PostPartisan - Quick takes by The Post's opinion writers - September 14, 2008

All About Sarah, Scene 2

During the long slog to the Democratic Party nomination, folks used to joke that if Barack Obama chose Hillary Clinton as his running mate, he'd better hire a food taster. Well, after a rally in Iowa on Thursday, it...

McCain Misfires

John McCain has just demonstrated his vulnerability as a presidential candidate. Speaking from prepared remarks at an Iowa rally today, he said that he would fire Chris Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. This outburst demonstrates...

Debate Foreshadows the Debates

The first high-profile political debate since the bailout of American International Group foreshadowed what the upcoming presidential debates might sound like. Hint: Get ready for discussion about bailouts and regulation to drown out talk of “experience” and “change.” The...

The Hannity-Palin Infomercial

I watched Sean Hannity's interview with Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin last night, but prudence suggested I wait for a transcript before offering thoughts about what I thought I had just witnessed. Now, having had a chance to read foxnews.com's...

Ditch the Surrogates

I have a different reaction from Jonathan to Carly Fiorina, as much fun as she’s added to the campaign: Both candidates should declare a surrogate cease-fire. Surrogates are the loose nukes of political campaigns, except more likely to detonate....

Funny Money

The most incisive and provocative take I've read on the financial meltdown is Robert Samuelson's column today, in which he writes this stunning sentence: "What's really happened is that Wall Street's business model has collapsed." Whoa. That got my...

Carly Fiorina's Friendly Fire

Carly Fiorina has become my favorite surrogate for Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign. You never know what's going to come out of her mouth. As Dana Millbank sketched in July, the former Hewlett-Packard chief volunteered in a discussion about...

Obama's Faulty Logic

Bill Clinton beat Papa Bush in 1992 by blaming him for economic woes, even though the downturn of that year was over by the time of the election. Now Barack Obama is hoping to blame that hyphenated adversary, Bush-McCain,...

Krauthammer, Gibson and the Bush Doctrine

Before the moment passes, I’d like to comment on Charles Krauthammer’s column about what he saw as Charlie Gibson’s “gaffe” when he questioned Sarah Palin about the Bush doctrine. You will recall the moment when Gibson asked, "Do you...

One Way to Clear the Air

John McCain owes it to the American people to clear the air of some of those ominous dark clouds hovering over the head of his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. It's within his power. The Alaska legislature is...

Seeing Is Experiencing, But Better

Okay, so I didn’t exactly go into Eye-rack in a technical sense, but I got close and I saw it and that ought to count for something. This is how I know about Russia, and it prepares me for...

Money Talks

OK, I was being a bit of a smart aleck when I sent my last blog post ("Barack's G.O.P. Problem") to a few well-placed people over in Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign. "Handwringing should be an Olympic sport in...

We Don't Want Another Agnew

Folks in the McCain camp are engaged in one giant pity party over the way in which the media are trying to scrutinize their hero, GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin. Let’s hope her defenders don’t drown in their...

Will Palin Get the Same Scrutiny Hillary Got?

So now we learn that Sarah Palin did not go to visit troops in Iraq, as the McCain-Palin campaign originally claimed, nor did she visit Ireland, as a spokesman claimed – she went through Ireland only for a refueling...

PostPartisan: September 14, 2008 - September 20, 2008