‘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.”

Russia's Power Play  —  Asked in 1957 what would determine his government's course, Harold Macmillan, Britain's new prime minister, replied, “Events, dear boy, events.”  Now, into America's trivializing presidential campaign, a pesky event has intruded — a European war.

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 …

Russia Says It Has Ordered Halt to Georgia Military Action  —  MOSCOW — President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia announced Tuesday that he had ordered a halt to his country's military operation in Georgia, although he did not say that troops were pulling out and he insisted that Russian forces …

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 - Former Justice Department officials will not face prosecution for letting improper political considerations drive hirings of prosecutors, immigration judges and other career government lawyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said Tuesday.

Foreclosure sob story of the morning  —  Nope, the MSM has learned nothing from the subprime debacle, stimulus-palooza, and the foreclosure frenzy.  They are still printing sob stories to elicit sympathy for borrowers who don't deserve it.  —  Check this out from the San Francisco Chronicle.

Enthusiasm gap plagues GOP convention  —  While excitement is building for a Democratic Party convention capped by Barack Obama's historic acceptance speech before a sold-out, 75,000-seat football stadium, the GOP convention the following week is shaping up to be a considerably more staid affair …

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.

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 …

Target Obama: Why The Press Must Fact-Check Campaign Claims  —  What is the responsibility of reporters, editors and publishers when a candidate is the target of a campaign of attack and personal destruction employing the systematic use of lies, smears, innuendo and character assassination?

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.

Indiana Senator Offers Obama Risks and Rewards  —  WASHINGTON — As the Senate debate on the use of force against Iraq neared its climax in October 2002, Senator John McCain turned on the floor to Senator Evan Bayh to ask what had led him to take such “a visible, as well as important” …

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?

In a Changing Corner of Pa., a Glimpse of Obama's Age Problem  —  LANCASTER, Pa. — When Gene Rutherford, 65, tries to make sense of the meteoric rise of Barack Obama, and the rampant enthusiasm for him among younger Americans, he thinks of the local mall, where as director of operations he often deals with teenagers.

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.

WOMEN'S ISSUES AND THE DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM.  —  The draft of the Democratic Party platform, principally written by Obama's Senate policy director, the estimable Karen Kornbluh, is a remarkably feminist document, one befitting of a political party that, this year, came exceedingly close to nominating a woman.

Russia Complies With The One  —  On Fox this morning, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine explained how Obama saved Georgia: … Of course the Russians complied with his request.  They've also started inflating their tires in order to reduce domestic demand and free up oil for export markets.