On Monday, the Republicans' campaign of appeasement smears against Barack Obama went from the sublime to the ridiculous. In an amazing if predictable display of chutzpah, Fox News commentator and Iran-Contra mastermind Oliver North rushed to John McCain's defense over the GOP nominee's spurious charges regarding talks with Iran. Of course, he was only repaying […]

In the New York Times today, Bill Kristol elevated Republicans' wishful thinking into the GOP's presidential election strategy this fall. Dragged down by President Bush's record-setting unpopularity and a brand one of its own leaders likened to tainted dog food, the GOP's last best hope, according to Kristol, lies in the "exceptionalism" of John McCain. […]

Pundits and bloggers alike are buzzing about John McCain's appearance yesterday on Saturday Night Live. Without once mentioning his standard stump punchlines "I'm older than dirt" and "I have more scars than Frankenstein," the 71 year old Republican nominee riffed on his age. While he was at it, McCain got in a few jokes while […]

For the second time in two months, President Bush's efforts to "jawbone" his Saudi friends over the cost of oil fell on deaf ears. On Friday, oil surged to a record $127 after Bush's meeting with King Abdullah failed to secure a production increase beyond the meager 300,000 barrels the Saudis previously committed to on […]

Just 48 hours after jumping on the Bush appeasement bandwagon, John McCain is probably regretting his leap. First, it was revealed that the tough-talking Republican presidential nominee was for negotiating with the Hamas government in the Palestinian territories before he was against it. Then Americans learned that in 2003, Mr. Straight Talk favored engagement with […]

They may not agree on much, but this week the editors of the Washington Times and the Washington Post joined forces in demanding that Cindy McCain make public her tax returns. One day after the Post declared "it won't do," the reliably right-wing Times insisted "Mrs. McCain needs to end the 'privacy' charade and release […]

In Columbus today, John McCain made his pitch that he, and not Barack Obama, is the candidate of hope. In a major if theoretical reversal of his commitment to a perpetual 100, a thousand or a million year American presence in Iraq, McCain declared that he "would hope to have achieved" a drawdown of most […]

The once-vaunted Republican marketing machine has fallen and can't get up. On Monday, House minority leader John Boehner (R-OH) unveiled a new slogan for the GOP, only to learn that "The Change You Deserve," was fittingly already in use to market the anti-depressant drug Effexor. Now a central promise of the Republicans' 2008 rebranding effort, […]

Last year, First Lady Laura Bush said of the costs of the Iraq war for the American people, "no one suffers more than their President and I do." Now we know why. While U.S. troops were sacrificing life and limb in the battlefields of Baghdad, President Bush sacrificed...golf. In an interview today, George W. Bush […]

Facing increasing scrutiny over his statements describing the Catholic Church as "the great whore" and a "false cult system," Texas pastor and John McCain endorser John Hagee today issued a letter of apology to his "Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ." But while Hagee's chosen candidate previously distanced himself from the minister's slurs towards Catholics […]