If you don't watch the debates on CNN, you are really missing something. CNN has set up a dial group of uncommitted Ohio voters. At the bottom of the screen CNN then shows the graph of the reaction by men and women as they rate statements they like or...

John McCain's new coziness with Big Oil is in many respects just a replay of his old coziness with Charles Keating. In both cases, money and access bought influence. Let's start with oil.

Last month, Time reported that McCain tapped a "prominent Washington lobbyist," William E. Timmons Sr., to...

Palin had told Katie Couric "I'm not going to solely blame all of man's activities on changes in climate."

The debate transcript reveals she still can't get her talking points straight on this issue:

I'm not one to...

Let's look at why McCain lost the debate by a large margin (13% or 14%) in the two insta polls out, from CBS and CNN.

Obama's twin strategies (his goals) were clear -- cross the Commander in Chief threshold and link McCain to Bush. His matching tactics -- what...

Obama has begun to win the crucial clean energy and energy independence issue. He should deliver the knockout blow in the next two debates and his ads.

In particular, Obama should go after McCain's most delusional statement in the debate since it raises serious questions as to whether McCain is...

How did Obama beat McCain's erratic grand-standing on the debate? By constantly standing up to him and turning his erratic stunt against him.

McCain said it was time to drop everything, including campaigning, and stay in Washington until a bail-out deal was done. Obama turned that argument back on McCain...

McCain has used the financial bail-out to try to bail out of his nose-diving campaign. But he doesn't seem to realize that he has landed behind enemy territory.

The most dangerous storyline for McCain is that he is an erratic hothead, a fighter jock who lacks the temperament to be...

Part 1 explored why debates are typically won by the candidate who presents the most compelling and persuasive character. If I can convince you I'm an honest, straight talker, you'll believe what else I say. If you can't, you won't.

The corollary, of course, is that another way to...

Democrats like Barack Obama have historically lost presidential debates because they made two fundamental mistakes: First, they have treated the debates as if they were high school or college debates, which are won primarily on the merits of the arguments and volume of evidence presented.

Second, relatedly, they seem to...

Not even close.

If there's no action before 2012, that's too late. What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future. This is the defining moment.

Both The Hill and Politico.com have reported that a bipartisan "gang" of 20 Senators will not introduce a compromise energy bill before the election. You can read details of the original compromise here: The Gang-of-10 drilling deal is something for nothing.

This is...

It foreshadows McCain's ethical collapse, his coziness to fat cats, and his economic non-policy.

Time for the Obama campaign or some independent groups to raise John McCain's sordid role in the Keating Five scandal. And by "raise" I mean repeat over and over and over again because it is a...

Finally, the Obama campaign has articulated the winning message to counterpunch the shameless lying from McCain-Palin. They have raised the issue of McCain's (lack of) honor.

Following Senator Claire McCaskill's catchy "Honor comes with honesty" rhetoric on ABC's This Week, Obama has released an excellent new ad titled "Honor"...

No strategic counterpunch and a self-emasculating VP makes Obama's job twice as hard. If his team understood messaging, he'd be doing much better against "Me-too" McCain, the make-believe maverick.

Winning presidential campaigns have four strategic messages and two messengers. Obama's glass is half empty. Let's start with "Political Strategy...

VP choice Sarah Palin keeps repeating her lie that she said "thanks but no thanks" to the "Bridge to Nowhere" -- even in the face of unusually strong and widespread media debunking and strong visual evidence to the contrary. When Fox News' Chris Wallace debunks your multiple...

What one word does John McCain want you to think of when you think of him? "Maverick"

So why does Obama's new ad use the word 5 times, even running the word across the screen? Because he and his ad people don't understand basic rhetoric and psychology (see

After watching Obama and Biden on the Sunday morning shows, it is clear they have the wrong message, one that typically loses American elections. If this is their TV message, McCain and Palin will win the national debates and likely go on to victory.

This is Obama's second big strategic...

From McCain's prepared text we see the Arizona Senator easily top Palin's lies (see "In her big speech, Palin repeats the GOP's big energy lie --...

Sarah Palin sounds authentic while lying through her teeth, seems decent while saying indecent things. And that, of course, is why the GOP faithful love her. But the most revealing lies in her big convention speech were on energy:

"Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve...

This one's easy, folks:

1. McCain has a significant chance of dying in office.

2. Palin is a global warming denier.

3. If the the next president doesn't provide very strong climate leadership at home and abroad then we have doomed our children and countless generations after them to ever...