Watching the debate at a Fortune women's conference, I asked Meg Whitman, the co-chair of McCain's campaign, what she thought of Palin's performance. "Good enough," she said. But good enough for what, exactly? After Thursday night, the only thing Palin proved herself good enough for is starring in her own reality show. Read More
Does McCain Still Agree with Reagan that Government is the Problem? The financial meltdown has put the Grand Old Party's schizophrenia on full display. But why are so many in the media, the Democratic Party, and the Obama campaign averting their eyes from the spectacle of a party that wants to drown government until they need it to bail out Wall Street. Read More
Michael Dobbs and the Washington Post's awarding of two "Pinocchios" -- for "significant omissions or exaggerations" -- to Joe Biden for his health care exchange with Gov. Palin was just plain off the mark.
Palin appeared to lack any semblance of the requisite depth, knowledge, or sense of history we should expect in a president or vice president. As a Republican former White House chief of staff said to me, "Palin is evidence of desperation; she is an embarrassment."
Despite his clear ability to energize and haul in buckets of cash, there continue to be elements to Obama's campaign which are troublesome harbingers of what kind of president he could be.
No one knows if bombs William Ayers built actually killed anyone. Likewise, no one knows whether the bombs John McCain dropped on North Vietnam ever killed anyone -- though given the 23 bombing runs he flew, the odds are for it.
I can understand why a whole lot of people who grew up in small town America, just as I did, really, really like Sarah Palin. But please, oh great white hunters of the Republican leadership, did you think we were morons?
So, you think it looks really good for Barack Obama. Well, maybe so. Yet, Obama can still lose this. Though I'm not planning to head over to Vegas to shoot craps (John McCain's favorite) on that deal.
Mike Huckabee is Fox News' version of Regis. And, after last night's final audition, he's got his Kathie Lee in Sarah "Winky" Palin. In six weeks, she'll be part of the most conspicuously moral duo on TV.
CNN had a graph running along the bottom of the screen during the debate, allegedly representing the moment-by-moment feelings of a group of independent voters. This is no way to watch a debate.
Having been governor, I am frequently asked the difference of being a governor and senator. As governor, if you want to raise revenue you raise taxes. As senator, if you want to raise revenue you cut taxes.
The conception of America as the "city upon a hill" was not the handiwork of Ronald Reagan, or indeed of any other paladin of the Republican Party.
Conservative lip service to ideas like free markets and a strong defense produced neither. These "values" were never actually turned into priorities for policy making.
With our nation facing two hot wars abroad and an economic melt-down at home, substance matters. And when it came to substance, Senator Biden had a good night indeed.
