The right-wing family values brigade

was quick to portray Jamie Lynn Spears'

high-profile pregnancy as evidence of

a “culture of permissiveness”

that was fueling high rates of teen sex,

sexually transmitted diseases and pregnancy

   more »

Keywords: teenage, sexual, abstinence, sex, repression, rightwing

Those who don’t want to nominate

Hillary Clinton because they don’t want

to return to the nastiness of the 1990s

— a sizable group, at least

in the punditocracy —

are deluding themselves

Any Democrat who becomes President

can expect the same treatment

   more »

Keywords: 2008, bubble, president, obama, delusion

The chief value of the Kennedy nod is the validation it gives to the claim every Democratic candidate would like to make - that he, or she, is the "new JFK".

Caroline Kennedy all but said as much in her article in praise of Obama in the New York Times yesterday. Its headline: "A President like My Father."

Obama has touched the hem of the savior himself!

Do not confer any mantle of "sacredness" to a Kennedy endorsement when it comes from the mouth of Ted. Outside of Mass., a lot of Democrats actually loathe him, and are embarrassed that he is part of their party.   more »

John McCain enjoys inordinately good press; they have not examined his record for ethical conduct, nor have they taken a serious look at his physical fitness for the job.

McCain will certainly be too old (at 72) to assume the presidency in 2009. So he should let well enough alone, retire, go home to Arizona, and putter around in his garden, dreaming of the wars he could have started.

McCain's propensity to threaten more warfare -- in fact, he almost assures us of such unacceptable behavior -- is reason enough to send the man packing.

Could we really expect any other attitude from a man who comes from a war-mongering family? We don't need more militaristic arrogance and swagger in the White House -- eight years of that foolishness is enough.   more »

So it was that the president delivered his final State of the Union address last night as a broken man whose partisan allies would not even wear the "I'm a Bush Republican" pins that had been delivered to their offices by a puckish critic of the president and his party.

Even in the face of the humiliation that is a 31 percent approval rating, the president could not muster the humility that might have engendered sympathy.

Instead, he steadfastly stuck by a failed agenda. Yes, there were minor bows to reality, highlighted by his recent recognition that some redistribution of the wealth will be required to slow the arrival of a scorching recession until after this year's elections.

But even as he promoted the economic stimulus package that his aides and congressional leaders had cobbled together, Bush refused to make the most basic connections with regard to the crisis he has created.   more »