I have one word of advice for the fancy folks at the Republican National Committee who shelled out $75,000 at Neiman Marcus and $50,000 at Saks Fifth Avenue, among other places, to dress Sarah Palin and family: Loehmann's.
My Democratic friends want to know when they can stop worrying.
Losing a presidential race is not an easy thing. Losing the primary is one thing. But making it to the finals, so close you can almost taste it, and then watching it slip through your fingers is one of those experiences from which few people ever fully recover.
A Barack Obama victory in less than three weeks will mean many things at home and abroad. It will mean a new team on foreign and domestic policy and new political leadership for both the Democratic Party and the country. And it will mean, finally, the end of any excuse to listen to the self-involved, selfish and stupid rantings of the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
I'm happy to give my friend Madeleine Albright credit for the line, as Starbucks apparently has. But the truth is I've been using it for years in speeches to women about how we need to help each other get ahead in business, politics and academia.
For all the Republicans' complaints about Gwen Ifill, the moderator's questions were softballs compared to what Sarah Palin faced from Katie Couric. Ifill did not demand that Palin list (OK, how about just name more than one?) Supreme Court decisions. She did not push on the issue of foreign policy experience.
Alcee Hastings used to be a federal judge. Then he got impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate. Now he's a congressman from Florida. People have a right to vote for whomever they want, even one of the six federal judges in America ever to be removed by Congress.
It takes a major crisis for a lame duck president, especially one whose popularity is as low as George W. Bush's, to take center stage during a hard-fought presidential campaign.
First Dude. That's what they call him in Alaska. It's OK. Todd's Ok. Whatever. He smiles at Greta Van Susteren. Not a touch of noblesse. More like plan old politesse.
Sometimes Joe Biden, bless his good intentions, doesn't know when to stop. I won't recount past instances of this -- I'll leave that to the RNC -- but the most recent is a painful example of what happens when a short answer will do and you give a long-winded one instead.
Poor Oprah. Of course, Oprah is not poor by anyone's definition (we should all be so poor), but she found herself between a rock and a hard place on the question of whether to invite the newest, and right now probably the biggest, celebrity in the world on her show. To do Sarah or not to do Sarah? No good answer.
He hit it this week. The big 5-0. No, I'm not referring to the age -- an age that, whatever anyone says, is not the new 30. It's still 50. It's something no one I know looks forward to unless they are ill and afraid they won't make it that far.
Hillary gave a great speech. Bill gave a great speech. Barack gave a really great speech. That's what everyone is saying, and who am I to disagree? Of course, I've never been to a convention, Republican or Democratic, where everybody didn't say on Thursday night that it was a really great speech. Truth is, I can barely remember most of them.
All last week there were rumors that he would not make it to Denver at all. Then on Monday there were rumors that he was in a Denver hospital receiving oxygen, and that at best he would be in a box at Pepsi Center, watching the tribute and waving to the crowd. He'll never make it to the podium, more than one person told me.
Political courage is not about standing up for what's easy and popular with the people who elect you. It's about standing up for what you believe in.
You can blame John Edwards for a lot of things, but the last thing anyone should be blaming him for is the nomination of Barack Obama.
The knives are out for my friend Bill Clinton. Again.
What does Barack Obama have to do with Britney Spears and Paris Hilton? Absolutely nothing, as far as I can tell. A mentally unstable party girl and an heiress/party girl? Did I miss the part where Obama's father was a hotel magnate, where he couldn't be trusted to take care of his children, where he literally partied till he dropped?
When my father died, so many years ago, my heart was broken. And then it got broken again. In the hours and days after his death, I was comforted by family and friends. But I couldn't help but notice who was missing, people I cared about, people I thought cared about me, who didn't call, didn't come, weren't there. Later, much later, I asked a few of those people why: Where had they been? Why didn't they come? And the answer was always the same.
Should John McCain have to "defend" his military record? Of course not. But the fact that he served in the military, with distinction, does not mean he's qualified to be president.
