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When the presidential candidates are calling each other liars or something close to that, that’s hardly new – but a major American corporation all but calling a presidential candidate a liar, when did that happen before?  Never mind happen twice.  In one week. Widespread coverage of the story of the Chrysler Corporation’s flat contradiction of Mitt Romney’s campaign assertions, followed by General Motors doing the same, suggests that such sharp corporate responses are unprecedented.  Certainly

(Scott Strazzante / Chicago Tribune) In Illinois, abortion has raised tensions between candidates for the 8th Congressional District. In a new poll released Friday, Tammy Duckworth has a 10-point lead over Representative Joe Walsh. The lead comes in the wake of Joe Walsh (R) decrying an approved ad by Duckworth (D) in which Walsh's child support dispute with his ex-wife is attacked. This has been one of the most bitter races in the country, as both sides have employed controversial attacks on

(Credit: C-SPAN.org) Author's note: The reader will notice that some of the differences between Barack Obama in 2008 vs 2012 are actually from 2007. As presidential campaigns begin to last two years, statements made in 2007 are relevant because they are closely related to the 2008 campaign. 1. The president cannot go to war without Congress In a 2007 questionnaire for the Boston Globe, then-Senator Barack Obama replied: The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally

Credit: Olivier Douliery / Abaca USA Illinois Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. has been missing from Congress since June. According to Jackson, he has been undergoing treatment for bi-polar disorder -- a revelation that was admitted two months after his initial absence. The diagnosis came at the heels of the House Ethics Committee's investigation into Jackson's alleged role in the "pay-to-play" scheme, hatched by former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich to sell off Barack Obama's senate seat to

Photo: Michael Reynolds Debates have always been an important platform for candidates to articulate and narrate their stances on the issues of the era. Like any art, particular moments in the past have defined and redirected its present form. Here are a few of these defining, great debate moments that, despite their brevity in broadcast, have not been fleeting in political memory. The 1858 Lincoln-Douglas Debate No one alive today was present to experience it, but the 1858 senatorial debate b

Credit: White House Going into the last few weeks of the election, just as much attention has been directed toward the performance of the debate moderators as the presidential candidates themselves. Be it criticism of veteran moderator Jim Lehrer’s presumed passive-aggressive behavior or CNN correspondent Candy Crowley’s fierce fact-checking of President Obama’s Libya comments, the nature of the moderator has come under harsh criticism from both sides of the political aisle. History tells us

(Source: Ron Cogswell) Last week, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel expressed his disapproval for Governor Pat Quinn's choice for the state's stadium authority. Quinn handpicked Kelly Kraft, a former TV reporter, to serve as Executive Director. The post would require Kraft to not only manage the same body that runs US Cellular Field, but also to oversee a much-needed Wrigley Field renovation that was halted by the Mayor this past July. This latest disagreement is the most recent example of dysfunction

(Al Podgorski / Chicago Sun-Times) Republican Representative Joe Walsh and Democratic nominee Tammy Duckworth are currently locked in a contentious battle for the House of Representatives. Walsh will be trying to retain his seat in Illinois' 8th congressional district-- a seat he won by the narrowest of margins in 2010. As it was two years ago, the independent vote is critical for Joe Walsh in Illinois. Out of 200,000 ballots cast, Walsh propelled himself to victory in 2010 over Democratic inc

Credit: Chicagoist / Aaroncynic Cook County Associate Judge Thomas Donnelly overturned 92 arrests of Occupy Chicago protesters on Thursday. The arrests took place last year as the protesters gathered in Chicago's Grant Park in October. Police made the arrests when the crowd failed to vacate the park by the 11 pm curfew. In total, 303 arrests were made over two nights. Donnelly based his opinion on Barack Obama's 2008 Grant Park victory speech, which ran from approximately 10:57 PM until 11:20

Credit: Dailykos.com A new Marquette University Law School poll shows Democratic US Representative Tammy Baldwin with a nine percentage point lead over former Governor Tommy Thompson (R) in the US Senate race in Wisconsin. The statewide poll marks a complete turnaround from March, which had Thompson at a nine point advantage. Baldwin and Thompson are competing for the senate seat left vacant by Democratic Senator Herbert Kohl, who announced his retirement in May. The open-seat race is bound to