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CBS News' : (NASHVILLE, TENN.) - After most of the previous 12 months covering Barack Obama's campaign for the presidency, it was interesting, instructive and, well, relaxing to follow John McCain for the last few days. The differences between the two are striking. Obama is the big time orator, McCain is the guy who struggles with a teleprompter or even note cards strategically placed nearby. Obama's crowds are larger, more enthusiastic. McCain's events are smaller, but to my eye, better choreographed. And now with the addition of Sarah Palin to some of his events, McCain can boast of crowds that...

While watching the Sarah Palin interview with Charlie Gibson Thursday night, and the coverage of the Palin phenomenon in general, I’ve gotten the scary feeling, for the first time in my life, that dimwittedness is not just on the march in the U.S., but that it might actually prevail. How is it that this woman could have been selected to be the vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket? How is it that so much of the mainstream media has dropped all pretense of seriousness to hop aboard the bandwagon and go along for the giddy ride?

Snip . . . "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said. "I mean, that's a storybook, man." (Watch Biden's comments and Obama's reaction ) Snip.

This was not a good debate for Obama, period. But it wasn't a great debate for Clinton either. Of course, that may not matter to Team Clinton. In a twp-way debate, it's not about which candidate narrowly wins -- but which candidate gets pummeled in the post-debate reviews. And Obama will get pummeled because well he did get pummeled, a little bit by Clinton and a little bit by the moderators. In the first 40 minutes of the debate, most of the questioning was on Obama's negatives (except for a lone Bosnia-sniper question to Clinton) and that's what helped create...

OBAMA'S DIMESTORE 'MEIN KAMPF'April 2, 2008 If characters from "The Hills" were to emote about race, I imagine it would sound like B. Hussein Obama's autobiography, "Dreams From My Father." Has anybody read this book? Inasmuch as the book reveals Obama to be a flabbergasting lunatic, I gather the answer is no. Obama is about to be our next president: You might want to take a peek. If only people had read "Mein Kampf" ... Nearly every page -- save the ones dedicated to cataloguing the mundane details of his life -- is bristling with anger at some imputed racist...

When is some information too much information? In an interview with Glamour magazine, Michelle Obama reveals that her husband, Barack, is so “snore-y and stinky” when he wakes up in the morning that their daughters won’t crawl into bed with him. The interview, in the magazine’s October issue, was conducted by Tonya Lewis Lee, who is married to Spike Lee, the filmmaker. Referring to their daughters, Mrs. Obama says: “We have this ritual in the morning. They come in my bed, and Dad isn’t there — because he’s too snore-y and stinky, they don’t want to ever get into bed...

CONCORD, N.H. - Joe Biden on Friday questioned how his Democratic presidential rivals could skip a debate involving the Congressional Black Caucus. The Delaware senator, who will participate in a New Hampshire debate on Sunday, is one of two candidates signed onto a fall debate on Fox News and the sole person who has agreed to an Iraq-only debate next week. In a telephone interview Friday, Biden called out fellow Democrats for bowing out of the Sept. 23 Detroit debate co-sponsored by Fox News Channel and the political education and leadership institute of the Congressional Black Caucus. Democratic candidates have...

Why not Obama? Millions of people are inspired by him; witness the polls, the stunning breadth of his financial support, the rapture over his way of speaking. He is the first black candidate to have a serious chance of winning his party's nomination and the presidency. That is a remarkable statement of how far America has come on race-but it also reflects Barack Obama's ability to present himself as a politician for all Americans, just somebody who happens to be black. America seems to yearn for a post-partisan consensus builder who is undeniably brilliant, rather than an ideological rabble-rouser, despite...

April 10, 2007 Can you remember seeing a Republican expressing outrage? Democrats express outrage 24/7. Ted Kennedy alone has expressed more outrage than the entire Republican Party. Democrats can lie their way around the world before Republicans can manage to mumble the truth. The case for conservatism cannot be too hard to articulate. Talk radio is dominated by articulate conservative talk show hosts. Even the liberal print media have some very articulate conservative columnists like Charles Krauthammer and others. There are also very articulate and conservative editorial pages at the Wall Street Journal and other newspapers, as well as similarly...

