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During his town hall meeting in Maryland today on the debt crisis, President Obama found time to answer critics who think his position (and positions) have a socialist flavor. And he joked about it. “This isn’t just some wild-eyed socialist position, it’s the position being taken by people of both parties and no party,“ he said with with a smirk as the audience chuckled and after talking about ”shared sacrifice:” Obama seems well aware of his critics. For example, on radio today Glenn Beck labeled the president a “Marxist.” Less than two weeks away from a debt ceiling deadline, President...

My face time with John Kerry has been brief but choice. In 2003, I was at a campaign event in New Hampshire chatting with two old coots in plaid. The senator approached and stopped in front of us. The etiquette in primary season is that the candidate defers to the cranky Granite Stater's churlish indifference to status and initiates the conversation: "Hi, I'm John Kerry. Good to see ya. Cold enough for ya? How 'bout them Sox?" Etc. Instead, Kerry just stood there nose to nose, staring at us with an inscrutable semi-glare on his face. After an eternity, an...

MEXICO CITY - Mexico said it will sever diplomatic ties with Venezuela if that country's president doesn't apologize Monday for warning Mexican leader Vicente Fox: "Don't mess with me." Fox spokesman Ruben Aguilar said Mexico was demanding an apology because Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's comments showed a "lack of respect for the people of Mexico and the institution of our country's presidency." If an apology doesn't come by midnight Monday, Fox said he will ask for the immediate withdrawal of Venezuela's ambassador and a recall of the Mexican ambassador from that country. But Aguilar was quick to add that would...

CARSON, Calif. - John Kerry (news - web sites) said Thursday that President Bush (news - web sites)'s musing about a national sales tax is an insult to financially struggling voters and would amount to "one of the largest tax increases on the middle class in American history." The Democratic presidential nominee, during a speech at California State University, Dominguez Hills, tried to reverse partisan stereotypes by portraying the Republican president as the tax raiser and himself as a tax cutter. Kerry said if Bush wants to create a national sales tax without increasing the deficit, people will end up...

BURLINGTON, Vt. - Presidential candidate Howard Dean is berating himself for saying he wanted to break into the country club of Democratic Party insiders. The remark to Vermont reporters Monday came several days after Dean's 17-year-old son, Paul, was charged with aiding in a burglary at the Burlington Country Club. Vermont's former governor cut short a campaign swing on Friday to return home after his son was picked up by police along with a group of his friends. Dean made the country club comment Monday just before formally kicking off his campaign for the presidency. Dean was asked how he...