Roger Simon from Creators Syndicate

In VP Debate, Biden to Focus on Top of the Ticket for 10/01/2008

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

If Sarah Palin goofs, flounders, stumbles or blunders during her debate against Joe Biden Thursday night, Joe Biden is going to let it slide.

"If she makes a gaffe, he underplays it," one of the people prepping Biden for his vice presidential debate told me. "At most, he says, 'I am not sure what Gov. Palin meant there.'"

There are three reasons for this: First ...

Updated: Wed Oct 01, 2008

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Palin Dominates VP Debate for 10/03/2008

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

ST. LOUIS — Sarah Palin was supposed to fall off the stage at her vice presidential debate Thursday evening. Instead, she ended up dominating it.

She not only kept Joe Biden on the defensive for much of the debate, she not only repeatedly attacked Barack Obama, but she looked like she was enjoying herself while doing it.

She smiled. She faced the camera. She was warm. She wa ...

Updated: Fri Oct 03, 2008

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Can McCain Still Win? for 10/08/2008

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Can John McCain possibly win this thing? Can he actually win in November?

The outlook is bleak: The polls are ugly, the Electoral College map is grim, the economy is getting worse, and McCain's choice of Sarah Palin may have energized the Republican base, but it has appalled and frightened many outside that base.

Still, McCain's campaign has come back from the dead more than once: ...

Updated: Wed Oct 08, 2008

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Debate Tie Goes to Obama for 10/10/2008

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

NASHVILLE — Watching John McCain and Barack Obama at their second presidential debate was like watching two fighters circling each other, throwing a jab here, landing a blow there, but neither one ever delivering a knockout punch.

The trouble for John McCain, however, is that he needed one.

So if you had to say somebody lost Tuesday night, it was McCain. Because he had to wi ...

Updated: Fri Oct 10, 2008

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McCain Struggles To Stay on High Road for 10/15/2008

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The John McCain campaign is pretty much a shambles right now.

If you don't believe me, just listen to John McCain. His chief goal these days is calming down his crowds, not firing them up.

And that is an honorable thing to do. It may not be a winning thing to do. But it is honorable.

Sarah Palin, once seen as a huge plus to the ticket, is now increasingly emerging as a liab ...

Updated: Wed Oct 15, 2008

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Will McCain Play the Race Card? for 10/15/2008

Wed, 15 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

They wheeled George Wallace in backward and then lifted him onto a seat behind his bulletproof lectern. Confetti, thrown by little girls in straw hats, caught in his swept-back hair. Wallace waved to the crowd.

We were in Southie — South Boston — in February 1976, and Wallace was running for president. Five hundred people were packed into a small hall, and 300 more waited out ...

Updated: Wed Oct 15, 2008

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McCain and Obama Try To Be Funny -- On Purpose for 10/17/2008

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

When the going gets tough, the tough go to dinners.

Fancy dinners. White tie and tailcoat dinners like the Al Smith dinner in New York.

You may have missed the fact that the times are hilarious, but John McCain and Barack Obama were called upon to be hilarious Thursday night because that is what the Al Smith dinner demands.

The dinner is sponsored by the archdiocese of New ...

Updated: Fri Oct 17, 2008

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McCain Fails, Obama Is Not Rattled for 10/17/2008

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Debates should not be confused with trips to Lourdes: Few miracles are dispensed.

John McCain needed a miracle in his final debate with Barack Obama on Wednesday night, a miracle that would wipe away McCain's deficit in the polls and re-energize his flagging campaign.

He did not get one. The clouds did not part. Heavenly choirs were not heard. Instead, the ...

Updated: Fri Oct 17, 2008

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Powell Drops the Hammer on McCain for 10/21/2008

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The scene is "Meet the Press" on Sunday. Tom Brokaw has just asked Colin Powell if he is prepared to say whether he is supporting John McCain, to whom he has contributed money, or Barack Obama, whom Powell has told he will not support "just because you're black."

Powell is, indeed, prepared to say whom he is supporting. And he does so for the next seven minutes and ei ...

Updated: Tue Oct 21, 2008

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Democrat Gloom Deepens, News Too Good To Be True for 10/22/2008

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The Democrats are poised on the brink of victory. And they cannot stand it. The news is too good. Something has to go wrong.

On Saturday, Charlie Cook, an independent analyst and author of the Cook Report, wrote: "This election isn't over, but it is looking very bad for Republicans — and seems to be getting worse."

This plunged the Democrats into a deep gloom. Good ...

Updated: Wed Oct 22, 2008

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As McCain Ebbs, Palin Eyes 2012 for 10/29/2008

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Sarah Palin may soon be free. Soon, she may not have the millstone of John McCain around her neck. And she can begin her race for president in 2012.

Some are already talking about it. In careful terms. If John McCain loses next week, Sarah Palin "has absolutely earned a right to run in 2012," says Greg Mueller, who was a senior aide in the presidential campaigns of Pat Buchanan ...

Updated: Wed Oct 29, 2008

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McCain campaign trying to scapegoat Palin for 10/31/2008

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

The John McCain campaign is looking for a scapegoat. It is looking for someone to blame if McCain loses on Tuesday.

And it has decided on Sarah Palin.

In recent days, a McCain "adviser" told Dana Bash of CNN: "She is a diva. She takes no advice from anyone."

Imagine not taking advice from the geniuses at the McCain campaign. What could Palin be thinking? ...

Updated: Fri Oct 31, 2008

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The Curtain Comes Down on the McCain Campaign for 11/04/2008

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

As his campaign rattles to an end, John McCain has never been better on the stump. Not a natural orator, McCain finally has found his voice.

"Stand up! Stand up! Stand up and fight!" McCain thundered Monday in Blountville, Tenn. "We never give up! We never quit! We never hide from history; we make history!"

And he will make history Tuesday night. He will either ...

Updated: Tue Nov 04, 2008

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An Audacious President-Elect for 11/06/2008

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Once upon a time, the thought of Barack Obama becoming president was downright audacious.

In the early days of his campaign, Obama had to persuade people that casting a vote for him was not a waste of time, a sad joke or a hopeless cause.

When I interviewed him just a few days before he announced for the presidency in February 2007, I asked him if he was on some kind of "crus ...

Updated: Thu Nov 06, 2008

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McCain at Ease After Loss for 11/07/2008

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

On the day after his victory, Barack Obama faced a world in financial crisis, shooting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a nation that expected him to deliver on all his promises.

John McCain faced a barbecue.

"I got nine racks of ribs," McCain told his closest aide and co-author, Mark Salter. "And I will be cooking them up."

McCain was in Phoenix, where ...

Updated: Fri Nov 07, 2008

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Does Obama's Senate Replacement Have to Be Black? for 11/12/2008

Wed, 12 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Although Barack Obama's historic election will place an African-American in the White House, it will reduce the number of African-Americans in the Senate to zero.

That's an even lonelier number than one, and it is not a number that this nation should be proud of. So the question is: Does Obama's replacement in the Senate have to be black?

Some would argue yes. And Jesse Jackson Jr ...

Updated: Wed Nov 12, 2008

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Gingrich Says GOP Is Outmatched for 11/14/2008

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

How bad off is the Republican Party right now? Ask Newt Gingrich.

"The Republican Party right now is like a midsize college team trying to play in the Super Bowl," Gingrich told me Wednesday. "It is pretty hard to say our losses were because of John McCain's campaign. McCain performed way above plausibility compared to where the Republican president was in the polls. We ha ...

Updated: Fri Nov 14, 2008

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Dean: Dems 'Big Tent' Party Now for 11/19/2008

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

When Howard Dean got to Washington just under four years ago, he didn't know what to expect.

Well, no, that's not true. He did know what to expect. He expected to find the kind of people he had always detested: Washington insiders, slick operators and politicos.

Thursday, I asked Dean what he had actually found. He quoted Harry Truman.

"Your friends in Washington are t ...

Updated: Wed Nov 19, 2008

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Let's get out of Iraq and Into Detroit for 11/26/2008

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

I do not understand why some people are opposed to a $25 billion government bailout of the U.S. auto industry.

The price is cheap. That $25 billion represents less than three months of the cost of the Iraq war.

To put it another way: If Barack Obama would end the Iraq war just three months early, he could pay for the entire U.S. auto industry bailout, and have about $5 billion lef ...

Updated: Wed Nov 26, 2008

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GOP Senator: We Haven't Learned for 11/28/2008

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 00:00:00 -0800

The Republican U.S. senator sits glumly across the restaurant table.

"I don't think we have learned much from the election in terms of what people want to see," he said. "We have the same gridlock."

By the same gridlock, he means that party hard-liners, both Democrats and Republicans, will remain in control of the machinery of Congress. And that means more of t ...

Updated: Fri Nov 28, 2008

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