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Political Commentary

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August 15, 2008

The Clinton Convention by Dick Morris

Hillary and Bill have hijacked the Denver convention, making it into a carbon copy of what it would have looked like had she won until the last possible moment. By the time Obama gets up to speak and put his stamp on the convention, Hillary will have had one prime time night all to herself. Bill will have pre-empted a second night. Hillary will have had all the nominating and seconding speeches she wants. And the roll call of the states would record, in graphic detail, how the voters of state after state rejected Obama’s candidacy in the primaries.

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August 14, 2008

A Cut-and-Paste Foreign Policy By Joe Conason

The discovery that John McCain's remarks on Georgia were derived from Wikipedia, to put it politely, is disturbing and even depressing -- but not surprising.

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August 14, 2008

Mark Penn and Hillary: Monkey See, Monkey Do By Dick Morris

On March 19, 2007, Mark Penn wrote a memo to Hillary Clinton saying: "Every speech should contain a line [saying that] you were born in the middle of America to a middle class family in the middle of the last century."

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August 14, 2008

The Democratic Ground Game: Can New Voters Make the Difference? By Justin M. Sizemore

From the time Barack Obama declared his candidacy for president, his campaign realized it would benefit from what came to be called the enthusiasm gap. "In most campaigns, it's a challenge to drag people out," Western States Field Director Buffy Wicks told a group of volunteer organizers gathered in San Francisco last summer.

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August 14, 2008

Dry Eyes Follow Edwards' Downfall By Froma Harrop

It's hard to recall a political burial as fast and cold as that of John Edwards. After all, the former North Carolina senator had been a serious contender for president until a few months ago and possibly for VP until last week. Had his cheesy affair not surfaced, he would have commanded a choice speaking slot at the Democrats' convention.

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August 14, 2008

Going for the Bronze By Rhodes Cook

When political reporters run low on topics to write about, they often turn their attention to third parties--the "lovable losers" of American politics. They never win at the presidential level but often are called upon to add color to campaigns that are sometimes badly in need of it.

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August 13, 2008

Howard's End: A Commentary By Susan Estrich

You can blame John Edwards for a lot of things, but the last thing anyone should be blaming him for is the nomination of Barack Obama.

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August 12, 2008

McCain and Lieberman: Perfect Together By Dick Morris

John McCain has zero charisma. Next to the excitement of Obama, he looks like an old man defending the status quo. Ironically, his career has embodied exactly the opposite. He is what Obama symbolizes – a person who rises above party, confronts the special interests, and wants to change the way Washington works.

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August 12, 2008

Sex, etc. and the City; A Commentary By Froma Harrop

I'm not a big fan of the nanny society's limits on freedom, except when I am. That's the dilemma for me, and for everyone.

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August 10, 2008

The Ghosts of Political Leanings By Michael Barone

To understand changes in the political map, we naturally tend to look for contemporary explanations. But American political alignments are not written on an empty slate. Beginnings matter, and the civic personalities of states tend to reflect the cultural folkways of their first settlers.

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August 7, 2008

A Nation of Whiners? Perhaps By Froma Harrop

You won't hear me straining to defend Phil Gramm, the Texas Republican whose penchant for grating commentary sunk his 1996 bid for the presidency before the New Hampshire primary. It was really just a matter of time before the former senator, serving as John McCain's economic advisor, put his foot in it: Gramm opined that Americans complaining about the economy were "whiners."

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August 7, 2008

His Drilling Plan Full of Holes By Joe Conason

Touring America's oilrigs and nuclear plants, John McCain sometimes sounds as if he'll produce enough wind to power the nation all by himself. So strongly does his current rhetoric smell of methane -- the gas emanating from manure -- that he might even qualify for an alternative energy tax incentive.

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August 7, 2008

The Other "House" Elections: Statehouses '08 By Larry J. Sabato

Leave the presidential contest aside for the moment. At other levels of politics, the Republicans may eventually file the 2008 campaign under the Double Jeopardy category of "It Just Keeps Getting Worse". Surely, GOP House strategists are asking themselves whether they are cursed this year.

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August 7, 2008

Drill, Drill, Drill Is Working By Lawrence Kudlow

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 offshore drilling, along with expanded domestic energy production, has suddenly become the biggest political and economic wedge issue of this election. Is there a Republican tsunami in the making?

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August 6, 2008

Bad Economy May Hurt Obama By Dick Morris

The conventional wisdom has it down pat: A bad economy works against the candidate from the party in power as voters take out their rage and fear on the president's party and back the challenger, just like they did in 1992.

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August 6, 2008

Is Anyone Ready? By Susan Estrich

The knives are out for my friend Bill Clinton. Again.

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August 5, 2008

Fear Factor: McCain's Best Bet By Dick Morris

Barack Obama had it half right when he said that the McCain campaign would focus on raising voters' fears about him.

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August 5, 2008

Offshore Drilling: Candidates Concur on Bad Idea By Froma Harrop

In a rare burst of bipartisan consensus, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama have agreed on a dreadful proposal: Open more of America's fragile coastlines to offshore oil drilling.

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August 2, 2008

Polls Continue to Show an Unstable Presidential Campaign By Michael Barone

Just when you think you've got the presidential race figured out, something comes along to upend your carefully wrought conclusions.

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August 2, 2008

August Is the Time to Take Obama Down By Dick Morris

When is the McCain campaign going to get serious? It seems to be marking time with softball ads, more appropriate to the soundbites campaign media spokespeople exchange with one another than to strategic paid media hits.

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