Righteous Warrior: Jesse Helms and the Rise of Modern Conservatism by William Link (St. Martin’s Press, 656 pages, $39.95) Early last year when his presidential bid was gearing up, one of Barack Obama’s classmates from Harvard Law handed the New…

Sissy Nation: How America Became a Culture of Wimps & Stoopits by John Strausbaugh (Virgin Books, 176 pages, $16.95) Now that it’s over we can agree that The Sopranos was the great testosterone soap opera of the decade. We had,…

If you want to assume the Clintons are devious, five-steps-ahead political operators — and, really, why not assume? — it seems somehow important that their lower-level allies are so handy with uncomfortable truths about Barack Obama. Yes, New Hampshire fixer…

Missouri voters have been buffeted by $16 million of commercials by the Bush and Kerry campaigns, but as yet no ads likening their congressmen to vampires. This may soon change. Before he turns it into a paid commercial, Democratic congressional…

Barack Obama’s keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention tonight is meant to cement him as the most beloved politician since Mr. Smith went to Washington. As a state legislator, only a candidate for the open Illinois Senate seat, he…

If you’ve got to be obsessed with something, make sure it isn’t politics. Sports fans have innumerable events to schedule tailgates and parties around, and movie fans have festivals and video stores catering to them in every sizable American town….