About.com's Election Blog: Talking Change

By LaToya Irby Susan, I admire your enthusiasm, but I have to say, I am not as excited as you about McCain’s pick. I tend to agree more with Andrew in ... Read More

By Lahle Wolfe Susan, I respectfully take exception with two statements you made: …”Others say that she won’t make any headway with Hillary’s supporters and I think they’re dead right ... Read More

By Andrew Collins I'm unconvinced John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin was genuinely his choice at all. I've grudgingly respected McCain over the years, even while often disagreeing with him. He's ... Read More

By Susan Heathfield Okay, I’m pumped and doing the happy dance today after spending one of the longer mornings I can remember. I was awaiting Sen. John McCain’s decision about his ... Read More

By Steve Cave I think Obama has a very solid shot at this! He’s a smooth candidate. Everything about the Democratic Convention looked highly polished and well thought out. ... Read More

By Lahle Wolfe McCain held off announcing his running mate until today which was certainly a tactic to try and distract newshounds from focusing too heavily on last night’s inspiring speech ... Read More

By LaToya Irby Susan, I echo many of your sentiments about the Democratic National Convention. All of the speakers have done an impeccable job, but I must say Michelle Obama was ... Read More

By Susan Heathfield My God, Sen. Barack Obama’s good. He could win. How scary. Watching the Democratic National Convention is an eerie experience since I’ve never watched it before. Here are ... Read More

By Lahle Wolfe One of the things I always bear in mind is that the media exists to sell advertising. How information is presented is almost always slanted to favor ... Read More

By Susan Heathfield If Sen. Barack Obama is elected, it looks like former terrorists, felons, Communists, and ministers who are derogatory about America will be among those staying in the Lincoln ... Read More

By Andrew Collins In Steve's words: "Plus, Biden seems to like to say stuff. Crazy stuff." Ha, yes. That's certainly his reputation. Joe Biden's been known to fire off some, eh, ... Read More

By Steve Cave I’m sure that over the next several weeks, we’ll all hear a lot about Joe Biden, and his past. There’s a lot of it to criticize – ... Read More

By Lahle Wolfe Andrew is right: We elect more than just a president. As he points out we get stuck with, “influential advisors, staffers, cabinet members, and potentially meddling ... Read More

By Daniel Levisohn As a number of commentators have pointed out, the real presidential campaign starts this week. The American people will get formally introduced to Barack Obama, Joe Biden ... Read More

By Andrew Collins I'd like to address some concerns raised lately about Obama's relative political rawness. Lahle notes that, "at some point this lack of experience could cause him to either ... Read More

By Susan Heathfield In the only decision on which I’ll probably ever agree with Sen. Barack Obama,  Foxnews,  Breitbart, and About.com’s U.S.Politics, report that Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware) is Mr. Obama’s ... Read More

By Susan Heathfield Your conclusion about Sen. Barack Obama’s “comparatively deliberate, measured response to the conflict” is a conclusion I don’t share,  Andrew. By many accounts, it took Mr. Obama two days ... Read More

By Steve Cave No one is talking about keeping our troops in Iraq for the next 100 years. What McCain wants is to actually finish the job that we've started ... Read More

By LaToya Irby Lahle says of Obama, “[Y]ou cannot win an election based on ‘good will.’” Yes you can, especially when you’re up against someone who is determined to have the ... Read More

By Lahle Wolfe Andrew stated, “The Russia-Georgia conflict is not the Cuban Missile Crisis redux, and - except in times of truly dire crisis - our present relations with Russia (and ... Read More

By Andrew Collins I'm pretty skeptical about the degree to which the situation in Georgia will shift the election emphasis from domestic to foreign policy issues. Voters tend to be self-interested. ... Read More

By Steve Cave Lahle, I think you made some very strong points. McCain does seem to charge in, guns-a-blazin'. Everywhere. That's his motif, and I don't think it's ... Read More

By Lahle Wolfe Lacking experience is not a desirable trait in any president, but neither is hypocrisy and unpredictability. McCain’s public positions, on many issues of foreign policy, directly conflict ... Read More

By LaToya Irby The War in Iraq and the economy have topped the public’s list of concerns for this election, but the breakout of violence in (The Republic of) Georgia has ... Read More

By Daniel Levisohn I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m aghast at how quickly the world can change. A week ago, I expected to watch the Olympics and ... Read More

Oh, I think it's perfectly safe to count out the Clintons for this election, Susan, although I'm sure it's good fun for Jonah Goldberg and other rightwing commentators to daydream ... Read More

Steve, you posted the post I was thinking about posting. Who does care what actors think about causes and political races? I don’t, but the country, as a whole, must ... Read More

Wow, Lahle, McCain sure does have a way with words, doesn’t he? If he wants to know why the population isn’t so star struck with him, he needn’t look any ... Read More

Andrew, I agree McCain's ads are counter productive in this particular election. While it is historically true that Republicans tend to launch Nickelodeon-style slime attacks on their Democratic opposition ... Read More

You may be right, Steve, in that many voters don't want their elected officials to look or behave like rock stars. But I still believe McCain's ad works against him ... Read More

While it sounds like a lot of us think that McCain's add was a waste of time or just flat out wrong, I bet it will work. A lot ... Read More

LaToya, I agree with you that McCain’s attempt to mock Obama’s popularity is at best, a feeble attempt to discredit a viable and qualified candidate by calling him (gasp), a ... Read More

You’re right, Steve, McCain is definitely behind when it comes to political celebrity status. McCain realizes it and so does his campaign, which explains why they put out this Barack Obama/Paris ... Read More

Susan, I think you're on to something there. America loves celebrities, and without some kind of celebrity status, you won't get heard. It goes even further sometimes. Why do ... Read More

Well Daniel, we agree that celebrity status plays a role. But, a politician’s celebrity status says more about his or her ability to get elected than it says about their ... Read More

Hello Everyone! Welcome to the first day of the first week of Talking Change, About.com’s group blog devoted to the 2008 election. I’m excited to be moderating this blog and ... Read More

“This is, indeed, a change election. No matter who wins this election, the direction of this country is going to change dramatically. But, the choice is between the right change ... Read More