain Still Has a Chance to Win" by Peter Robinson Forget the somewhat off-key title, which I would wager Robinson had nothing to do with. (That's how it goes when you contribute op-eds to major dailies - trust me.) You'll love this column, as it more clearly…

From Political Radar, "Huckabee Strikes Partisan Tone at RNC; Blasts Biden, Defends Palin" by whoever at ABC has to write Political Radar Since I'm a Romney guy, Huckabee once had an unerring ability to get under my skin. But now that we've all come together under the same happy big tent, I must…

Ed Morrissey has gone through the bother of producing a thorough transcript of Barack Obama's painful soliloquy on why he's ready to handle any disaster as president. I think you'll find the Hyde Park Hamlet's logic as impressive as his eloquence: Anderson Cooper: Some Republican critics say, you…

Having spent over a decade as a headhunter for lawyers in another life, I've seen many résumés. And every résumé tells a story. The stories told by Barack Obama's and Sarah Palin's résumés could hardly be more different for two people of roughly the same age and aspirations.

From the Washington Post, "Palin's Pregnancy Problem" by Sally Quinn Behold the logical train wrecks and serial cheap-shots that ensue when big media types pretend to try to understand the Evangelical community: And now we learn the 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is pregnant. She and the father of…

From Time.com, "In Wasilla, Pregnancy Was No Secret" by Nathan Thornburgh The suddenly ubiquitous Thornburgh provides actual reporting in lieu of speculation regarding Bristol Palin's pregnancy. Thornburgh better be careful - he could receive a lifetime ban from some fevered precincts in the…

From Time.com, "Where Palin Made Her Name" by Nathan Thornburgh This is a touching and extremely well written profile of Wasilla, AK and its most famous resident: It's Friday night, and there have got to be 500 people packed into the Sluice Box, a beer-soaked clapboard honky-tonk at the Alaska…

The New York Times reports: In a brief press conference in Monroe, Mich., here to talk about Hurricane Gustav, Senator Barack Obama was asked about the suggestion by some Republicans that Democrats - particularly liberal bloggers - have pushed a story about the family of Ms. Palin, who was named…

For over a decade I worked as a headhunter specialized in placing lawyers. I've often wondered what I would have made of Barack Obama's résumé if it had come across my desk.

Earlier today, we took a look at Alan Colmes' comments about Sarah Palin's most recent pregnancy. Colmes wrote: Rogers Cadenhead gives the timeline associated with the birth of her newest child. She had a speech in Dallas and, even after the water broke, continued with her activities, and then…

Already lower than I imagined. HotAir reports that under the headline "Did Palin Take Proper Pre-Natal Care," Alan Colmes has "rocketed into the gutter," writing: Rogers Cadenhead gives the timeline associated with the birth of her newest child. She had a speech in Dallas and, even after the water…

In 1981, former Harry Truman consigliere and LBJ Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford memorably labeled the new Republican sheriff in town an "amiable dunce." At the time, Clifford was the living embodiment of the Washington establishment, and his glib analysis showed that while you can find the…

Quoth lefty blogger Publius after Obama's Invesco coronation: I think McCain's decision to announce the VP pick tomorrow may be too clever by half. I mean, it will certainly draw some attention. But it's not like the press will completely ignore Obama's speech tomorrow or over the weekend. In this…

From NRO, "The Hostess with the Moosest" by Mark Steyn Steyn has at least momentarily emerged from his self-imposed semi-seclusion to remind us of how much we miss him: First, Governor Palin is not merely, as Jay describes her, "all-American", but hyper-American. What other country in the developed…

I normally don't link to the work of my Weekly Standard colleagues in these Required Reading thingies, fearing that doing so could set off a frenzy of bribery and what-not as everyone lobbied for inclusion. But I have to make a one-time exception today because our coverage both here and in the…

From Rasmussen Reports, "Palin Makes Good First Impression: Is Viewed More Favorably than Biden" by Scott Ramussen From Rasmussen Reports, "Daily Presidential Tracking Poll" by Scott Rasmussen Now I know why the left was so angry when John McCain selected Sarah Palin as his running mate (apart from…

Our long national nightmare is over. Below, some brief thoughts on Day 4 of the DNC. 1) What a spectacle! It must be acknowledged that whoever thought of putting on this show at Invesco knew what they were doing. Oh, how we mocked the decision to move the coronation to a stadium and what fun we had…

If I were a man of means and could fund a 527, I would devote extraordinary resources to ensure that Al Gore could drone on endlessly in highly public settings about the climate crisis while supporting Democrats and positing that Barack Obama is the reincarnation of Abraham Lincoln. Alas, I am not…

And lord I hate to say it, but watching the pre-ordination proceedings at Invesco, they are indeed impressive. Chris Wallace just said it feels like history in the making. I'm not sure I would go that far, but it does feel like something biggger than (not to mention different from) a pedestrian…

From the Politico, "MSNBC Prez Defends Convention Team" by Michael Calderone Things are getting ugly at MSNBC: In addition to Olbermann, MSNBC personalities Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough and David Shuster were involved in Denver controversies. On Monday evening, Olbermann interrupted Scarborough…

From the Wall Street Journal, "Economy Grew 3.3% in 2nd Quarter, Much Higher Than Initial Reading" by Jeff Bater and Brian Blackstone Okay, lets' get a couple of things straight. There have been two whopping dislocations in the economy over the past year or so. The decline in home values and the…

The progress of TradeSports/Intrade during the convention week illustrates just what a stellar show the Democrats have put on. Obama's now trading at an all-time low, McCain at an all-time high. Bring on Invesco! tradesports1.jpg HT: Ace

Our four day national nightmare is almost over. If we can just get through tonight! In the meantime, some thoughts on yesterday: 1) THE BIG HE - Everyone else went gaga over Bill Clinton. I didn't, but then again objectivity when it comes to this particular political figure has never been my…

When John Kerry tabbed John Edwards as his running mate in 2004, certain members of the pundit class swooned. They figured Edwards' immense political skills would dramatically bolster Kerry's chances. Me, I was perplexed. If John Edwards was in fact such a magnificent political talent, how come he…

From the New York Times, "High Anxiety in the Mile High City" by Maureen Dowd On the occasions when Maureen Dowd is good (which admittedly are rare), her work officially rises to the level of "guilty pleasure." So smoke ‘em if you got ‘em, because here comes MoDo at her best: I've been to a lot…

From City Journal, "Fire in the Night" by John Murtaugh This excellent essay and the film snippet above provides insight into Obama buddy William Ayers, while casting doubt on the candidate's typically sly evasion of his moral responsibility for hanging around with such a cretin. During the April…

Eagle-eyed reader (and Iraq War veteran) JB Smith emails that if the Republicans feel it necessary to counter Obama's master stroke of tapping Joe Biden as vice-president, there's only one serious option - Trent Lott. Think of it. Both have comical pseudo-hair. Both gravitate to the career-ruining…

From Rasmussen Reports, "Daily Presidential Tracking Poll" by Scott Rasmussen While dominating the last several news cycles by selecting Joe Biden as his running mate and holding the first night of his convention, Barack Obama still managed to lose four points in the Rasmussen tracking polls.…

Our four day national nightmare is now half over. Herewith, some thoughts on day two of the DNC. 1) I was doing commentary last night for New England Cable News last night, so I got to watch Hillary Clinton's speech in the company of a couple of co-panelists who were devoted Hillary Clinton fans.…

According to the New York Post, our occasional contributor and star of Weekly Standard cruises, Mike Murphy, was bumped from MSNBC Monday night, and a TV-watching friend didn't see him anywhere on air Tuesday night. This after MSNBC had touted the signing of its new contributor, who has starred in…

From Time.com, "McCain Prepared Remarks at American National Legion Convention" by John McCain While the speech John McCain gave this afternoon will lack the psychodrama of the Clinton antics this evening, I guarantee you McCain's content will be more memorable: There are those who say that our day…

Desperately searching for its long lost mojo, the Obama campaign has taken dire measures. It has dropped the beloved slogan, "Change We Can Believe In" in favor of the far more substantive, "The Change We Need." When I ran for state representative in Massachusetts in 1992, the electorate was…

From The Hill, "Bill Clinton in Denver Again Undercuts Obama" by Sam Youngman Let me be clear - since he burst onto the political scene some 17 years ago, I have been no fan of Bill Clinton. It is thus confusing and disorienting to be feeling a tingling up my leg nearly every time the former…

From National Review Online, "A Couple More Cents on Biden" by Jay Nordlinger A_Thousand_Monkeys.bmp

Our four-day national nightmare is 25% over. Unlike many of my braver and more industrious colleagues, I didn't make it out to Denver this week. So like most of you, I'm enjoying/enduring the DNC via the television coverage. Here are some thoughts on day one as we wait for Invesco. 1) I guess the…

but I'm not. As I type, Wolf Blitzer is profusely praising Michelle Obama's as yet undelivered speech. He assures us it is very moving. Does that mean we needn't watch it?

From the Politico, "Obama Preps in Solitude for Speech" by Carrie Budoff Brown Behold! The most egregious Obama puff piece of the day! As you read, you'll almost hear echoes of Ms. Budoff Brown chanting "O-ba-ma!" while she worked the keyboard. CHICAGO - For three days in a row, Barack Obama traded…

Gallup shows the race tied at 45-45, meaning Obama has gotten no bounce from his selection of garrulous gaffe machine Joe Biden as his running mate. Or does it? Reports the pollster: The latest update includes two days of interviewing following Obama's selection of Sen. Joe Biden as his vice…

Not that the Obama campaign proactively seeks out my advice, but if I were a neophyte candidate looking to make the transition from celebrity to serious leader, I would forego set pieces like this: Denver's Rocky Mountain News reports on its site today, "The Jersey boys are coming, and we ain't…

From the New York Times, "A Joe of His Own" by Bill Kristol In his weekly Times column, the Boss tries to analytically work out what a McCain/Lieberman ticket would mean to the presidential race and the country: Now as a matter of governance, there's no reason to think this would much matter.…

You'll pardon me for having some confusion over the current state of Democratic thinking regarding multiple home ownership. In 2004, the Democratic standard bearer owned multiple houses, and yet the party figured his wartime valor trumped that purported stain. Present-day secular saint Al Gore has…

From Obamaweek, "A Liberal's Lament" by Sean Wilentz First, a little quiz - who said it? "This year will not be a year of politics as usual. It can be a year of inspiration and hope, and it will be a year of concern, of quiet and sober reassessment of our nation's character and purpose. It has…

obamabiden.JPG I have to admit to puzzlement over the Joe Biden selection. The conventional wisdom regarding vice-presidential nominees is first do no harm. Given that Biden has been a garrulous gaffe machine for his lengthy political career (36 years in the senate, although it feels like longer),…

From the Wall Street Journal, "Saddleback: The Inner Game of Politics" by Daniel Henninger The normally excellent Henninger stumbles here, clumsily working Peggy Noonan's side of the street and lamenting that everything was better in a mythical yesteryear: Can one imagine Dwight Eisenhower, FDR or…

Barack Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School. For those of you completely unfamiliar with Latin, "magna cum laude" in this context translates into "he had really good grades." Joe Biden, on the other hand, graduated 76th in a class of 85 from the University of Syracuse Law School.…

From Reason.com, "The Loser Now is Later to Win" by David Weigel In this odd yet thoughtful (although sometimes incomprehensible) essay, Weigel diagnoses and seemingly laments Barack Obama's latest predicament: The dynamic of the race now is summed up by the usual batch of oddly sexual verbs:…

From the American Spectator, "Teleprompting Obama" by the Prowler Not that long ago, even friendlies in the media suggested that I was off-base in observing that Barack Obama is a dreadful extemporaneous speaker. Without a teleprompter guiding him, Obama is the total package of horrors - hesitant,…

From an interview with TIME Magazine: TIME: One of the biggest moments in the campaign is going to be your announcement of a vice president. What is that decision going to tell voters about you? Obama: Hopefully, the same thing that my campaign has told the American people about me. That I think…

Yesterday was one of the truly happy days in my life. My Verizon/FiOS service added something like 50 additional high definition channels, including almost a dozen premium movie channels. The FiOS service now offers not just blazing fast internet service that never crashes but also the Golf Channel…

From Talking Points Memo, "Fibbin'" by Josh Marshall Here's the post in its entirety: From a Republican pal ... "You didn't get this from me, but use it as you will. Is it just me -- as a Republican knowing how we've played this game before -- or should there be genuine puzzlement why Obama isn't…

From the Los Angeles Times, "Barack Obama's Image Suffers Amid John McCain Attacks, Poll Finds" by Michael Finnegan More good polling news for the Maverick. The latest L.A. Times/Bloomberg effort shows McCain pulling within two of Obama, trailing by the razor thin margin of 45-43. In June, the…

From 538.com, "538's Battlegrounds as of Mid-August" by Sean I've mentioned 538.com in the past, but here's a timely reminder. It is without question the best site for poll analysis on the internet. If you like following the presidential horserace (and who doesn't?), it should be a daily stop. This…

From the British paper the Evening Standard, "Barack Obama's Broken Promise to African Village" by David Cohen In the Obama family's hometown in Kenya, the secondary school is named after the presumptive Democratic nominee. Obama visited there in 2006: At that historic homecoming in August 2006…

From the Wall Street Journal, "For Obama, Taxes Are About Fairness" by William McGurn Great column here by McGurn, exploring the "soak the rich" tax mentality that characterizes Barack Obama's campaign: Mr. Obama, by contrast, started out much more directly, suggesting that if you make $150,000 or…

From HotAir.com, "POW: I Remember McCain Telling the Cross Story in 1971" by the Allahpundit My friends, the obtuseness of the angry left sometimes shocks me into a benumbed silence. While I've been staring at the intertubes in slack-jawed silence, Allah has summed things up well: Anything that…

From the Wall Street Journal, "Now Phelps Chases Gold on Land" by Christopher Rhoads According to this story, Michael Phelps' haul of eight gold medals may be worth nine figures. Given the physical torment and mental ennui involved with swimming great lengths, the kid has earned every penny he…

From the Boston Globe, "Hindsight Isn't 20-20" by Jeff Jacoby The outstanding Jacoby, the lonely conservative presence on the Globe's op-ed page, makes an excellent case for why the Iraq war was worth doing: Hindsight isn't always 20-20, particularly in wartime, when early expectations of an easy…

Here's the real scandal behind the whole cone-of-silence non-scandal. Per Rick Warren, both McCain and Obama had a heads-up regarding the tougher questions at Saturday's forum. The pastor didn't want the candidates to be struck dumb by the hard ones. Warren specifically cited the inquiry where the…

In a strange frenzy of increasing desperation, the left has unsheathed two new attacks aimed at John McCain. The first suggests that McCain somehow evaded the "cone of silence" at the Saddleback debate and thus had an unfair advantage. After all, how could McCain have given a better answer to who…

From the New York Times, "Showdown at Saddleback" by William Kristol From Real Clear Politics, "McCain Shines at Saddleback Forum" by Michael Gerson From Commentary, "McCain Tonight" by John Podhoretz I didn't see the Obama-McCain semi-showdown live on Saturday night. Instead, I was out catching…

From National Review, "The Lieberman Option" by Rich Lowry From The Politico, "McCain Alarms Base with Abortion Comment" by Jonathan Martin From Commentary, "The Argument for Lieberman" by John Podhoretz First from the Politico: Top social conservative leaders in key battleground states are urging…

