Pretty blatant spin on the Iran issue today...

Foxnews.com headline: "Bush Intel Chief: 'Keep Pressure on Iran.'"
Foxnews.com first paragraph: The intelligence community has high confidence that Iran had a covert nuclear weapons program that it never acknowledged and continues to deny, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley said Monday, but the program is currently halted although perhaps not indefinitely.

MSNBC.com headline: "US: Iran Nuclear Arms Work Ended in '03"
MSNBC.com first paragraph: Iran halted its nuclear weapons development program in the fall of 2003 under international pressure but is continuing to enrich uranium, which means it may still be able to develop a weapon between 2010 and 2015, senior U.S. intelligence officials said Monday.

CNN.com headline: "US: Iran Not Building Nukes"
CNN.com first paragraph: Iran halted work toward a nuclear weapon under international scrutiny in 2003 and is unlikely to be able to produce enough enriched uranium for a bomb until 2010 to 2015, a U.S. intelligence report says.  

George W. Bush has taken a lot of criticism for the (supposed) great amount of power and influence he has given to Dick Cheney. Shouldn't that criticism extend to presidential candidates? How many times is a presidential candidate asked for a response to something and all we get is a statement from one of his or her many advisors? The advisors aren't running for president. I don't care what they think. I want to hear it directly from the candidate. If you can't fight your own battles and need to insulate yourself from attacks from the media and your opponents, then you have no right to criticize President Bush and the bubble in which he seems to reside.

While I'm on the subject of advisors, it'd be nice if we could eliminate the ridiculous process of declaring your candidate the winner minutes after the debate. A McCain (insert any candidate) advisor running to the spin room to tell everyone that McCain won is as convincing and meaningful as a mom complimenting her five year old child's artwork. It may make them feel good about themselves, but in the end, it's garbage.

All the candidates are trying to convince America that they're all about change, but the more things "change," the more they've stayed the same.

-Too many partisan swipes based on fudged or false premises
-Tom Tancredo has solidified his position as the Republican Mike Gravel. Only extreme right wingers are going to buy the BS he's selling and the whole "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this any more" doesn't work.
-Tommy Thompson should just quit. His debate performances are atrocious. You can't give oil revenue to a child.
-Rudy Giuliani tries too hard to convince everyone how much he hates Democrats and the liberal media.
-All of them try too hard to come up with zingers that are usually lame and forced.
-Ron Paul could benefit from his major disagreement with the rest of the candidates on foreign policy. There has to be some sizeable wing willing to show him some support at least in the Ames Straw Poll. The others try to discredit him with stuff about 9/11, but I think a lot of people understand that he's right about the consequences of our foreign policy choices.
-John McCain needs to get off of his standard talking points. He's not a frontrunner any more and he's not going to come back by just reiterating things most people already know about him. The fact that Rudy Giuliani tried to suggest that his time as mayor trumps McCain's decades of public service was laughable. George W. Bush had executive experience, look where that's landed us.
-I think I speak for everyone when I say that the debate just wasn't the same without Jim Gilmore.
-It's surprising Mike Huckabee hasn't picked up more steam. His answers aren't always great in terms of substance but they do seem to hit their mark.
-I would like to know what the other candidates think about the estate tax (known as the death tax in Republican circles). If any tax is fair, it's the estate tax. Giuliani's attack on it was shameful because he knows that he's framing it the wrong way to fool regular people into thinking they're taxed for dying.