Joe Biden proclaimed him to be articulate but apparently that ability left Barack Obama last night when he was fielding questions from Larry King. Since Larry is known for lobbing softballs at his guests, one can only imagine how poor Obama will perform when hit with real hardballs. Even the DUmmies were completely unimpressed by Obama on King since there were two DUmmieland threads on the subject of Obama's poor performance. The first DUmmie THREAD is titled, "Anyone see Obama on Larry King? Is it just me or was he awful?" The second DUmmie THREAD has the equally unimpressed...

"Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) listens to a question from a resident at the Earl M. Bourdon Centre in Claremont, New Hampshire March 16, 2007."

WASHINGTON -- White House hopeful Barack Obama was on the defensive Wednesday over stock purchases from companies whose investors included his political donors. And Obama revealed that he terminated a "quasi-blind" trust he created for the stock purchases -- called the "Freedom Trust" -- after realizing that it wasn't blind after all. Obama's campaign team ramped up a rapid reaction defense after a story about his portfolio hit the front page of Wednesday's New York Times and was the subject of scrutiny Monday on thestreet.com. Denies any connection The political damage potential is high because one of the firms Obama...

"My fella legacy Delawareanites, greetings to you both. As I've gazed upon the former slave ship infested waters off the Delmarvin peninsula, one has to wonder why I haven't yet been elected President of the United French. Time and time again I have been re-elected in our largely invisible state by November seabirds from Vermont, and I wish you all the best on your return RV trip through Wilmington. Please enjoy our many 7-11 stores en route, and say hey to Habib and Punjab from all the DC staff's condo cleaners in Lewes. Back to me. Hours and hours of...

Sen. Barack Obama, all of 25 months removed from the Illinois state legislature, announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States on Saturday - and immediately began trading harsh words with the leader of one of America's oldest and most reliable allies. In the process, the freshman senator revealed truly breathtaking naiveté. Obama more or less sparked the exchange two weeks ago by introducing legislation mandating a total U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq by March 2008. The senator is entitled to his views, of course. As is Australian Prime Minister John Howard - who said Sunday that the...

"This week comes the previously careful Sen. Barack Obama, flapping his wings in Time magazine and explaining that he's a lot like Abraham Lincoln, only sort of better. "In Lincoln's rise from poverty, his ultimate mastery of language and law, his capacity to overcome personal loss and remain determined in the face of repeated defeat--in all this he reminded me not just of my own struggles."

Barack Obama announced his bid for president Saturday, a black man evoking Abraham Lincoln's ability to unite a nation and a Democrat portraying himself as a fresh face capable of leading a new generation. "Let us transform this nation," he told thousands shivering in the cold at the campaign's kickoff. Obama, 45, is the youngest candidate in the Democrats' 2008 primary field dominated by front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and filled with more experienced lawmakers. In an address from the state capital where he began his elective career 10 years ago, the first-term U.S. senator sought to distinguish himself as...

SEN. BIDEN SHOCK INTERVIEW: OBAMA FIRST 'CLEAN' BLACK IN MAINSTREAM... 'I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy'...

HERE'S IRONY for you. Last spring, focus-group guru Frank Luntz said that Sen. Joseph Biden should be considered a front-runner in the Democratic Presidential primaries because so many Democrats in New Hampshire and Iowa judged him to be -- wait for it -- "articulate." I should back up. Biden is famous for his brain's chronic inability to hold brake fluid. Once he revs his engines, the motormouth can't be stopped, and he just keeps talking and talking and talking. My theory is that those constant smiles where he displays his shiny fake teeth are the facial equivalent of flashing your...

I just noticed that Joe Biden is the scheduled guest on Jon Stewart's show tonight. I don't normally watch this program, but am eager to see how Biden spins his Obama remarks. I believe the show is taped at 6PM and airs @ 11PM ET on Comedy Central.

The people of Virginia have a chance to make history on November 2nd, 2004 !! Running for the U.S. Congress, 3rd district of Virginia, we have a bright, articulate, conservative young lady by the name of Winsome Sears. Winsome is also a retired U.S Marine!! She is running against crazy, left wing, out of touch with reality incumbent Bobby Scott. You know Bobby Scott, don't you?? He's the Congressman who voted AGAINST the War on Terror, AGAINST funding the troops, AGAINST the Bush tax cuts, BUT.......he votes FOR tax increases, FOR Gay Marriage, and FOR partial birth abortions!! THIS MAN...