The New Republic

We've had midnight appointments in American history. And midnight pardons, too. Yes, many presidents have taken these liberties. Of course, Bill Clinton was among them, and he took the liberties lavishly. Cutting small corners was not his way in the world. So if he did something that more scrupulous people might have hesitated to do he did it big-time. READ MORE >>

Good campaigns learn from their failures. In 2000 John McCain was undone by several factors.  Everyone remembers the negative tactics against him in South Carolina--less remarked upon was George Bush's succesful effort after the New Hampshire primary to cast himself as a "reformer with results." You can bet that John McCain remembers--by allowing then Gov. Bush to appropriate the reform mantle from him, McCain lost a huge advantage he had in that race. READ MORE >>

The War Room operators in the McCain campaign are used to fighting Democrats, not hurricanes. But unless Gustav changes course or stalls, it looks like this the McCain campaign will have to fight on two fronts--on the one side with Mother Nature, on the other, Barack Obama. READ MORE >>

David Kusnet was chief speechwriter for former President Bill Clinton from 1992 through 1994. He is the author of Love the Work, Hate the Job: Why America's Best Workers Are Unhappier than Ever. READ MORE >>

Senator Ted Stevens's inevitable indictment yesterday made one Alaska Republican deliriously happy: lawyer and economic historian Vic Vickers, who's mounting a very-generously-self-funded primary campaign against Stevens. Not so happy: national GOPers. Or they won't be when they get a load of exactly what kind of Republican their electoral savior is. READ MORE >>

WASHINGTON -- Danielle Wibeto might be John McCain's worst nightmare. A 23-year old pro-life Christian, Wibeto travels around the country promoting a children's book--Justice Loves Babies, which she wrote with her twin sister, Darlene--about a child trying to save his unborn sister from being aborted.  The Wibeto sisters, from a small, conservative town in central California and staunchly pro-life, are the kind of voters that McCain needs near unanimous support from if he has any chance of defeating Barack Obama. Will she vote for McCain? "I'm still praying on it," she says. READ MORE >>

North Korea just blew up the cooling tower on its own Yongbyon reactor, as part of an ongoing dismantlement deal with the United States. This is a momentous step because it's largely irreversible: North Korea will never again be able to kick out inspectors and start reprocessing plutonium in a matter of days, as it did in 2003. READ MORE >>

First Read has several interesting thoughts about how Bush's Knesset jab benefited Obama, beyond the unity theme I mentioned last night. For example: READ MORE >>

Bush at the Knesset:  In a particularly sharp blast from halfway around the world, President Bush suggested Thursday that Sen. Barack Obama and other Democrats are in favor of "appeasement" of terrorists in the same way U.S. leaders appeased Nazis in the run-up to World War II. READ MORE >>

 The Weekly Standard on Hillary Clinton: She's running a right-wing campaign. She's running the classic Republican race against her opponent, running on toughness and use-of-force issues, the campaign that the elder George Bush ran against Michael Dukakis, that the younger George Bush waged in 2000 and then again against John Kerry, and that Ronald Reagan--"The Bear in the Forest"--ran against Jimmy Carter and Walter F. Mondale. And she's doing it with much the same symbols... READ MORE >>