Conservative Christian leader James Dobson has softened his stance against Republican presidential hopeful John McCain, saying he could reverse his position and endorse the Arizona senator despite serious misgivings. "I never thought I would hear myself saying this," Dobson said in a radio broadcast to air Monday. "... While I am not endorsing Senator John McCain, the possibility is there that I might." [Read More.]

A U.S. Embassy official said Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama arrived in Iraq on Monday where he will meet with commanders and troops in a war he has long opposed. Obama was expected to meet Gen. David Petraeus as well as Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki while in the country, although aides provided few details, citing security concerns. [Read More.]

Barack Obama kicked off his overseas trip this week with a visit to Camp Arifjan in Kuwait before heading to Afghanistan to meet with U.S. troops and Afghan officials. Here are photos and video from Obama's first two stops: [Read More.]

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama started a campaign-season tour of combat zones and foreign capitals, visiting with U.S. forces in Kuwait and then Afghanistan — the scene of a war he says deserves more attention and more troops. [Read More.]

President Bush and Iraq's prime minister have agreed to set a "general time horizon" for bringing more U.S. troops home from the war, a dramatic shift from the administration's once-ironclad unwillingness to talk about any kind of deadline or timetable. The announcement Friday put Bush in the position of offering to talk with Iraqi leaders about a politically charged issue that he adamantly has refused to discuss with the Democratic-led Congress at home. [Read More.]

Republican John McCain launched a new television ad Friday that accuses presidential rival Barack Obama of switching positions on Iraq "to help himself become president" just as the Democratic candidate prepared to make a high profile trip to Baghdad. McCain's sharply worded criticism was not limited to the ad. He said Friday that Obama would be facing a far less secure Iraq "if we had done what he wanted to do." [Read More.]

Sen. Barack Obama 's trip to the Middle East and Europe marks his first high-profile step onto the international stage, a campaign-season audition of sorts for a presidential hopeful pledging a new era in diplomacy and an end to the U.S. combat role in Iraq. "The stakes are very high for Obama," said Lee Hamilton, president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and a supporter of the Illinois Democrat. While Obama currently leads in the polls, "foreign policy is one area where they (voters) have their doubts" about him, Hamilton said. [Read More.]

Two months after issuing its landmark "gay marriage" decision, the California Supreme Court handed conservatives a victory July 16, allowing a proposed constitutional marriage amendment to stay on the November ballot. Without comment the justices denied to hear a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and other liberal and homosexual activist groups that sought to prevent the initiative -- which easily qualified for the ballot with 1.1 million submitted signatures -- from going before voters. [Read More.]

The Senate voted Wednesday to triple spending for a much-acclaimed program that has treated and protected millions in Africa and elsewhere from the scourges of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The 80-16 vote committed the United States to spending up to $48 billion over the next five years for the most ambitious foreign public health program ever launched by the United States. [Read More.]

The Rev. Jesse Jackson used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized presidential candidate Barack Obama, Fox News confirmed Wednesday. The longtime civil rights leader already came under fire this month for crude off-air comments he made against Obama in what he thought was a private conversation during a taping of a "Fox & Friends" news show. [Read More.]

After months of being transfixed by empty slogans, supporters of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama are finally listening and many do not like what they are hearing. Critics have charged him with flip flopping on a number of issues most significantly his stance on the war in Iraq. During this campaign, Obama has been adamant that as president he would "set the mission" to end the war and bring the troops home in 16 months. In what no less an authority than the liberal paper of record, the New York Times identified as a flip (or a flop depending on one's inclination)Obama now says he will consult with his generals in order to refine his promise to quickly remove troops. [Read More.]

Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable have agreed to purge their servers of Internet bulletin boards and Web sites nationwide that disseminate child pornography. The move is part of a groundbreaking agreement with the New York attorney general, Andrew M. Cuomo, that will be formally announced on Tuesday as a significant step by leading companies to curtail access to child pornography. Many in the industry have previously resisted similar efforts, saying they could not be responsible for content online, given the decentralized and largely unmonitored nature of the Internet. [Read More.]

Republican John McCain told The New York Times in an interview published July 13 he opposes adoption by homosexual couples and believes children need a mother and a father. In a wide-ranging interview that covered everything from his faith to his beliefs on the teaching of evolution in public schools, the presumptive GOP nominee was asked whether he agreed with President Bush's opposition to homosexual adoption. [Read More.]

A satirical New Yorker magazine cover cartoon depicting Barack Obama and his wife as flag-burning, fist-bumping radicals drew outrage from the Democratic presidential candidate's campaign as it appeared on newsstands Monday. The illustration, titled "The Politics of Fear and drawn by Barry Blitt, depicts Obama wearing traditional Muslim clothing - sandals, robe and turban - while his wife, Michelle, has an assault rifle slung over one shoulder and is dressed in camouflage and combat boots with her hair in an Afro. [Read More.]

