Democrats were scratching their heads and trying to figure how it was that Republican presidential nominee John McCain had inched further up in the polls during this, of all things, the week of the Democratic National Convention in Denver. But the only real mystery is why they were so mystified. The Democrats' first misstep came on the first night ...

WASHINGTON — It has been a mixed week for Sen. Barack H. Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate. On the one hand, a Reuters/Zogby poll announced that the junior senator from Illinois' 7-point lead over Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, has dissolved into a 5-point deficit. McCain now leads ...

Three recent stories are prime examples of how important it is for the media to confront the reality of rumors in the age of the Internet. One week before comedian Bernie Mac passed away, text messages and e-mails were flying all over the country with reports that he had died. I was in New York, and friends and colleagues from Chicago to Dallas to ...

Maybe a year ago we all would have been shocked by the John Edwards affair. A mistress! A baby! A strange, sexually charged incident in the men's room! Now it just feels like one of those chapters they add to a textbook so college students can't buy the used edition at half-price. Doesn't it seem as if we already have learned everything possible ab...

There's a standard refrain you'll hear after every high-profile Washington indiscretion: Americans should expect more from their politicians. But really, we should expect less. Much less. The John Edwards affair was reported in great detail by the undependable National Enquirer weeks ago, yet only when the immaculately coiffed former presidential c...

Now that John Edwards has admitted to his affair with 42-year-old Rielle Hunter, the big test looms again before the American public: Do we care? Do we think it matters? Do we believe that there should be any code of conduct or moral standard for those in public office, even if it is the highest one in the land? Justifications for political impropr...

John Edwards is done. The pretty-boy candidate always was the biggest phony at any Democratic debate. He was the $400-haircut poster boy for poverty. The 28,000-square-foot mansion owner who preached about global warming. The candidate who demanded that other Democrats swear off accepting contributions from Fox News baron Rupert Murdoch, after he p...

I initially wanted to write about Sen. John McCain's double talk on the issue of affirmative action. Based on his various statements, I'm not sure where in the heck he stands. Another potential topic was the silliness over getting a new press release each day about Sen. Barack Obama canceling a visit to troops in Germany. Another potential topic wa...

Q: Before your trip to Iraq, you said that you intend to give the military a "new mission" — all of the combat troops withdrawn within 16 months. Why bother traveling to Iraq and consulting with commanders on the ground, if you've already decided on a new mission? Q: In 2004, you called it unwise to announce a timetable. By 2008, ho...

The Washington Post reports that Sen. Barack Obama is aggressively trying to reintroduce himself to voters, echoing the spin of Obama's advisers that not everyone knows him yet. In reality, Obama's major campaign challenge will not be to reveal, but to conceal his true identity. Obama is not trying to introduce himself to unreached voters, but is e...