Rachel Maddow in for Keith tonight... Can the Center Hold?:  In outlining his plan to boost national service today, Senator Barack Obama was no doubt aiming for John F. Kennedy's "Ask not, what your country can do for you... Ask what you can do for your country." He was perhaps reaching for Franklin D. Roosevelt's "I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people." But inste...

Keith mentioned it in last night's show but because Senator Webb's appearance on Monday night's show is being so widely discussed, here's a handy link to the video of that segment so you don't have to go digging through the archives....(read more)...

Church and Statesmanship: It is one of the most insidious aspects of the Reagan and Bush presidencies...What was never attempted before -- a smudging of the line between Church and State -- what the current President Bush termed "faith-based initiatives" -- becoming a part of the government... making America to some small degree, even a tiny fraction of one percent, part theocracy. In our fifth sto...

Finally, as promised, a Special Comment on FISA and the Junior Senator from Illinois. The Democratic leadership in the Senate, Republican knuckle-dragging in the same chamber, and the mediocre skills of whoever wrote the final version of the FISA bill, have combined to give Senator Barack Obama… a second chance to make a first impression. And he damned well better take it....(read more)...

Swift Kick:  In 35 days it will have been four years since the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth launched their first ad against Senator John Kerry. In our fifth story on the Countdown: The Swift Boaters making their first entry into the 2008 campaign... not as a 527... but because Senator John McCain today used one of them... as a surrogate.  This on a day when his opponent, Senato...