28. Peggy Noonan

Peggy Noonan is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the best selling author of seven books on American politics, history and culture. Her essays have appeared in Forbes, Time, Newsweek, the Washington Post, the New York Times and other publications. She is a frequent guest on political talk shows. She has also been nominated for Emmy Awards for the writing of a post-9/11 television special and for her work on the television drama The West Wing. Noonan is a member of the board of the Manhattan Institute.

The case for Barack Obama, in broad strokes:

He has within him the possibility to change the direction and tone of American foreign policy, which need changing; his rise will serve as a practical rebuke to the past five years, which need rebuking; his victory would provide a fresh start in a nation in which a fresh start would come as a national relief. He climbed steep stairs, born off the continent with no father to guide, a dreamy, abandoning mother, mixed race, no connections. He rose with guts and gifts. He is steady, calm, and, in terms of the execution of his political ascent, still the primary and almost only area in which his executive abilities can be discerned, he shows good judgment in terms of whom to hire and consult, what steps to take and moves to make. We witnessed from him this year something unique in American politics: He took down a political machine without raising his voice.

27. Larry Pressler

Larry Pressler, former Republican senator from South Dakota, was the first Vietnam veteran to serve in the United States Senate. Pressler, who said that in addition to casting an absentee ballot for Obama he'd donated $500 to the Illinois senator's campaign, cited the Democrat's response to the financial crisis as the primary reason for his decision to endorse him.

"We [the Republican party] have to be a moderate party. We can't be for all these foreign military adventures. We have to stop spending so much money. My God, the deficit is so high! The Republican Party I knew in the 1970s is just all gone.

I just got the feeling that Obama will be able to handle this financial crisis better, and I like his financial team of [former Treasury Secretary Robert] Rubin and [former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul] Volcker better. [John McCain's] handling of the financial crisis made me feel nervous. I don't think [McCain] will take action [to place restraints on executive pay] or he's as likely to."

26. Colin Powell

Colin Powell is an American statesman and retired General in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State (2001-2005), serving under President George W. Bush. He was the first African American appointed to that position. As a General in the United States Army, Powell also served as National Security Advisor (1987–1989) and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (1989–1993), holding the latter position during the Gulf War. He was the first and, so far, the only African American to serve on the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"(Barack Obama) has met the standard of being a successful president, being an exceptional president. I think he is a transformational figure. He is a new generation coming into the world-- onto the world state, onto the American stage, and for that reason I'll be voting for Senator Barack Obama."

25. Ken Adelman

Kenneth Adelman is an American diplomat, political writer, policy analyst and William Shakespeare historian. Adelman is a member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board well-known for his involvement in conservative policy efforts dating back to the 1970s, when he was a member of the Committee on the Present Danger. More recently, he strongly supported the war on Iraq and worked for the think tank Project for the New American Century, arguing for new policies to help the United States remain a global leader.

"When the economic crisis broke, I found John McCain bouncing all over the place. In those first few crisis days, he was impetuous, inconsistent, and imprudent; ending up just plain weird. Having worked with Ronald Reagan for seven years, and been with him in his critical three summits with Gorbachev, I’ve concluded that that’s no way a president can act under pressure.

Second is judgment. The most important decision John McCain made in his long campaign was deciding on a running mate.

That decision showed appalling lack of judgment. Not only is Sarah Palin not close to being acceptable in high office—I would not have hired her for even a mid-level post in the arms-control agency. But that selection contradicted McCain’s main two, and best two, themes for his campaign—Country First, and experience counts. Neither can he credibly claim, post-Palin pick."

24. Charles Fried

Charles Fried is a prominent American jurist and lawyer. He served as the Solicitor General for President Ronald Reagan from 1985 to 1989. He is currently a professor at Harvard Law School. On October 24, 2008, despite his previous support for the presidential aspirations of Senator John McCain, Fried announced that he had voted for Senator Barack Obama for President by absentee ballot. Fried cited Senator McCain's selection of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate as the principal reason for his decision to vote for Senator Obama.

"I admire Senator McCain and was glad to help in his campaign, and to be listed as doing so; but when I concluded that I must vote for Obama for the reason stated in my letter, I felt it wrong to appear to be recommending to others a vote that I was not prepared to cast myself.

So it was more of an erasure than a public affirmation--although obviously my vote meant that I thought that Obama was preferable to McCain-Palin. I do not consider abstention a proper option."

23. William Weld

William Weld was the Republican Governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997. From 1981 to 1988, he was a federal prosecutor in the United States Justice Department.

"Senator Obama is a once-in-a-lifetime candidate who will transform our politics and restore America's standing in the world. We need a president who will lead based on our common values, and Senator Obama demonstrates an ability to unite and inspire."

