Republican presidential hopeful John McCain delivered an effective, albeit slightly subdued speech while accepting his party's nomination last night. The content of the speech centered around his experiences as the son of a general, a prisoner of war, and as a maverick legislator working in a bipartisan way to shake up Washington - all tenets of the campaign. As expected, McCain also made a point to highlight his desire to cut taxes, while stating his opponent, Barak Obama, wants to raise them.

"We believe in low taxes, spending discipline and open markets. We believe in rewarding hard work and risk takers and letting people keep the fruits of their labor...I will keep taxes low and cut them where I can. My opponent will raise them...I will cut government spending. He will increase...

Last night, Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin absolutely rocked the Republican National Convention with a powerful, well-delivered speech aimed at rallying the Republican base, showcasing her own "executive experience" and trivializing the experiences of her rival, Barak Obama.

The speech laid plain many of Palin's beliefs, which line up with traditional republicans. These include being aggressive in the fight against terrorists while painting the zeitgeist as "a crucial hour for our country," promoting family values - she was not afraid of parading her own family for political gain, being fiscally conservative - which she said she demonstrated by selling the corporate governor's jet on eBay and cutting the budget, taking a hard line approach against Iran, and achieving...

As much as the political muckraking degrades from the more important but admittedly more boring conversation of "how will they lead us," one can't help but wonder, as the media barrage against Governor Palin continues, what a blunder the McCain camp seems to have made with his pick for a running-mate. Naturally the biggest oversight was by 5 months...of pregnancy in Palin's 17-year-old unwed daughter. But as the media investigation continues, more and more unsavory tidbits are leaking out and altering America's palette for the Alaskan beauty queen turned governor.

The latest discovery appeals more to OhMyGov! readers and all those with a disdain for pork projects (not to be confused with delectable pork products). During her introductory speech late last week, Palin...

In his speech accepting the Democratic nomination for president Thursday, Barack Obama issued a call for government reform that echoed a wide-ranging effort launched by the last Democratic president.

Obama pledged to "go through the federal budget, line by line, eliminating programs that no longer work and making the ones we do need work better and cost less -- because we cannot meet twenty-first century challenges with a 20th century bureaucracy."

John McCain picked Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin today to be his vice presidential running mate.

Some quick reference points about Palin.

Palin is noted for her independence from big oil companies and willingness to address climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions within Alaska. She proposed to eliminate the gas tax for her state in the wake of high oil prices. She used her veto power to prevent the state legislature from blocking health benefits to same-sex partners of public employees in Alaska. Palin is strongly pro-life and belongs to Feminists for Life. She opposes same-sex marriage, but is open to gay lifestyle and culture. She created the largest operating budget in Alaska's history but paid for it by cutting costs in the construction budget. In 1984, Palin placed...

If you're about to turn 72, working eighteen hour days, and married to the heiress of a mega-million dollar corporation, a few things might slip your mind. For Senator John McCain this week, that slip was how many homes he owned.

In an interview Wednesday, the straight talk express was derailed when MCain stated he was uncertain how many homes he and his wife Cindy owned.

"I think — I'll have my staff get to you," McCain told Politico in Las Cruces, N.M. "It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you." Newsweek estimated that they own at least seven properties. (No one has yet reported if they are wheel chair accessible.) Who cares you ask? Why Democrats of course. In retaliation for McCain's attempts to paint Obama as an elitist, and for the...

The first presidential "debate" of the general election season occurred on Saturday. But instead of occurring at a university campus, hotel, or convention center, the debate was hosted at a location that seems at odds with a democracy based on the principle of separation of church and state: the mega-sized Christian Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California.

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) and Senator John McCain (R-AZ) appeared in interview format separately with Pastor Rick Warren, who asked them each a series of similar questions. Each candidate responded to questions regarding their views on such topics as evil (both say it exists and must be dealt with), abortion (McCain is pro-life; Obama is pro-choice), and gay marriage (both define as a union between a man and woman but neither...

A new poll by the Pew Research Center shows that Barak Obama's media dominance may be backfiring. Nearly half (48%) of Pew's interviewees stated that they have been hearing too much about Obama lately that has caused them to obtain a less favorable view of him as of late.

In contrast, Pew's respondents said they want to hear more, not less about Republican John McCain. Just 26% in the poll said they had heard too much about McCain, while a larger number (38%) reported that they had heard too little about the putative Republican candidate.

Ironically, the conversation about Obama Fatigue will continue the conversation about Obama. But this is good news for John McCain, as McCain Fatigue would likely be a term employed by Jay Leno to poke fun at his age.

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John McCain is allegedly learning how to use a computer, but it will take more than Ctrl-Alt-Delete to keep the government's information technology on track.

Information technology (IT), if managed correctly, can deliver great benefits—IT was the largest contributor to U.S. economic growth in the late 1990's. Unfortunately, the government wastes millions, if not billions on a failed enterprise IT projects every year. And the Executive Branch doesn't even know how much it spends to maintain its 24,000+ websites, including one Army site dedicated to herding cats .

These problems have occurred, because there was no leadership of government IT at the highest level. Congress is now considering a law to institute proper oversight of large IT projects , because the President could not...

Against a backdrop of uniformed soldiers in Colorado Springs a couple weeks ago, Sen. Obama told the audience that national service "will be a central cause of my presidency." But what exactly does he mean by "service?"

Chastened by critics of his past speeches on the subject, Obama carefully included military service alongside non-military endeavors. With the exception of his call to expand the Foreign Service, however, his plan appears to ignore an essential element of non-military service: working in government.

Volunteering and short-term service stints, such as the Peace Corps, Teach For America, and AmeriCorps (I am a Teach For America/AmeriCorps alumnus), are popular and powerful ways to encourage talented young people to tackle some of our nation's vexing...