IMAGINING THE ELECTION: A BATTLE OF ARCHETYPES

But as the two candidates in the months ahead debate the war, energy woes, and a troubled economy, the election will ultimately come down to whether more Americans think a workmanlike old pro McCain can see us through one more time, or more think the times demand we gamble on a charismatic newcomer Obama who promises us deliverance.

GEORGE NEUMAYR: WEDDING BELLE

For reasons of raw politics, Democratic presidential nominees can't say they support gay marriage, though they obviously do. So they send their wives out to say it for them.

DOUGLAS FEITH: WHY WE WENT TO WAR IN IRAQ

Thoughtful, patriotic Americans differed then and now on whether the risk of leaving Saddam in power outweighed the risk of war. But Mr. Bush concluded that it did, and that war therefore was necessary. In Congress, many Democrats as well as Republicans supported that conclusion. Debates will continue over whether the president should have balanced the risks differently. But characterizing the Iraq war as "a war of choice" sheds no light on the issue.

KARL ROVE: CAN BARRACK BUY THE PRESIDENCY?

Money may be the mother's milk of politics, in Jesse Unruh's famous phrase, but when running for president, money alone can't buy a candidate love. Cash matters, but being a good candidate and right on the issues matters even more.

AN AMERICA FIRST ENERGY PLAN

Sen. McCain should be pummeling Barack Obama daily on drill, drill, drill. Why? Because oil and gas pump prices are potentially the single-biggest wedge issue in the presidential campaign. Mr. McCain has to pound the point home.

Congress = OPEC?

What do the Democratic-led Congress and OPEC have in common? Both sit on vast amounts of oil, and are content to leave it in the ground and let prices soar. Fortunately, Americans are catching on.

IS IRAQ A JEWISH CONSPIRACY?

Rather than their ties to Israel, the best predictor of Jewish people’s reaction to the war is party affiliation. Most of those who identify themselves as Democrats tend to oppose it, while those who are Republican tend to support it. We can see this dynamic played out almost perfectly in Congress -- with Senator Lieberman as a notable exception.

ABC SCOLDS GLOBE-TROTTING MCCAIN AS PEOPLE SUFFER AT HOME

Good Morning America on Wednesday attempted to guilt trip John McCain for taking a foreign trip: "As Americans wrestle with a tough economy, why is he in South America?" Five times over the course of two segments, various GMA hosts, reporters and analysts insinuated that McCain's trip to Colombia and Mexico might result in voters thinking he doesn't care about the economic situation of Americans.

DOES PATRIOTISM MATTER?: FRENCH-LIKE BEHAVIOR

THOMAS SOWELL: Most Americans today are unaware of how much our schools have followed in the footsteps of the French schools of the 1920s and 1930s, or how much our intellectuals have become citizens of the world instead of American patriots.

WHAT IRAQI EXPATS ARE SAYING NOW

Another Chaldean Christian female friend of mine is now living in Jordan with her family after being forced to leave their house in Al-Ameriyya, Baghdad, by al Qaeda militants. She told me "it seems that the Americans know what they are doing. They have been so patient with us, but it seems that we have learned our lesson now."

INTERVIEW WITH A HOLLYWOOD PATRIOT

Ondrasik spoke frankly about anti-Americanism in Hollywood:

"To be honest with you, at times, I'm embarrassed to be part of this industry. There are people [who] do support the troops. A lot of them are under the radar. You don't hear a lot about them because they're going over to Iraq without a camera crew, and they're doing the right thing. Go down the line -- Gary Sinise, Kelsey Grammer, Patti Heaton, folks like that. But as an industry, I do think there's a lot of shame to be left at the doorstep of Hollywood.

HOW IRAN KILLS AMERICANS

The allegations, made in separate interviews with The Associated Press, point not only to an Iranian hand in the Iraq war, but also to Hezbollah's willingness to expand beyond its Lebanese base and assume a broader role in the struggle against U.S. influence in the Middle East.

All this suggests that Shiite-dominated Iran is waging a proxy war against the United States to secure a dominant role in majority-Shiite Iraq, which has supplanted Lebanon as Tehran's top priority in the Middle East.

THE OBAMAS ARE JUST THE GHOSTS OF CLINTONS PAST

In sum, the Left may have dumped the Clintons, but they continue to perpetuate Clintonismo. That is the key to the coming election: nothing has changed. Obama even lies about "change." For the Left, change always means going back to the past, and in this case, the past means the Clinton Administration. But this time, with a solid Democrat Congress and a solid phalanx covering for them in the media, they are determined to win it all.

GLOBAL WARMING AS MASS NEUROSIS

Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the mass hysteria phenomenon known as global warming. Much of the science has since been discredited. Now it's time for political scientists, theologians and psychiatrists to weigh in.

DENNIS PRAGER: WHY I SUPPORT JOHN MCCAIN

However noble their intentions, conservatives who do not vote for John McCain will be morally complicit in what happens to America during an Obama presidency.

ROMNEY MAKES SENSE

Remember Mitt Romney? Politico reports John McCain's ex-rival now tops his running mate list. If so, it means McCain's getting serious about drawing quality people to smooth his weak spots. Excellent.

SMEARING MCCAIN

DURING THE 2004 ELECTION, Democrats and their allies on the activist Left were adamant that a candidate’s military record was strictly off-limits to criticism. John Kerry was a war hero, and to suggest different was, as columnist David Ignatius averred, defamation. It turns out these partisans meant to exempt themselves from the rule.

ND SUPREME COURT OVERTURNS WEFALD IN BLUNT V. ND

DREAMS FROM HIS GRANDMOTHER

Ten general-election strategies Obama can use to disguise his hard-left views.

THE TRAGIC END OF BUSH'S NORTH KOREA POLICY

The Soviet dark art of denial, deception and disguise--is alive and well in Pyongyang, years after the Soviet Union disappeared. Unfortunately, the Bush administration appears not to have gotten the word.