Only Obama Can Rescue US 'Brand'

Weird doings with Hillary, Huck and a chucked shoe

(NEWSER) - Oh-eight was a banner year for politics, and half the time it was a really strange banner. Politico looks back on the weirdest moments in a topsy-turvy year.

• Mike Huckabee holds a news conference to announce he won’t run a negative ad, then plays the ad for everyone.
• Desperate for blue collar cred, Hillary Clinton awkwardly downs a whiskey shot in an Indiana bar.
• San Francisco tries to rename a sewage plant after George W. Bush.

Dem suffers slowest fundraising month of the year, campaigns with Clinton next week

(NEWSER) - John McCain nearly matched Barack Obama’s fundraising intake last month, granting the presumptive Republican presidential nominee “a level of parity that would have been unimaginable just a few months ago,” MSNBC says. McCain scored $21.5 million while Obama, whose fundraising slumped to its lowest levels of the year, pulled in $21.9 million. More»

Critical contests ahead later tonight in Ohio and Texas

(NEWSER) - Barack Obama and John McCain won their primaries in Vermont tonight, the Burlington Free Press reports. For Obama, it's his 12th straight political victory over Hillary Clinton, though the bigger focus comes later tonight when voters in Ohio and Texas weigh in. Rhode Island also votes. McCain, meanwhile, edges closer to officially securing the GOP nomination, which he could do tonight. More»

Clinton joins the resurgence

(NEWSER) - Hillary Clinton's appearance on "Saturday Night Live" confirms not just that the show is back from the writers' strike, writes Matt Roush in TV Guide, but back "smack dab in the center of today’s political dialogue." The sight of Clinton and identically dressed alter ego Amy Poehler onstage was "an image no one will soon forget." More»

Stress of political races can cause overeating, premature aging

(NEWSER) - Even the presidential candidates who miss out on the White House will feel the effects of their campaigns for years to come. The mad dash to the Oval Office—speeches all day, deadline pressures, cross-country tours—puts tremendous stress on the body. Forbes takes on the low points:

1. Sleep deprivation, leading to memory losses and risky decision-making.
2. Poor diets, causing that waist to grow (Clinton favors ice cream; Obama, French fries).