2008 campaign costliest in U.S. history

The 2008 campaign was the costliest in history, with a record-shattering $5.3 billion in spending by candidates, political parties and interest groups on the congressional and presidential races.That sum marks a 27 percent increase over the $4.2 billion spent on the 2004 campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which compiled the figures. The amount [...] "eliotcobb.com"

Russia will place short-range missile systems on the EU’s eastern border to counter planned US missile defence installations in Eastern Europe, President Dmitry Medvedev said on Wednesday. “Iskander missile systems will be deployed in the Kaliningrad region to neutralise the missile defence system,” Medvedev said. “There will also be radio-electronic neutralisation of the new US missile defence [...] "eliotcobb.com"

U.S. voters firmly rejected two state proposals to limit abortion rights on Tuesday, undermining an attempt to force the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court. But results of more than 150 state measures across the nation showed a more complex cultural map than the easy election of Democrat Barack Obama as president might indicate, according to [...] "eliotcobb.com"

Earlier this year, 12,000 people in San Francisco signed a petition in support of a proposition on a local ballot to rename an Oceanside sewage plant after George W. Bush. The proposition is only one example of the classless disrespect many Americans have shown the president.According to recent Gallup polls, the president’s average approval rating [...] "eliotcobb.com"

President Dmitri Medvedev took advantage of the euphoria in America today to order the deployment of missiles inside Europe as a response to US plans for a missile defence shield.Speaking within hours of Barack Obama’s election as the new US President, Mr Medvedev announced that Russia would base Iskander missiles in its Baltic exclave of [...] "eliotcobb.com"

That rather sad, muffled noise you hear behind the whoops and cheers of Democrat America is not the sound of defeated neocons mourning the passing of trickle-down economics; it is the sound of sobbing in the Élysée Palace. For Carla Bruni, reigning queen of First Ladies, the game is finally up. Cindy McCain would have [...] "eliotcobb.com"

The Iraqi government is confident that president-elect Barack Obama will not jeopardize Iraq’s improving security by hastily withdrawing U.S. troops, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said on Wednesday. Obama has “reassured us that he would not take any drastic or dramatic decisions,” Zebari told BBC television. “He will consult with the Iraqi government and the U.S. military in [...] "eliotcobb.com"

ABC News has learned that President-elect Obama has offered the White House chief of staff job to Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill. Emanuel, a knowledgeable source tells ABC News, has not yet given his answer. The sharp-tongued, sharp-elbowed, keenly intelligent veteran of the Clinton White House is said to have ambitions to some day be Speaker of [...] "eliotcobb.com"