22. Christopher Buckley

Christopher Buckley is an American political satirist and the author of several novels. He is the son of William F. Buckley Jr. and Patricia Buckley. His novels include God Is My Broker, Thank You for Smoking, Little Green Men, The White House Mess, No Way to Treat a First Lady, Wet Work, Florence of Arabia, Boomsday, and, most recently, Supreme Courtship.

John McCain has changed. He said, famously, apropos the Republican debacle post-1994, “We came to Washington to change it, and Washington changed us.” This campaign has changed John McCain. It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget “by the end of my first term.” Who, really, believes that? Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis. His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?

21. David Frum

David Frum is a Canadian-born conservative and journalist active in the both US and Canadian political arenas. A former economic speechwriter for President George W. Bush, he is also the author of the first "insider" book about the Bush presidency. His editorial columns have appeared in a variety of Canadian and American magazines and newspapers. Frum writes a daily column for the National Review Online.

"Sarah Palin may well have concealed inner reservoirs of greatness. I hope so! But I'd guess that John McCain does not have a much better sense of who she is, what she believes, and the extent of her abilities than my enthusiastic friends over at the Corner. It's a wild gamble, undertaken by our oldest ever first-time candidate for president in hopes of changing the board of this election campaign. Maybe it will work. But maybe (and at least as likely) it will reinforce a theme that I'd be pounding home if I were the Obama campaign: that it's John McCain for all his white hair who represents the risky choice, while it is Barack Obama who offers cautious, steady, predictable governance."

20. The Record

The Record is a daily newspaper based in Stockton, California, serving San Joaquin and Calaveras counties. It is owned by Ottaway Community Newspapers, which is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company. The Record was founded in 1895 as the Evening Record. Barack Obama is the first Democrat for president the paper has endorsed in 72 years – since FDR ran for re-election in 1936.

"For eight years, American politics has been marked by smears, fears and greed. For too long, we've practiced partisanship in Washington, not politics. This must end, but John McCain can't do it. He can't inspire, nor can he really break from a past that is breaking this nation.

McCain, who has voted consistently for deregulation, started off two weeks ago declaring the U.S. economy fundamentally sound but ended the week sounding like a populist. Who is he really? He tends to shoot from the hip and go on gut instinct. The nation cannot go through four more years of literally and figuratively shooting now and asking questions later.

But the fact is, we worry he won't have four years. If elected, at 72, he would be the oldest incoming president in U.S. history. He's in good health now, we're told, although he has withheld most of his medical records. That means Gov. Sarah Palin could very well become president.

And that brings us to McCain's most troubling trait: his judgment.

While praiseworthy for putting the first woman on a major-party presidential ticket since Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, his selection of Palin as a running mate was appalling. The first-term governor is clearly not experienced enough to serve as vice president or president if required."

19. The Economist

The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in London. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843. In 2007, it reported an average circulation of just over 1.3 million copies per issue, about half of which are sold in North America.

"The decision to play this election, like that of 2004, as a fresh instalment of the culture wars is disappointing to those who thought Mr McCain was more principled than that.

By choosing Sarah Palin as his running-mate he made a cynical tryst with a party base that he has never much liked and that has never much liked him. Mr McCain’s whole candidacy rests on his assertion that these are perilous times that require a strong and experienced commander-in-chief; but he has chosen, as the person who may be a 72-year-old heartbeat away from the presidency, someone who demonstrably knows very little about international affairs or the economy.

What Mrs Palin does do, as a committed pro-lifer, is to ensure that the evangelical wing of the Republican party will turn out in their multitudes. The old Mr McCain, who derided the religious right as “agents of intolerance”, would not have stooped to that."

18. Craig Shirley

Craig Shirley is President and CEO of Shirley & Banister Public Affairs, the public relations, marketing, and government affairs firm he originally founded in 1984. Mr. Shirley is the author of Reagan’s Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign That Started It All. The book, which analyzes Ronald Reagan’s pivotal 1976 presidential campaign. Shirley advised John McCain earlier in this campaign cycle.

"(The McCain Campaign's request to postpone the presidential debate) just proves his campaign is governed by tactics and not ideology. In the end, he blinked and Obama did not. The 'steady hand in a storm' argument looks now to more favor Obama, not McCain.

My guess is that plasma units are rushing to the McCain campaign as we speak to replace the blood flowing there from the fights among the staff."

17. Kathleen Parker

Kathleen Parker is an American syndicated columnist. Her columns frequently focus on family, sex roles, and race. Her column is syndicated nationally by The Washington Post Writers Group. Parker is a consulting faculty member at the Buckley School of Public Speaking, and makes appearances on television shows like The O'Reilly Factor and The Chris Matthews Show.

"Like so many women, I’ve been pulling for Palin, wishing her the best, hoping she will perform brilliantly. I’ve also noticed that I watch her interviews with the held breath of an anxious parent, my finger poised over the mute button in case it gets too painful. Unfortunately, it often does. My cringe reflex is exhausted.

If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself.