An interesting nugget from today's Rasmussen Daily Snapshot: "Despite the Russian invasion of Georgia, daily tracking data shows no shift in voter priorities for Election 2008. Forty-one percent (41%) say economic issues are most important while just 22% name national security issues as the top…

From the Wall Street Journal, "Bush Toughens Up" by the Editors Like many conservatives, the Journal's editors have been hard on the administration's dilatory response to the situation in Georgia. Also like many conservatives, they are now pleased that the Bushies have rediscovered their spine. The…

Rasmussen has a poll up whose results will chill the hearts of those of us who enjoy (and occasionally guest-host) conservative talk radio shows: Nearly half of Americans (47%) believe the government should require all radio and television stations to offer equal amounts of conservative and liberal…

From the New York Times, "Creep Show" by Buzz Bissinger Buzz hates the Olympics even more than I do! As you may know, Bissinger is the author of the seminal fly-on-the-wall sports book, Friday Night Lights. Friday Night Lights was a searing look at the world of high stakes high school football as…

From the New York Times, "The Wrong Force for the Right War" by Bartle Breese Bull The generally hawkish and specifically pro-surge Bull questions the bipartisan wisdom that we should flood a bunch of troops into Afghanistan in order to better pursue "the right war." But what are the real prospects…

From Salon.com, "Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye" by Walter Shapiro Shapiro laments how he bought John Edwards's long stream of shinola only to be betrayed when Edwards' true nature finally revealed itself in that Beverly Hills men's room: Beginning with a trip to North Carolina in the spring of 2001 to…

"China's Communist rulers, while basking in the glow of their Olympics bash, are surely checking the tea leaves for what this might presage about U.S. support for another U.S. ally: the democratic Republic of China on Taiwan. If the U.S. will not stand up to North Korea, will not stand up to Iran,…

From Rasmussen Reports, "59% see Russian Invasion of Georgia as Threat" by Scott Rasmussen The pollster reports: Just over half (51%) believe that John McCain is the best equipped of the two major presidential candidates to handle a similar crisis in the future, while 36% believe Barack Obama is…

From the Daily Dish, "Cheney or Putin" by Andrew Sullivan Andrew Sullivan provides a wonderful example of the moral confusion brought on by an acute case of Bush Derangement Syndrome: A key point: Russia is not exporting a totalitarian ideology; it is flexing its military power in its backyard, as…

From the Washington Post, "A Path to Peace in the Caucasus" by Mikhail Gorbachev Even Gorbachev, a.k.a. Russia's Jimmy Carter, is flush with militaristic pride based on Putin's Georgia adventure. What happened on the night of Aug. 7 is beyond comprehension. The Georgian military attacked the South…

From National Review, "Moscow's Sinister Brilliance" by Victor Davis Hanson In this brief essay, Professor Hanson gives you just about everything you need to know about the Russia-Georgia conflict. You'll want to read the whole thing, but the following passage is my favorite: The Russians have…

Showing the same sort of rapid response that He displayed during the 14 month Jeremiah Wright "problem," Barack Obama and His campaign have belatedly issued a rejoinder to the McCain campaign's almost two week old "Celebrity" ad. I think you'll agree it's a stroke of genius. The Obama campaign,…

From Pravda, under the headline, "Russia: Again Savior of Peace and Life:" The international community collectively held their breath waiting for the reaction of Russia after the savage, brutal, criminal attack by Georgia on South Ossetia. After having offered a ceasefire in hostilities, the…

Above is John McCain's entertaining new internet ad. Will Joe Klein find it scurrilous? Will Andrew Sullivan be gobsmacked? Will Barack Obama show a heretofore hidden ability to laugh at himself? You'll have to stay tuned.

From the Wall Street Journal, "Volunteering for Torment" by John Paul Newport It's been a while since I've indulged in some golf blogging. Please forgive me for surrendering to temptation. Besides, it's not like anything interesting is happening in the world like a war breaking out or a major…

From the New York Times, "Will Russia Get Away With It?" by Bill Kristol From the Washington Post, "Putin Makes His Move" by Robert Kagan If I worked for the Atlantic or The American Prospect, I would be forced to write about stuff that I have little or no familiarity with. Fortunately, I'm under…

From the New York Times, "Sometimes, There's News in the Gutter" by Clark Hoyt In an unintentionally laugh-out-loud essay, the Times' ombudsman provides some insight into how the Grey Lady and her fellow media travelers managed to overlook the John Edwards story: Still, Edwards-Hunter was…

Over the past week, several of our friends from the organization Vets for Freedom (VFF) have returned to Iraq. All of the men and women on the trip are veterans of the Iraq War, most of them combat veterans. The idea was that they would return to the areas where they served so they could see what…

When the Olympics enter the public consciousness, we like to think it should be for sports-related reasons, even if some of us hardly consider the likes of synchronized swimming and curling real sports. But the Beijing Games have made news for all the wrong reasons. When the International Olympic…

From this week's issue of Entertainment Weekly: EW: Everyone knows you're a Jay-Z fan, but who else is on your iPod? Barack Obama: My staff teases me about how eclectic my tastes are. I've got Frank Sinatra, I've got Sheryl Crow, I've got John Coltrane, I've got Bob Dylan. There's Javanese flute…

From HotAir.com, "Edwards Admits Affair" by the Allahpundit It's been a long week of blogging, and yet I still can't seek safety on the golf course - I must say something about the John Edwards affair. As is so often the case, Allah has the best and most insightful rundown. If you're keeping score…

Under the breathless headline "'Adlai Stevenson's Lasting Legacy' panel to feature Adlai Stevenson III, Sept. 24", Princeton's Woodrow Wilson School offers details of a compelling program you won't want to miss in addition to wrapping up this week's "Not a Parody" prize: A panel discussion titled…

From National Review, "On Energy, Do Everything" by Charles Krauthammer It was my great honor during one of my stints guest-hosting the Hugh Hewitt Show to be able to tell Charles Krauthammer publicly to his face (or at least over the phone) what I've often said in private - he is the best…

From the New York Times, "Know-Nothing Politics" by Paul Krugman In his trademark understated and genteel manner, Paul Krugman tries with today's column to buck up the fortitude of the Don't Drill Democrats. I truly wish him the best of luck in the endeavor. The column highlights what a tough spot…

Apropos of Jake Tapper's scoop showing that Barack Obama receives more money from Exxon/Mobil than John McCain, blogger Jeff Dobbs of The Voice in My Head (which you should be reading every day) has come up with a logo to convey the gravity of the situation. barackbigoil.jpg

From Rasmussen Reports, "News You Watch Says a Lot About How You'll Vote" by Scott Rasmussen Fascinating stuff here. 87% of Fox News viewers plan on voting for John McCain. By way of comparison, 63% of MSNBC viewers plan on voting for Barack Obama. Yesterday, I posited that Keith Olbermann was…

Above is the McCain campaign's new ad. Not that anyone asked my opinion, but I like it. Facing an unpleasant reality, there's no way a normal Republican would have had a chance in the 2008 general election. The Republican brand at this moment is badly damaged and in disrepute. It's something of a…

From the Wall Street Journal, "What McCain Should Do Next" by Karl Rove Quoth the Architect: "Then there's character. Mr. McCain is the most private person to run for president since Calvin Coolidge in the 1920s. He needs to share (or allow others to share) more about him, especially his faith. The…

From the Washington Post, "A Way Back to the High Road" by David Broder It's become a quadrennial tradition more reliable than the Olympics and almost as boring. Every presidential election, the media shed crocodile tears over how negative the campaign process has become. Today, David Broder…

From the Huffington Post, "John Kerry, Surrogate-in-Chief" by Sam Stein A few months ago, I urged the Obama campaign to consider John Kerry as its running mate. Forget the fact that Kerry would fulfill His needs; Kerry would also fill my need for non-stop comedy: There is one man that Barack Obama…

From the New York Times, "Learning to Speak Climate" by Tom "The World is Melting" Friedman Tom Friedman has written his fourth straight column on environmental matters. Yippee! Obviously, Friedman is trying to get on to the Al Gore gravy train, the one that allowed the prophet of environmental…

madashelloi4.jpg From National Review Online, "MSOBAMA" by Pete Wehner Like many of us, Wehner has taken a fascination in the falling out between Dana Milbank and Keith Olbermann. In case you haven't heard, Olbermann happily greeted the news that his longtime partner in purported news analysis…

From the Boston Globe, "Obama Shows Hints of His Year in Global Finance" by Sassha Issenberg I know what you're thinking: Obama spent a year in global finance? Where did He find the time, what with already being a community organizer, a part-time lawyer, a law school lecturer and a state…

Yes, it's true - we should all check our tire pressure regularly. Our vehicles will be more fuel efficient if we do so. We should also wear our galoshes in inclement weather. What we don't need is a president to remind us of these things. Take it from someone who lived for 12 years under Michael…

From the Wall Street Journal, "My Bet with Francis Fukayama" by Bret Stephens Stephens begins the process of figuring out how history will view the Iraq War. He also details how he took $100 from fickle philosopher Francis Fukayama: I'll grant that Mr. Fukuyama had decided the war was a mistake --…

From the New York Times, "Where's the Landslide?" by David Brooks In this provocative yet oddly silly column, Brooks purports to diagnose why Barack Obama hasn't run away with the election. He's a sojourner! The root of it is probably this: Obama has been a sojourner. He opened his book "Dreams…

From McCain '08, "Broken" by some really clueless campaign workers Please - bring back the allegedly juvenile ads that moved the debate! Yes, it's true that only Lowry and I liked them when they first came out, but we were a lonely majority of two. I'll make a bold prediction - the above ad will…

From The Hill, "MoveOn Plans to Push Back Hard Against House GOP" by Klaus Marre Here's perhaps the best news of the morning! MoveOn is going to mark out the "don't drill" territory of the energy debate as its own. Perhaps the organization can play the same constructive role it did when David…

From the New York Times, "Not Quite Ready to Go Home" by Stephen Biddle, Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack The three authors have just returned from Iraq and are soberly analyzing the progress made and the road ahead: Violence in Iraq declined because the key combatants were either defeated in…

Henry Kissinger has written a very moving letter to the Washington Post regarding his friend and mentee, Peter Rodman. It's well worth reading in full: The generation that saw us through World War II and its aftermath is often called "the greatest generation." Without doubt, it performed signal…

The Boss emails some observations from the road: Larry Kudlow makes an interesting suggestion in his article on NRO: As Sen. John McCain and the GOP leadership nationalize the drill, drill, drill message, the Republican party might conceivably be riding a summer political rally. The question of…

intrade.jpg Here's another one for our "Miraculous Fortnight" file. Above is a graphical representation of how Barack Obama has done on the InTrade markets the past three months. You'll want to pay special attention to the end of the graph which represents the last few weeks, or the entire…

From the great James Lileks: In the summer of '78 I was back home in Fargo between college years - exiled from the civilized world, cast into barbarity. During the day I labored under the hot sun painting giant fuel tanks in the hot sun, next to an auto-body shop that exhaled poison and Eagles all…

A month ago, Barack Obama righteously (not to mention correctly) opposed tapping the Strategic Oil Reserve. Back then, Obama said that we should only tap the reserve in the event of an emergency. Since then, oil prices have plummeted by $25/barrel, or more than 16%. And yet now, inexplicably, the…

From the New York Times, "How to Pick a V.P." by William Kristol The boss looks inside Team McCain's veep selection process, and has them foreseeing four possible scenarios: 1. "We're going to defeat Obama straight up." That means Pawlenty or Portman, the two least controversial and most…

From the New York Times, "McCain, the Analog Candidate" by Marc Leibovich My former basketball teammate Leibovich* has written an enormously entertaining article on the technologically challenged Republican nominee: "I don't expect to set up my own blog," he told the New York Times reporters Adam…

Obama brain.JPG From BarackObama.com, "New Energy for America" by Barack Obama Linked is the text to a "major address" that Obama gave today on energy policy. Just once, I would like a presidential candidate to give a minor address. The context of the major address in question is full of big…

From CBSNews.com, "O-Force One" by Allison O'Keefe This story will really help Obama with all of those arrogant/presumptuous storylines that have burgeoned in recent days. Apparently, He has spent his bountiful campaign funds (donated in dribs and drabs by poor people!) on a campaign plane worthy…

From Rasmussen Reports, "Daily Presidential Tracking Poll" by Scott Rasmussen Barack Obama's "miraculous fortnight" continues! He now trails John McCain by one point. Yes, you read that right - the Maverick has surged into the lead. The most interesting findings: A week ago today, Obama had a…

As John Kerry and Joe Lieberman dueled on Meet the Press, I had an epiphany. Many times over the past few months, people have asked me what they can do to help John McCain win the election. Often, these have been people of means. I have yet to offer any creative or even hackneyed ideas. But that…

Andrew Sullivan has returned from his two week vacation, swooning more than ever: "Yes, the last couple of weeks of the campaign, even from my remote perch, were pretty uninspiring on the GOP side. Here's my brief take, for what it's worth. Obama's fortnight was an objectively miraculous one." In…

1) From the Washington Post, "The Curious Mind of John McCain" by Robert G. Kaiser A couple of days ago, we glanced at a Jonathan Chait column that whined about the way Democratic general election candidates are always labeled flip-floppers. Well, today it's the Republicans' chance to whine. Every…

1) From SlateV.com, "Leave Obama Alone" by Christopher Beam (Please see update below) This is a first in Required Reading history - Required Viewing! Before diligently completing your assignment, be forewarned: Those pretend whiny Obama supporters can be a salty bunch. There is obscenity in the…

As you know, I haven't exactly established myself as a robotic defender of the McCain campaign. Thus, in the spirit of a very minor league Nixon going to an even more minor league China, I will be the first member of the right wing press to unequivocally defend the McCain ad that compares Barack…

1) From Gallup.com, "Presidential Race Tightens to 4 Points" by some guy who works for Gallup The Ego has landed! A mere three days ago, Barack Obama sat comfortably perched atop a nine point lead in the Gallup tracking poll. Now it's down to four. Rasmussen shows an even tighter race. In…

Jake Tapper notes that frantic Democrats are attempting to add "context" to Barack Obama's latest mega-gaffe. In case you've already forgotten, Obama's latest homage to Himself found Him saying, "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions." Anyhoo, per…

Speaking to a bunch of Democratic congress-crtitters last night, Barack Obama proved beyond any measure of a doubt that his ego has completely run away with him. Quoth the longtime community organizer: "I have become a symbol of the possibility of America returning to our best traditions." Somehow…

1) From the Politico, "Ted Stevens indicted on 7 Counts" by Martin Kady II and John Bresnahan As they say up in Alaska, oy gevalt. At least that's what they say up there in a Michael Chabon novel. Anyway, the Republican party has a new poster boy for the 2008 election. He's an 84 year-old whose…

ObamaAbroad.JPG When Hillary Clinton kicked off her 2000 campaign for senate, she gaudily commenced a "listening tour" in which she traveled New York listening to the concerns of ordinary voters. The cynics among us never wholly swallowed the notion that the then-First Lady really cared what the…

Last night, Mike Huckabee appeared on Hannity & Colmes. I was occasionally critical of Huckabee during the primaries - okay, I was more like "very often" critical of Huckabee during the primary season - but his appearance on H&C was extremely impressive. The McCain campaign should be listening to…

1) From the Horse Race Blog, "On Obama's Message" by Jay Cost The always cogent Cost does a magnificent job laying out Barack Obama's meta-narrative: Obama's organization is built around a faulty, occasionally absurd meta-narrative. A meta-narrative is just a campaign's central message, the core…

Brian Williams held an interview with Mahmoud Ahmadenijad that you'll be able to see on NBC tonight. The following exchange will likely make the most news: BRIAN WILLIAMS: Is Iran's goal to have nuclear power or to be a nuclear power? Pres. AHMADINEJAD: (Through translator) We are not working to…

It was a very smiley version of the Sunday news shows. Barack Obama appeared on Meet the Press, and John McCain popped up on This Week. And both of them smiled a lot. Perhaps McCain's aides thought he had been coming through as too cranky and that the best way to counter to such an impression would…

ObamaAbroad.JPG I know. Barack Obama inspired you yesterday. And yet you're frustrated. You too long to be a "citizen of the world." But you feel stymied. You're asking yourself, "How do I go about such a thing?" Well, I'm here to help. If you click here, you will be directed to a website that will…

1) From the New York Times, "Playing Innocent Abroad" by David Brooks Brooks takes a savage scalpel to Barack Obama's soon-to-be- infamous Ich bin ein Weltburger speech. ("Weltburger" means "citizen of the world," by the way.) Obama speeches almost always have the same narrative arc. Some problem…

Passionate Obama supporter Meteor Blades titled his Daily Kos essay on today's colossal failure of a speech, "By This Foreign Policy Speech Will Future Ones Be Measured." Fair enough - that's why they make paint in different colors. In spite of mine and Mr. Blades's disagreement on the speech's…

1) From Barack Obama.com, "A Magical Cure for All Insomniacs" by Barack Obama Greetings, fellow citizens of the world! If you're like me and suffer from insomnia, you'll want to keep the link to Obama's speech in Germany today handy. Free yourself from Ambien! The speech was so dull, even Obama…

1) From Swampland, "McCain Meltdown" by Joe Klein Huge news! Joe Klein is scandalized. The following John McCain quote has made the longtime and battle hardened campaign coverer hie to his proverbial fainting couch: "This is a clear choice that the American people have. I had the courage and the…

Obama brain.JPG As you know, Barack Obama is still trotting across the globe, sinking three pointers, ignoring military counsel and healing the occasional leper. Amidst all the hullabaloo, these Obama comments regarding Israel and terrorism have been sadly overlooked: "Um, let me be absolutely…

In the past, I've noted how elites in the Bos/Wash/NY/Hyde Park corridor have shown a benign indifference to soaring gas prices. Mind you, I'm a self-confessed arugula-munching/latte swilling Boston-based elitist myself who visits his local filling station on average a bit more than once a month.…

1) From the Los Angeles Times, "For McCain, the Surge is a Losing Strategy" by Jonah Goldberg A couple of week ago, I mentioned my depression over the way the McCain campaign was functioning. My sad mental state had driven me to beat myself over the head with a baseball bat. After a jot of…

In July 2007 when he was still frantically courting the far left, Barack Obama flatly declared that genocide wouldn't be a good enough reason to keep American troops in Iraq: SUNAPEE, N.H. - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama said Thursday the United States cannot use its military to…

ObamaAbroad.JPG 1) From the New York Times, "No Substitute for Victory" by William Kristol In discussing the portion of Barack Obama's road show that will soon stumble across Germany, Kristol avoids any pettiness regarding the campaign's choice of venue for Obama's benediction/mass leper healing…

1) From RealClearPolitics.com, "The Audacity of Vanity" by Charles Krauthammer 'hammer time! Dr. Krauthammer's article has justifiably set off quite a firestorm of delight in conservative circles. My email box has overflowed with links to the column and comments like "Krauthammer's best ever!"…

Obama brain.JPG Barack Obama delivered a speech in West Lafeyette, IN on Wednesday and once again mangled some well known historical facts: Throughout our history, America's confronted constantly evolving danger, from the oppression of an empire, to the lawlessness of the frontier, from the bomb…

1) From the Wall Street Journal, "Who Obama Should See in Iraq" by Dan Senor Senor spent 2003 and 2004 as a senior advisor to the coalition in Iraq. From this experience, he has a pretty good idea what a naïve junior senator should look for in Iraq if he is in fact intent on having a serious fact…

Barack Obama's $52 million haul for the month of June is impressive - more impressive than some of us wags figured it would be. Then again, it's not as impressive as the $100 million The Hill ludicrously speculated his Hopeness would rake in. But what does it all mean? First, let's get the boring…

1) From the Wall Street Journal, "The New Reality In Iraq" by Frederick W. Kagan, Kimberly Kagan and Jack Keane The authors, contributing architects of the surge, have recently returned from a trip to Iraq and have taken note of some dramatic progress: As far as the civil war is concerned, there…

As many have noted elsewhere, Barack Obama has ended the civil war in Iraq. As of June 22, Obama was writing on his website that Iraq was mired in a civil war. These unfortunate and counterfactual statements have conveniently disappeared from the BarackObama.com over the last few days. But what of…

Above is the new Vets for Freedom ad, urging members of both parties to finish the job in Iraq, regardless of who becomes president. The sober sense of responsibility of the young veterans in the spot contrasts starkly with the windy hyperbole of Joe Biden. Biden, as you probably recall, engaged in…

If we had a "Most Offensive Quote of the Day" every day, Joe Biden would probably come to own the prize. But even by the senator's lofty standards of chronic obtuseness, he outdid himself this afternoon: "If John (McCain) wants to know where the bad guys live, come back with me to Afghanistan. We…

1) From the Politico, "Talking About AfPak" by John McCain. Fair is fair - I've criticized the McCain campaign when it has stumbled. It is thus only right that I give McCain and his team credit when they get one right. McCain gave a speech today on Afghanistan that displayed a superior…

ObamaPatton.JPG Lost amid the intellectual incoherence and straddling in Barack Obama's op-ed on Iraq have been his bold plans for Afghanistan: As president, I would pursue a new strategy, and begin by providing at least two additional combat brigades to support our effort in Afghanistan. We need…

Huge news! If I were more skilled in an internet sense of things, I would embed one of those "24" type clocks on the blog so we could enjoy a countdown to Nirvana. I don't want everyone to get too excited because the big event is still a few days away, but on Thursday, Al Gore, the Buck Turgidson…

1) From the New York Times, "My Plan for Iraq" by Barack Obama. Barack Obama and his minions are responding fiercely albeit ineffectively to the notion that the presumptive Democratic nominee is a flip-flopper. They figure they have to respond in this fashion, since flip-flopping doomed John…

1) From Rasmussen Reports, "The Daily Presidential Tracking Poll" by Scott Rasmussen Over the weekend, I was having an impromptu conversation with the McCain campaign's deputy director of online communications. During our chat, I predicted, "Your guy will be within two points of Obama in the…

1) From Daily Kos, "McCain Aide Says U.S. is ‘Nation of Whiners' in a ‘Mental Recession'" by "Dansac" That sound you've been hearing all day is me hitting my head in Boston with a baseball bat, trying to forget all the silly things the McCain campaign has done this week. First, McCain surrogate…

Obama brain.JPG "With just half a wing, this bird can't fly" - Barack Obama last night At a campaign event with his erstwhile rival last night, Barack Obama was supposed to pass the metaphorical hat on behalf of Hillary Clinton's campaign debt during one of his rousing trademark speeches. Only one…

1) From the New York Times, "Iran Reports Missile Test, Drawing Rebuke" by Alan Cowell. This piece is actually datelined July 10 - it's like peering into the future! Naturally, the presidential candidates responded to Iran's claim of testing missiles that can reach Israel. John McCain offered sober…

Short answer - the cameras just showed up! Or as Michelle Malkin mordantly puts it, "A four-part interview that probably entailed hours of set-up, makeup, mic checks, and post-wrap schmoozing…and he "didn't catch it quickly enough." Admittedly, Obama's explanation is patently disingenuous, but at…

1) From the Philadelphia Inquirer, "Way Past Time for U.S. to Recommit to Afghanistan" by Senator Robert Casey. I love the smell of a moldy talking point in the morning. Having been caught flatfooted by the Iraq war going unexpectedly well, the Democratic party has developed a sudden need to find a…

1) From the New York Times, "So Where's Murphy" by William Kristol. As I mentioned earlier in the day, Kristol feels that political consultant extraordinaire Mike Murphy will soon return to John McCain's side and make sense out of the tone-deaf and contradictory hash that the McCain campaign has…

Today is a big day on the campaign trail, as the McCain campaign has kicked off its "Focus on the Economy Week." And where does the focus go? You know it - on balancing the budget! Somewhere in New Hampshire, Warren Rudman is cackling maniacally. I kid you not. With the country in a panic over a…

Obama brain.JPG Before the long weekend began, Barack Obama made a semi-flip-flop regarding the situation in Iraq, even allowing that the surge had achieved some stability and that the next president would be foolish to fritter away those gains. Predictably, this acknowledgement of the obvious…

There was a moment in history when the Dutch really loved their tulips. In 1635, 40 tulip bulbs sold for the astronomical price of 100,000 florins. This was at a time when the average yearly income of a Dutchman who wasn't forced to spend all his time plugging leaky dikes was 150 florins.

About five months ago, former Al Gore advisor Naomi Wolf went on Fox News and said, "We need to get our babies out of Iraq." In spite or perhaps because of its shocking offensiveness, Wolf's comment revealed the way some members of the left think about the American military - as a hapless…

A Happy 4th to everyone. Believe me - I would have liked to have prepared a Required Reading that was appropriately and perhaps tritely thematic, but there was too much other good stuff out there. 1) From the New York Times, "New and Not Improved" by the editors. Hell hath no fury like a Grey Lady…

An oddly interesting collection of links for the day prior to a long weekend: 1) From the New York Times, "Obama Might ‘Refine' Iraq Timeline" by Jeff Zeleny. (Scare quotes in original.) When I was on a panel at Blog World in Vegas last fall, the prevailing sentiment among the prominent lefty…

I have to tell you, the pickings on the internets were slim today. Normally I have twenty open windows from which to choose the Required Reading list. Today, I had three. As you may have inferred, that means some of what follows isn't exactly pressing business. 1) From the blog "Just One Minute,"…

Yesterday, I had the audacity to suggest that the lack of any terror attacks on American soil since 9/11 represented an accomplishment for the Bush administration. Frankly, I thought this was a rather banal assertion. Nevertheless, many Bush haters took issue with the contention - much to my…

Lefty blogger Glenn Greenwald does a nice job documenting Barack Obama's serial betrayals of the last two weeks: The choices Obama makes about how he campaigns and the positions he takes are extremely consequential in how political issues in this country are perceived. In the last two weeks alone,…

I was a little disappointed with today's quiz results. Mr. Starr will be returning next week and he will be informed. From Commentary, "1948, Israel and the Palestinians" by Efraim Karsh. Facts are stubborn things. Too bad more people aren't aware of them. From Politico, "Who's Smearing Whom" by…

Bush-loathing scholar Andrew Bacevich has taken to the Boston Globe to pen a screed documenting the horrible misdeeds perpetrated by the administration. Bacevich even ordered his complaints in a tidy little list: The administration's many failures, especially those related to Iraq, mask a…

In spite of the late posting, all of this will be on tomorrow's quiz: From The New York Times, "The Choice They Made" by William Kristol. The Founding Fathrs are not only still relevant today - we need them more than ever. From the Wall Street Journal, "The Tragic End of Bush's North Korea Policy"…

Those who are crammed in under the Obama campaign bus better make room for one more guest. Philadelphia's subtly named The Bulletin (I've never heard of it either) reports: Gen. Merrill A. McPeak, the most senior retired general advisor the Obama campaign, raised a few eyebrows when he suggested…

As McCormack notes below, American Prospect wunderkind Ezra Klein made an astonishing assertion regarding the surge yesterday: The argument over the surge was never an argument positing that more troops couldn't lead to less violence. Folks forget this, but the surge was actually part of Howard…

IT'S UNLIKELY THAT I'll get to talk to Barack Obama during this presidential campaign. Since he keeps even friendlies in the media at a distance, I probably have no chance of getting an opportunity to bend his ear.

The Barack Obama presidential seal now belongs to history. But fret not - Team Obama has not lost any of its grandiose ambitions. Below is their mark-up for a potential overhaul of an American landmark. I think you'll agree it's a tremendous improvement. rushmore.JPG

TO MANY COMMENTATORS and politicians, $4 a gallon gas is a mere abstraction. Let me explain, using my own sad life as an example.

On the night after John Kerry won the 2004 New Hampshire primary and became the Democratic party's presumptive nominee, the dour senator trailed George W. Bush in a Rasmussen Reports poll by three points. Roughly nine months later on Election Day, in the only poll that mattered, Kerry still lagged…

Writing at the Atlantic.com, Matthew Yglesias draws a fine distinction: French television asked Ahmadenijad what he meant about how Israel should be wiped from the map, and he replied: "Why are you worried? Where is the Soviet Union? It has disappeared, has it not?" Now I think it's actually clear…

alg_obamabike.jpg David Brooks has a provocative piece today in which he suggests that Barack Obama perfectly combines egghead idealism with Machiavellianism: But as recent weeks have made clear, Barack Obama is the most split-personality politician in the country today. On the one hand, there is…

Above is Barack Obama's first television ad of the general election season. Even by the lenient standards by which such things are judged, it's a real snooze. It also seems like an odd sort of retreat. The sum total of the message is that Obama is a humble son of the heartland, imbued with the good…

Remember when Barack Obama claimed he would "aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election?" Once again, never mind. The Politico reports: Obama said he'd pursue public financing "aggressively." He committed to it in a written…

Above is footage of Barack Obama rejecting public financing for the general election. It has to be watched to be believed - please check it out. Note the angry sense of victimization he uses to justify his flip/flop. Now courtesy of the wayback machine, here's Obama's position on the same matter…

celeb11.jpg Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images Like a lot of Celtics fans of a certain vintage, I'm stuck in permanent Larry Bird nostalgia mode. That means I tend to bore younger Celtic fans with my tedious memories. As is the case with many wizened Celtics fans, this reflex is involuntary.…

The Obama campaign has released the roster of its National Security Working Group. You'll want to take your No-Doz before reading the full list: Secretary of State Madeleine Albright Senator David Boren, former Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Secretary of State Warren…

I have quietly observed the joy with which giant swaths of the media have greeted the Supreme Court's discovery of habeas corpus rights for enemy combatants. "The system works!" they brayed as they celebrated the restoration of the rule of law. In fact, just the opposite has occurred. The issue of…

It's a tradition nearly as old as modern politics itself - disaster strikes, and a politician rushes in to "help" with the relief effort while a bunch of cameras conveniently roll nearby to record the politician's noble efforts. Above, you can see footage of Barack Obama continuing this noble…

Above is footage of Al Gore belatedly throwing his weight behind Barack Obama's campaign. Talk about your profiles in political courage! Then again, maybe the erstwhile veep was worried that he would do to Obama what he did to Howard Dean in 2004. I know you're not going to watch the whole thing…

It was an extraordinary weekend for Tiger Woods as he won his 14th major championship at Torrey Pines. A few random thoughts for the tiny subset of Standard readers who have been dying for some golf-blogging: 1) Tiger is the best golfer ever. Period. Jack Nicklaus, the previous holder of that…

Cambridge, Mass.

As you'll see from the Tonight Show transcript below, our once and future colleague is scaling new heights of fame: LENO: Over the weekend, Barack Obama spoke with John McCain on the phone. I don't want to say McCain is getting old, but halfway through the conversation, McCain said to Barack, "Can…

The latest Rasmussen tracking poll shows good news for John McCain. The Arizona maverick has chewed into Barack Obama's eight point lead, taking out a three point chunk. Unless you failed several math classes, you've probably been able to deduce that Obama now has a five point lead over McCain. For…

alg_obamabike.jpg Barack Obama getting in touch with his inner Dukakis As the above picture illustrates, even the coolest of Democrats have more than a little Michael Dukakis in them. In conservative circles, we often lament how Democrats have forgotten the foreign policy legacy of John F. Kennedy.…

Jim Johnson, the author of the Fannie Mae debacle and seemingly a lifetime magnet for the appearance of impropriety, has stepped down as Barack Obama's chief running-mate vetter. Personally, I find this devastating news. If Johnson had done for Obama what he did for Fannie, Obama probably would…

The Jim Johnson-led search for a suitable running mate for Barack Obama has narrowed the potential list to three categories. According to Time Magazine, Obama's personal Team Fannie Mae is focusing on "current top elected officials, former top elected officials, and former top military leaders."…

The above clip features George F. Will forecasting doom for John McCain in the fall. His point is that the current polls showing a close race are a mirage. Will elaborates that polls are only as reliable as the template they use to predict turnout. According to Will's reasoning, the polls showing a…

In the Rasmussen daily tracking poll, Barack Obama leads John McCain by eight points. This is the second consecutive day that Obama has held an eight point lead, and it marks an unhappy departure from the happy days of yore (like ten days ago) when McCain held a five point lead. First, the bad…

1) My friend Hugh Hewitt and I have something of a passion for belittling Pittsburgh sports fans. For instance, both Hugh and I felt that Barack Obama's comment about rural Pennsylvanians being bitter was perfectly understandable in the context that anyone who spent half his mental energy trying to…

Image (since removed) from Obama campaign website The internets became briefly aflutter today when Charles Johnson noticed some rather interesting stuff on Barack Obama's official website. In the site's "community blogs" section, a post slipped in with the charming title, "How the Jewish Lobby…

I urge you to run over to HotAir and enjoy some footage of Hillary Clinton endorsing Barack Obama. As you'll note, it was no occasion for cackling. Indeed, the First Lady couldn't even manage a grin. I've seen happier and more eager expressions in a colonoscopy waiting room. Meanwhile, Charles…

Such a gifted orator! He obviously has such a firm command of the facts! Lord knows I love mocking Obama's inarticulateness when unguided by a teleprompter as much as anyone what with personally having invented the meme and all, but there's a serious point here. In Richard Ben Cramer's seminal book…

Filmmaker (or is it former filmmaker?) Spike Lee holds a special place in the darkest recesses of many Bostonians' hearts for the way he went after Larry Bird in the 1980's. The color of Bird's skin in Lee's eyes made him somehow illegitimate, a view that Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan among…

Filmmaker (or is it former filmmaker?) Spike Lee holds a special place in the darkest recesses of many Bostonians' hearts for the way he went after Larry Bird in the 1980's. The color of Bird's skin in Lee's eyes made him somehow illegitimate, a view that Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan among…

Oft-swooning Obama-phile Andrew Sullivan published a post yesterday that read in its entirety: "I cried all night. I'm going to be crying for the next four years. What Barack Obama has accomplished is the single most extraordinary event that has occurred in the 232 years of the nation's political…

As McCormack notes below, our esteemed once-and-future colleague Michael Goldfarb has now officially brought his pugnaciously eloquent (or eloquently pugnacious) blogging style to the McCain campaign. I'm going to give you a couple of snippets from his initial post to make a larger point: Welcome…

John McCain certainly isn't the best looking of the remaining presidential candidates, but I wouldn't have expected the blogosphere's most prominent lefty to make a big issue of the disparity. I was of course wrong. The following critique of a picture of McCain that appears on his campaign website…

Peggy Noonan is one of the few right wing writers who, like me, managed to completely resist Hillary Clinton's charms during the Democratic race for the White House. But in her column today, out of a fully justified sense of joy, Noonan engages in a little shark jumping. Taste the righteous…

Our friend Pete Hegseth, who served in Iraq with the 101st Airborne and is now chairman of Vets for Freedom, has an outstanding op-ed in today's Wall Street Journal regarding Barack Obama's refusal to visit Iraq. A taste: Mr. Obama has dismissed the value of such trips, suggesting they are…

Mahmoud Ahmadenijad has provided his analysis of our domestic politics: "Whoever wins the elections, I'm sure that the United States will change, it will have a different approach… The new president will have to respond to the real demands of the American people: 40 million American citizens do…

I promise I will not make a habit of defending Barack Obama. So please view what follows as not a defense of Obama but rather a plea that McCain partisans concentrate their criticism in the right places. The above YouTube has been making the rounds today. It shows a bunch of similarities between…

Near the kick-off of his victory speech last night, Barack Obama commented, "Thank you to my grandmother who helped raise me and is sitting in Hawaii somewhere right now because she can't travel but who poured everything she had into me and who helped make me the man I am today." You remember…

Because everyone else has criticized John McCain's speech from last night, I'm hoping it won't jeopardize my shot at a future seat on the Straight Talk Express if I add my voice to the choir and say I also thought it was a poor performance. No one expects McCain to match Barack Obama when it comes…

Josh Marshall has a typically insightful blog post on what's become of Bill Clinton. My favorite part is the following: The level of his investment in Hillary's campaign (on any number of novel-bearing levels) is palpable and not fully explained by anything as mundane as the hunger for power or as…

An AP report suggests that Hillary Clinton will indeed shut the circus down tonight: WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton will concede Tuesday night that Barack Obama has the delegates to secure the Democratic nomination, campaign officials said, effectively ending her bid to be the nation's first…

You probably don't know this, but you should. There's this wonderful woman out there named Larwyn who has earned the thanks of conservative bloggers everywhere over the last few years. She sends multiple emails a day to the top 50 or so conservative bloggers highlighting what they need to know.…

With Hillary Clinton perhaps ready to finally return to Chappaqua like a latter-day but defeated Cincinnatus, we can turn our attention to something that really matters - Barack Obama's choice of running mate. There's been a significant boomlet for Jim Webb recently as he's one of the few Democrats…

Private First Class Ross Andrew McGinnis received the Medal of Honor posthumously this morning in the East Room of the White House. In a more perfect world, PFC McGinnis would be a household name. Below are some of President Bush's moving remarks from today's ceremony: A week ago on Memorial Day,…

In this week's print issue of the Weekly Standard, John Podhoretz brought a much-deserved axe to the execrable film adaptation of the TV series "Sex and the City." I don't want to repeat what he said, but I do have some further barbs of criticism to hurl at the film. First of all, you might be…

Above is a clip of a very angry Hillary Clinton supporter venting this weekend at the Democrats' little shindig. She wonderfully personifies the predictable dead-end of identity-based politics. Will the Democrats be able to reassemble their coalition before November? Not if this woman has anything…

Rumors are sweeping the internets that Hillary Clinton may be shutting her circus down tomorrow. As with all things Clinton, I suspect ulterior motives. You've probably heard the other rumors on the internet that a devastating videotape of Michelle Obama saying some exceptionally incendiary things…

Barack Obama's potential partner-in-summiting (without preconditions, but with preparations) has issued more soothing commentary on world affairs: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted on Monday that Muslims would uproot "satanic powers" and repeated his controversial belief that Israel…

In his column in yesterday's New York Times, Tom Friedman waddled into the Obama "talk with our enemies" thicket: The fact is, Mr. Obama was right to say that he would talk with any foe, if it would advance U.S. interests. I swear, I hate to sound like a broken record, but that's not at all what…

Father Pfleger in action Over the weekend, Barack Obama gave his best Roberto Duran "No Más" impersonation and divorced himself from Trinity United Church, however belatedly. The proximate cause was a sermon given at the church last Sunday by his longtime friend, Father Michael Pfleger, in which…

WE WENT THROUGH similar times in the early 1990's. The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union crumbled and we won the Cold War. Yet it was beyond the typical liberal's ability to acknowledge that Ronald Reagan had anything to do with these accomplishments. So you had the ludicrous spectacle of…

We went through similar times in the early 1990's. The Berlin Wall fell, the Soviet Union crumbled and we won the Cold War. Yet it was beyond the typical liberal's ability to acknowledge that Ronald Reagan had anything to do with these accomplishments. So you had the ludicrous spectacle of…

Saleh Riqab, Hamas' deputy minister of religious endowment, took the time on a TV interview a couple of weeks ago to explain Bill Clinton's scandals to the Al Aqsa TV audience: Riqab: Both Democrats and Republicans compete to please the state of the Jews. That's why when a Democrat comes to…

Just as he did with Barack Obama, The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg scored an interview with John McCain. Once again, the results were fascinating. A couple of snippets: JG: Do you think that Israel is better off today than it was eight years ago? JM: I think Israel, in many respects, is stronger…

While Barack Obama's serial gaffes had a strangle-hold on my attention this week, I completely ignored the story of the ongoing lunacy being spouted from his church's pulpit.. Personally, I consider Father Michael Pfleger's oratory from this past Sunday at Obama's Trinity United Church less…

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The highly enjoyable website 538.com has updated its review of the pollsters. A word about the site before getting into the pollster's grades - While a former Daily Kos diarist runs the site, his statistical analysis is insightful. His commentary, while leftish, is thoughtful and decidedly…

Jim Manzi has established himself as a brilliant writer over at National Review's The Corner, but he has outdone himself with this post on Barack Obama's commencement address at Wesleyan. This passage from Obama's speech especially stood out: But during my first two years of college, perhaps…

EARLY LAST EVENING, I was speaking with a friend and he jokingly asked if Obama had made any gaffes during the day. "Well," I responded, "only if you consider his claim that his uncle was one of the first soldiers in to liberate Auschwitz a gaffe." My friend laughed, knowing that the Red Army had…

Fulsome Obama supporter Andrew Sullivan writes today: "Obama is one of the least gaffe-prone politicians out there." You know what else Barack Obama is? The most qualified presidential candidates ever! The blinkered nature of the Obama supporter never ceases to amaze, does it?

Someone here should say something about the Scott McClellan's Bush-bashing book that has turned out to be the rage of the day in the blogosphere. Having drawn the short straw, the task falls to me. First reaction: Who cares? Second reaction: Knowing a little about how the publishing industry works,…

The Washington Post's official "fact-checker," Michael Dobbs, has taken Barack Obama to the woodshed over his Auschwitz-related ignorance: "Many Americans might have problems distinguishing Buchenwald and Ohrdruf from Auschwitz. But should we not expect more from a Harvard-educated presidential…

Above is a commercial from the advocacy group Vets for Freedom urging Barack Obama to go to Iraq, see for himself what's happening there and meet with David Petraeus. Go ahead, watch the spot - I'll wait. We all know this idea will have absolutely zero interest for Senator Obama. If there's one…

Early last evening, I was speaking with a friend and he jokingly asked if Obama had made any gaffes during the day. "Well," I responded, "only if you consider his claim that his uncle was one of the first soldiers in to liberate Auschwitz a gaffe." My friend laughed, knowing that the Red Army had…

Because of his recent string of gaffes and his unrepentant super-liberalism, many supporters are having if not second thoughts then a touch of buyer's remorse regarding Barack Obama. Even Andrew Sullivan has shown diminished enthusiasm, commenting today, "Intellectually, I find so much of Obama's…

Over at Commentary, Jennifer Rubin notes this oddity from a Telegraph profile of failed statesman and Barack Obama advisor Zbignew Brzezinski: Mr Brzezinski said "it's not unique to the Jewish community - but there is a McCarthyite tendency among some people in the Jewish community", referring to…

Above is video of John McCain dealing with some hecklers at the University of Denver. A quick question to ponder while you enjoy the highlights: How come this kind of rudeness seems to be almost the exclusive province of the left? Regardless, these protesting types probably cost the Democrats swing…

Barack Obama continues to use weasel words and equivocations in his lame effort to step back from his pledge that as president he would chat with any malefactor willing to stand still with him long enough for a photo-op. Let's first remember the policy pronouncement from the YouTube debate:…

"On this Memorial Day, as our nation honors its unbroken line of fallen heroes -- and I see many of them in the audience here today -- our sense of patriotism is particularly strong." - Barack Obama, yesterday.

When April proved a bloody month for American soldiers in Iraq, the American left swarmed. 52 U.S. soldiers died in April, the most since September 2007, and the left rushed to express its special brand of concern for "the children" as it so often patronizingly refers to our fighting men and women.…

Some time last week, the New York Times' Frank Rich scored tickets to see the highly lauded revival of "South Pacific" that's currently playing on Broadway. Being the Times' former theatre critic before he turned his all-knowing eye to politics, this must have been quite the trick. Everyone loves…

At the risk of waddling in late to a controversy, I simply must comment on Hillary Clinton's latest gaffe. As you've no doubt heard by now…well, let's let the New York Times tell the story:< Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton defended staying in the Democratic nominating contest on Friday by pointing…

Bob Barr chats with Borat

I just knew that the equivocations issued by the Obama campaign and its eager surrogates like Joe Klein regarding the longtime community organizer's diplomatic plans with Iran were bound to confuse the slow-witted. Sure enough, Joe Biden has taken to the pages of the Wall Street Journal and shown…

I finally got around to reading that George Packer piece in the New Yorker that heralds the fall of conservatism and that everyone is talking about. I would offer the old "read the whole thing," but it's awfully long, kind of rambling and not particularly insightful. So instead I'll say have a…

Hillary Clinton, in a remarkably craven moment even by Clinton family standards, has compared the purported plight of people who voted for her in Michigan and Florida to that of Zimbabweans: (It is wrong when) people go through the motions of an election only to have them discarded and disregarded.…

Rasmussen's daily tracking poll offers some good news today, showing John McCain with a 4 point lead over Barack Obama. While overreacting to each day's numbers is certainly unwise, for sanity's sake well have to seize on and cherish every piece of good news that we can find this cycle. There's…

Jim Geraghty calls our attention to this Houston Press story that appeared a few months ago. Writer Todd Spivak recounts a horrifying encounter he had with Barack Obama while covering Obama's part-time work as a state legislator back in the year 2000: It's not quite eight in the morning and Barack…

On the New York Times op-ed page, Nathan Thrall and the very coolly named Jesse James Wilkins provide a highly public history lesson to longtime community organizer Barack Obama: IN his inaugural address, President John F. Kennedy expressed in two eloquent sentences, often invoked by Barack Obama,…

Goldfarb notes below the New York Times' knee-slapping correction regarding Larry Rohter's column where he notoriously insisted that Barack Obama had not called for direct talks with Iran and its kook-in-chief. More knee-slapping still is the way the corrected version of Rohter's column now reads…

In a moment of graciousness, Barack Obama made a rather charitable comment regarding Hillary Clinton last night: "Senator Clinton has shattered myths and broken barriers and changed the America in which my daughters and yours will come of age." I realize that in this particular campaign, Obama has…

