The Wall Street Journal’s Dan Henninger put his finger on it in this piece analyzing what went wrong for the sure winner of race to be the Democratic presidential nominee. In the framework of film tragedies.

Has anyone else out there begun to find that it is easier to make sense of the struggle between Hillary and Barack if one thinks in terms of film tragedies? Several have been unspooling in my mind these days: “All About Eve,” “Sunset Boulevard,” “A Star Is Born,” even “Bonnie and Clyde,” if one assumes the Clintons are going to either pull off this heist or go down in a blaze of bullets.

Hillary’s star is being eclipsed. Why?

A year ago, Hillary Clinton assumed the effort would bring her the prize. Instead, it has brought her to the precipice. What happened? What was supposed to be triumph has turned to tragedy. Who rewrote… click here to read whole article and make comments

One of the most important considerations in the upcoming election is how the candidates see the president’s duty to protect all Americans. And who they consider to be covered by the definition of “all Americans”.

That encompasses more than homeland security, health care reform, free trade agreements, immigration and foreign policy. It not only includes….but starts with the right to live in America, with the emphasis on live.

The fact is that the president has a limited but substantial and broad-based role in protecting life and defending the most vulnerable in society. Here are five examples of why it matters that the president is pro-life:

And they are listed and spelled out there in a clear and concise summary.

Implicit in them, I think, is a sixth: the president’s ability to name justices to the Supreme Court. An activist court can radically change the laws of the land and the… click here to read whole article and make comments

That’s what one of the political analysts said on CNN after the Tuesday night debate between Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama. “They just want to end this.”

Yeah, we do too.

But if you’re even more of a junkie than some of us in the news are, here’s more about the NBC back and forth.

Go for it. Especially if you’re in Ohio or Texas.

The rest of us have had debate fatigure for a while now.

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Here’s an interesting juxtaposition.

Sen. Barack Obama is the runaway frontrunner right now as the candidate of positive vision and hope, representing victory over the evils of racism. Among his vast numbers of supporters are a lot of cultural establishment, like the Hollywood elite, who make clear their vision of America through their arts.

And yet, at the Oscars a couple of days ago, look at what they awarded the highest honors.

Commenting on the latest Oscars awards, the Vatican daily L’ Osservatore Romano said in an opinion column that the most awarded movies portray the image of a hopeless America.

The article, written by Gaetano Vallini, says that the awards night was dominated by two visions of evil, two instances of using images to portray evil.

“On one side, the story of perdition, described by Paul Thomas Anderson in ‘There Will Be Blood,’ on the… click here to read whole article and make comments

The New York Times failed (spectacularly) to bring down the candidacy of John McCain, but succeeded in bringing together normally opposing voices in ways Barack Obama can only hope to.

Somebody has to voice the outrage it caused.

Wednesday night to Monday morning is just a lost weekend to a drunk. To Bill Keller, the executive editor of the New York Times, it was something more: Enough time to stain further the paper’s already tarnished reputation — and more than enough time to realize that no reasonable explanation could be produced that would explain away the paper’s decision to run its front-page, 3,000-word hit on John McCain. For four days, everybody (not just the Media Research Center, we’re talking the Los Angeles Times and Slate, too) has pummeled Keller and his reporters. By now, it’s clear that it was a story that, according to the Washington Post’s media watcher, Howard Kurtz, is seen… click here to read whole article and make comments

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…says Ralph Nader.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader, blamed by many Democrats for their loss of the White House in the 2000 election, said on Sunday he is launching another independent campaign for the White House…saying that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans were addressing problems facing Americans.

Which are….

corporate crime, worker rights, military spending and foreign policy.

That’s pretty broad.

“You go from Iraq, to Palestine to Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bumbling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax cuts.”

So….does this hurt the Democrats?

Republican candidate Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, said he thought Nader’s run would help his party.

Huckabee is having something of his… click here to read whole article and make comments

Now some of the media are having fun with it.

Some will laugh, recognizing the element of truth in all humor. Some will worry, recognizing….well, the truth in this humor.

And some will get really, really annoyed, because for all the charm and measured goodwill this candidate exudes in all his appearances, a lot of his supporters are surprisingly angry at anyone who is not a follower.

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That phrase in this WSJ article about the Clintons actually applies to all candidates who would be president, and information they may be holding back. Any information.

Stonewalling and secrecy helped Bill and Hillary Clinton win the White House without a thorough enough vetting in 1992. Now they’re trying to do it again, this time by not disclosing either their income tax returns or the donor list for the Clinton Foundation.

They seem adept at this. And it continues.

Mr. Clinton is now trying to unwind a business relationship with billionaire pal Ron Burkle. This deal made him a partner — along with the ruler of Dubai — in the Yucaipa Global Fund. How much did Mr. Clinton earn from a partnership with men whose business interests might be affected by the policy actions of a President Hillary Clinton? The Clintons and their accountant know, but the public doesn’t.… click here to read whole article and make comments

He has conquered the racial divisions that ruptured this country for generations, it appears, and good for that. He is the sign of racial healing.

But there’s another divide, virtually unnoticed or at least, unspoken of, and we’re about to learn more about where that one stands. Peggy Noonan treads where almost no one in the media has gone so far in this column, in asking some questions about the candidate Barack Obama beyond the magnetic persona.

Here’s the first point:

When you watch an Obama speech, you lean forward and listen and think, That’s good. He’s compelling, I like the way he speaks. And afterward all the commentators call him “impossibly eloquent” and say “he gave me thrills and chills.” But, in fact, when you go on the Internet and get a transcript of the speech and print it out and read it–that is, when you remove Mr. Obama… click here to read whole article and make comments

That’s what some political analysts said about Hillary Clinton after watching the debate last night with Barack Obama.

The word “valedictory” started bubbling up all over the press.

After losing 11 straight contests to Obama in a race now clearly breaking his way, the former first lady chose the high road and even delivered what sounded to many like the dress rehearsal for a campaign valedictory address.

Her remarks were “almost a quasi-concession speech,” said Texas state Rep. Rafael Anchia, who backs Obama.

Clinton doubtless didn’t intend her words to be taken that way.

In a round of television appearances Friday morning, Clinton said her remarks were intended as “a recognition that both of us are on the brink of historic change.

At the end of the debate, CNN’s John King talked about the atmosphere there being so filled with admiration for both… click here to read whole article and make comments