John Mccain

Race has bedeviled this country from the start, when the Founding Fathers ducked the slavery issue for fear of killing the nation in its cradle. Obviously, much has changed. For one thing, Americans are seriously weighing the prospect of elevating a black man to the White House in November. But as this past week's debate over "the race card" illustrates, there is still no subject in American politics as fraught as the color of a candidate's skin.

Sen. John McCain added an unusual twist to his emerging energy agenda Monday, promising to award a $300-million prize to the inventor of a next-generation battery that could power electric vehicles. The prize amount is small relative to the billions of dollars the federal government spends on other energy industries. The Bush administration has already pledged $1.2 billion toward research on hydrogen fuel cells, a technology that proponents say is 10 or more years from viability.

The lobbying firm of John McCain's campaign manager was paid $15,000 a month for several years until last month by one of two housing companies taken over by the federal government, a person familiar with the financial arrangement said Tuesday night. That money from Freddie Mac to Rick Davis' firm was on top of more than $30,000 a month that went directly to Davis for five years starting in 2000.

John McCain decided Thursday to return about $50,000 in campaign contributions from California donors, after media reports questioned how a businessman with a lucrative federal defense contract raised the money. Harry Sargeant III, a prominent figure in the Florida Republican Party, has raised about $500,000 for McCain's presidential bid. The Washington Post was first to question Sargeant’s donor network.

Outside her Bel-Air home, Nancy Reagan stood arm in arm with John McCain and offered a significant -- but less than exuberant -- endorsement. "Ronnie and I always waited until everything was decided, and then we endorsed," the Republican matriarch said in March. "Well, obviously this is the nominee of the party." They were the only words she would speak during the five-minute photo op. In a written statement, she described McCain as "a good friend for over 30 years."

John McCain was training in his AD-6 Skyraider on an overcast Texas morning in 1960 when he slammed into Corpus Christi Bay and sheared the skin off his plane's wings. McCain recounted the accident decades later in his autobiography. "The engine quit while I was practicing landings," he wrote. But an investigation board at the Naval Aviation Safety Center found no evidence of engine failure.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't the only Hollywood celebrity shaping legislation in the state Capitol this past year. Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rodriguez and Sean Penn were among the A-listers who took on starring roles in crafting or promoting new laws. When state lawmakers enacted a measure cracking down on the paparazzi, Aniston played a key part in shaping the legislation. Landmark legislation to improve the state's water supply was pushed through under pressure from a group of Latino farmers led by actor and comedian Rodriguez.

If John McCain becomes president, Americans would be steered toward buying individual health insurance policies, and job-related coverage eventually could decline. If Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton wins, more people would get their insurance from the government -- with many workers offered the equivalent of Medicare and employers facing new coverage mandates. In the past, voters sometimes have complained that there was little difference between Republicans and Democrats.

Now that the presidential contest is looking ever more like a two-man race, the country can't help but marvel: John McCain, once a longshot, wouldn't lie down. Barack Obama, the new kid, charmed voters. And Hillary Rodham Clinton, an early favorite, has yet to surrender. But Arlyn J. Imberman would say clues to the nomination fight were in plain sight, every time a candidate wrote a thank-you note, inscribed a memoir or autographed a pair of boxing gloves.

Carly Fiorina is one of John McCain's chief surrogates, particularly with that key group, women. But Fiorina, ousted as chief of Hewlett-Packard in 2005, is not above rounding the edges on straight talk. On Monday, as she discussed healthcare, she veered from a discussion of Viagra -- never a good idea for a campaign surrogate -- and seemed to stake out a new stance for McCain. "Let me give you a real, live example, which I've been hearing a lot about from women.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't the only Hollywood celebrity shaping legislation in the state Capitol this past year. Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rodriguez and Sean Penn were among the A-listers who took on starring roles in crafting or promoting new laws. When state lawmakers enacted a measure cracking down on the paparazzi, Aniston played a key part in shaping the legislation. Landmark legislation to improve the state's water supply was pushed through under pressure from a group of Latino farmers led by actor and comedian Rodriguez.