The Democrats are having a tough time figuring out how to attack John McCain. He's not a doctrinaire Republican, he has bucked his party on numerous occasions and he has a limited affinity for George W. Bush and his policies. Since the Democrats would prefer to be running against the incumbent…

I didn't want to watch Hillary Clinton's "victory" speech last night, but I had to. Since I was analyzing it on TV, I figured I would be derelict in my journalistic duties if I took a nap or switched the studio monitor over to the Celtics game (as I desperately wanted to) while the erstwhile First…

Yesterday I posted the news that Geraldine Ferraro may not vote for Barack Obama because of his "terribly sexist" ways. I mocked Ferraro's shrill claim of sexism, but I now realize that perceiving sexist activity is not a strength of mine. Fortunately, a presumed Hillary supporter and definite…

Last night, 24 year-old Red Sox lefty Jon Lester pitched a no-hitter at Fenway Park. Lester is a remarkable story - 20 months ago, he was diagnosed with cancer. Seven months ago, he won the clinching Game 4 of the World Series. And last night, Jon Lester pitched the game of his life, giving Red Sox…

It was a busy two days on the campaign trail. Yesterday, Barack Obama minimized the threat Iran poses, spontaneously burbling, "Iran may spend 1/100th of what we spend on the military. If Iran ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they wouldn't stand a chance." The right wing blogosphere,…

Bloomberg's Juliana Goldman takes note of the Obama campaign's clumsy attempts to tack rightwards: The flag pin that appeared on Barack Obama's lapel is just the opening salvo of Operation Patriotism for the Democratic presidential candidate… The campaign also will roll out more supporters among…

The wages of identity politics continue to ravage the Democratic party. Now comes a blow of the cruelest sort. Path breaking gyno-politician Geraldine Ferraro has told the New York Times she might not vote for Barack Obama if he's the Democratic nominee (which of course he will be). What has driven…

In a speech in Oregon last night, Barack Obama continued to display his lack of sophistication regarding world affairs. "Iran may spend 1/100th of what we spend on the military," observed the long time community organizer. "If Iran ever tried to pose a serious threat to us, they wouldn't stand a…

Yesterday, the Celtics won a thrilling Game 7 over the Cleveland Cavaliers. For what it's worth, here are the scattered thoughts of an emotionally exhausted and more-frustrated-than-delighted Celtics fan. The parallels between yesterday's Paul Pierce/LeBron James match-up and the legendary…

Barack Obama continued to display his surprisingly flimsy grasp of American history yesterday. "This whole notion of not talking to people," began the longtime community organizer. "It didn't hold in the '60s, it didn't hold in the '70s ... When Kennedy met with (Soviet leader Nikita) Khrushchev,…

Obviously at the heart of yesterday's little tussle over the president's speech in Israel was the question of whether or not Barack Obama is tough enough to be president. This meme has been bubbling for a while. Even the New York Times' Bob Herbert suggested that Obama was a wimp (in so many words)…

In the wake of President Bush's speech to the Knesset yesterday in which he criticized those who would negotiate with "terrorists and radicals" as delusional types who seek the "false comfort of appeasement," many on the left have had a meltdown. They've been so vituperative, one would have thought…

Above is John McCain's new campaign ad. In spite of Powers Boothe's stirring narration, I have to confess to being less than thrilled with the spot. The ad boasts that at the end of John McCain's first term, the Middle East will be "stabilized," the nuclear terror threat "reduced," border security…

The big election related news from yesterday had nothing to do with the nothing-burger in West Virginia. Sorry Clinton dead-enders - it's still over. The big news came from Mississippi where in a special congressional election, Democrat Travis Childers defeated Republican Greg Davis, 53-47.…

Iran's kook-in-chief is once again rattling his beheading scimitar in Israel's direction: Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that Israel would "be soon swept away" from the Palestinian Territories by the Palestinians. It is the second time within less than three years that…

With the denouement of Spygate mercifully near, a fascinating piece appeared on an ESPN chat board. Written by a guy styling himself "NEInsider," it ostensibly gave the Patriots' side of the story. A sample: We were wrong and made a mistake. We as an organization failed and it will never happen…

The indefatigable Jake Tapper has tallied ten times where Barack Obama has blamed his staff for some sort of foul-up. A sample: (Sunday), in an interesting New York Times look at Obama's rise in Chicago politics, we learned that in 2004 some Jewish supporters became alarmed to learn that in a…

You've heard about Obama's Atlantic interview. You've witnessed some House Republicans' painfully lame effort to distort his "sore" comment. But here's a nugget that I haven't seen commented on anywhere else. Quoth the presumptive nominee: "You know, when I think about the Zionist idea, I think…

Dan McLaughlin (who blogs as the Baseball Crank) has written what may well be the seminal essay to date on Barack Obama's experience, or what little there is of it. By all means take a few minutes and read the whole thing, but here's a sample: He's never run anything at all, not even a small law…

Andrew Sullivan calls our attention to this essay by John C. Hulsman and A. Wess Mitchell which attempts to view our current politics through the prism of "The Godfather." While this is of course a noble exercise since "The Godfather" can shed light on all areas of human endeavor, the authors are…

This sounds odd. Bloomberg reports that Barack Obama, the king of the teleprompter, is "willing" to debate John McCain at Town Halls during this campaign season. Presumably, there would be no teleprompters available to tell Obama what to say at such forums, so agreeing to such a format would be a…

Much was said over the weekend regarding Barack Obama's abandonment of his previous promise to talk to our most bitter enemies, just like Roosevelt did with Hitler and the Japanese. In case you haven't heard of this little situation, it's quite something. During the YouTube debate last July, Obama…

By now you've seen the footage of Barack Obama ruing the fact that he hasn't been able to visit all 57 states in this great union of ours. If you haven't, scroll down a bit and read Goldfarb's post on the matter. I'll wait. This faux pas is beyond weird; I know the guy is tired, but "How many…

In honor of this weekend's The Players Championship, or simply The Players as it now prefers to be called, here's a completely irrelevant although politically resonant Lee Trevino anecdote that appeared in the latest issue of Golf Digest: Speaking of fistfights, the last one I had was in 1978 with…

Rasmussen's Daily Tracking Poll shows Barack Obama opening up an eight point lead over the Lioness of Tuzla. Six days ago, Hillary led by three. For those of you who flunked remedial math or happen to be Philadelphia Eagle fans, that's an 11 point swing in less than a week. The cause? One of the…

In an editorial today, the New York Times bashes the Republican candidate who received her endorsement some four months ago: So far, Senator John McCain is shaping up as Bush the Sequel - neverending war in Iraq, tax cuts for the rich while the middle class struggles, courts packed with right-wing…

To help you better enjoy the Fall of the House of the Clinton, I present to you the above footage of Bill Clinton angrily quarreling with a voter at a sparsely attended West Virginia forum yesterday. Behold the righteous anger! Enjoy! By the way, for those of you wondering why the Clintons fight so…

Deftly pivoting on a dime, the Obama campaign has emphatically declared the irrelevancy of the Hamas endorsement. But it was not ever thus. Let's enter the way-back machine and journey all the way back to April when Hamas let its preference be known: When asked about the endorsement, Obama's chief…

The Boston Globe reports that the New England Patriots's "Spygate" scandal has likely reached its end: Former Patriots employee Matt Walsh certified in writing that he will turn over eight stolen videotapes to the NFL that show the signals of opposing teams, but the smoking gun that some believed…

John McCain did the Daily Show last night, and acquitted himself quite well. While performing decently in such venues has become an important part of our distended presidential selection process, it's not the be-all-and-end-all. If it were, we could just be done with everything and appoint Mike…

We'll always have May 2, or El Dos de Mayo as I like to think of it. On that day, John McCain led presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama by a healthy six point margin in the Rasmussen Tracking Poll, 48-42. Today, a mere six days later, Obama leads McCain 46-44. What could account for such a…

At the risk of stating the obvious, the fight for the Democratic nomination effectively came to an end last night. Barack Obama has won. My suggestion for grieving conservatives? Deal with it. I've been saying all along that the long primary fight was the best thing that could have happened to the…

SurveyUSA has released its final batch of North Carolina numbers. In the primary eve SUSA poll, Obama leads by five. Here are some analytical goodies for your Endless Campaign of '08 Scrapbook: According to SurveyUSA's 8th and final tracking poll, conducted exclusively for ABC11 Eyewitness News, on…

Survey USA, the most accurate outfit in the game this cycle, is trotting out its most recent poll results. The North Carolina numbers aren't in yet, but the Indiana numbers look very promising for the Lioness of Tuzla. SUSA shows Hillary Clinton with an impressive 54-42 lead in Mellencamp Country.…

Commentary's Jennifer Rubin noted this Michelle Obama gem from the Obamas' appearance on The Today Show this week: The fundamental changes that he has made in just 15 months in the way people see themselves, the way people see their futures, the way young people are looking at their possibilities,…

Our friend David Frum offered some provocative thoughts earlier in the week on the changes that are afoot in the media: Ratings are declining and circulations are plunging. Advertising revenues are tumbling, layoffs, buyouts, marquee properties sold, bought and sold again. Yet, troubled as the news…

Lots of interesting stuff over at Rasmussen today. In order of topicality: 1) 58% of voters say that Barack Obama threw Jeremiah Wright under the bus out of political convenience. Only 30% of likely voters say he did so because he was truly outraged. Although I am typically loath to offer…

IF YOU'VE SPOKEN WITH someone who has swooned for Barack Obama, chances are you've heard them say the word "judgment" a lot. The Obama campaign's central talking point has devolved into, "You have to vote for Barack Obama because he has such wonderful judgment."

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Boston Bruins had a player named Randy Burridge who became emblematic of the franchise. Burridge always gave the proverbial 110 percent, and was a good little player. Problem was, he did much better in the regular season than he did in the playoffs. Over the…

Hot Air's Ed Morrissey notes an oddity in the Washington Post's water-carrying editorial that lauded Barack Obama's most demonstrative denunciation of Jeremiah Wright to date: "But Mr. Obama is right when he says that his entire career is antithetical to the divisiveness of the Rev. Wright's…

While the rest of the country debates the ongoing fallout from the Pastor Disaster, I want to take just a moment to address another urgent concern - the sagging ratings of American Idol. While American Idol remains a ratings juggernaut, this year's numbers have dropped significantly from previous…

IN HIS NEW YORK TIMES column yesterday, Bob Hebert became the latest pundit to lob a slew of hyper-charged code words at Barack Obama:

It's official - Barack Obama, however belatedly, threw his Meshugenah Minister under the bus at a press conference today. According to Obama's telling, Jeremiah Wright's appearance yesterday at the National Press Club made it clear to Obama that Wright is a crackpot, a lunatic, a nut. (The…

THE JEREMIAH WRIGHT IMBROGLIO PROBABLY would have thrown even the most capable political movement for a loop. But the left's reaction to the still continuing crisis has drifted into high comedy. With one full-throated political primal scream, Obama defenders will insist that Reverend Wright doesn't…

As I noted yesterday, the Fightin' Netroots were none too pleased with Barack Obama for taking his road show to Fox News over the weekend. Today, the king of the progressive blogopshere, Markos Moulitsas himself, filed an extensive grievance on the matter. Moulitsas had four main complaints: 1) "A…

It seems like a long time ago that Barack Obama delivered these stirring words in the wake of his victory in the Iowa caucuses: On this January night - at this defining moment in history - you have done what the cynics said we couldn't do. You have done what the state of New Hampshire can do in…

In their own kooky way, the Kos Kids are making peace with Barack Obama's decision to appear on Fox News. Diarist "Eugene" explains how he has managed to make peace with Obama's apparent betrayal: When Obama suggests going to Tehran to meet with Ahmedinejad, he's saying the functional equivalent of…

In Friday's New York Times, Paul Krugman attacked Barack Obama's campaign for its reliably vapid tone: From the beginning, I wondered what Mr. Obama's soaring rhetoric, his talk of a new politics and declarations that "we are the ones we've been waiting for" (waiting for to do what, exactly?) would…

I'm pretty sure I've detected the left's new meme that has arisen out of the ashes of the Pennsylvania disaster: In short, America is not worthy of Barack Obama. In his Time Magazine column, Joe Klein elaborates: In his 1991 book, The Reasoning Voter, political scientist Samuel Popkin argued that…

Andrew Sullivan provides a provocative anecdote this morning: I found out that a friend supported Clinton last night. I was stunned. I asked him why. He said he liked the 1990s, they were good times, he'd like them back. That was it. He had no real feelings about Obama, but he knew the Clinton name…

The New York Times' Patrick Healy, apparently drawing the short straw among Times Obama supporters, has penned a column defending Obama's electability compared to Hillary Clinton's. Most noteworthy is this ringing endorsement: Yet for all of her primary night celebrations in the populous states,…

Hillary Clinton fundraising chief and noted Fox News admirer Terry McAuliffe took to MSNBC's airwaves (cable-waves?) a few hours ago to boast that that Hillary has raised over $10 million online from over 50,000 new donors since her victory last night. Markos Moulitsas channels my own thoughts on…

DURING FOX NEWS' COVERAGE of last night's Pennsylvania primary, the Keystone State's favorite son and prominent Obama supporter Senator Bob Casey Jr. made an appearance. Like many Obama supporters, Casey didn't shy away from hyperbole when discussing his candidate. Referring to Obama, Casey flatly…

David Gergen from a March 14 broadcast on CNN: Well, because there's a long tradition, Anderson. And among black leaders to have a different view of American history, going all the way back to Frederick Douglass, who was one of the greatest American heroes of the 19th century, you know, who -- who…

Because I don't get invited to Howard Dean's conference calls, I have to rely on the reports of others present to monitor the goings on. I found Ben Smith's write-up of today's confab provocative: During the Q and A part of a DNC conference call Howard Dean defended his 2004 statement where he…

Reports from the trail indicate that Barack Obama has been off his game, apparently having been beaten into a lifeless campaigning torpor by the veritable waterboarding that George Stephanopoulos and Charlie Gibson put him through last week. Even noted Obama-phile Joe Klein has taken note of the…

Oh, the indignities a politician must suffer! Our own Bill Kristol devotes his New York Times column today to discussing the messages that the three presidential campaigns released to celebrate Passover with their potential Jewish voters. Chances are, all three would let Passover come and go…

On April 18, 2007, a series of five car bombs hit Baghdad, killing almost 200 people. Showing his customary lack of restraint and his trademark political opportunism, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, attempted to score partisan points. Seeking out a gaggle of press microphones the next day,…

I KNOW THIS WON'T endear me to many of my fellow conservatives, but I like Glenn Greenwald. I've spoken to him a few times on the radio and have enjoyed our jousts. Mind you, I agree with virtually nothing Greenwald says or writes and recognize his unbecoming fondness for the personal insult, but I…

IN THE SUMMER OF 2004, Thomas Frank's What's the Matter with Kansas became the left's "it" book of the moment. Lefty luminaries such as Jeanine Garofalo, Molly Ivins, and tireless class warfarist Barbara Ehrenreich crowded the book's back flap to offer eager blurbs.

