The Risk of Obama Rapture

This reprises an argument that Republicans deployed against Democratic nominee John Kerry in 2004. At the GOP National Convention, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani mocked Kerry's claim that he had more support from foreign leaders than Bush did. "To me," Giuliani insisted, "that raises the risk that he might well accommodate his position to their viewpoint." Vice President Cheney, charging from the opposite direction, argued that Bush's international unpopularity demonstrated his determination to stand up for America. "George W. Bush," Cheney thundered, "will never seek a permission slip to defend the American people." The bottom-line message: The more support a candidate inspires abroad, the less Americans can trust him to defend their own national interests.

Conflict of interest watch: Ron Brownstein

The personal lives of journalists are none of my business -- except when they involve the public figures whom the journalists cover. A case in point is NBC's Andrea Mitchell, who frequently comments on matters involving the Federal Reserve without disclosing that her husband is Fed chairman Alan Greenspan. It's inappropriate.

So I was dismayed to discover today that Ron Brownstein, one of the best political journalists in the business, just got married to Eileen McMenamin, John McCain's communications director. According to the Times blurb and a report by the Washington Post's Al Kamen, McMenamin left CNN to take the job in February.

Here's the problem -- Brownstein wrote a column on April 25 that unrealistically touted McCain as a third party presidential candidate: