Obama staffer gave warning of NAFTA rhetoric  —  Barack Obama has ratcheted up his attacks on NAFTA, but a senior member of his campaign team told a Canadian official not to take his criticisms seriously, CTV News has learned.  —  Both Obama and Hillary Clinton have been critical …

McCain's Canal Zone Birth Prompts Queries About Whether That Rules Him Out  —  WASHINGTON — The question has nagged at the parents of Americans born outside the continental United States for generations: Dare their children aspire to grow up and become president?

ROAD MAP  —  Hopefully, everyone can now see the McCain strategy for running against Barack Obama.  Yes, we have some general points on taxes, culture wars and McCain as war hero who can protect us in ways that flash-in-the-pan pretty boy Barack Obama can't.  —  But that's not the core.

I'm Not Running for President, but ...  WATCHING the 2008 presidential campaign, you sometimes get the feeling that the candidates — smart, all of them — must know better.  They must know we can't fix our economy and create jobs by isolating America from global trade.

Clinton Campaign Pours Resources Into Two Crucial Primaries  —  Aides to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), coming to terms with the idea that she must win contests in both Texas and Ohio next week or face enormous pressure to drop out of the race for the Democratic presidential nomination …

Louisiana Governor Pierces Business as Usual  —  BATON ROUGE, La. — Downstairs, legislators gnashed their teeth, while upstairs at the Capitol here this week, the new governor claimed victory against the old customs down below.  —  Six weeks into the term of Gov. Bobby Jindal …

Some hateful, radical ministers — white evangelicals — are acceptable  —  (updated below - Update II)  —  One of this week's hysterical press scandals was that Minister Louis Farrakhan praised Barack Obama's candidacy even though Obama had previously denounced numerous Farrakhan remarks …

TED 2008: How Good People Turn Evil, From Stanford to Abu Ghraib  —  Monterey, California — Psychologist Philip Zimbardo has seen good people turn evil, and he thinks he knows why.  —  Zimbardo will speak Thursday afternoon at the TED conference, where he plans to illustrate his points …

McCain in A Glass House  —  Certain kinds of conservatives, distrusting Richard Nixon's ideological elasticity, rejected him — until 1973.  Although it had become clear that his administration was a crime wave, they embraced him because the media were his tormentors.

Early Obama Commitment on Money Becomes Target  —  Just 12 months ago, Senator Barack Obama presented himself as an idealistic upstart taking on the Democratic fund-raising juggernaut behind Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.  —  That was when Mr. Obama proposed a novel challenge aimed at limiting …

Hillary's Close-Up  —  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,” …

“60 Minutes” Too!!... MAJOR SCANDAL Brewing Over Rove Hit Piece!  —  Alabama GOP Asks For Proof on Karl Rove Hit Piece...  Or, demands that the network retract the story!  —  Did CBS learn nothing from their last major scandal?  —  The chairman of the Alabama Republican Party sent a letter to …