With Bill Clinton's brazen and factually challenged defense of his wife's heroics in Tuzla, many people are noting the former POTUS's frequent estrangement from the truth and wondering precisely what it is that makes Clinton lie. If I could successfully psychoanalyze Bill Clinton, I would go to…

In the virtual pages of Commentary's Contentions blog, Max Boot makes a fairly astonishing confession: "I can't speak for anyone else, but I personally have never read a single book by either Trotsky or Strauss." With his brave show of honesty, Boot is attempting to show that not all neocons are…

Last night marked American Idol's second annual installment of "Idol Gives Back," an episode of the wildly popular talent competition in which Hollywood mobilizes to raise money for a plethora of noble causes. Virtually everyone who is someone or was someone made an appearance -entertainment…

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Katie Couric is on her way out at CBS. After two years of Couric compiling "record-low ratings" and with her ratings currently having a trend line that resembles a ski-slope, CBS will finally cry uncle and part ways with its $15 million/yr. news reading…

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Quoth Michelle Obama this afternoon: Barack Obama will always be the underdog. No matter how much money he raises, now matter how many wins he pulls together, no matter how many delegates he accumulates, he is still the underdog. That's the way it works. Obvious exit question: That's the way what…

WITH BARACK OBAMA LIKELY headed to the Democratic nomination, it's time again to check in on Obama's secret-sharer of rhetoric and other political stylings, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. As a neophyte politician, Patrick rode a wave of hope into Beacon Hill's corner office, just as Obama is…

LAST THURSDAY, A controversy erupted in the blogosphere. Like most controversies that start in the blogosphere and die there as opposed to gaining a second and more meaningful life in the mainstream media, the entire affair was a tempest in a virtual teapot. But this incident was a particularly…

A COUPLE OF DAYS ago, Spencer Ackerman of the American Prospect published a lengthy article that revealed at long last--drum roll, please--the Obama Doctrine for foreign policy. Ackerman, working with copious cooperation from the Obama brain trust and himself a de facto Obama press agent, labeled…

The New York Times ran a lengthy story this past Sunday on Hollywood's latest effort to address the Iraq war, the bomb-to-be Stop Loss. The film stars Ryan Phillippe and deals with the tragic story of khoevemcpw3fwc c cmwpowmsmnedheidndccelalaslepfecnecmeclececwwpe - I'm sorry, I feel asleep at the…

From David Brooks's column today: Last week, an important Clinton adviser told Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen (also of Politico) that Clinton had no more than a 10 percent chance of getting the nomination. Now, she's probably down to a 5 percent chance. Five percent. Let's take a look at what she's…

IN HIS MANY MONTHS on the campaign trail, Barack Obama has distinguished himself as the finest orator in recent political memory. With such skills in this area, it's little wonder that Obama and his campaign have put talking on a pedestal. When Obama talks, he does great. Even his detractors can't…

Yesterday marked the 60th birthday of the greatest hockey player ever, Bobby Orr. If by some chance you think Wayne Gretzky was the best hockey player ever, then you were born too late. If by some chance you're unfamiliar with Bobby Orr, he's the guy wearing #4 in the YouTube above skating around…

Over at the Daily Kos, they're feeling the love for Barack Obama in a manner so demonstrative that even Andrew Sullivan would shudder at the thought of putting such hyperbole down on paper: Barack Obama is not John Kennedy. He is not Robert Kennedy. He is not Martin Luther King. He is not the…

Rasmussen has conducted a poll measuring "the impact of Pastor Wright and THE SPEECH on Election '08:" "Early data suggests that it has already had a negative impact on Obama's chances of winning the general election against John McCain. The good news for Obama is that his numbers have stopped…

So Barack Obama has made racial reconciliation the lynchpin of his campaign. Finally! The polls have shown that the American public has been fairly screaming for the presidential candidates to address this issue: Opinion Research Corporation Poll. March 14-16, 2008. N=1,019 adults nationwide. MoE…

A LITTLE OVER a year ago, I read and reviewed Barack Obama's memoir, Dreams From My Father. It was an odd Obama who leapt from those pages. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that Obama slouched from the pages of his own book.

Andrew Sullivan wants us to view the Obama/Wright connection in a very specific way: The relevant - the only relevant - question is: are Obama's beliefs represented by the handful of video clips of the most incendiary of Wright's sermons? Or to unpack it a little further: Does Obama believe that…

For what it's worth, Barack Obama dropped seven points in yesterday's Rasmussen tracking poll that matches him against Hillary Clinton. Rasmussen calls last night's sample "very favorable for Clinton." Although we don't know exactly how favorable, simple math says Clinton beat Obama by a lot last…

Are you concerned that your child is too happy? Do you want him to enjoy beatings from his classmates because he lectures them on the evils of their Styrofoam cups? Are you desperate for your progeny to become a tedious pedant? Then I have good news for you. Al Gore is releasing "the first ever…

The inevitable has occurred. Barack Obama has taken to the virtual pages of the Huffington Post, attempting to distance himself from the Meshugenah Minister in a more muscular manner: "All of the statements that have been the subject of controversy are ones that I vehemently condemn. They in no way…

The internets have been ablaze today with talk about Barack Obama's pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Without belaboring the Reverend's already much discussed rhetoric, I'll mention his greatest hits for any readers who may be new to the conversation. "Hillary Ain't Never Been Called a N***er" had…

Every time a talking head appears on Fox News or CNN to discuss Eliot Spitzer, the term "Shakespearean" seems to come up. If memory serves, even Rep. Peter King called Spitzer's downfall "Shakespearean"--and King ain't exactly chairman of the Eliot Spitzer Empire State Fan Club. I've admitted in…

It you haven't seen this already, you will enjoy it very much. Guaranteed, or your money back! Careful about spraying coffee on your monitor if that kind of thing gets you in trouble at your place of work.

SUNDAY MARKED THE END of an era on American television. HBO's brilliant series The Wire concluded its five-season run with a 93-minute finale. Over the past several months, the show's devotees in the media lavished the show with praise. The most common assessment? "Best TV show ever."

I didn't become a political writer until relatively late in life, so I didn't have the dubious pleasure of meeting many politicians during my relative youth. One of the few that I stumbled across was Geraldine Ferraro. I figured with Rep. Ferraro garnering some headlines today for practicing that…

Now that Eliot Spitzer's reign of error has mercifully ended, what can a responsible analyst do but irresponsibly speculate about Spitzer's future? The most common opinion is that we won't have Eliot Spitzer to kick around anymore. Spitzer will retire to private life, accept employment at some…

Now that Eliot Spitzer has finally ended the Empire State's long nightmare, the time is finally right to indulge in some long overdue golf-blogging. Golf Digest has released its list of the best golfers in the political world. Not surprisingly, the two best are lobbyists. T-Mobile's Tony Russo…

While we wait on the denouement of Eliot Spitzer's governorship, I can't recommend this David Mamet essay (that everyone else has been linking to) highly enough. In it, the great playwright, screenwriter and director details how he has left liberal groupthink behind. Over at Hot Air, Captain Ed…

Tomorrow's New York Times will offer a piece that details the dizzying heights of hypocrisy that Eliot Spitzer habitually occupied: As New York's attorney general, Eliot Spitzer had broken up prostitution rings before, but this 2004 case took on a special urgency for him. Prosecuting an…

Image It was a couple of months ago that we all stared agape at Hillary Clinton audaciously basing her ceaseless claims of foreign policy "experience" on a putatively death defying goodwill mission to Bosnia that included "singer" Sheryl Crow, first daughter Chelsea, and "comedian" Sinbad. To many…

1) Let's start at the ending: Is there any way Spitzer can survive this scandal and remain in office? Right now, it looks like he'll be gone within hours. Then again, it looked that way yesterday at this time. One of the few lasting legacies of the Clinton administration is that Bill Clinton…

As I mentioned yesterday, Matt Stoller of OpenLeft.com is one of the leading lights of the progressive blogosphere. It is thus with a measure of sadness that I must make note of a post Stoller made this morning. Under the headline "Is the Bush Administration Going After Eliot Spitzer?," Stoller…

The intertubes never forget. Below is one of Eliot Spitzer's campaign ads from the last campaign cycle. (HT: Allah)

Ken Langone was one of the lions of Wall Street who had the misfortune of having his reputation stand in the way of Eliot Spitzer's ambitions. Last night, CNBC's cameras caught up with Langone, and he wasn't shy. The best part came when he responded to the question, "What's next for Eliot Spitzer?"…

I've received quite a few letters speculating how the Customer No. 9 scandal might impact the Democratic presidential race. Two theories are dominant: 1) HILLARY WILL BE HURT. The thinking here is that Spitzer's dalliances will remind them of the Clintons' worst and most venal moments (in spite of…

In these, the first hours after Eliot Spitzer's epic fall from grace, it will be difficult for Spitzer's numerous detractors to avoid reveling in an unhealthy amount of Schadenfreude. Nevertheless, it would be salubrious to remember at this time that there are many things worse than a hypocrite.…

The New York Times reports: ALBANY - Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning. I know it's annoying when writers can get all high and haughty over other writers producing…

Image Blogosphere newcomer Jeff Dobbs offers some wistful words that reflect how timing truly is everything: If I have one regret about waiting as long as I did before starting this blog, it is that by self-stifling my dissent and not speaking truth to power, I was giving up essential liberty for…

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A 17 year-old California youth had made it through Los Angeles County's foster care system and was ready to join the Marines. Only one thing stood in his way -liberal Los Angeles Superior Court Commissioner Marilyn Mackel and the fact that she "didn't approve of the Iraq war, didn't trust…

Our friend Jack Keane e-mailed, asking us to help him set the record straight: "On March 7th I was misrepresented on two evening news shows as a 'Clinton supporter or advisor.' In fact I am an independent and have endorsed no one in this, or any other, presidential campaign. I've had discussions on…

Matt Stoller, one of the leading lights of the progressive blogosphere, underscores some of the far left's discomfort with Barack Obama: "Insulting liberals is a standard Obama tactic…So too is Obama's tendency to dismiss and sneer at progressives. There's a dual claim from the Obama camp that I…

In a piece that will appear in tomorrow's issue, the New York Times joins its step-sister (the Boston Globe) in noticing the fortuitous timing of Barack Obama's emergence as a leading voice advocating withdrawal from Iraq: "He was cautious (during his early days in the Senate) - even on the Iraq…

When a liberal politician changes his mind, particularly when he journeys to an even more liberal position, you can count on his fellow travelers in the media to refer to such a fortuitous happenstance as an "evolution." A case study of this phenomenon is to be found on the front page of today's…

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To understand Barack Obama's campaign, it's instructive to look back at the last contender to enrapture the left's grassroots, Howard Dean. In a December 2003 report, the New York Times Magazine explored the personal dimension of the Dean-mania sweeping the Democratic party.

By now, everyone has seen the footage of that Obama-supporting Texas state senator freezing before Chris Matthews' demand that he name a single Obama legislative accomplishment. The left has chosen two reactions to deal with this latest embarrassment. The first has been to dismiss Mathews as a…

Michelle Obama + Microphone = Train Wreck: "Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you…

Over at HotAir, Allah has ended a post wondering whether Hillary will run again in 2012 or 2016. In case you're keeping score at home, Hillary will be 68 years old when Campaign 2016 rolls around. My sense is assuming Hilary fails to draw the inside straight necessary to derail the Runaway Obama…

Picking on Hillary Clinton while she's down may seem cruel and unnecessary. But it will also be fun, so let's do it anyway! On Monday's episode of Late Night with Conan O'Brien, fashion maven Tim Gunn appeared. Most women know Tim Gunn as the amiable presence at the center of "Project Runway;" most…

One night in early 1994, I found myself in a Republican ward committee meeting in Newton, Massachusetts. It promised to be a relatively eventful evening. Beyond our usual festivities--chattering about lost school committee races and eating cupcakes and cookies--Senate candidate Mitt Romney was…

The crazy kids at the Daily Kos are running a poll to see which potential vice-presidential nominee would combine with John McCain to form "the most easily beaten GOP ticket." The choices are all politicians except for David Petraeus and our own in-house philosophical lodestar, Bill Kristol. The…

In my piece yesterday, I noted the many ways that Barack Obama's ad-libbed comments at his Jefferson-Jackson address deviated in tone and substance from his prepared text. I also should have noted that many of the comments Obama made that weren't in the text, like the crack about Dick Cheney not…

USUALLY WHEN BARACK OBAMA gives a major speech, the overdone hosannas from the liberal commentariat follow as surely as night follows day. The American Prospect's Ezra Klein wrote of Obama's post-Iowa victory speech, "I've been blessed to hear many great orations. I was in the audience when Howard…

ODD THING ABOUT our political process--in the immediate aftermath of your most devastating defeat, the system demands that you trot out and give a speech with all the peppiness and ebullience of someone who just won the lottery. It's an odd custom, and it has produced some strange spectacles. When…

According to the exit polls, Mitt Romney seems to be exceeding expectations. Let's start with a few states Romney is going to lose and we always knew he was going to lose. • In New York, Romney trailed in the Real Clear Politics average by 31 points. The exit polls show him losing by only 11. •…

Mitt Romney began his Super Tuesday by appearing on Fox and Friends and speaking carelessly about Bob Dole's letter of support for John McCain. "(Dole's) probably the last person I would have wanted to have write a letter for me," said Romney. "I think there are a lot of folks who tend to think…

The invaluable Jay Cost has penned a characteristically invaluable essay that uses his usual combination of painstaking logic and statistical analysis to show that it's far from a foregone conclusion that Mitt Romney would beat John McCain is a head-to-head match-up if Mike Huckabee were to drop…

Soon we'll be shifting into non-stop focus on Super Tuesday, but before we do so, we still have some detritus from Super Sunday left to sift through. A new BDS has swept the land - Belichick Derangement Syndrome. One would think the coach's super-comeuppance would at least momentarily mollify his…

BOSTON SPORTS FANS HAVE definitely gotten spoiled. Thus, in the wake of last night's Super Bowl loss to the New York Football Giants, a lot of us are stumbling around this morning in a state of bewildered disappointment as we suffer barbs from fans of uncompetitive teams who are thrilled to see the…

Not because of his stridency regarding John McCain. And certainly not because of his righteous advocacy for the Romney campaign. No, Rush loses credibility because of the following nugget in his daily newsletter: Super Bowl Preview: Rush and NFL Great Ken "the Hutch" Hutcherson. The Hutch picks the…

The Wall Street Journal has an editorial today that hammers my preferred candidate, Mitt Romney. That's fair enough--this is certainly an appropriate time for implicitly choosing sides. Nevertheless, I must take issue with the worldview evidenced by the following passage:

IT PROMISED TO BE quite a night as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama faced off mano-a-mano (so to speak) in Hollywood's Kodak center before a crowd stuffed with Hollywood heavyweights. Chances are, you didn't watch it because you're a conservative and you have a life. So, as a pubic service, I not…

Ted Kennedy took to the virtual pages of the Daily Kos yesterday to pen an inspiring endorsement of Barack Obama. Showing a surprising facility with the intertubes, Massachusetts' senior senator even managed to embed a YouTube clip into his "diary. But yesterday was a dark day at the Daily Kos,…

For many of us, last night was full of disappointment. Nevertheless, it is not in my nature to wallow. Even when the clouds are darkest, I look resolutely look for silver linings (although my prose takes on an annoying, cliché ridden style). 1) John Edwards

AS FLORIDA GOES, so goes the nation? Not quite, but what happened yesterday in the Sunshine State was pretty significant. Contrary to popular wisdom, that's not because McCain will receive a bounce out of Florida that will spring him to all kinds of victories next Tuesday. Primary victories don't…

Last night during the State of the Union address, Barack Obama sat next to liberal lion Ted Kennedy who had endorsed him earlier in the day. The seating arrangement highlighted the merger of Camelot and Obama, something that Mark Steyn has labeled Obamalot. Although the chatterers always pay a lot…

Before the assembled press horde, Patriot superstar Tom Brady, a.k.a. the best quarterback ever, urged people to be more responsible. But he wasn't just talking about sports stars. He urged everyone to go see Al Gore's tedious opus, "An Inconvenient Truth," because "it really is the truth." He then…

Earlier in the day, I suggested the Republican campaign boiling down to two men and possibly becoming a referedum on McCain would be seriously bad news for the senator. Then again... According to a mid-January Pew Poll, McCain did the best among all the candidates in favorable/unfavorable ratings…

Let's say for the sake of argument that Rudy Giuliani's supporters realize before they trundle off to the polls today that their hero's chances are as dead as disco. If they decide to wake up and smell the coffee/vote strategically, who benefits - McCain or Romney? Scott Rasmussen provides the…

There are a few things that I've never understood about the "endorsement" process. Theoretically, I guess the way it's supposed to work is a candidate wins the endorsement of an individual voter's favorite politician, actor or talk show host, and the endorsement causes the voter to support the…

FOR THE 83rd time since September, the GOP candidates gathered for a debate, this time in lovely Boca Raton. Because of the unforgiving Darwinian nature of politics, fate had thinned the GOP herd to its bare essentials. And Ron Paul.

