All through his career, first as a war hero and then in the Capitol, John McCain has been a maverick, but as the presidential race hots up, the Republican candidate is befriending the religious right, gun lobby and others he once despised and ridiculed.

Despite publicly supporting emissions reductions, the coal industry and electricity firms have spent tens of millions of dollars trying to kill a proposed law that would introduce "cap-and-trade" rules on carbon emissions.

They say that every president gets the psychoanalyst he deserves, and now comes Scott McClellan to reveal "What Happened" to turn George W Bush from a genial, humble, good ol' boy to a delusional, arrogant, ideological flop, writes Maureen Dowd.

As Hillary Clinton's doomed presidential bid draws to a painful close, one man has been cast as the scapegoat. In his first interview, Mark Penn, the candidate's former chief strategist, talks about what went wrong.

Like Robert Kennedy, Barack Obama may well "chart a new direction for America" in media-honed language during his campaign, but in reality, like every president, he will secure the best damned democracy money can buy, argues John Pilger.

Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who has a history of subordinating his conservative instincts to pragmatism when it comes to choosing sides in elections, has spoken up for Barack Obama, terming him a "rock star" who is "likely to win" the presidency.

While we do live in a world full of ugly sexism, we also have many other evils to worry about, so it's wrong to assume that it's a woman's duty to support Hillary Clinton, especially when she can be just as bellicose as the most testosterone-addled male.

There's a reason Hillary Clinton has remained relatively silent during the flap over intemperate remarks by Barack Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright. When it comes to unsavory religious affiliations, she's a lot more vulnerable than Obama.

One seasoned Democratic operative, who voted for Clinton in his home state's primary but was not part of her campaign, said of her comments about Kennedy, "I think it was about as hideous as it gets."

By the time John McCain fumbled for the right words to disown evangelical pastor John Hagee, many had already abandoned all hope that another Republican presidency would mean change where it really counts for the rest of the world: Israel-Palestine.