Doing the Marxist Slide— Venezuela Votes on Chavista Rule... Update: CHAVEZ WINS!... Update 2: Maybe Not?... Update 3: CHAVEZ GOES DOWN!!  —  Final Results— Hugo Chavez loses election:  —  NO- 51%  —  SI- 49%  —  The Marxists at HovReferendum must be very sad. boo-hoo  —  CHAVEZ WINS!!!

More on Romney Religion Speech  —  The venue is not a surprise, since Romney has given a previous major address (on defense policy) at the Bush library, and the two families are very close.  And Texas, of course, was also the venue for John F. Kennedy's famous speech on religion in 1960 …

Memo to Obama: win Iowa or lose the race  —  Not that you have asked for advice, but here it is anyway: Iowa is your chance to best her.  If you do not do it there, odds are you never will anywhere.  You are way behind her in most national polls.  The only way to change that is to beat …

What This is Not  —  A few additional words on what the situation with the Smith Lebanon reporting is and what it isn't: It isn't a case of fabrication, as some of Smith's accusers have alleged.  With regard to the two posts in question, it is my belief, based on an investigation …

An Old Face Resurfaces  —  The Bush administration has offered the former World Bank president a new public service position.  —  Don't ever say the Bush administration doesn't take care of its own.  Nearly three years after Paul Wolfowitz resigned as deputy Defense secretary and six months …

Innovating Our Way to Financial Crisis  —  The financial crisis that began late last summer, then took a brief vacation in September and October, is back with a vengeance.  —  How bad is it?  Well, I've never seen financial insiders this spooked — not even during the Asian crisis of 1997-98 …

CNN'S VIRTUAL REALITY  —  ITS ORDINARY WORLD IS ANYTHING BUT  —  By now you've probably heard that CNN made such a laughingstock of itself at the recent YouTube debate in Florida that it could only have been worse if host Anderson Cooper conducted it in fluent Klingon.

A loss for civilisation  —  ACCORDING to my Oz-watching pals in Britain and the US, John Howard is not a failure but a victim of his own success.  He made Australia safe for the Labor Party: or, at any rate, safe enough that a sufficient number of bored electors were willing to take a flier …

Lonely No More, Huckabee Faces Hurdles  —  Mike Huckabee spent the weekend in New Hampshire, where he saw something he had rarely seen in his two years as a Republican candidate for president: People.  Lots of them.  Living rooms and halls packed with voters, campaign aides, reporters and jostling television crews.

Huckabee, Obama, "Right" and "Left"  —  Frank Rich is right to note that Obama is a far more formidable candidate in a general election than Hillary Clinton; and that the old-guard GOP elite is desperately hoping to run against her next year.  The remarkable flip-side to this is the respect …

An Attack, From the Candidate's Mouth  —  CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - At a news conference here just now, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton expanded her attacks on Senator Barack Obama by suggesting that he has a character issue because of his assertions that his health insurance plan covers all Americans …