National and World Commentary

Hope versus fear, new versus old: Barack Obama and John McCain have placed their bets. These are the terms on which the 2008 presidential campaign will be decided. Full story »

WASHINGTON -- Convicted felon Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It is hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters. Yet let the McCain campaign raise the issue, and the mainstream media begin fulminating about dirty campaigning tinged with racism and McCarthyite guilt by association. Full story »

WASHINGTON -- In William Saroyan's Depression-era drama "The Time of Your Life," there is a laconic character called "The Arab" who keeps muttering the play's signature line: "No foundation. All the way down the line." Full story »

WASHINGTON -- Time was, the Baltimore Orioles manager was Earl Weaver, a short, irascible, Napoleonic figure who, when cranky, as he frequently was, would shout at an umpire, "Are you going to get any better or is this it?" With, mercifully, only one debate to go, that is the question about John McCain's campaign. Full story »

WASHINGTON -- Something strange is happening in this strangest of all presidential contests. The longer it goes on, the less we know about what either of these men would really do if he were in the Oval Office next year. Full story »

WASHINGTON -- When Sarah Palin said she was taking off the gloves, she wasn't just whistling "Onward, Christian Soldiers." Full story »

Tuesday night's debate, a town hall discussion dominated by economic questions, made it clear that John McCain's effort to change the campaign's focus to the culture wars of the 1960s is not going to work. Voters want candidates to talk about problems and how to solve them, especially the enormous ones we are confronting now. Full story »

The month before a presidential election isn't the best time for reasoned debate about complicated policy. Here goes, anyway. Full story »

In the midst of assailing John McCain as "erratic" and "out of touch," Barack Obama and Joe Biden have pressed an attack on McCain's health care plan that is deceptive in almost every detail. Full story »

If we in the media really believe what we say about serving the public interest, we have a duty to avoid being turned into instruments of mass distraction. Full story »

It may be the end of an economic era on Wall Street, as commentators have noted over the past few weeks. But it is not yet the beginning of a new political era in Washington. In that gap lies the opportunity for Barack Obama to explain to the nation how he proposes to make a new start. Full story »

What did they do with the other Sarah Palin? I mean the one who bases foreign policy experience on the proximity of Russia to Alaska and who speaks cutely about Vladimir Putin poking his little head into American airspace. Where did they put her? Full story »

Early in Thursday night's vice-presidential debate, Sarah Palin said that she might not answer the questions as moderator Gwen Ifill posed them. This was the Alaska governor's way of saying she was going to stick to the talking points she had stuffed into her head, no matter what the subject. Full story »

Krauthammer's Hail Mary Rule: You get only two per game. John McCain, unfortunately, has already thrown three. Full story »

One advantage of a crisis is the illumination it sheds on all the main figures of American politics -- like a strobe light on a dark dance floor, catching all involved in characteristic, sometimes embarrassing poses. Full story »