You couldn’t exactly call the debate between Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama a “love-in,” but this much was clear: it seemed as if both of the last man/woman standing candidates for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination decided that the bitter attacks wouldn’t help them on Super Tuesday so they seriously talked issues. For the most part, they produced perhaps the most issue-oriented, low-key debate yet — one that will likely make Democrats conclude...

From the moment Barack Obama held out Hillary Clinton’s chair as they sat down to debate to the near-hug as he patted her shoulder when they stood up, the Democratic candidates put their party back on the road to the White House tonight. Gone was last week’s Palmetto rancor to be replaced by enough Hollywood feel-good to make Wolf Blitzer’s final question about their forming a Dream Ticket plausible. In turning away from attacking each other to aim their fire at George Bush and...

France and the United States could be characterized as two nations separated by their definition of the word ‘liberal.’ This, among other things, can be gleaned by reading this op-ed article from France’s Le Monde newspaper on the this week’s Florida primary. By Dominique Dhombres Translated By Kate Davis January 30, 2008 France – Le Monde – Original Article (French) The adjective “liberal” is an extremely grave insult on the French left. The same is true...

Senator Hillary Clinton’s responses caressed the CNN real-time reaction meter with consistently higher ratings than Senator Barack Obama all night long. A few other observations, as a result of liveblogging the debate at two blogs at once: -Hillary was “Senator Clinton” while Barack was “Barack” much of the evening – some of the co-bloggers I blogged with didn’t like that and thought it wasn’t respectful of HRC to not call Barack “Senator Obama.” -some...

Watch the Democratic Clinton-Obama Debate LIVE on CNN or CNN.com. It is sponsored by CNN, the Los Angeles Times and Politico.com. PRE-DEBATE COVERAGE TNR Democratic Debate Preview CNN: Clinton, Obama start debate off cordially LIVE-BLOGGING THE DEBATE Blog of the Moderate Left AMERICAblog Pam’s House Blend Chris Cillizza’s The Fix (Washington Post) Fact-Checker (Washington Post) The Caucus (NY Times) Ben Smith at The Politico Michelle Malkin Pajamas Media (written by PJ Media CEO Roger...

Rhodes Cook, Senior Columnist at Sabato’s Crystal Ball, presents SUPER TUESDAY: A vast and varied test Ready or not, here it comes… Super-Duper Tuesday, Tsunami Tuesday, Monster Tuesday, or whatever name one chooses to call it. The huge, historic nationwide vote Feb. 5 is at last at hand. Two dozen states from Massachusetts to California will vote next Tuesday, electing more than 40 percent of all Democratic and Republican delegates in 2008. The only other single-day event that has ever...

First, from the San Francisco Chronicle, a little inside view of just how unusual the split within the Kennedy clan is: …Arnold Schwarzenegger] said that the high profile and competing endorsements the Kennedy family – not including his wife Maria Shriver – in the Democratic presidential contest represents a dramatic departure from past years. “What’s interesting is that, within the family, for the first time you have different opinions,” he said. “I’ve...

Uh-oh. More trouble for the Hugh Hewitts of the world, the purificationist ideologues of the conservative movement. They hate McCain and are pitching Romney as the saviour of “the Reagan Coalition,” but McCain is now the frontrunner, Huckabee is still in the race, draining much-needed social conservative support from Romney, who has his own impurity problems, and Giuliani and other insufficiently conservative Republicans are enthusiastically lining up behind McCain — who, by the...

Bob Englehart, The Hartford Courant

In light of the Bush Administration’s hard line on Iran and the White House’s perceived lack of credibility, the question is often asked how much influence Tehran really has in Iraq. According to this op-ed article by Khadir Taahar, an admittedly pro-Western columnist for Iraq’s Kitabat newspaper, ‘All posts given to Shiites, starting with the position of Minister to that of Deputy Minister, ambassador, director-general, governor, chief of police, mayor and others … were...

There’s certainly an argument that we get the government we deserve.  It’s just that I feel that I personally deserve better. About the best we can say about Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s testimony Wednesday in the Senate is that he was no Alberto Gonzales, with the frequent memory lapses and possibly intentional misstatements. But that is a very low bar.(New York Times)  It certainly is.  Dahlia Lithwick snarks, "Mukasey is only willing to make and defend...

