Just in case you needed any more evidence that John McCain is planning to run away from his party and president in the November election, senior adviser Charlie Black put any doubts to rest this weekend.  In Sunday's New York Times, Black described McCain, as "slightly right-of-center."  Apparently, with the Republican nomination now safely secured, McCain the self-proclaimed "foot soldier in the Reagan revolution" is trying to reverse the hard right turn he took for the GOP primaries.

What do Mothers' Day and global warming have in common?  Both, as it turns out, are essential ingredients in John McCain's "character" campaign for the White House.  That is, given the staggering unpopularity of his party's platform and president, John McCain is now running away from both.  From here on out, the McCain campaign will be about the character of the man.

On Thursday, John McCain's wife Cindy declared she would never release her tax returns.  Unfortunately, the McCains are bucking the tide of public opinion regarding her income and href="00 million fortune.  The American people by lopsided margins overwhelmingly believe presidential candidates should disclose their tax returns.  And as they showed four years ago in the imbroglio over Theresa Heinz Kerry, the leading lights of the Republican Party and the conservative movement used to agree.

On Wednesday, John McCain's home state Arizona Republic did some good excavation work in the ongoing demolition of the GOP nominee's maverick myth.  Analyzing his Senate voting record since 1999, the paper found McCain rarely strayed from the Republican Party line.  But that's only a small part of the unraveling of the McCain maverick fable.  As I previously detailed, John McCain in his eternal quest for the GOP nomination has repeatedly reversed long-held positions and compromised supposed core principles to curry favor with right-wing Republican primary voters.

The record of politicians issuing challenges to the press is not a happy one.  Just before his Donna Rice scandal broke in 1987, Democratic frontrunner Gary Hart dared the media to "follow me around."  The rest, as they say, is history.  Now, South Carolina Senator and John McCain water carrier Lindsey Graham has issued a challenge of his own.  Claiming on CNN that McCain "is his own guy," Graham then threw down the gauntlet, "Good luck making him George Bush."

Challenge accepted.

On Sunday, septuagenarian and Republican presidential nominee John McCain's advanced age once again jumped to forefront of the 2008 campaign.  Over at the Politico, Jonathan Martin pondered whether McCain's age will emerge as an issue.  Meanwhile, the New York Times editorial page demanded 71-year old Arizona Senator finally release his medical records, a long overdue disclosure especially important in light of his bouts with skin cancer.  For everyone but John McCain himself, the man who has repeatedly joked about himself as being "older than dirt," the GOP candidate's age is no laughing matter.

Politico is reporting that President Bush's former homeland security adviser and current intelligence advisory board member Fran Townsend is joining CNN as a contributor.  Joining former White House press secretary Tony Snow as the second Bush sycophant to join the network in the last two weeks, Townsend's addition is apparently designed to help make CNN the "right choice" during its election '08 coverage.

While George W. Bush may be most disliked President in modern American history, his one-time mouthpieces are very popular at CNN indeed.  For a taste of the "fair and balanced" reporting to come, here's a look back at some of the greatest hits of Fran Townsend and Tony Snow.

John McCain's presidential campaign has apparently found help to battle its extreme case of Bush separation anxiety.  Desperate to distance the Republican nominee from the most unpopular president in modern American history, the McCain camp is closely coordinating with the White House to create the facade of separation between John McCain and George W. Bush.

Just one day after I analyzed poll data suggesting an early lead for John McCain lead in the 2008 presidential "character war," a new survey from Rasmussen delivered some bad news for the GOP.  By a 52% to 36% margin, the Americans surveyed contend that a candidate's policies on the issues matter more than his or her character.  Unsurprisingly, Republicans responded that character counts most.  Unsurprising, that is, because given Americans' overwhelming preference for Democratic positions and priorities, the GOP simply cannot win a 2008 election decided on the issues.

About a month after President George W. Bush stood on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln before a banner proclaiming, "Mission Accomplished," Fox News' Neil Cavuto asserted to Senator John McCain that, "many argue the conflict isn't over" in Iraq.  McCain  responded, "Well, then why was there a banner that said mission accomplished on the aircraft carrier?"

