Lieberman: Obama Has Not Always Put Country First  —  YORK, Pa. - One of the McCain campaign's new themes, that Senator John McCain has always put his country first, has been seem by some analysts as a subtle suggestion that his opponent, Senator Barack Obama, has not.

Negative ads: They really do work  —  Clever negative advertising works.  That is reality.  —  The tactic meets with media and pundit disapproval and spawns accusations of negativity, but the reality is that a clever negative ad can be devastatingly effective.

Mukasey: No prosecutions in Justice hiring scandal  —  NEW YORK - No criminal prosecutions are planned for former Justice Department officials accused of allowing politics to influence the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday.

BACKGROUNDERS: SITUATION REPORT, RUSSO-GEORGIAN CONFLICT  —  Situation Report, Russo-Georgian Conflict  —  • Russia has announced a unilateral ceasefire because its operations have achieved their aims.  —  • Medvedev and Sarkozy have drafted a document that encapsulates …

David Brooks from Chengdu: my lord  —  Some of his pensees: … This is the kind of thing you can say only if you have not the slightest inkling of how completely different a billion-plus people can be from one another.  Beijingers from Shanghainese, Guangdong entrepreneurs from farmers in Sichuan …

‘Snake Oil’  —  Debunking three ‘truths’ about offshore drilling  —  THE NATURAL Resources Defense Council Action Fund has taken out full-page ads in this newspaper and others to decry offshore drilling for oil as “George W. Bush's Gasoline Price Elixir” that is “100% Snake Oil.”

Sen. Hagel won't be endorsing a presidential candidate  —  Sen. Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican who is one of John McCain's closest friends — but who has been mentioned as a potential running mate for Democrat Barack Obama — is sitting out the presidential contest, according to his spokesman, Jordan Stark.

Celebrities Fight Back  —  Obama's celebrity friends are bringing their considerable resources to bear in this election, hosting fundraisers at their estates in Geneva, offering advice on Middle East policy, and now threatening this campaign with legal action over our latest ad, “Fan Club.”

Today's Campaign Contest: Count the Young White Women in McCain's Anti-Obama Video  —  How many young white women professing adoration for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, can you count in this anti-Obama web video that the campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz, was sending out yesterday?

GOP Rep. To Environmentalists: Jesus Already Saved The Planet  —  We like to keep track of the, er, intriguing sayings of Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, the Christian Right champion from Minnesota.  But this latest is really out there — Bachmann says we don't need pesky environmentalists …

McCain: Putin wants ‘to restore the old Russian empire’  —  HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (CNN) - John McCain is turning up the heat on Moscow, and accusing Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of wanting to “restore the old Russian empire.”  —  McCain's comments came in an interview …

Two Cheers for Russia's Invasion of Georgia  —  The thoughts of a former expert on the former Soviet Union—that would be me, to crib a line from geopolitical guru Thomas Barnett—about the Russian invasion of Georgia:  —  1) It would be great if clarity came cheap.  Sometimes it does, but often it doesn't.

This is only one of John McCain's 8 or 9 (or 10) houses  —  Hey, nothing wrong with being filthy rich.  Just stop playing the regular guy, going after your opponent's supposedly elite life, when you and your wife combined are worth $100 million and you can't even remember how many homes you own.

Jim Leach endorses Obama  —  “It's been a very difficult thing for me because I've never endorsed a Democrat before...but sometimes in life you come to a juncture where it's very clear the national interest trumps party discipline,” former Iowa Congressman Jim Leach said in a noontime interview with Radio Iowa.

Sullivan's Travels  —  In a post early this morning, Andrew Sullivan concludes with this: … This highlighted statement is an astonishing one.  The clear implication is that what America did in going to war with Iraq is the moral equivalent of what Russia has done to Georgia.