JOHNNY FONTAINE: I don't know what to do... I don't know what to do...
VITO CORLEONE: YOU CAN ACT LIKE A MAN! What's the matter with you?! Is this how you turned out? A Hollywood finocchio that ah cries like a woman? Boo hoo hoo, what can I do...

In the latest round of polling, President Obama seems to have finally hit a wall. As the excitement of his inauguration fades away, as does the relief that George W. Bush is no longer in the White House, the President's finding out what it's like to own the nation's problems....

The conservative mantra, for as far back as anyone can recall, is that the government can do no right, and the private sector can do no wrong, thanks to market principles of competition. "Government isn't the solution to our problem - Government is the problem," declared Ronald Reagan.

Well, that...

The Republican Party is in shambles.

Yeah, I know. That's been kind of obvious for a while. But never was it crystallized more than in the two stories running today showing the party to be completely rudderless.

First, Adam Nagourney in the New York Times reports:

A party and...

With it all but official that NBC will choose David Gregory as the new moderator of Meet the Press, comes a tremendous opportunity to update the show, and continue to lead the field of Sunday programs. Or, the show could continue doing what it has done since Tim Russert...

Let me start this post by saying I'm no Rahm Emanuel fan. I don't like his vicious hatred of Howard Dean and the 50-state strategy (which I helped kick start back in the '04 election). I don't like how he's stared down the base sometimes. He's not a guy I...

So this is how John McCain is going to go out. You can just picture the staff concocting this bizarre argument:

STEVE SCHMIDT: OK, so we say Obama hates old ladies.

MARK SALTER: Yeah, I like it!

STAFFER 1: Damnit. Guys, just got this on my Blackberry....

It's simply amazing to me that not one of our enterprising journalists have bothered to bring this up.

For all the ranting and raving about Senator Obama having "socialist" plans, and wanting to "spread the wealth," not one person has raised the fact that this is exactly what Senator...

The pre-spin for the week has been spun: That John McCain is hitting the "reset" button on his crashing campaign. Like a computer that froze, the spin goes, McCain is rebooting everything, starting today.

Except he's not. All McCain is doing is changing the desktop wallpaper. All he's doing...

In a new low, not just for this campaign, but for the history of American politics, Senator John McCain's campaign today defended threats against Senator Barack Obama.

Says campaign spokesman Brian Rogers:

Barack Obama's attacks on Americans who support John McCain reveal far more about him than they do...

Are you proud, John McCain? This is your campaign. In your quest for power, you threw out your morals, your principle, your past disdain for low-ball gutter smears. And now we know the reaction it has incited.

Are you proud?

In New Mexico, you asked the crowd, "Who is...

In last night's debate, there was one answer that caused the entire left blogosphere to spit coffee all over their keyboards, and worked Chris Matthews up. But, the line was largely lost in today's analysis. In the end, however, it could be the undoing of the McCain campaign.

In response...

I'd bet all the money I have right now (which is about $3.50 thanks to the stock market) that the McCain campaign is prepping Sarah Palin for the debates with two connected mantras, right now:

1) The clock is Biden's enemy, and
2) Pride comes before...

Whether you're happy that the Wall Street bailout was rejected by the House, or disappointed, one thing is abundantly clear - McCain went "all in" on the bailout, made it the single real-time test of his leadership. He quote-unquote "suspended" his campaign, so he could get down and dirty in...

I know, I know. Everyone is worked up about which candidate won the debate. But, let me take a moment to praise the absolutely wonderful job Jim Lehrer did moderating this thing.

Lehrer did everything he promised - he set the stage with a top question, and got the hell...

And so it all comes into focus. Per Marc Ambinder, it seems that chatter on the Hill is that John McCain will come back to DC to destroy any compromise on a Wall Street bailout, rather than save it:

My colleague Nora McAvalnah tells me that sources close...

They say how you campaign is how you'd govern. If that's true, a President John McCain would become easily frustrated from criticism during an economic collapse, and react with the "shoot first, ask questions later" temperament that we've all become accustomed to. Oh yeah, and he might cause a depression.

Mary Mapes is right. It's time for the media to get off their duffs, and look into what Sarah Palin's problem is with investigating rape cases, and whether John McCain is comfortable with it.

Here's what we know. First, the state had to pass a law to mandate...

In all the hullabaloo about the investment banking meltdown (also known as the day I kissed my retirement goodbye), John McCain more or less admitted the lies in his most recent ads and claims to a collection of reporters in Florida. Reports the AP:

Did Barack Obama really...

From Charles Krauthammer to conservatives blogs, the growing right-wing consensus is that Charlie Gibson was just so mean and arrogant for thinking that anyone would understand the "Bush Doctrine" to be the right to pre-emptively attack any nation that might pose a threat at some point.

Their line of...