Did McCain Plagiarize His Speech on the Georgia Crisis?  —  A Wikipedia editor emailed Political Wire to point out some similarities between Sen. John McCain's speech today on the crisis in Georgia and the Wikipedia article on the country Georgia.  Given the closeness of the words and sentence structure …

The Front-Runner's Fall  —  For all that has been written and said about Hillary Clinton's epic collapse in the Democratic primaries, one issue still nags.  Everybody knows what happened.  But we still don't have a clear picture of how it happened, or why.

Wolfson: Edwards' Cover-up Cost Clinton the Nomination  —  Aides Say She Would Have Won Iowa if Edwards Affair was Exposed  —  Sen. Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic presidential nominee if John Edwards had been caught in his lie about an extramarital affair and forced out of the race last year …

Obama Wisconsin Radio Ad Attacks McCain Over Harley Quip  —  To our knowledge the Obama campaign didn't release it to the national press, but Team Obama is airing a new radio spot in Wisconsin — the home of Harley-Davidson — attacking John McCain over his recent quip at a biker rally …

Taking Back The Campaign Nominee  —  What the Obama campaign has lost sight of, I think, and what it needs to regain control of, is the essential message of his candidacy.  After the last eight years, we simply cannot risk a continuation of the same reckless, belligerent, argument-losing …

More Fun With the Dumbest People on the Internet  —  It's been a while since I suited up and dumpster-dived in the Obama conspiracyverse.  In my absence, I reckon that the average IQ there has dipped by 20-25 points.  Take this latest revelation from Larry “Whitey Tape” Johnson. … Incredible!

RWV Excl: McCain Caught In Photo With Younger Woman … “I want John McCain,” the young strawberry-blond now confides to anyone who will listen, just days after spending hours of primping, riding in a car and waiting in line under the hot sun to enter a steamy town hall in the Midwest where …

25 Hints You're Not Voting for Obama  —  Today's Rasmussen daily tracking poll has 80% of Democrats supporting Obama and 87% of Republicans supporting McCain.  There are still a healthy number of undecideds.  This conflicts with the stream of media reports that Obamacons, evangelicals …

COKIE: HAWAII TOO FOREIGN FOR OBAMA  —  This is the sort of mind-numbingly banal observation that passes for political analysis these days.  Tut-tutting over the timing of Barack Obama's family vacation, Cokie Roberts yesterday on ABC's This Week added that Hawaii was not an appropriate destination: too foreign and too exotic.

Al-Qa'eda in Iraq alienated by cucumber laws and brutality  —  Al-Qa'eda is losing support in Iraq because of a brutal crackdown on activities it regards as un-Islamic - including women buying cucumbers.  —  Besides the terrible killings inflicted by the fanatics on those who refuse …

Olympics: Spain's eye-catching faux pas  —  Spain's Olympic basketball teams have risked upsetting their Chinese hosts by posing for a pre-Games advert making slit-eyed gestures.  The advert for a courier company, which is an official sponsor of the Spanish Basketball Federation …

Remarks by Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Permanent Representative, on the situation in Georgia, in the Security Council Chambers, August 10, 2008  —  We've heard Ambassador Churkin's polemic, which did not respond to the call we have made for an immediate cessation of hostilities and return to the status quo ante.