The Filter Fights Back

As a former media columnist, I’ve held back when the McCain campaign has talked about their disregard for the media “filter” that seeks to attack the Republican Party’s vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

As chronicled here and elsewhere, the campaign’s restricted media access to Sen. John McCain has More…

“This is something new….”

Last week I wrote about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and how she has changed the model set by the late Clare Boothe Luce, who had set the standard that Republican women were held to for nearly three decades. But no longer. In the piece, I spoke about how Palin’s More…

Palin Breaks From Luce Mold

For nearly three generations, she was the gold standard for women of the Republican Party. Fierce and influential, she was an international power-broker with a reach that extended far beyond her brief time in Congress. That was just window dressing.

In truth, Claire Boothe Luce helped define the modern GOP More…

Sarah Palin: Diplomat Without Porfolio (Yet?)

ABC News is reporting that newly minted Republican superstar and vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has said war “may be” necessary if Russia invades another country. Um, yeah.

But, when campaigning in Michigan, back when the Russians invaded Georgia, Sen. John McCain stood next to his wife, Cindy, More…

The Price of Parting….

Today the Republican presidential ticket went its separate ways as Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin split up for the first time since Palin became the darling of every gun-tootin’ hockey mom from Anchorage to St. Petersburg.

Following big crowds, the two will now split their forces and travel More…

Economy, Schonomy

Washington — On returning home from the Republican National Convention on Friday, I’ve been thinking about some conversations I had with delegates in St. Paul.

Many comments not about Sen. John McCain’s acceptance speech  — and so not in my piece — have stayed with me. Particularly as I had More…

McCain Plays to Strengths

St. Paul–Darkness had fallen over the city when Sen. John McCain stepped out from the shadow created by his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, when she lashed out at the Democrats and the media and intellectual elites the night before. He did so as a man declared politically dead More…

Ohio Boy No More?

St. Paul–Standing on the floor of the Xcel center last night made me embarrassed about where I come from. Born in Ohio to immigrant parents, with a father who came from nothing — meaning no shoes till he was nine — who then rose to the supposed academic elite, I’ve More…

Fred Thompson’s second chance

On a bus between Minneapolis to St. Paul–Where was this a year ago?

That was the only response I could ultimately come up with after watching former Tennessee senator and Republican presidential nominee Fred Thompson address his party’s national convention from a Cleveland hotel bar Tuesday.

He was folksy, direct, More…

Great Expectations

St. Paul, Minn.–Yesterday afternoon, when Sen. John McCain descended the stairs of his flying “Straight Talk Express” onto the tarmac in Minneapolis, greeted by members of his family as well as his running-mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, 44, and her family, he walked out onto what had become very rough More…