Who knows if they'll get this in Dubuque, but they sure aren't going to like it in Chicago: This week's New Yorker cover features an image of Michelle and Barack Obama that combines every smeary right-wing stereotype imaginable: An image of Obama in a turban and robes fist-bumping his be-afro'd wife, dressed in the military fatigues of a revolutionary and packing a machine gun and some serious ammo. Oh yes, this quaint little scene takes place in the Oval Office, under a picture of Osama bin Laden above a roaring fireplace, in which burns an American flag. All that's missing is a token sprig of arugula. [Read More.]

Pro-life Congress members gathered on the House floor this past week to take a stand against what they said was a senseless waste of taxpayer’s dollars that has been propping up the nation’s largest provider of surgical abortions – Planned Parenthood. [Read More.]

Barack Obama discussed Jesse Jackson for the first time since the Reverend was overheard saying crude remarks about Senator Obama on an open mic. The presumptive Democratic nominee told reporters on a four hour flight from Chicago to San Diego late Saturday night that the two did speak just prior to the incident. “We had actually discussed some of the concerns he had raised about my fatherhood speech,” Obama shared. [Read More.]

When it comes to getting a good education, apparently, there's no place like home. When homeschooling first came into prominence in the late 1980’s many viewed it with skepticism, but it has proved itself over and over the past two decades. Whether the average homeschooled student is getting as good an education as the average public school student is no longer a question. The verdict is in. The results of numerous studies show the average homeschooler is receiving a better education than the average public or private school student. [Read More.]

Like eager but awkward suitors, Barack Obama and John McCain are working hard and sometimes fumbling in their efforts to court Hispanic voters who could swing November's presidential election. For the African-American Obama and white Anglo McCain, the problem is less one of language than of trying to understand a group whose own diversity can make it a mystery to others. It's not a simple matter of saying, "Take me to your leaders." But that, in essence, is the ground game the presidential candidates and their campaigns have been playing in pitching to voters who could form decisive constituencies in critical battleground states. [Read More.]

Barack Obama mourned the death of nine U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan on Sunday, even as he said John McCain's numerous visits to the region don't leave the Republican better equipped to deal with its volatility as president. Preparing to embark on only his second visit to Iraq, as well as his first to Afghanistan, the Democrat told reporters: "I will recall the visit he made last year in which he was surrounded by helicopters and SWAT teams and he came back and reported how safe everything was in Baghdad. And I don't think that that was indicative of what was actually happening on the ground at that time." [Read More.]

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama shrugged off a crude comment aimed at him by the Rev. Jesse Jackson, accepting an apology for a remark Jackson made as he contended that Obama wasn't speaking to issues important to the black community. Unaware that his microphone was on during a break for a Fox News program last Sunday, Jackson used a slang reference to wanting to cut off Obama's testicles. [Read More.]

Armed with newly obtained text messages, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is poised to accuse Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick of cheating on his wife with multiple women in an expansion of the perjury case against him, Worthy’s office confirmed Monday. The decision, mentioned briefly in a court hearing last Thursday, suggests that Worthy is prepared to aggressively rebut a campaign by defense attorneys to discredit text message evidence compiled against the mayor. [Read More.]

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and Dr. James Dobson (of "Focus On The Family") must be in a conspiracy to get Senator Obama elected. With enemies like these Obama doesn't need friends. Obama is fortunate. Nothing will calm America's fears about voting for him more than the fact that the national village idiots are lining up to attack him. There is a strange symmetry between the whispered insults directed at Senator Obama by the Rev. Jesse Jackson -- caught on tape and recycled by FOX--and the public attacks made a few weeks ago by James Dobson. [Read More.]

When Specialist Jeremy Hall held a meeting last July for atheists and freethinkers at Camp Speicher in Iraq, he was excited, he said, to see an officer attending. But minutes into the talk, the officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, began to berate Specialist Hall and another soldier about atheism, Specialist Hall wrote in a sworn statement. “People like you are not holding up the Constitution and are going against what the founding fathers, who were Christians, wanted for America!” Major Welborn said, according to the statement. [Read More.]

A plainly irritated Jesse Jackson obviously didn’t mean that he would cut Obama’s n…ts off. The crude, salty street talk was simply an unguarded moment’s outburst from a frustrated Jackson at Obama’s recent political somersaults. Jackson, of course, took much deserved heat from his son Jesse Jr. and just about everyone else who has an opinion on him, his language and Obama. But what is lost in the leap to beat up on Jackson is this: Is he right to be frustrated by Obama, and is there anything new about his frustration with him? [Read More.]

