But when it comes to Bristol’s pregnancy, Byron York explains why the extreme left’s actions are going to backfire.

Here’s an excerpt from the NRO (read the entire article at link)…

St. Paul — At 6:30 Monday morning, at a hotel here in St. Paul, a team of senior McCain staffers got word from even more senior staffers that there was news about vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin. Everybody had heard the rumors, spread on The Atlantic and DailyKos websites, that Palin’s fifth child, Trig, born last April, was not really hers — that Trig was really Palin’s 17 year-old daughter’s child, and Palin faked pregnancy to cover up her daughter’s condition. None of that was true, they all knew. But the top McCain staffers revealed that a story would be breaking on the wires in a few hours reporting that Palin’s daughter, Bristol, is, in fact, pregnant now. The father is Bristol’s boyfriend, the staffers were told, and she intends to marry him.

The McCain aides’ assignment was to call a list of about 40 top evangelical and other cultural conservative leaders. Each one would get a personal explanation of the story, and each was asked for his or her reaction. The McCain people reached nearly everyone before the story broke, and the verdict was unanimous — all the leaders supported Palin and her place on the McCain ticket.

Here’s an excerpt from Spengler’s piece in the Asia Times (click link to read it all)…

Obama will spend the rest of his life wondering why he rejected the obvious road to victory, that is, choosing Hillary Clinton as his vice presidential nominee. However reluctantly, Clinton would have had to accept. McCain’s choice of vice presidential candidate made obvious after the fact what the party professionals felt in their fingertips at the stadium extravaganza yesterday: rejecting Clinton in favor of the colorless, unpopular, tangle-tongued Washington perennial Joe Biden was a statement of weakness. McCain’s selection was a statement of strength. America’s voters will forgive many things in a politician, including sexual misconduct, but they will not forgive weakness.

That is why McCain will win in November, and by a landslide, barring some unforeseen event. Obama is the most talented and persuasive politician of his generation, the intellectual superior of all his competitors, but a fatally insecure personality. American voters are not intellectual, but they are shrewd, like animals. They can smell insecurity, and the convention stank of it. Obama’s prospective defeat is entirely of its own making. No one is more surprised than Republican strategists, who were convinced just weeks ago that a weakening economy ensured a Democratic victory.

On the other hand, Obama must think the Palins are awful parents–punishing their daughter with a baby.

From our point of view, this is another “non-event” in this campaign…except for hardcore liberals.

Here’s an excerpt from FoxNews.com (read the rest at link)…

McCain’s campaign told FOX News that the presumptive Republican presidential candidate knew about Bristol Palin’s pregnancy before he chose Palin as his running mate last Friday, and that Bristol is planning to marry the father of her child. The baby is due in late December.

“We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our heart and mean everything to us,” the Palins said in the statement. “Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever planned. We’re proud of Bristol’s decision to have her baby and even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and support.”

Here’s an excerpt (read it all at Haaretz)…

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden was quoted Monday as telling senior Israeli officials behind closed doors that the Jewish state will have to reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran.

In the unsourced report, Army Radio also quoted Biden as saying that he opposed “opening a additional military and diplomatic front.”

Here’s Nagin’s latest…even Ray seems no longer “stuck on stupid” (here’s the link–read the rest)…

“I don’t think I can do another Katrina, but I can definitely do what we’re doing today because it’s smooth, it’s effective, and it’s getting the job done,” Nagin said Sunday from the train station where residents were boarding evacuation buses in a scene that was far less chaotic than during Katrina. “And we’ll be able to get our people back with little hassle.”

As Gustav gained strength from warm Gulf of Mexico waters and headed toward the Louisiana coast, Nagin’s tone wasn’t the only thing different from three years ago.

The White House is “showering us with resources,” Nagin told a local TV station, and President Bush called him Sunday “to check in.”

Here’s an excerpt and link to The Times UK…

“We may be seeing the first woman president. As a Democrat, I am reeling,” said Camille Paglia, the cultural critic. “That was the best political speech I have ever seen delivered by an American woman politician. Palin is as tough as nails.”

And by the way, did I mention she’s from…