It's getting tricky to know how to refer to he who presumes to be the next president. It was made clear several months ago that mentioning his middle name is a forbidden act. (Pass out more eggshells.) Then, having nothing honorable to say, Obama warned his followers last week that Sen. McCain would try to scare voters by pointing to Obama's "...

WASHINGTON — In the contest for president, Barack Obama is a magnetic candidate supported by a disciplined, well-organized campaign. John McCain seems wooden, with a campaign that appears to be in shambles. Yet Obama's lead in the polls over McCain is fragile because he so far has not won the support of a majority of American voters. An effec...

You've probably heard the story about the tycoon who wanted to bring out a new kind of dog food. He spent lavishly. He hired the best marketing person, the top PR firm, the best ad agency, the No. 1 packaging expert, the most powerful distributor — but the sales were flat after six months. He summoned his consultants to a meeting and asked wh...

While everyone is focusing on Barack Obama's shifting positions on issues such as campaign finance, NAFTA, telecom immunity and Iraq, we're missing his incursion into enemy territory to capture those reviled, though politically coveted values voters. His recent proposal to adopt a modified version of President Bush's faith-based initiative is just ...

Think you know Sen. John McCain? That's what the nation's largest gay-rights organization is asking voters. A maverick? An independent? A moderate? Not so, the Human Rights Campaign argues forcefully in a new video at its hrc.org Website that uses film clips capturing key moments in McCain's political career to back up its warning that a McCain pre...

Almost precisely at the midpoint between the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3 and the general election on Nov. 4, the general election campaign is on. Neither party's nominee swept the primaries. John McCain's narrow popular vote margins in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and most of the Super Tuesday states, combined with the Republicans' winner-tak...

American history is the history of populist uprisings. From the Revolutionary War to the coalfield wars, from labor organizers to anti-tax crusaders, from the New Deal to the current conservative era, backlashes to the status quo have defined every major political era. These uprisings have given us candidates from Goldwater to Dean, and presidents ...

The selection of a vice president is not only an exercise in political handicapping but also a national rite of statecraft. Candidates, advisers, pundits and assorted experts try to calculate the ethnic, geographic, gender and ideological characteristics of potential running mates, but what this choice actually reveals is the character of a preside...

As the Clinton campaign finally begins to read the writing on the wall — "Get Out" — and the race for president turns to vice presidential picks, Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama should try to avoid selecting running mates who might alienate Hispanic voters. In the race to determine which states will be blue or red, those th...