The No-Confidence Man

The Boston Globe editorial board writes: "Vice President Dick Cheney hasn't just wielded unprecedented influence within the executive branch; he has also steered President Bush's administration toward his own philosophy of unfettered presidential power. . . .

"The limits of executive power should be a vital subject for the debate tonight between the two presidential nominees - Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama. . . .

"At tonight's debate, voters should look out for signs that McCain and Obama understand the violence that the current administration has done to the Constitution."

Apologist Watch

David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey write in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that Bush's decision to attack Iraq was not a distraction from Afghanistan and that saying so is tantamount to arguing that the U.S. shouldn't have fought the Nazis.

"As in many other conflicts in American history, our enemies in this war operate in many geographically distinct theaters. The essence of being a good commander in chief is appreciating the connections among these theaters -- including the adversary's willingness to open new fronts -- rather than obsessing about where the last enemy attack originated.

"This is exactly what President Franklin Roosevelt did in World War II when he chose to dedicate initially the bulk of American resources to the European theater, believing that destroying Hitler's Reich was the most urgent task and that Imperial Japan could be dealt with in turn; history proved him right. Yet, under the Obama-Biden playbook, FDR blundered by getting distracted from the 'real' war -- in the Pacific, where America had been attacked."

Movie Review

Kirk Honeycutt reviews the new Oliver Stone movie on Bush for the Hollywood Reporter: "'W.' is not really a political movie per se; rather it's a movie about a man who went into politics but probably shouldn't have. It's about how a father can misread a son and how a son can suffer in the shadow of a famous dad and how temperament gets molded by events both internal and external."

Where I'll Be This Afternoon

At the Newseum, for the Nieman Foundation's presentation of the first annual I.F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence to editor John Walcott for the Knight-Ridder bureau's outstanding, against-the-grain reporting in the run-up to war in Iraq.

Cartoon Watch

A Tom Toles sketch on Bush's next step, Pat Oliphant on Palin's hero, and Kevin Kallaugher on the leadership vacuum.