Just when Barack Obama thought his toughest decisions were behind him -- his Afghanistan strategy, tackling unemployment, what to say to Tiger Woods if he calls -- now he has to draw up a Christmas gift list. What will the current "decider" decide to give this holiday season . . . to both the naughty and the nice? THE HEALTH INSURANCE INDUSTRY: The new healthcare bill (the gift that keeps on giving). BIG PHARMA: Same as above, with unlimited refills. SENATE REPUBLICANS: Membership in the Whine-of-the-Month Club.

It's an axiom in U.S. politics that the party in power in the White House loses seats in off-year elections. So every Democrat is girding for the fight in 2010. But Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told reporters last week that Democrats have a plan: Remind voters of George W. Bush. "The Republican Party in Washington today is no different than the Republican Party that ran the Congress before," he said. Republicans in New York's 23rd Congressional District race, he said, proved themselves "ideologues" when they dumped a moderate candidate for tea-party favorite Doug Hoffman.

Still not sold on McCain Re "McCain comes back, swinging," Dec. 7 John McCain opposes President Obama's plan to set withdrawal deadlines in Afghanistan. He supported former President George W. Bush's open-ended military engagement for the last eight years, and what has it gotten us? It's time to stop turning our watches back with the honorable old war horse and try something new. His way hasn't worked. Marc Gerber Encino McCain's parting line on the Senate floor last Friday -- "It's been fun" -- is chilling.

One of the great frustrations of the libertarian-minded right is how Republicans got stuck being "the party of big business." The quotation marks around the term are at least somewhat necessary because, in many respects, it's not true. The notion that big business is "right wing" has always been more sloppy agitprop than serious analysis. It's true that historically, big business is against socialism and communism -- and understandably so. Socialism and communism were once close to synonymous with expropriation of wealth and the nationalization of industry.

Soon after the Senate opened its long-awaited debate on healthcare legislation last week, John McCain strode into the chamber to spearhead his party's opposition to the massive bill. He offered Republicans' first amendment and leveled the party's most politically stinging charge -- that cuts in Medicare spending would hurt the elderly. A day later, McCain took the lead in grilling President Obama's team on its newly minted plan for the Afghanistan war. Why, McCain pressed, had the president set a deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops?

On the same day that Sarah Palin's memoir is due to be released Nov. 17, another book about the former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate is scheduled to hit bookstores: a collection that looks to be critical of the high-profile Republican, subtitled, as it is, "Sarah Palin: An American Nightmare." The book covers are strikingly similar. So, too, the titles: Palin's book is "Going Rogue," a phrase taken from her deviation from John McCain's views during the 2008 campaign.

To Trisha Bowler of Diamond Bar, a proud member of a Republican women's group, Meg Whitman's failure to vote for most of her adult life rules her out as a choice in the 2010 race for governor. "That's a big one with me," said Bowler, decked out Sunday in bejeweled, red-white-and-blue GOP regalia at the party's weekend convention in Indian Wells. The same is true of Whitman's recent turn to the Republican Party, which she joined two years ago. "I'm not thrilled with someone who just became a Republican in 2007; that doesn't sit well with me," Bowler said.

Re "Planes to nowhere?" Sept. 19 This news story is priceless. Here we have a very small town, Ely, Nev., receiving massive federal government subsidies to sustain airline services. Instead of eliminating this boondoggle, Congress has decided to increase this intrusion into the free market. I figured that the beneficiaries of such a program must have been Democrats, but imagine my shock and surprise when I did some research and discovered that White Pine County, where Ely is located, voted nearly 2 to 1 for John McCain in last year's election.

The late cultural critic Neil Postman used to pose a simple question to gauge whether a new technology was worth the investment: "What is the problem," he would ask, "to which this is the solution?" That question occurred to me last week as I contemplated the looming U.S. Senate candidacy of Carly Fiorina. The Republican, who was ousted as chairwoman and chief executive of Hewlett-Packard Co. in 2005, took a first step in that direction last week by filing tax papers for a political fundraising committee.