I am swamped with donation requests from scores of groups. So I ask, why donate money to an individual cause rather than direct that money to help elect candidates who would steer government policy towards that supported by those same groups? Is $100 better spent sent to a group that promotes environmental protection or to a candidate likely to support that same aim? It seems to me that the greatest bang for the buck is in devoting resources to the people who make the decisions. Isn’t this...

A new Rasmussen Poll shows New York Senator Hillary Clinton’s lead is shrinking in California — a state where her campaign reportedly had viewed Latino voters as a “firewall” in Tuesday’s “Super Tuesday” primary: The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in California shows Hillary Clinton with a very narrow three-percentage point lead over Barack Obama. The survey was conducted in the hours immediately following Florida’s Presidential Primary and before...

Democratic Senator Barack Obama likes to say his campaign for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination is about change — and in January he got LOTS of it…some $32 million in donations. According to one news report, it’s the largest amount of money ever raised by a Democratic candidate in January. And it will have an immediate impact in advertising on Super Tuesday. The Washington Post’’s lively The Trail blog reports: : The campaign of Barack Obama will report having...

Get ready. Ready or not here he (likely) comes. Get ready to hear him talk about how there really isn’t any difference between the two parties — a claim that perhaps was slightly off base in 2000, when some voters were convinced by it but later discovered after they cast their votes that there were some teenie-weenie changes in policy when the Bush administration came to power. On the other hand, what do such things as major shifts in the Supreme Court, environmental policy and enforcement...

Eric Allie, Caglecartoons.com

“I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me.” The writer was Abraham Lincoln, speaking of the catclysmic Civil War, initiated not by Lincoln or the government he headed, but by insurgent forces who attacked a United States military installation on US soil. Much of life is composed of our response to events. “If you want to make God laugh,” said Father Myke, a World Trade Center hero on September 11, 2001, “tell Him what...

Hattip to George Nemeth at Brewed Fresh Daily.

Another poetic gem from TMV’s favorite poet, Michael Silverstein, aka Wall Street Poet: Bernanke Goes Along Again Here’s a tip for Ben Bernanke One that he should not ignore When you cave to market wishes Markets always ask for more. Cutting rates at ev’ry downturn Don’t produce the long-term hero Markets just view it as weakness Soon demand rates down to zero. The real way to stem a crisis Ain’t to give away the store When you bow to market pressure You’re the...

. . . to this poster of Barack Obama by propaganda poster artist Shepard Fairly? Does it resonate positively or is there something ominous in the style and wording? What do you think? Hat tip to American Digest

The new politics can take a leaf from the very old tonight at the 21st Democratic debate. Just as Richard Nixon saved his vice-presidential candidacy in 1952 from news of a secret political slush fund, Barack Obama has to explain away Antoin Rezko as an obstacle to his campaign’s momentum. For weeks now, the darker side of the Clinton machine has been hammering him with accusations about the Chicago slumlord, and the Former First Lady herself invoked the dreaded name during the last debate. Yesterday...

OSAMA (BIN LADEN) DOESN’T HAVE TO WIN; HE’LL JUST BLEED US TO DEATH — Michael Scheuer The Iraq war is a sucking chest wound on the American economy. You certainly didn’t hear President Bush say that during his State of the Union address on Monday night; in fact, he glossed over the war. Nothing about holding the Iraqis accountable. Nothing about the successes of the Surge in danger of being squandered. And certainly nothing about troop withdrawals. As a matter of fact, there...

The Dutch Daily, Elsevier, asks whether endorsements work and wonders who Al Gore will endorse. H/T Watching America.com

Hispanic racial prejudice against Obama in Miami – reported by the Italian Corriere della Serra. H/T Watching America for translation.

The American education system has seriously short-changed the general public by not teaching them the tools that media professionals use to do their work. By the oversight, the public is left vulnerable to misunderstanding and manipulation in its daily encounters with any media product, which is troublesome at any time, but particularly so during events like presidential campaigns, which have a long-term effect on the public’s future. There are three parties to a presidential campaign: the candidates,...