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WASHINGTON - Throughout Donald Trump’s campaign for the presidency, he repeatedly promised to build a high, impenetrable, concrete wall along America’s nearly 2,000-mile border with Mexico. And he further promised that it wouldn’t cost American taxpayers one red cent, saying he would make Mexico pay for it. “Who’s going to pay for the wall?,” he asked legions of supporters at his campaign rallies, who yelled back in unison: “Mexico!” How could a U.S. president force Mexico — a sovereign nation and a major trading partner — to pay for it? Trump didn’t say, and his supporters didn’t ask, even though...

WASHINGTON - Political apprentice Donald Trump is attempting to do something no candidate has done before: win a presidential election by subtraction not addition. It is, of course, an upside down, nonsensical campaign strategy, led by the mad Hatter candidate himself,that only Lewis Carroll could love. His strategy is to attack, offend, bully, anger and insult as many minority voting blocs as he can. This includes large numbers of mainstream voters, i.e., women, offended by Trump's habit of using schoolyard names against them (like "fat pig"). Driving voters into the open arms of Queen Hillary herself. He began by defining...

The polarizing racial and legal debate over George Zimmerman's acquittal in the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in Florida has been turned into a national political issue that's not going away anytime soon. President Obama's made sure of that in his public plea to the nation Friday to "do some soul-searching" over what led to the killing of this 17-year-old and whether we can "learn some lessons from this and move in a positive direction." I've been one of Obama's persistent policy critics from the beginning of his presidency. But I have to say I found his measured,...

The moral and ethical debate about removing Terri Schiavo's feeding tube was temporarily suspended last week by the death of John Paul II, who fought for the sanctity of life throughout his papacy. No one could miss the paradox of the pope struggling for life with the help of breathing and feeding tubes, as millions prayed for his recovery, while polls found a majority of Americans believed Terri Schiavo's husband made the right decision to end her life. Mrs. Schiavo died of starvation a week ago yesterday at a Florida hospice at the age of 41, after her husband and...

<p>An odd thing is happening to Democrats as we near the 2004 elections: Some now support more conservative positions on guns and abortion — two of the most contentious social issues of our time.</p> <p>Last month, Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, up for re-election next November, and nine other Democrats backed a Republican bill protecting gun manufacturers, dealers and ammunition-makers from liability lawsuits — blocking gun-control activists and trial lawyers suing the firearm industry for any deaths and injuries caused by guns. "The vast majority of gun owners, manufacturers and sellers are honest and law-abiding," Mr. Daschle said. "It is wrong, and it is a misuse of the civil justice system, to try to punish honest, law-abiding people for illegal acts committed by others without their knowledge or involvement."</p>

<p>Some leading Democrats are moving to stake out more conservative positions on gun rights, reconnecting with "people of faith," and even voting to ban partial-birth abortion as the 2004 election approaches.</p> <p>Polls have shown that liberal positions on social issues have cost Democrats elections in the past decade, and strategists are urging Democrats to stake out positions in the political center.</p>

<p>Some leading Democrats are moving to stake out more conservative positions on gun rights, reconnecting with "people of faith," and even voting to ban partial-birth abortion as the 2004 election approaches.</p> <p>Polls have shown that liberal positions on social issues have cost Democrats elections in the past decade, and strategists are urging Democrats to stake out positions in the political center.</p>

<p>Former first lady Barbara Bush offered a tart-tongued analysis this week of the Democratic candidates who want her son's job.</p> <p>"So far, they are a pretty sorry group, if you want my opinion," Mrs. Bush said in an interview with NBC's "Today" show. The way I see it, never have 13 words said so much about so few who offer so little.</p>

<p>Former President Bill Clinton says that the Democratic presidential candidates cannot win the White House if voters think they are too far to the left, according to an interview published this week.</p> <p>"We can't win if people think we're too liberal. But we can't get our own folks out if people think we have no convictions. So the trick is to get them both," Mr. Clinton told the American Prospect, a monthly magazine devoted to political liberalism.</p>

<p>President Bush's job approval numbers are climbing again, reflecting the U.S. economy's welcome recovery from a three-year slump.</p> <p>Last week's Gallup Poll showed that 55 percent of Americans approved of the overall job the president was doing &#8212; an impressive 5-point jump since Gallup's last survey between Sept. 19 and Sept. 21.</p>

