His persona, and the story he is telling, and the media narrative that frames and delivers it to us, all come straight from the movies. Unfortunately, this movie may end really, really badly.

Dr. Philip Butler spent eight years at the Hanoi Hilton, nearly six of them with John McCain. What does he think about the POW experience as preparation for the White House?

There is a straight line from Bush/Cheney contempt for the truth, to McCain/Palin contempt for the truth, from Bush/Cheney/Iraq to McCain/Palin/fill-in-the-blank.

A therapist I know told me that I'd be astonished if I knew how many emergency calls she got the night that Sarah Palin gave her convention speech. Actually, I wasn't that surprised.

You have to go back to Spiro Agnew and his bullyboy ventriloquists, Pat Buchanan and William Safire, to find the current kind of sneering contempt for educated people.

Both Obama and McCain will make huge efforts on Election Day to turn out their bases it's still likely that the outcome will depend on the Purples, the swing voters in the middle. Who are they?

This election won't be won or lost at the debates. Nor will it be determined by the two campaigns' "ground games." My fear is that the results will hang on the swing state voting systems' vulnerability to sabotage.