Free Republic

RALEIGH, N.C. -- A camera battery caught part of vice-presidential candidate John Edwards' plane on fire shortly after takeoff at 10 p.m. Friday... The plane was en route to Marietta, Ohio, after Edwards spent Friday evening in Raleigh at a rally that included a Jon Bon Jovi concert.

"It’s the same kind of deal that was pulled on me," Sen. John McCain snapped when he heard about a new ad from an "independent" group, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, claiming John Kerry lied about what occurred in Vietnam. McCain was referring to campaign tactics by the Bush campaign and a "527" group funded by Bush supporters against him in the 2000 campaign. McCain also came to the defense of his fellow Vietnam vet, calling the ad "dishonest and dishonorable" and asking the White House to condemn it as well. They stopped short of doing that, but said that...

George McGovern is still a Big Government liberal -- and still proud of it. Thirty-two years after being obliterated by Richard Nixon, 49 states to 1, the World War II war hero, ex-college professor and former U.S. senator of South Dakota has not moved one moderate inch off his spot on the left end of the political spectrum. At 82, McGovern is still anti-war, still trying to dethrone a Republican president, and still pushing retro-New Deal programs such as "free" Medicare for all ages. As the Democrats prepare to nominate Johns Kerry and Edwards in Boston next week, I called...

Given a moment alone with Sen. John Kerry, the president of Pittsburgh's firefighters union did what has become his No. 1 job. He asked for help in fighting city spending cuts that would put 168 of his members out of work. Friends of labor such as Kerry and union leaders across the nation are getting the call from Pittsburgh, as the cradle of the union movement once again becomes a battleground for workers. Local labor leaders frame the fight over Pittsburgh budget cuts as a struggle for organized labor's future everywhere.

I can only imagine that the post-convention theme will be just as inane. Perhaps "The Future: It's Where We're Headed"? Of course none of this Madisonian (as in Madison Avenue, Lord knows not James Madison) public relations stuff much jibes with the programs these Johns (take the reference any way that strikes your fancy) propose. Take, for instance, raising the minimum wage.