Five years later, that exchange has come to encapsulate John McCain's unbroken reign of error when it comes to Iraq.  From his predictions of a short war and claims U.S. troops would be greeted as liberators to his casual attitude towards casualties and his ongoing confusion over friend and foe in Iraq, the next would-be Republican president has sounded very much like the man he hopes to replace.

Here, then, is a look back on John McCain's words on the mission accomplished in Iraq:

Barack Obama in no uncertain terms Tuesday made a clear break with his incendiary former minister, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright.  But despite Obama's disavowal of his one-time pastor's outrageous statements, the media spotlight continues to shine on Wright.  Meanwhile, John McCain has maintained his silence on the dangerous vision of Armageddon and Iran held by his own pastoral supporter, John Hagee.

Two recent polls suggest that Democrats are winning minds but losing hearts in the war for the White House in 2008.  Despite surveys showing that Americans consistently prefer Democratic positions over those of Republicans across virtually every issue, a new Rasmussen pollfound voters trust John McCain more than either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.  And last week, an AP/Yahoo poll revealed no difference in voters' candidate preferences even when it came to the election's most important issue, the economy.  So as the 2008 election is being increasingly transformed into a battle of personalities, Democrats are losing the character war.

Just one day after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia told Americans to "get over" the 2000 decision that handed the presidency to George W. Bush, the Supreme Court today rubber stamped an essential tactic in the all-out Republican war to suppress the turnout of minority - and likely Democratic - voters.  By a 6-3 vote, the Court upheld an Indiana voter identification law purportedly designed to address what most experts deem a non-existent problem.  By so doing, the Roberts Court has guaranteed that the GOP's strategy of divide, suppress and conquer is alive and well in 2008.

In Martin County, Kentucky this week, John McCain added another one his "Forgotten Places" to the growing list of places his campaign would now like to forget.  With a straight face, McCain told the residents of the economically devastated region that eBay represents their economic future. And he did so by appropriating the words of Meg Whitman, who just happens to be not only McCain's national campaign co-chair, but the former CEO of eBay.

In New Orleans as part of his so-called "Forgotten Places" tour, former Navy airman John McCain found himself evading incoming flak over the most recent comments of Pastor John Hagee.  Coming just days after George Stephanolous lobbed him a Hagee softball, McCain faced questions over Hagee's assertions that "God's hand" was behind Hurricane Katrina because New Orleans was a "sinful city."  But still absent from the media discussion about John McCain and his supporter the End-Times Pastor Hagee is the question of conflict with Iran.  Given his own tough talk toward Tehran, does John McCain agree with Pastor John Hagee that war with Iran is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy?

With her presidential wedding just weeks away, First Daughter Jenna Bush will once again be the subject of celebrity and political gossip alike.  Just a few years ago, the bar-hopping the Bush twin seemed destined to follow in her father's footsteps as a Republican Party Animal.  As it turns out, on abstinence policy and the election of John McCain - two issues near and dear to her GOP father's heart - Jenna Bush may not be much of a Republican at all.

As this week's "Forgotten Places" tour of America shows, John McCain doesn't merely represent a continuation of George W. Bush's tenure in the White House.  He's planning on traveling the same road to get there.  Facing an American electorate which overwhelmingly rejects his policies across virtually every issue, John McCain is running as a "different kind of Republican."  And that makes him no different from the Republican George W. Bush of 2000.

In the wake of the Washington Post's article Sunday on John McCain's legendary temper, pundits, politicians and armchair psychologists alike are weighing in on the Arizona Senator's litany of f-bombs, fisticuffs and frothing.  But while McCain spokesman Mark Salter called the Washington Post piece "99% fiction," one national Republican leader has already taken great pains to back up its account.  Mitt Romney, the man who would be John McCain's running mate, in January decried "the McCain way" of uncontrolled fury towards friends and foes alike.