IT WAS ROUGHLY SEVEN months ago that the McCain/Kennedy immigration bill went down to ignominious defeat. At the time, many pundits blamed or credited talk radio for the bill's demise. While guest-hosting for nationally syndicated talk show host Hugh Hewitt at the height of the hubbub, I…

As a Romney guy, most of me wants to applaud the new ad his campaign unveiled today. I'm pleased to see Romney staying with a positive message and within his comfort zone. Given the five people running for president who still have a chance (I'm counting Rudy and Huckabee as half a person each to…

Markos Moulitsas has issued an interesting proclamation regarding Barack Obama's defeat in Nevada: Remember those who mocked Jerome Armstrong's predictions that Obama wouldn't win the nomination? Remember how I said, 'it's a solid theory' and people laughed at my stupidity for taking it seriously?…

As any Boston Celtic fan will tell you, Rick Pitino couldn't coach professional basketball worth a damn, but he could turn over a nice quote every now and again. During the third year of his disappointing tenure with the Celtics, fed up with the fan base's endless nostalgic pining for the recently…

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JOHN MCCAIN'S STRIDENT opposition to drilling in ANWR provides a belated opportunity for clarity. Republicans would be better off viewing McCain as a Scoop Jackson Democrat living under the Republican "big tent." They should consider any typical Republican positions he takes aside from his…

For those of us waiting for a worthwhile poll on the Republican race in South Carolina, the twenty-four hours after Michigan were frustrating. The only pollsters to release numbers were ARG and Zogby, and their efforts typically bear only a coincidental resemblance to reality. Finally, as the…

IN 2004, John Kerry was puttering anemically along in the polls until he broke through with victories in Iowa and New Hampshire. All the old paradigms held true as those triumphs trampolined the haughty senator to the Democratic nomination.

Glenn "Instapundit" Reynolds and his wife Dr. Helen lured Rudy Giuliani into their podcasting lair for an extended conversation this weekend. Rudy offered a warm embrace of the 2nd Amendment, but didn't seem totally up to speed on flex-fuel vehicles. ("Up to speed." Get it? Ha!) Sadly, Rudy didn't…

As I was flying across the country yesterday, I was treated to Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton having a not-so-amiable chat. Ten minutes into it, I made a little note to myself--"Mudd Slide?" Ted Kennedy incinerated his 1980 bid for the presidency when he sat down with Roger Mudd for an extended…

According to the Clinton campaign's narrative of choice, Senator Clinton is the most sensible choice for president because of her "experience." This "experience" obviously doesn't refer to her single full Senate term--even John Edwards has one of those. The "experience" that separates Hillary from…

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For the third time in six days, the Republican candidates gathered for a presidential debate in South Carolina on Thursday night. They say the presidential campaign isn't a sprint but a marathon. This week, it felt like a triathlon. The pre-debate agendas for each candidate were clear. Rudy, Fred,…

For the third time in six days, the Republican candidates gathered for a presidential debate in South Carolina on Thursday night. They say the presidential campaign isn't a sprint but a marathon. This week, it felt like a triathlon. The pre-debate agendas for each candidate were clear. Rudy, Fred,…

The Romney campaign had a national call day yesterday that was reminiscent of the call day last winter whose blockbuster success heralded Romney's arrival as a candidate to be reckoned with. Yesterday's haul was also pretty impressive - an estimated $5 million. But the numbers aren't quite as…

In 1992 at the tender age of 25, I ran for state representative. I knocked on almost ten thousand doors. I whored myself out to raise money. I went into senior citizen homes where aged New Dealers heckled me. I even kissed a few babies, but I have to confess that I kissed babies because I actually…

IN THE HOURS BEFORE Hillary Clinton's Iowa comeuppance, standout blogger Tom Maguire aptly described the future of the Clinton campaign: "Whether Obama wins by a little or a lot, Hilary will be the Terminator candidate. She can't be bargained with. She can't be reasoned with. She doesn't feel pity,…

Above is footage of Hillary Clinton misting up over the likelihood of her impending defeat in New Hampshire. You'll want to have a tissue handy before clicking on the "play" buttone. This woman cares so much about the future of America, the subject just reduces her to tears. Of course, in her mind,…

Something rather odd is happening in New Hampshire, and for once it has nothing to do with my Nashua based in-laws. While bearing in mind that what follows may be a Romney guy struggling to keep hope alive… Rasmussen's polls show the race tightening. In their numbers from yesterday, Romney…

Matt Stoller is one of the left's most insightful and influential bloggers. Thus, the comments he made regarding Barack Obama's victory in Iowa deserve some attention: "I have deep reservations about Obama, as readers of this site know. I spent time discussing with exuberant Obama supporters and…

"We want to be the smart team out there today, and a smart team doesn't turn the ball over or commit penalties. We want to be the most physical team today. Knock them off the line of scrimmage! Today, play for each other and play for Michigan. Play with great poise, great pride and great toughness.…

The above clip is a Romney campaign internet spot that highlights the differences between Mike Huckabee and his favorite surrogate, Chuck Norris. Credit where it's due - at least Norris, unlike other "team members" that Huckabee erroneously laid claim to like John Bolton and Frank Gaffney, is…

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The Des Moines Register reports: Huckabee, campaigning in western Iowa, said he had "no regrets, no regrets whosoever" to his handling of the situation. But a few hours later, in Cedar Rapids, said he sort of regretted showing the ad to the media. "I know there's a lot of people who are cynical…

Weekly Standard publisher Terry Eastland emails his take on the Huckabee campaign: What Mike Huckabee's odd press conference demonstrated is that Mitt Romney has succeeded not merely in putting Huckabee on the defensive on various issues but also in making a mess of his campaign. Huckabee and his…

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THE SUNDAY RASMUSSEN tracking poll showed some interesting results. John McCain was in the lead with 17 percent of the vote. It was the first time all year that McCain led the poll. Careful observers will note that on Sunday, the year 2007 was 364 days old. Years don't get much older than that.…

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Here at the Weekly Standard, we honor excellence. Thus, I am sure that all my colleagues, even the Image

On the one hand you have the Feiler Faster Thesis, which holds that in our era of rapidly churning news cycles, seemingly major stories vanish quickly and alter the political landscape for a shorter period than one would think. The Feiler Faster thesis suggests that by the time Iowans fill their…

The L.A. Times conducted a widely discussed poll of Iowa and New Hampshire voters. In Iowa, the Times had Huckabee leading Romney 37%-23%. In her write-up of the poll results, Times staff writer Janet Hook oddly neglected to mention that the results among likely voters are much closer. Counting…

For those of you who were wondering how long it would take ranking Democrats to blame the Bhutto assassination on the Bush administration and the Iraq war, wonder no more. Russ Feingold has done the honors: The focus on Iraq has been a real disservice to focusing on this part of the world where a…

In the wake of the tragic and disturbing news out of Pakistan, most of the presidential candidates rushed out pro forma statements of condolences and concern with varying skill. Only Bill Richardson had the temerity to go further. Richardson considered the immediate, chaotic aftermath of a…

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WHEN WE PAID pundits try to provide campaign analysis, we often strain to find historical analogies. Although I'm not asking for sympathy, please understand that it's not easy. There have been only fifty-something presidential campaigns, and obviously those conducted in the horse-and-buggy era…

A few weeks ago, Entertainment Weekly compiled a list of the "50 Smartest People in Hollywood." Checking in at number five was Will Smith, the star of the current hit "I Am Legend." Smith was the highest ranked performer on the list, edging out the sixth ranked Meryl Streep. After Streep, you had…

A well informed (and in the proverbial loop) friend of the WWS emails regarding Condi Rice's recent criticism of Mike Huckabee: Ok, so I'll be the first to admit that I really don't like Huck. Frankly he annoys me more than Ron Paul. Nevertheless, what Condi just did annoys me even more. She has…

Courtesy of K-Lo at the Corner, above is a clip of Ronald Reagan's seminal "Time for Choosing" speech. What I find most remarkable about the speech beyond its extraordinary content is the simple, straight forward language and the appropriately spare delivery. There were no clumsy applause lines, no…

WHEN SENATOR GEORGE Mitchell appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss his eponymous report that had rocked the baseball world, he bristled when Chris Wallace mentioned that some of Mitchell's conclusions were based on hearsay. Wallace cited the case where Baltimore Oriole Larry Bigbie ratted out his…

Image Michael Corleone, Mike Huckabee, Uncle Remus (Not pictured: Tom Friedman) My parents were enormous admirers of the child-raising techniques of B.F. Skinner. Stuck as I was in a Skinnerian box until the age of 30, beloved childhood figures like Uncle Remus are therefore unfamiliar to me. I…

To the Men and Women of the United States Armed Forces On behalf of a grateful Nation, Laura and I send our best wishes for the holidays. In this season of giving, we remember our duty to others, and we see that sense of duty fulfilled in the men and women who wear our Nation's uniform. Our country…

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SINCE MIKE HUCKABEE's meteoric rise in the polls, questions regarding his gravitas have dogged the latest Man from Hope. Oh sure, he can toss out witticisms with the best of them and he's as likable a politician as we've seen in decades, but many wondered whether he had the policy chops to be a…

Scott Rasmussen has pulled a fresh batch of steaming hot polls from the oven, and don't look now but the race has changed yet again. In Iowa, Mitt Romney has pulled within one point of Mike Huckabee, Image

PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE stopped caring about Time magazine's Man of the Year contest some time ago. On a periodic basis, the magazine signaled its chronic frivolity and opted for idiotic gimmicks. You might remember that last year we all won the prize. In an earlier year, the planet Earth won. Even…

How has Mike Huckabee, a man apparently unversed on even the most Image

What better way to start a huge political week than with a dollop of holiday cheer courtesy of the erstwhile Democratic frontrunner from this morning's "Fox and Friends." Say this for Hillary - she obviously hasn't let her declining fortunes adversely affect her high spirits and effervescent charm.…

Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No. Sadly and disappointingly, it's just the Ron Paul Blimp. Many of us feel that the Ron Paul candidacy will wind up merely a sour footnote to an often dispiriting primary season. The candidate himself barely operates on the fringes of normal,…

Not much happened at yesterday's Democratic debate. The Des Moines Register's beloved Nurse Ratched (a.k.a. Carolyn Washburn) made a return engagement. fresh off her harshly reviewed effort with the Republican contenders on Wednesday. Ratched seemed stung by the criticism hurled at her because of…

HERE WE WERE on Wednesday, a nation of political junkies gathered around our televisions to watch the candidates debate each other one last time, and we had as a moderator one Carolyn Washburn, the editor of the Des Moines Register. I don't mean to go all East-coast-elitist on you; I'm sure there…

It's no secret that I like lefty blogger Glenn Greenwald. I consider him a worthy adversary and a gentleman, albeit a gentleman with occasional pit-bull tendencies. Thus, I was disappointed to read his neocon bashing commentary today. Pointing to a new poll, Greenwald clucked, "Right-wing neocons…

When my wife and I began courting some ten years ago, she knew I loved the movies. I loved every bit of the cinema experience. I had favorite seats (fourth row, dead center), a favorite snack (Twizzlers), and even a favorite suburban googaplex located several miles from our urban homes. I insisted…

I DON'T NORMALLY watch Lou Dobbs. I sometimes briefly peek in on his show's festivities, and that's enough to get a sense of things. Immigrants are bad. Illegal immigrants are really bad. Free trade is bad. Outsourcing is really bad. His is a timeless populist message pitting the little American…

On Fox News Sunday yesterday, an ailing Mara Liasson suggested that Mike Huckabee lacks a realistic chance at the Republican nomination because of the cash-starved status of his campaign. I'm going to assume it was the Nyquil talking, and that the cogent Liasson offered moldy analysis due to her…

On Fox News Sunday yesterday, an ailing Mara Liasson suggested that Mike Huckabee lacks a realistic chance at the Republican nomination because of the cash-starved status of his campaign. I'm going to assume it was the Nyquil talking, and that the cogent Liasson offered moldy analysis due to her…

Not to speak ill of the network that decided to make Dan Rather the face of its news operation, but HDNet didn't acquit itself well when it ran Saturday night's "Black and Brown" debate from Iowa. Fully half of the participants began the evening with defective microphones. Yes, it was delightful to…

There are certain numbers that for a Boston sports fan have a talismanic quality. 16 - The number of Celtics championship banners hanging from Boston Garden. 4 - The number that Bobby Orr wore. 58 - Grady Little's IQ. Among such figures is 86 - The number of years Boston fans had to wait for their…

The hall hosting the first ever GOP YouTube debate was big and raucous. At the start of the broadcast, Anderson Cooper promptly informed the audience that "the questions all came from you." I can't remember ever having felt so empowered. The prelude to the questions was a topical two minute folk…

The hall hosting the first ever GOP YouTube debate was big and raucous. At the start of the broadcast, Anderson Cooper promptly informed the audience that "the questions all came from you." I can't remember ever having felt so empowered. The prelude to the questions was a topical two minute folk…

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IN THESE VIRTUAL pages, we've had some internal debate as to whether two candidates have viable paths to the Republican nomination or whether the correct figure is five. In truth, the actual figure right now is one. Only Mitt Romney has a plausible path to the nomination that doesn't rely on the…

What in the name of Katharine Graham has happened to Beltway high society? According to this New York Times article, DC swells are throwing parties where they force their guests to consume food that hails from--you better sit down--Costco. Actually, the Times story displays a wonderful ignorance…

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IF YOU'RE LIKE most movie lovers, you probably have little idea of how motion capture technology works. You also probably don't care. If you go to a movie that relies on motion capture technology, you likely go to be entertained, and not to marvel at the filmmakers' expertise with this…

The internets have been buzzing about Fred Thompson's appearance on Fox News Sunday yesterday. The big news was Thompson lashing out at Chris Wallace for giving an anti-Fred! slant to his horserace analysis and then claiming that Fox News is against him. Generally speaking, politicians probably…

Andrew Sullivan has written a very interesting piece for the Atlantic in support of Barack Obama's candidacy. He also appeared on This Week yesterday to discuss it, an appearance I missed because I was watching Fred Thompson jump ugly on Chris Wallace on another network. (More on that incident in a…

To celebrate Veterans Day, the Los Angeles Times ran a two-part story on James Blake Miller, the battle-exhausted soldier in the iconic picture of the Battle of Falluja in November 2004. The photograph caught the 20-year-old Blake caked with blood and soot as a cigarette dangled from his mouth. He…

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Jeffrey Feldman over at the Daily Kos, one of the site's most prominent and astute "diarists," published an interesting essay over the weekend. In it, he suggested that the Kossacks revisit the way they "frame" the Iraq issue. Feldman looked to Basra and came up with four magic words that would…

Roger L. Simon, last seen cavorting with Pajama clad babes on the floor of the BlogWorld convention like a latter day Hugh Hefner, sat down with Fred Thompson to discuss the Global War on Terror. Bob Owens, proprietor of the excellent Confederate Yankee blog, joined Roger in conducting the…

What's this I hear about push polling regarding Mitt Romney being a Mormon?

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Here, courtesy of Jonathan Garthwaite at Townhall, is the text of Barack Obama finally admitting that he supported drivers' licenses. Revisionist Obama supporters will probably try to transform his epic faux pas into a moment of supreme political courage. What actually happened will belie that…

I just want to go on record here that Barack Obama did more than just shoot himself in the foot at last night's debate when he supported drivers' licenses for illegal immigrants. If he should somehow get the Democratic nomination, that one ill-considered position could well make him unelectable.…

AS THE DEMOCRATS brought their weary road show to Vegas tonight, most analysts suspected that Hillary Clinton would get a mulligan on the illegal immigration question that she botched so badly at their last tussle. It played out as expected. Right out of the box, Campbell Brown asked the candidates…

Newsweek has announced Markos Moulitsas's dance partner for the hyper-partisan mud slinging that the magazine promises will be both "energetic and enlightening." Kos will be going toe-to-toe with none other than the Genius, the man hailed/slandered as Bush's Brain, the one and only Karl Rove. And I…

Newsweek announced yesterday that it has inked Markos Moulitsas to a contract to contribute to its campaign coverage for the 2008 season. "We have always sought to represent a diversity of views in Newsweek, and we think Markos will be a great part of that tradition," said Newsweek editor Jon…

IN THE FASHIONABLE salons of the East, illegal immigration is not much discussed. The gathered denizens may chat about the deplorable scandal that engulfed the Knickerbocker basketball club or the dominance of the New England football outfit or even the soul-crushing traffic on the Beltway, but…

When you write about Ron Paul as I did this morning, you have to expect a tidal wave of Paulnuts to flood your Inbox unless you share his followers' unshakable belief in the Texas congressman's messianic characteristics. Over at National Review Online, David Frum took note of this phenomenon and…

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IN MY PREVIOUS PROFESSIONAL life, I had reason to be in contact with dozens of Barack Obama's classmates at Harvard Law School. When he entered the presidential race, I dusted off my Rolodex and began making some calls to get the off-the-record skinny on the Democrats' potential savior.

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The above video is a campaign commercial for Democratic congressional candidate Dan Grant, who's running for the house seat in Texas-10. Although 2008 is still a bouncing baby of a campaign season, Mr. Grant has seized an almost insurmountable lead in the competition to see which candidate can run…

Yesterday, we took note of how assignments in Iraq don't interest the American diplomatic corps. Understandably enough. Why would a professional diplomat care to engage the most urgent diplomatic challenge of the 21st century when he could instead be inflating the ego of some third world potentate…

RedState.com's Jeff Emanuel has an amazing story in the American Spectator about an al Qaeda attempt to kidnap four American paratroopers that coincided with David Petraeus's congressional testimony. As Bryan at HotAir notes, the effect (at least in the mainstream media) would have been like Tet.…

Goldfarb is away this morning, intrepidly covering a Hillary Clinton event at Wellesley College. I was invited to tag along, but found the offer eminently resistible. Besides, I vowed never to return to the Wellesley campus after one of Wellesley's fetching co-eds rejected me some twenty years ago.…

IN THE FACE OF MEDIA indifference, the facts on the ground in Iraq have changed--dramatically and for the better. The deaths of Iraqi civilians over the past two months have declined precipitously. Before the surge and its accompanying change in tactics took effect, often 3,000 Iraqis would die…

Yesterday I noted that Barack Obama stepped in the proverbial macaca when his campaign headlined a southern concert tour with gospel singer Donnie McClurkin, a gentleman who speaks optimistically about "curing" homosexuals. At least you can't call McClurkin a hypocrite; he proudly boasts of curing…

MOST STANDARD READERS probably think the big campaign news of the days is Mitt Romney landing the endorsement of New Hampshire senator Judd Gregg. As an avowed Romney supporter, I applaud this development, while simultaneously questioning its import. How many people who vote actually care about…

Perhaps it's time to back away from the ledge. There's at least one sign that a Clinton Restoration isn't inevitable. Pollster Scott Rasmussen's latest pits Hillary Clinton in head-to-head match-ups with some of her likely GOP opponents. There's good news all around. Giuliani defeats Hillary by two…

Perhaps it's time to back away from the ledge. There's at least one sign that a Clinton Restoration isn't inevitable. Pollster Scott Rasmussen's latest pits Hillary Clinton in head-to-head match-ups with some of her likely GOP opponents. There's good news all around. Giuliani defeats Hillary by two…

IN MASSACHUSETTS, JOHN Kerry cultivated a reputation for unparalleled arrogance when interacting with mere plebes who stood in the way of something he wanted. If a restaurant hostess had the audacity to tell Kerry he would have to wait for a table just like the ordinary shmos milling about the…

The pollster who must not be ignored, Scott Rasmussen, has produced a couple of doozies today. In his daily presidential tracking poll, Rasmussen shows Mike Huckabee surpassing Mitt Romney for the first time nationally. Huckabee now sits at 12 percent while Romney is at 11 percent. Although…

The pollster who must not be ignored, Scott Rasmussen, has produced a couple of doozies today. In his daily presidential tracking poll, Rasmussen shows Mike Huckabee surpassing Mitt Romney for the first time nationally. Huckabee now sits at 12 percent while Romney is at 11 percent. Although…

WHILE PINCH-HITTING for Hugh Hewitt on his radio show the other night, I predicted on air that the team that won Game 1 of the World Series would go on to sweep. My thinking was that if the Rockies could defeat Josh Beckett, they would get to the soft under-belly of the Sox' pitching rotation,…

MOST PEOPLE DON'T know about the website Icasualties.org. Icasualties.org is run by a bunch of lefties who have dedicated themselves to aggregating all the bad news out of Iraq over the past few years. Each day for the past thirty-four months, Icasualties.org has documented every Coalition military…

IT'S NOT DIFFICULT to find blog posts analyzing yesterday's lively Republican presidential debate. In other quadrants of the blogosphere, you can easily locate tons of purple pixels lauding the Red Sox' magnificent pennant clinching victory last night. But only here at THE DAILY STANDARD, thanks to…

Last night, the Boston Red Sox sat on the brink of elimination as the Cleveland Indians looked to clinch their first pennant on their home turf since 1743. Like every other member of Red Sox Nation, I was desperate and afraid. I knew I had to do something. So I called my friend, former co-blogger,…

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The only pollster that really matters is Scott Rasmussen of Rasmussen Reports. In addition to his unrivaled track record, Rasmussen is also the only pollster who is currently screening for likely voters. So when Rasmussen says something, we ought to pay attention. Yesterday, Rasmussen released a…

The only pollster that really matters is Scott Rasmussen of Rasmussen Reports. In addition to his unrivaled track record, Rasmussen is also the only pollster who is currently screening for likely voters. So when Rasmussen says something, we ought to pay attention. Yesterday, Rasmussen released a…

THERE'S A GOOD CHANCE that if you read this magazine, you've never heard of left-wing radio talker Randi Rhodes. Consider yourself lucky. I used to listen to Randi Rhodes periodically when she had a show broadcast in South Florida. I considered her to be obnoxiousness personified, but then again, I…

IN MY PREVIOUS life as a blogger, I was a prominent supporter/shill for Mitt Romney. Having officially morphed into a journalist this week, I hoped to get my hands on the elixir that gives New York Times reporters the Olympian detachment that so distinguishes them. Alas, I woke up today much the…

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In early August, the collection of liberal blogs that refers to itself as "the Netroots" held its annual convention. The convention's name, "YearlyKos," invokes the allure of the liberal blogosphere's most powerful entity, the Daily Kos. All the major Democratic presidential candidates participated…

In the 1960s, history called the Baby Boomers. They didn't answer the phone.

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It is a now deservedly forgotten moment in presidential politicking lore. With the Democratic candidates gathered for one of their countless debates on September 9, 2003, panelist Farai Chideya, purporting to represent the "Gen X crowd," posed what she called a "very personal" question. "What," she…

WHEN THE BOMBS began to fall in the Middle East, the Daily Kos had a problem. And the Daily Kos's problem could soon be the Democratic party's problem.

IF ANYONE OTHER THAN POLITICAL JUNKIES cared about the race for Duke Cunningham's old congressional seat in California's 50th District, Democratic candidate Francine Busby's "you don't need papers for voting" blunder would rank with Gerald Ford insisting Poland wasn't communist, Michael Dukakis…

D. QUINN MILLS is worried. The respected Albert J. Weatherhead, Jr. Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School fears that America may be headed toward calamity.

WHEN WE LAST LOOKED at the Islamic Society of Boston's (ISB) efforts to build a mega-mosque in the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury, the project was beleaguered. Insufficiently funded and riddled with negative media coverage, the ISB lashed out by filing suit against more than a dozen Boston area…

JEROME ARMSTRONG AND MARKOS MOULITSAS are pioneers. Armstrong founded MyDD.com, arguably the first political blog of real prominence. As for Moulitsas, he's the founder and proprietor of Daily Kos, by far the most widely read of all political blogs. Pioneers they may be, but neither Armstrong nor…

IT WOULD BE A GRAND UNDERSTATEMENT to call Lawrence H. Summers's stewardship of Harvard tumultuous. In his five year tenure, Summers careened from one controversy to another. Oft-times Summers cut a sympathetic figure as he upended the sacred cows of political correctness that have become fixtures…

IN 1992, historian David McCullough published Truman, a landmark biography of Harry S. Truman. The book became something of a phenomenon; in spite of its imposing bulk (it went on for more than 1,000 pages), it raced to the top of the best seller charts. So great was the Truman-mania spawned by…

HORACE GREELEY, the founder and editor of the 19th century New York Tribune, made a career of championing New York's down-trodden. Cutting a distinctive figure with his trademark white duster and rakishly long white hair, Greeley appeared both rugged and erudite. From the moment he founded the…

IN THE WAKE OF THE 9/11 ATTACKS, President Bush famously referred to Islam as a "religion of peace." To display solidarity with this notion, politicians of all rank in both America and Europe hurriedly made their way to the nearest mosque to show that, in spite of the destruction of the World Trade…

''Right now, things just don't make sense." - John Gamelli, January 19, 2006

ON NOVEMBER 7, 2002, POLITICIANS AND OTHER LUMINARIES--including Boston Mayor Thomas P. Menino--gathered at the corner of Tremont Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. They held shovels and awaited a photo op to celebrate the ground-breaking of a new mosque for the…

WHEN PRESIDENT BUSH nominated John Roberts for the Supreme Court, he was widely praised by conservatives. Roberts had such impeccable credentials that even his foes conceded Bush had chosen a top-notch nominee. But deep in John Roberts's past lurked a secret that threatened to undermine his…

ON SEPTEMBER 14, MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR Mitt Romney stood before the Heritage Foundation to outline his thoughts on how to best wage the war on terror. In addition to being widely considered a likely candidate for president in 2008, Romney brings impressive credentials to a discussion on battling…

CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR BILL SCHNEIDER is many things, but a dispenser of new and original insights he is not. So when even the avuncular cable analyst noticed the rise of the left-wing political blogs last week, it suggested that the ascendancy of the liberal blogosphere has gone from…

A FEW MONTHS AGO, Markos Moulitsas, proprietor and founder of the left-wing blog Daily Kos, penned a brief but extremely insightful posting. Under the heading, "Evidence that we live in a different world," Moulitsas pointed to a recent Time magazine poll that showed 79 percent of the American…

DURING THE MOST RECENT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, various antagonists repeatedly urged John Kerry to sign a Standard Form 180; by signing Form 180, Kerry would have released the entirety of his military records for public consumption. The senator stubbornly refused these pleas. (Actually he "stubbornly…

IT IS A VENERABLE TRADITION AMONGST SPORTS FANS, especially old and cranky sports fans, to lament the modern era's absence of athletic heroes. In The New Bill James Historical Abstract, author James hilariously lampooned this trait. Under the heading "Old Ballplayers Never Die," James would…

STEVEN D. LEVITT CLAIMS that physically he is the "weakest human being alive." He may also be one of the most courageous.

MOST OF AMERICA PROBABLY felt that the Red Sox ending their 86 year drought and winning the 2004 World Series was an immaculate blessing for the city of Boston. But the success of the Sox has not come without its problems. For one thing, parking around Boston's historic Fenway Park has become…

DURING HIS BRIEF AND UNHAPPY tenure as the president of Columbia University, Dwight Eisenhower and the faculty did not always enjoy the warmest of relations. At one particularly contentious meeting, a Columbia scholar proudly informed Eisenhower that the university boasted "some of America's most…

THIS SUNDAY, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees will open the Major League Baseball season as they renew hostilities at New York's hallowed Yankee Stadium. When the two teams last met, the occasion was marked by the Red Sox celebrating on the Yankees' home field after winning the American…

IN MANY WAYS a university president is often like an extraordinarily well-credentialed trophy wife. The ideal university president should possess a glittering résumé of accomplishments, be a socially gifted goodwill ambassador for the school, and most importantly should have a deft hand at…

LAST THURSDAY the Boston Globe published an editorial regarding Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. It was, not surprisingly, far from complimentary: Romney is a conservative Republican and the Globe's opinion pages, are, in the words of their own ombudsperson Christine Chinlund, "liberal leaning."…

SOMEWHERE ON A STREET NEAR YOU, one or both of our major political parties will soon have a ward committee meeting. Ward committee members are the people in your community who think an ideal weekend is spent stuffing envelopes or manning a phone bank on behalf of their pet cause. They are noble…

IN MANY WAYS, MASSACHUSETTS Governor Mitt Romney is among the most fortunate of men. Scion of a prominent family (Romney's father George was president of American Motors Company and later governor of Michigan), Romney enjoyed a spectacularly successful business career as founder and chairman of the…

WHEN DISCUSSING Markos Moulitsas and the eponymous left wing blog that he runs, The Daily Kos, it's helpful to start with a few facts. The Daily Kos (rhymes with rose, based on Moulitsas' old army nickname) is far and away the most popular blog on the Internet: Kos averages over 400,000 page views…