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As the Democratic and Republican Conventions have begun, most Americans are going to get political overload as they are inundated with a media blitz by the U.S. presidential candidates and the inane trivialities of our media-driven political process. Since I don’t watch television, I am somewhat immune to most of what goes on. [...]

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I can certainly be a bit glum about the decline of America. This financial crisis is the metaphor for the decline of America. Yet, as we get ready for yet another media blitz — the Democratic convention for Barack Obama and his newly anointed running mate Joe Biden — a story in today’s Economist [...]

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Just hours after Barack Obama picked Joe Biden for his running in the U.S. presidential elections (more on that soon), I got a hilarious spam e-mail with a subject line that really tempted me to open it:
McCain picks Paris Hilton as running mate
Spammer ingenuity.

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Voters in America are concrete, specific, and focused on the here and now by a margin of 3 to 1. To me, this has a real impact on the outcome of primary and Presidential races as candidates must speak in a way that resonates with those voters. But, there are other important ways [...]

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This has to be staged. And where the heck is this pic from? I got it from the Daily Kos.

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Ben Smith has a good column on McCain’s bellicose response to Russia’s invasion of Georgia. Even George W. Bush has shown more statesmanship here.
‘Invasion of Georgia’—a ‘3 a.m. moment’
When the North Caucasus slid into war Thursday night, it presented Senators John McCain and Barack Obama with a true “3 a.m. moment,” and their responses [...]

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I am sufficiently concerned about John McCain and his foreign policy creds to write a blurb about his anti-Russia rhetoric and its likely effect now that Russia is on a rampage in Georgia.

My colleague Lisa Lerer, traveling with McCain, sends over his tough comments on the escalation in Georgia:
In a statement at the Des [...]

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This may be the scurrilous and disreputable Fox News, but it is still funny.

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On the eve of Barack Obama’s historic speech in Germany, Handelsblatt, the German equivalent of the Wall Street Journal, is reporting that American expats have a newfound pride after almost eight years of shame during the Bush presidency. The paper describes a ‘euphoria’ which has landed in Europe with Barack Obama
The subtext of the article [...]

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Clive Crook at the Financial Times has a good look at why the polls in July are virtually meaningless for elections in November. I find his argument compelling.

One cannot help but be struck by the current disconnection in U.S. presidential politics between, on one hand, the excitement and enthusiasm that attend Barack [...]