The New Republic

The good news for Republicans in last night's vice presidential debate is that Sarah Palin saved herself. Sure, her paper-thin grasp of policy issues and reliance on canned talking points was an embarrassment. She was barely able to cope with a question about the gravest responsibility of the presidency--the potential use of nukes. And many of her sharpest talking points--about funding US troops and the fiendish mainstream media--seemed tailored more for a conservative base already supporting her ticket anyway. READ MORE >>

It's May 23, 2008, and eleven presidential candidates are crowding the dais on a tiny stage in the Columbine Meeting Room. We're in the bowels of a Sheraton in downtown Denver, at the Libertarian National Convention some 70 miles from the party's birthplace in Colorado Springs. Many delegates expect that Colorado is about to become the location of the party's demise as well—in, oh, about 48 hours. READ MORE >>

Yes We Can” “You and I” “Let’s Put a Woman in Charge” Among the things that happened in early February, when Barack Obama’s campaign for the Democratic nomination seemed suddenly to kick into a higher gear, was the emergence, through YouTube, of a new music video called “Yes We Can,” a mash-up of moments from the speech Obama gave after the New Hampshire primary, set to music by Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. The clip had more than two million hits in its first week, and the Obama campaign posted a link to it on the homepage of its website. READ MORE >>

  READ MORE >>

'I could go on all day about what I'm proud of," Tom DeLay exults into his microphone at a recent Oxonian Society-sponsored luncheon in New York to hawk his new memoir, No Retreat, No Surrender. A year after his downfall, DeLay's leathery skin and the loose,papery bags under his eyes make him look old. But the message he delivers to the crowd is energetic and unrepentant: "I'm ... proud of the K Street Strategy. I was proud of the Terri Schiavo incident," he says. And, without irony: "We changed the culture of Washington." READ MORE >>

If this was November and YouTube was the voting system, we would probably have a new president by a landslide. Since announcing their candidacies, almost all of the 2008 Democratic presidential hopefuls have established YouTube channels, and, based on the number of views of each channel, the primary race is going to be an easy one: Obama is in the lead with over 600,000 views, while Hillary is a distant second with 51,000. READ MORE >>

We've read a lot about last November as the "YouTube election," how YouTube was transforming politics, etc. What about YouTube transforming business? READ MORE >>

An article by Lee Gomes in Wednesday's Wall Street Journal points out that Google, TiVo and YouTube are now used as both verbs and adjectives. I do say "google it," and I have heard of TiVo. I have even watched it. But I don't know how to verbalize or adjectiveize it. And, frankly, I don't know what service YouTube provides or what product it makes. READ MORE >>