<p>President Bush's overall job approval ratings have begun climbing back into the mid-50s as the U.S. economy continues to show increasing signs of recovery and growth.</p> <p>Mr. Bush's job-approval score rose last week to 55 percent, five points higher than an earlier national survey conducted between Sept. 19-21, according to the Gallup Poll.</p>

SnipThe $87 billion that President Bush wants isn't the critical number in the bitter debate over how much more we need to spend on Iraq.     The real number: the nearly 3,000 people killed on September 11, 2001, at the hands of terrorists, and the American lives at stake in the years ahead.     This number is the only criterion in deciding how much money is spent to ensure Iraq becomes a strong democratic ally of the United States in the war against terrorism. This would be an ally that could help prevent the next attack that our own intelligence community says...

<p>Wesley Clark may be leading the Democratic presidential pack in the national polls, but he is far behind the front-runners in the crucial early state races that will heavily influence, if not decide, who will become the party's nominee.</p> <p>With behind-the-scenes support from former President Clinton, the retired four-star general from Little Rock, Ark., who was supreme commander of NATO forces, catapulted into the lead in the national polls right after he announced his candidacy last month and has held that position ever since. Three weeks after he entered the contest, he is still drawing 22 percent in the national Gallup Poll &#8212; outdistancing his four top rivals who have been campaigning for more than a year.</p>

<p>Jubilant Republican strategists said yesterday that Arnold Schwarzenegger's election to the California governorship has given their party a huge boost going into the 2004 elections and will force Democrats to spend more to hold on to the state.</p> <p>White House and Republican Party officials said Mr. Schwarzenegger's victory in the heavily Democratic state was a successful political pre-election test of President Bush's core campaign agenda of lower taxes, a more robust business climate and faster job creation. The agenda attracted surprisingly strong support from the Democrats' core political base, with blacks, Hispanics and labor union members voting in large numbers to oust Gov. Gray Davis and replace him with the Republican movie star.</p>

<p>This week's campaign debate is all about the Iraq war, the economy, tax cuts and the CIA leak, but there are plenty of reasons to think that none of them will hurt President Bush's re-election chances.</p> <p>This is not to say Mr. Bush has been roughed up pretty badly by his Democratic critics and the national news media in the last few months for his handling of the postwar situation in Iraq and its costs, the 6.1 percent jobless rate, the rising deficit and the Justice Department investigation into who outed a CIA agent married to one of the president's severest critics on Iraq.</p>

<p>Arnold Schwarzenegger's victory in the California gubernatorial-recall election bolsters President Bush's re-election prospects in a Democratic state the White House feared was unwinnable but now sees as a competitive battleground in 2004.</p> <p>Republican Party strategists said last night that the overwhelming vote to oust Democratic Gov. Gray Davis and the stronger-than-expected vote for the movie-star action hero — now a rising star in the party — will dramatically change the political climate in a state that is the biggest electoral prize in presidential elections.</p>

<p>They're on the brink of losing the California governorship. The economy, their strongest issue against President Bush, appears to be recovering. And their sudden front-runner for the presidential nomination is a general who admired Nixon and Reagan — and appears in no hurry to register as a Democrat.</p>

National Security & Defense   Many Victories in the War on Terrorism Remembering Why We Fight by Donald LambroPosted Sep 16, 2003Despite some impressive victories in our war on terror since Sept. 11, 2001, the fast pace of events seems to have swept them by in a blur, with much of their significance lost in the chaos of a global offensive. As we pass the second anniversary of the attacks, it's important to reflect on what has been accomplished since 3,000 American civilians were forever silenced and our collective sense of safety and invincibility was shattered. To believe President Bush's...

Retired Gen. Wesley Clark immediately would become one of the top five candidates for the Democratic nomination if he enters the presidential race, according to the latest Gallup Poll. As Gen. Clark prepares to announce his decision sometime this week about whether he will get into the contest, a national survey of nearly 500 Democrats for USA Today and CNN found that the former commander of NATO forces in Europe could take away nearly 10 percent of the vote from his potential rivals.

<p>Yesterday's anniversary of the attack on America is a painful reminder of the deadly stakes in the war on terrorism and why national security will be a pivotal issue in next year's presidential election, campaign strategists say.</p> <p>The political reverberations from the nation's solemn observances remain a highly sensitive subject for President Bush's campaign and Republican Party officials &#8212; who refuse to discuss any campaign implications of the September 11 anniversary, on or off the record.</p>