It’s an interesting theory - a manliness crisis in America. Harvard professor Harvey Mansfield asserts that premise in his book entitled “Manliness.” He defines manliness as “confidence in the face of risk.”  And he believes that manliness is losing its place in a society that has moved away from placing emphasis on gender roles in favor of gender neutrality. Mansfield points to feminism as the reason. He believes feminism and our gender neutral society has essentially “hijacked” manliness. And in the words of the late comedian Rodney Danger, he believes that men “don’t get no respect” for being manly because women don’t appreciate manliness, and they don’t know what to do with it. [Read More.]

U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson complained on Tuesday that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama can seem to be "talking down to black people" at times and should broaden his message. But Jackson apologized for a crude and disparaging remark about Obama at the weekend while he was speaking into an open microphone that he thought had been turned off. [Read More.]

Michelle Obama has come in for particularly poor treatment on FOX News -- from the "terrorist fist jab" to "Obama's Baby Mama," along with scores of comments on her supposed bitterness. In a new video, Brave New Films catalogs the racism and misinformation in FOX's anti-Obama attacks. [Read More.]

Dr. William Harrison, notable for being Hillary Clinton’s former OB-GYN as well as for performing over 20,000 abortions, has admitted in recent a e-mail exchange with a prominent Christian psychologist that abortion “cancels” a human soul. “Anyone who has delivered as many babies as I have, and has seen hundreds of living and dead embryos and fetuses being spontaneously aborted as have I, knows exactly what we are doing when we provide an elective abortion for our patient. We are ending the life of an embryo or a fetus,” Harrison wrote in an e-mail to Dr. Warren Throckmorton, associate professor of Psychology at Grove City College in Pennsylvania. [Read More.]

The system for funding Social Security is "a disgrace" because it forces young workers to pay into a program that is unlikely to benefit them in its current form, Republican presidential candidate John McCain said this week, wading into politically touchy territory. Like many other politicians, McCain often questions the long-term viability of the government retirement program. But he raised eyebrows with an unusually harsh assessment Monday at a town-hall forum in Denver. [Read More.]

The Christian Defense Coalition held their anti-Obama press conference today -- "An Appeal to Catholics Regarding the 2008 Presidential Election" -- complete with the "I want you to pay for abortions" Obama-as-Uncle-Sam picture we told you about Monday as well as some other interesting material. [Read More.]

Republican presidential candidate John McCain played down reports Tuesday that Iraqi officials are increasing pressure on the United States to agree to a specific timeline to withdraw its forces. McCain said he was confident the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki would ask American troops to leave only if the military situation there warranted such a move. "I know for a fact that it will be dictated by the situation on the ground, as it always has been," McCain said. [Read More.]

Asked by a voter about accusations of flip-flopping, Democrat Barack Obama dismissed the notion Tuesday that he has shifted stances on Iraq, guns and the death penalty to break with his party's liberal wing and court a wider swath of voters.  "The people who say this haven't apparently been listening to me," the likely Democratic presidential nominee said in response to a question at a town-hall style event. [Read More.]

Barack Obama and John McCain agree on this much: The economy is staggering under the Bush administration, and Americans are hurting. But who's to blame and how best to fix it? Well, they part ways on that, as they made clear in dueling economic speeches Monday on the issue that has taken center stage in their presidential contest. Obama said that McCain offers a third term of President Bush's policies. [Read More.]

Republican presidential candidate John McCain acknowledged the steep drop in U.S. jobs and said he would help the economy by cutting taxes, encouraging free trade, building nuclear power plants and launching other initiatives. Economic problems under the Bush administration pose a major challenge to McCain and fellow Republicans running for House and Senate seats this fall. [Read More.]

Auto industry cutbacks, double-digit unemployment and one of the nation's highest home foreclosure rates have left Detroit with a dreary economic future. Now, a mayoral text-messaging sex scandal, federal investigation into a City Council-approved $47 million sludge recycling deal, and poorly run and deficit-plagued public school system have dashed inroads toward respect and reopened Detroit to outside ridicule. [Read More.]

Senator Barack Obama stirred his legions of supporters, and raised our hopes, promising to change the old order of things. He spoke with passion about breaking out of the partisan mold of bickering and catering to special pleaders, promised to end President Bush’s abuses of power and subverting of the Constitution and disowned the big-money power brokers who have corrupted Washington politics. [Read More.]

Great schools, low crime and a desirable cost of living are among the qualities that make these 20 spots fine for folks and their kids. Steve Schwartz and his wife, Lori, have spent the last 30 years running Schwartz's Bait and Tackle in Noblesville, Ind. Just 15 miles north of downtown Indianapolis, they sell fishing equipment and rent canoes to locals like Indianapolis Colts kicker Adam Vinatieri and former Formula One racer Derek Daly.  [Read More.]