McCain closing gap with Romney  —  In N.H. poll, Obama inches ahead of Clinton  —  Senator John McCain of Arizona, whose bid for the Republican presidential nomination was all but dead this summer, has made a dramatic recovery in the Granite State 2 1/2 weeks before the 2008 vote …

Times Democratic caucus endorsement: Hillary Clinton passes the test  —  Hillary Clinton passes test after test after test.  This Clinton arrived for the caucus campaign with much, much more experience than the first Clinton to stump across Iowa.  In campaign speeches and in an interview …

Dec. 23: Ron Paul  —  MR. TIM RUSSERT: Our issues this Sunday: Our Meet the Candidates 2008 series continues, an exclusive interview with Republican Ron Paul.  He has served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 18 years.  In 1988 he was the Libertarian Party candidate for president.

Obama continues attacks on Edwards for third-party ads  —  WEST DES MOINES, Iowa (CNN) — Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama continued his attacks on rival John Edwards for alleged ties to 527 groups airing ads on his behalf.  Obama said his opponent's inability …

Rudy Giuliani comments on the outrage of NYC Firefighters: “radio malfunctions”  —  Rudy will be dogged by the firefighters until the race is over and he should be.  Check out his response to some of their major problems with Rudy on ABC's THIS WEEK which include his handling of their radios …

SUNNI AWAKENING UPDATE....I've mentioned a few times before that our “bottoms up” strategy of supporting Sunni tribes in the provinces surrounding Baghdad carries a number of risks.  The biggest risk, I suppose, is that once the tribes finally feel safe from the threat of al-Qaeda in Iraq …

In Britain, A Respected, If Rowdy, Holiday Ritual  —  LONDON — Just before midnight, the well-dressed, 25-year-old financial trader arrived by ambulance at the makeshift hospital tent pitched at a train station in central London.  Blood oozed from his scalp, staining his elegant pink-striped shirt.

William “The Bloody” Makes His New Year's Predictions  —  Somebody has been hitting the eggnog really hard.  William “The Bloody” Kristol makes his predictions for the coming year.  They would be scary if they weren't just so completely ridiculous, but at least Kristol is continuing his habit of being completely and utterly wrong.

How the Queen got well connected  —  In a bid to appeal to the internet generation, the royals launch their own YouTube channel  —  The Queen has taken a bold stride into cyberspace by launching her own channel on the video-sharing website YouTube.  The Royal Channel launches today …

The abject failure of liberalism  —  I know this is the time of year where we're supposed to show “good will” towards others in the spirit of the holiday season, but I'm not feeling especially charitable towards the left these days.  Christmas is 2 days away.  I'll leave the left alone on that day and that day only.