Congratulations to Sen. Barack Obama. He ran an excellent campaign in Iowa and won big. He deserves much credit. And congratulations to Gov. Mike Huckabee. He also ran an excellent campaign, deserves a lot of credit, and has made the Republican race very interesting. The reason Huckabee won is that …

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was released from Massachusetts General Hospital Wednesday morning after being diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his brain. A biopsy revealed that the Massachusetts Democrat has a malignant glioma on his left parietal lobe, according to a statement releasd Tuesday by Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. …

For the third time in four months, the controversial work of an Iranian artist has been suddenly yanked from a Dutch museum exhibition. The artist, who goes by the alias Sooreh Hera and who lives in exile in the Netherlands, said she received death threats after attempting to show her …

Barack Obama may be a new sensation, but when it comes to taxes, he sounds very familiar: Tax the rich. In fact, attack the rich. The other day he said, “It’s high time the rich pay their fair share.” The crowd roared — I guess they weren’t rich. But do …

In New York, the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is handing out its new free condom to commuters. And new dispensers will dot the city, based on the premise that condoms need to be out of the closet and free of embarrassment. Garbage. Condoms are supposed to cause embarrassment. …

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine: Family Feud Allies of Barack Obama are warning of chaos if unelected superdelegates give Hillary Clinton the Democratic presidential nomination. Richmond, Virginia Mayor Douglas Wilder made a comparison to the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago that featured clashes between protesters and police …

Police were conducting an air search by helicopter Tuesday for evidence in the disappearance of a Middlebury College freshman who has been missing for more than a month. Heavy snow and a cold snap — with more frigid weather in the forecast — have thwarted ground searches for Nicholas Garza, …

The attorney general of Illinois clears Jesse Jackson’s charities without even doing an audit. That is the subject of this evening’s Talking Points memo. Attorney General Jim Ryan says he has reviewed reports from Jackson’s charities and has found no irregularities. So let me be clear, Jackson’s people sent Mr. …

You are going to hear a lot more of this talk about how the people who are now dead should have done a lot more when they were alive. That they should have had more life insurance, more savings, more investments and more money, period. It’s a pity they’re not …

Hamburgers, hot dogs, apple pie and ice cream. Baseball games in the park and sand castles on the beach. Skies lit with Technicolor fireworks. As always, these American traditions are marking Independence Day celebrations around the country this year. But some are spending July Fourth a little differently. Immigrants are …