Dr. Know Can I change my party preference to Republican just so I can vote in the primary, and change back before the general election? Is it legal? I can’t stand to see Republicans having all the fun.&n   More

News I got the impression last night, at Ron Paul's “Rally for the Republic,” which drew a crowd of over 10,000 to Minneapolis' Target Center, that the failed Republican presidential candidate really believes he is leading a revolution. Really. At the rally planned at the same time as the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, he used “revolution” or its variants (i....   More

News Note to readers: Kevin Stark is live-blogging for WWire this week as Republicans gather behind John McCain and newly nominated Veep candidate Sarah Palin in St. Paul, Minn. Keep up with all the Streets of St. Paul entries here at WWire. Last night, I took a red-eye into the Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport on the eve of the Republican National Convention. It is hot and humid he...   More

News At the Democratic National Convention in Denver, credentials and status mean everything. As a lowly weekly reporter, I get less access than daily newspaper reporters, who are lower on the totem pole than TV reporters. But, as always, money is the credential that confers real access. Last night, while wandering around the Pepsi Center, I stumbled into a service entrance to the "Club Leve...   More

News Today John McCain is 72. And as a birthday present to himself, he chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, 44, as his VP. If McCain were to be elected in November, he'd surpass Ronald Reagan's 69 years and seize the cane of honor as the oldest U.S. president in history. There's an obvious hazard here: 2004 data from the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put the average lifespan f...   More

News So the Republicans will nominate a woman, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, for vice-president. How progressive of them! Why haven't the Democrats ever done that? Oh. Right. Well, at least we've got someone with real executive experience one one of the tickets now. Going by population, though, McCain might as well have picked Diane Linn for the VP slot. After all, she ran Multnomah County (pop. 681,45...   More

News The massive police presence for the Democratic National Convention in Denver has so far been unnecessary. Major, disruptive protests remain only a rumor, leaving the cops bored and willing to step into even the most minor verbal conflict. Today, while wandering down 16th Avenue, Denver's equivalent to Portland's downtown transit mall, I saw a handful of people purporting to be Sen. Hillary Cli...   More

News There are a few types of Democratic National Convention attendees wandering around the Pepsi Center I feel as if I ought to recognize: attractive and well-dressed (probably a TV person); rumpled and contemplating imminent unemployment (newspaper reporter); fiercely determined (Obama supporter); or really pissed (Hillary backer). But being culturally clueless, I seem to recognize only semi-f...   More

News The Democratic national convention officially kicked off this afternoon, and anybody who doesn't have an official credential can forget about getting within a mile of the Pepsi Center, Denver's equivalent of the Rose Garden arena. The arena and its perimeter are enclosed in an extraordinary security cordon: Streets all around the arena are closed; the light rail service is truncated, and to...   More

News There's value in being a blue state—in delivering the greatest single outpouring of support during the campaign of an eventual winner. But, in terms of the payback, the value is not much. At political party conventions, the national party assigns each state's delegation. And although the Democratic National Convention is in downtown Denver—which may not have captured the imag...   More