McCain closing gap with Romney  —  In N.H. poll, Obama inches ahead of Clinton  —  Senator John McCain of Arizona, whose bid for the Republican presidential nomination was all but dead this summer, has made a dramatic recovery in the Granite State 2 1/2 weeks before the 2008 vote …

Dec. 23: Ron Paul  —  MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: Our Meet the Candidates 2008 series continues, an exclusive interview with Republican Ron Paul.  He has served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 18 years.  In 1988 he was the Libertarian Party candidate for president.

Times Democratic caucus endorsement: Hillary Clinton passes the test  —  Hillary Clinton passes test after test after test.  This Clinton arrived for the caucus campaign with much, much more experience than the first Clinton to stump across Iowa.  In campaign speeches and in an interview …

Daily Kos Supporting the Troops for Christmas  —  As I write, this is currently the number one recommended diary at Daily Kos: a long exercise in crackpot moral equivalence that compares US troops holding Bibles with a Palestinian female suicide bomber holding a Koran.

Giuliani Claims It Would Have Been ‘Impossible’ To Give 9/11 Firefighters Working Radios  —  Today on ABC's This Week, host George Stephanopoulos pushed former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani on why the radios for the 9/11 firefighters didn't work.  Giuliani dodged the question …

SUNNI AWAKENING UPDATE....I've mentioned a few times before that our “bottoms up” strategy of supporting Sunni tribes in the provinces surrounding Baghdad carries a number of risks.  The biggest risk, I suppose, is that once the tribes finally feel safe from the threat of al-Qaeda in Iraq …

William “The Bloody” Makes His New Year's Predictions  —  Somebody has been hitting the eggnog really hard.  William “The Bloody” Kristol makes his predictions for the coming year.  They would be scary if they weren't just so completely ridiculous, but at least Kristol is continuing his habit of being completely and utterly wrong.

Obama continues attacks on Edwards for third-party ads  —  WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama continued his attacks on rival John Edwards for alleged ties to 527 groups airing ads on his behalf.  Obama said his opponent's inability …

In Britain, A Respected, If Rowdy, Holiday Ritual  —  LONDON — Just before midnight, the well-dressed, 25-year-old financial trader arrived by ambulance at the makeshift hospital tent pitched at a train station in central London.  Blood oozed from his scalp, staining his elegant pink-striped shirt.

Times GOP caucus endorsement: John McCain — Time for a real hero  —  John McCain's “Straight Talk Express” plows through where other Republicans steer clear.  —  Mitt Romney addresses the deficit by exhorting Republicans to “stop acting like Democrats."  McCain doesn't resort to name calling.

This Is the Sound of a Bubble Bursting  —  TWO years ago, when Eric Feichthaler was elected mayor of this palm-fringed, middle-class city, he figured on spending a lot of time at ribbon-cuttings.  Tens of thousands of people had moved here in recent years, turning musty flatlands into a grid …