The Real Deal?

Change?
No more politics-as-usual?
A chief executive who can utter a coherent -- even lyrical -- sentence?

I want to believe.

Heretofore hailed by an insular crowd as a savior and Kennedy incarnate, Barack Obama now aspires to inspire the rest of America with his style, while instilling confidence in his questioned substance. It will be no easy task. Subtle position shifts and wardrobe additions have already demonstrated the tightrope that he is treading, and may threaten to chink his invaluably shining armor.

Is he the real deal, or a fraud? Pundits and the public alike wait to see whether the demands of the upcoming campaign will prove his mettle or corrupt his ideals.

For Her, The Belles Toll

The political symbolism was thick, if unheeded, at Saturday's 134th running of the Kentucky Derby.

Senator Hillary Clinton took a break from the campaign trail and slipped over the Indiana border, trading the Hoosier political war zone for a relaxing day at the races in the neighboring Bluegrass State. From a private box at Churchill Downs, she witnessed a valiant mare who gave her all against a crowded field of colts, but didn’t know when to quit and had to be destroyed in front of a horrified nation.

Can’t the woman take a hint?

Shame On Who?

With her campaign nearly as dead as the famous mountaineer for whom she falsely claimed being named, Hillary Clinton has found yet another voice -- and this time it's ugly and irrational.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, but her campaign's latest course threatens both party unity and the Clinton legacy, trespassing far beyond the pale of reasonable politics...or logic.

Over this past weekend Mrs. Clinton transformed from honored by Obama's run to outraged by it, from opposing “Rovian” tactics to employing them, from promising change to mocking it, and from bragging about her White House experience to dismissing it when convenient.

In short: from viable to vile.

Read on for details and reality checks on her ridiculous, illogical and hypocritical efforts to salvage the glass slipper that just doesn’t seem to fit.

McCain -- Maverick or Mimic?

Universally hailed as a hero, John McCain is often given a free pass on his personal background by virtue of his POW status...but with his presidential nomination presumably sealed, is it time to remove his veil and our kid gloves?

How many voters realize that the affable, acceptable driver of the "Straight-Talk Express" has a sketchy political record, a sordid private life and an upbringing that mirrors the despised executive that he seeks to replace?