Polls don't reflect Obama's star power  —  The Democrat creates a stir wherever he goes, but runs far behind Clinton nationally.  Some observers are puzzled; others say he's too gentle.  —  DES MOINES — Hutton Street, a modest, racially mixed working-class neighborhood on the city's east side …

Tancredo says he's leaving Congress  —  Even if he loses his long-shot bid for the White House, Rep. Tom Tancredo will be leaving the U.S. House of Representatives at the end of 2008.  —  Tancredo, 61 , waited until after the Colorado Rockies' last out of the World Series on Sunday night …

Record numbers go abroad for health treatment with 70,000 escaping NHS  —  Record numbers of Britons are travelling abroad for medical treatment to escape the NHS - with 70,000 patients expected to fly out this year.  —  And by the end of the decade 200,000 "health tourists" …

The Wiretap This Time  —  EARLIER this month, the Senate Intelligence Committee and the White House agreed to allow the executive branch to conduct dragnet interceptions of the electronic communications of people in the United States.  They also agreed to "immunize" American telephone companies …

Obama's Gospel Concert Tour  —  COLUMBIA, S.C. _ At Barack Obama's gospel concert here last night, more than 2,000 black evangelicals were singing, waving their hands and cramming the aisles _ most enthusiastically when Donnie McClurkin, the superstar black gospel singer …

VIN SUPRYNOWICZ: G.I. Joe was just a toy, wasn't he?  —  Hollywood now proposes that in a new live-action movie based on the G.I. Joe toy line, Joe's — well, "G.I." — identity needs to be replaced by membership in an "international force based in Brussels."

Fearing Fear Itself  —  In America's darkest hour, Franklin Delano Roosevelt urged the nation not to succumb to "nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror."  But that was then.  —  Today, many of the men who hope to be the next president — including all of the candidates with a significant chance …

Torturing Mukasey  —  The judge becomes a pawn in the politics of interrogation.  —  Just when you thought someone might be confirmed in Washington without a partisan fight, Senate Democrats are suggesting they may not approve Michael Mukasey as Attorney General after all.

How America must handle the falling dollar  —  The falling dollar generates anxiety almost everywhere.  Americans and those dependent on American growth worry about the proverbial "hard landing" as inflation and interest rates rise with a weakening dollar, causing asset prices and output to fall.

Which Republican candidate is más macho?  —  In Iowa, McCain, Thompson and Giuliani vie for the title of Most Manly, in styles that range from low-key to aw-shucks to making glib jokes about torture.  —  Salon photo composite of Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Fred Thompson.

THE INVISIBLE PRIMARY—INVISIBLE NO LONGER  —  A First Look at Coverage of the 2008 Presidential Campaign  —  In the early months of the 2008 presidential campaign, the media had already winnowed the race to mostly five candidates and offered Americans relatively little information …

Gregg to join Romney at State House  —  CONCORD - U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg is endorsing Mitt Romney today as the former Massachusetts governor files as an official candidate in the New Hampshire presidential primary.  —  Sen. Judd Gregg says he "never thought I'd endorse a governor of Massachusetts …

U.S. Guns Behind Cartel Killings in Mexico  —  TIJUANA, Mexico — Assassins blasted Ricardo Rosas Alvarado, a member of an elite state police force, with a blizzard of bullets pumped out of AK-47 assault rifles.  —  Alvarado crumpled at the wheel of his sedan, yet another victim of the weapons known here as …

Ann Coulter: On the Gay Circuit in West Hollywood  —  We had dinner last night at Murano, a new West Hollywood restaurant, owned by gay circuit party promoter Jeffrey Sanker, and lesbian night club owners Robin Gans and Sandy Sachs.  It's a visually stunning space, straight lines …