McCain Meltdown  —  John McCain said this today in Rochester, New Hampshire: … This is the ninth presidential campaign I've covered.  I can't remember a more scurrilous statement by a major party candidate.  It smacks of desperation.  It renews questions about whether McCain has the right temperament for the presidency.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS CAUGHT WITH MISTRESS AND LOVE CHILD!  —  Vice Presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards was caught visiting his mistress and secret love child at 2:40 this morning in a Los Angeles hotel by the NATIONAL ENQUIRER.  —  The married ex-senator from North Carolina …

Mr. Obama in Iraq  —  THE INITIAL MEDIA coverage of Barack Obama's visit to Iraq suggested that the Democratic candidate found agreement with his plan to withdraw all U.S. combat forces on a 16-month timetable.  So it seems worthwhile to point out that, by Mr. Obama's own account …

“Wall Street Got Drunk”: ‘Banned’ Bush Video Surfaces  —  An ABC-TV outlet in Houston, and now the Houston Chronicle, have posted a video taken at a political fundraiser for Pete Olson, featuring George W. Bush last week — capturing some embarrassing/revealing moments after, he noted, he had asked cameras to be turned off.

Obama Campaign Prints German-language Flyers for Berlin Rally  —  This is pretty extraordinary.  A candidate for the American Presidency is using flyers printed in German to turn people out for his campaign rally in Berlin on Thursday.  This flyer can be found on a bilingual page on BarackObama.com advertising the event:

VIDEO BUMBLING OBAMA: “RECOGNIZING THE DIFFICULTIES OF THE PALESTINIAN PEOPLE”  —  Difficulties??? — like securing enough sweets to welcome home a child brain basher?  Difficulties getting past checkpoints to blow up and murder Jews?  —  I have loaded the speech in three parts.

The Fannie Mae Gang  —  Angelo Mozilo was in one of his Napoleonic moods.  It was October 2003, and the CEO of Countrywide Financial was berating me for The Wall Street Journal's editorials raising doubts about the accounting of Fannie Mae.  I had just been introduced to him by Franklin Raines …

HALPERIN'S TAKE: What John McCain Needs to Win  —  What McCain needs to win:  —  Stuff he can't control:  —For Obama to make a substantive mistake on his overseas trip that changes the vector direction of the coverage — especially while he is in Israel.

Stop the presses!  It's official: Young Johnny McCranky has his head wedged so far up his butt, we can barely see his lying lips flapping  —  A friend reports that Young Johnny, speaking live on MSNBC, just said, “The oil executives say that we could see the benefit of offshore drilling in just a couple years.”

Obama Meets Israeli and Palestinian Leaders  —  JERUSALEM — Senator Barack Obama opened a day of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on Wednesday, sharing breakfast with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak before traveling to the West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.