Last night, I delivered a presentation at the Ignite Portland event titled "That's Entertainment: Politics as Theater in Campaign '08." Ignite is an eclectic event where a series of presenters each get five minutes and 20 slides (advancing automatically every 15 seconds) to discuss virtually any topic they want. The event organizers captured each of […]

Desperate men say desperate things. In Mitt Romney's case, that often mean reversing positions he held for as long as a lifetime or as little as fifteen minutes. But in attacking Bob Dole on Monday, the former Massachusetts Governor showed he's not only desperate, he's not too bright, either. Yesterday, the former Kansas Senator and […]

With the make-or-break Super Tuesday primaries just 24 hours away, two breaking stories suggest that candidacies may be made or broken by media interpretation of the trivial. In Connecticut, Hillary Clinton once again teared up at a campaign event. And over the weekend, a questioner at a St. Louis Clinton rally reprised an earlier McCain […]

On Monday, President Bush will unveil a fiscal 2009 budget proposal that breaks yet another promise he made to the American people. The nation's first ever $3 trillion dollar budget will produce a $400 billion mountain of red ink. And with it, Bush's bogus 2004 promise to halve to the federal budget deficit by 2009 […]

On Super Bowl Sunday tomorrow, the Fox Network will add its unique brand of right-wing propaganda to the mix of football and ads millions of Americans tune in to see. Before its pre-game show and Super Bowl XLII coverage, Fox stations will first air three hours of Fox News Super Tuesday political "analysis." Since the […]

That cheering sound you may have heard this morning was conservatives' applauding the news that New York Times reporter James Risen has been subpoenaed in an effort to force him to reveal his confidential sources. But while Republican rage may be temporarily muted over the inquiry into Risen's 2006 book, many on the right won't […]

Thursday's CNN Democratic debate in California revealed two fundamentals truths. First, Democrats as a whole were very well served by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, two candidates who each delivered sterling, civil performances. Their thoughtful exchange stood in sharp contrast to the second inescapable conclusion, the banality of the moderator, CNN's Wolf Blitzer. On a […]

Heading into Super Tuesday, the faith-based candidacy of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee is running on fumes. Falling short in South Carolina in what was his last best chance to turn the GOP nominating process into chaos, Huckabee limped to a distant fourth place showing in Florida. Now out of momentum and out of cash, […]

In much the same way that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, Ralph Nader is once again contemplating a presidential run. Exhuming his vanity candidacy every four years, Nader's interest in the White House increases in direct proportion to his ability to inflict lasting harm on the United States. The […]

Tonight in Simi Valley, California, Mitt Romney and new GOP frontrunner John McCain will face off in the final Republican debate before the 22 Tsunami Tuesday contests on February 5th. It is altogether fitting that this key battle for conservative hearts and minds occurs at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Romney, after all, claimed the […]