Opinion - HuffingtonPost.com

In the first debate, John McCain said 'pork barrel' four times; in the second debate: three times.  In the economic 'plan' on McCain's campaign website, he repeats 'pork barrel' twice.  Chances are McCain will repeat 'pork barrel' in the last debate enough times for it to be noticed, probably three times, maybe four.  Somebody should tell McCain that his tactic will not work.  While McCain talks 'pork' in the debates, voters caught in the crash of 2008 are pounding their fists on the table while shouting, 'Bush!' 

With all the attention showered on evangelical Christians and Catholics, we've neglected the religious group partly driving Barack Obama's recent surge in the polls: mainline Protestants.

"Raymond, why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?"

Even though I worked at the Securities and Exchange Commission for a number of years, trying to explain things like derivatives was never my strong suit. I got the whole concept of futures trading when I took my Agricultural Law class in law school (my farmer dad was VERY proud when I aced that puppy!), so I had an inkling about what they were, but, fortunately, I was never called on to actually explain the intricacies of how they work.

OK, if you haven't heard about this listen up. Christopher Buckley, son of William F. Buckley, the Godfather of modern American conservatism, just announced his support for Barack Obama.

Stop me if you've heard this before: "They" didn't let John McCain pick Joe Lieberman as his running mate.

photo credit: xkcd.com Katie Green has a spectacular rack. Everyone agrees. At least enough people voted her -- and her 30F's (no that's not a typo - can you imagine?) -- to be the winner of Wonderbra's "Real Women" campaign. At first Green was "completely bowled over" by the news that she had been picked by her British countrymen (and women?) despite her "curvy size 12" frame (that's a size 8 US). But it didn't take long for reality to sink in. No, not the reality of posing in her skivvies on thousands of billboards and in international print ads. But the reality of her "weight problem." Despite being picked for her, ahem, size, Green was quickly informed by her modelling agency -- the one recommended by Wonderbra -- that she need to lose "two stone" (28 pounds) because the average size for models was a UK size 8-10 (a US size 4-6). The agency justified their stance by saying, "We advised Katie that commercial and lingerie models need to be an average size 10 as is requested by the market sector she wanted to model for. This is a healthy size that can be achieved through exercise and good nutrition."

I rarely watch TV news or political talk shows, but last week when I heard that my 7 and 10 year old daughters were singing on Fox News, The View, and the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, I tuned in. I also checked out the Fox News blog, the Drudge Report and the O'Reilly Factor -- my first time ever on those websites -- and there they were again.

The modern publishing business has been in existence since about 1800, but things are not looking so rosy in the ink-stained world. The publishing business is scared: if stagnating book sales and the creeping digital shakeup were not enough, the market meltdown has many tightening their belts while trying to figure out the future.

Russell Simmons:

A friend of mine just returned from a trip to Michigan. She reported to me that, in the Lansing area, McCain signs abounded. Michigan has a Democratic Governor, Jennifer Granholm. The City of Lansing has a Democratic mayor, Virg Bernero. But McCain's campaign apparently looms large in the city of the Oldsmobile brand.

We are down to the wire, and droves of people, perhaps amazingly to those of us who have been embroiled in this for 2 years, are starting to pay attention to the candidates. For those people, and for those who may be at the end of their patience, for Obama to bring this home, he ought to keep it simple and make the distinctions sharp.

Investors are sickened by the plunge in value of their portfolios. There is a message in the numbers. Let me tell you why you should listen to it.

Hey, "my friends," about the economy? "How about a little straight talk?" All that palaver about cutting spending, balancing the budget? Ruinous. Can't happen. We're going to have to spend a boatload of money - borrow it, deficit spending - to get this economy going. And tax cuts won't do it; we have to rebuild America. Getting this done is the next big fight that the next president will face.

Ms. Sally Pipes recently wrote an opinion piece for the New York Daily News - Celebs, Stop Taking Poisonous Shots At Vaccines - in which she wrote me off as a vacuous Hollywood type who has no right to express or share my opinion about my family's arduous journey with autism. Somehow I lack credibility because I happen to be on TV.

Who do you like next month? George Bailey or Mister Potter?

Years back, I got my first big promotion, recommended by my wildly-temperamental boss. Weeks later, he stormed into my office, spewing profanity; he wanted me fired. Though he apologized days after, I was upset but conflicted, since I owed my job to him. In my father's Midwestern good sense, he gave me advice I've remembered - "When somebody says they want you fired, you don't owe them any loyalty."

In his 1980 presidential debate with Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan famously asked the American people whether they were better off than they had been four years ago. Enough voters answered "no" to give Reagan a decisive victory in the election.

For 30 years the American economy has undergone profound changes for the worse. Throughout the Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush era there have been five main themes that have eaten away at the wellbeing of millions of working Americans:

I had intended to write this entire piece and then go back and remove the 'g' from every word that ended in one.

John McCain's campaign is in shambles. His advisers are bickering. He looks like he's finished. Sound familiar? It's where McCain was in the Republican primary season before he rebounded from the precipice to win the nomination. With polls pegging McCain at some 10 points behind Barack Obama, most commentators are writing him off again.

With three weeks to go and public opinion polls indicating that Barack Obama's lead is growing, pundits left and right belatedly agree that John McCain is foundering because his negative campaigning fails to address the serious issues the American people care about most.

What in the world is Barack Obama thinking? Mercifully, he plans to scale down and end the Iraq misadventure, yet he insists he will expand the effort in Afghanistan, and pursue Osama bin Laden to the ends of Tora Bora.

In seeking to explain elections, pundits present endless analysis of the policy positions of candidates and the "gotcha" moments of political back and forth.

Did you know that John McCain has proposed a real cut in spending on:

What went wrong?

Growing voter concerns over the financial crisis are closely connected to worries about health care. The latest Institute for America's Future Op Ed ad in Tuesday's NY Times links the two issues directly, with the headline: WILL WE LET CONSERVATIVES DO TO HEALTH CARE WHAT THEY DID TO BANKING? As voters feel the economy go into a tailspin, they join the millions of Americans already fearful they will lose their jobs and their health coverage.

Political candidates across this great country of ours, I ask you -- nay, I beg you: