Gape upon the greatness that once was presidential campaign slander ... something old and something new — but none of it was impromptu ...

Money and vision are inseparable. The enduring question is where the money would come from ... an exclusive enclave on the outskirts of Islamabad ... the mega-budget tent-pole movies ... looming above the ocean, like dusty mushrooms ...

Texas is going through a dry spell ... Effective government was never this region's strong suit.

The Chinese must not understand the cheesy side of capitalism yet, because someone has clearly missed a big chance to cash in.

He has become a middle-management cultural icon -- vulgar, puerile and needlessly gross, a feisty and jovial mood -- who has been exceedingly gracious with his valuable time. The hero, in his porn days, had "buttocks ripe like the plump half-melons for which Japanese businessmen will pay a small fortune." All of this was the result of neglect that was politely called deferred maintenance. Old-school journalists may bemoan the changes, but viewers do not necessarily suffer. My skin was as soft and clean as undisturbed yogurt.

Mr. Schmidt was impressed by Mr. Obama. "He listened more than he talked, which is always a good thing," Mr. Schmidt says. "He clearly sees himself as a clever synthesizer of other people's ideas. And I think that is an important skill in a president."

Or, in the blunter words of Gov. Phil Bredesen, Democrat of Tennessee: "Instead of giving big speeches at big stadiums, he needs to give straight-up 10-word answers to people at Wal-Mart about how he would improve their lives."

Is it ever possible to ignore an attack? The consensus these days is no.

And that seems to be the overriding impulse of our own era: to humanize.

But they don't tell us how or why reindeer are herded in the first place.

"I hope this time he'll keep his word," the American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, said on "Fox News Sunday."

"I've joked with him. I've talked to him. I've tried to put sense to him. But he is adamant. I've even suggested to him that perhaps it's time for him to give up — straight in the face."

He is as impressively stone-faced and sincere as ever, and if he delivers his kicks and parries, not to mention his lines, a little more deliberately these days, it only adds weight to his character.

"Sooner or later our president is going to say or do something that goes too far, and then it will start."

"They are just waiting on tenterhooks," he said.

He pulled out his iPhone to capture the moment on camera. But too much time had passed. The battery had died.