I take back what I said about his bright future even as a Fox News star. Joe is a faux plumber! (Quel horreur!) And a tax scofflaw!  And something about Obama just happens to remind him of Sammy Davis Jr.!  And-- if true, this next thing is weirder than weird—Joe may be related by marriage to Charles Keating, star of the S ...

I'm still not worried about Joe the Plumber. For one thing, the guy's now the most famous plumber in America, and I'd say he's got a future as a Fox News star. But for another, Emily, he's fine either way: If he buys this company and it doesn't make enough to push his personal income over $250,000, then he gets no Obama tax increase, and ...

Let's stop feeling so sad for poor Joe the Plumber, who just wants his teensy little piece of the American dream. In his original comments to Obama, Joe explained that he was about to buy a company that would make profits of about $270,000 a year. If that profit bumps Joe's own income over $250,000, then he'll be making more money per year than ...

I suppose the eternal mystery of this campaign remains that the same Barack Obama who is one of the most gifted speakers and writers of our lifetimes can manage to be such a bland, wonky, tentative debater. My own sense is that after watching John McCain careening around the country all week on the express train to Crazyville, bland and wonky ...

Usually, it’s the process questions that produce sparks at debates. Networks rely on questions about flag pins, VP picks, and radical hippie friends, because they reveal differences in character rather than policy. So in a primary like this one, where there aren’t many discernible policy differences (besides social security payroll taxes, ...

It's interesting that you're focusing on Obama and I on Clinton. But if she does have superior positions and intellectual firepower, plus near-universal name recognition and every institutional advantage in the world, doesn't that make her inability to sell this Aston Martin of a candidacy even worse? What an indictment of her ...

Have you no shame, Madam, in your shocking refusal to see things exactly as I do? Nah—but tone and temperament do matter, not only in winning elections but in working with Congress, moving public opinion, and negotiating with our allies and adversaries around the world. I just didn't hear Hillary's answers the same way you did, Hanna; treating ...

On the campaign trail, Chelsea Clinton compares her mom to Margaret Thatcher. But can you imagine Thatcher whimpering that it seemed like she always had to go first in debates, and that just wasn't fair? One thinks not, and I was surprised when Hillary Clinton did so last night. In so enthusiastically casting herself as the injured party, she ...

Take a deep breath—all of the Democratic debates are over; 20 up, 20 down, and assuming there aren't any more debates going forward, that's the last time we'll see Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the same room for a while. Strangely, that’s both a relief and a disappointment. Outside of actual primaries, no other event offered more potential ...

Hard to believe, but it’s been three weeks since we huddled around the TV to watch Barack, Hillary, and Wolf chitchat on a garishly blue and red stage. This is the 19th debate, so if you’re having trouble motivating yourself to watch, it’s understandable. (Especially considering Lost starts smack-dab in the middle of it for the second debate in a ...