If Palin were a man, we’d all be guffawing, just as we do every time Joe Biden tickles the back of his throat with his toes. But because she’s a woman — and the first ever on a Republican presidential ticket — we are reluctant to say what is painfully true.

Only Palin can save McCain, her party, and the country she loves. She can bow out for personal reasons, perhaps because she wants to spend more time with her newborn. No one would criticize a mother who puts her family first."

16. Lyda Green (R)

Lyda N. Green is a Republican member of the Alaska Senate, representing the G District since 1995. She is currently the Senate President.

"(Sarah Palin's) not prepared to be governor. How can she be prepared to be vice president or president? Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"

15. George Will...Again

George F. Will is a Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author. Will served as an editor for the conservative magazine National Review from 1972 to 1978, and is a founding member on the panel of ABC's This Week with David Brinkley in 1981 (now titled This Week with George Stephanopolous).

"Conservatives who insist that electing McCain is crucial usually start, and increasingly end, by saying he would make excellent judicial selections. But the more one sees of his impulsive, intensely personal reactions to people and events, the less confidence one has that he would select judges by calm reflection and clear principles, having neither patience nor aptitude for either.

It is arguable that, because of his inexperience, Obama is not ready for the presidency. It is arguable that McCain, because of his boiling moralism and bottomless reservoir of certitudes, is not suited to the presidency. Unreadiness can be corrected, although perhaps at great cost, by experience. Can a dismaying temperament be fixed?"

14. George Will

George F. Will is a Pulitzer Prize-winning conservative American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author. Will served as an editor for the conservative magazine National Review from 1972 to 1978, and is a founding member on the panel of ABC's This Week with David Brinkley in 1981 (now titled This Week with George Stephanopolous).

"The question is who, in this crisis, looked more presidential, calm and unflustered? It wasn't John McCain. Who, as usual – substituting vehemence for coherence – said 'let's fire somebody?' It was unpresidential behavior by a presidential aspirant."

13. The Wall Street Journal...Again

The Wall Street Journal is an English-language international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company in New York City with Asian and European editions. As of 2007, It has a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million, with approximately 931,000 paying online subscribers.

"John McCain has made it clear this week he doesn't understand what's happening on Wall Street any better than Barack Obama does. But on Thursday, he took his populist riffing up a notch and found his scapegoat for financial panic -- Christopher Cox, the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a crisis, voters want steady, calm leadership, not easy, misleading answers that will do nothing to help. Mr. McCain is sounding like a candidate searching for a political foil rather than a genuine solution."

12. Wick Allison

Wick Allison is an American magazine publisher and author. He currently is the owner of D Magazine, the city magazine of Dallas-Fort Worth, which he co-founded in 1974. In 1985, Allison was asked by William F. Buckley, Jr. to join the board of directors of the National Review, and in 1990 he became its publisher, succeeding William A. Rusher.

"Today it is conservatives, not liberals, who talk with alarming bellicosity about making the world 'safe for democracy.' It is John McCain who says America’s job is to 'defeat evil,' a theological expansion of the nation’s mission that would make George Washington cough out his wooden teeth.

This kind of conservatism, which is not conservative at all, has produced financial mismanagement, the waste of human lives, the loss of moral authority, and the wreckage of our economy that McCain now threatens to make worse."

11. Rep. Wayne Gilchrest (R)

Wayne Gilchrest (born April 15, 1946) is a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives representing Maryland's 1st congressional district since 1991.

"We can't use four more years of the same kind of policy that's somewhat haphazard, which leads to recklessness. (Barack Obama and Joe Biden) have the breadth of experience. I think they're prudent. They're knowledgable."

10. Sen. Chuck Hagel (R)

Sen. Chuck Hagel is the senior United States Senator from Nebraska. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected in 1996 and was reelected in 2002. Hagel is a Vietnam War veteran, having served in the United States Army infantry, attaining the rank of Sergeant (E-5) from 1967–1968.

"(Sarah Palin) doesn't have any foreign policy credentials. You get a passport for the first time in your life last year? I mean, I don't know what you can say. You can't say anything. I think it's a stretch to, in any way, to say that she's got the experience to be president of the United States"

9. Elizabeth Drew

Elizabeth Drew is an American political journalist and author. A graduate of Wellesley College, she was Washington correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly (1967-73) and The New Yorker (1973-92). Drew has written 13 books, including Washington Journal: The Events of 1973-74 (1975), an account of the Watergate scandal; On the Edge: The Clinton Presidency (1994); and Citizen McCain (2002).

"McCain’s recent conduct of his campaign – his willingness to lie repeatedly (including in his acceptance speech) and to play Russian roulette with the vice-presidency, in order to fulfill his long-held ambition – has reinforced my earlier, and growing, sense that John McCain is not a principled man.

In fact, it’s not clear who he is. "

8. Richard Riordan (R)

Richard J. Riordan is a Republican politician from California, U.S. who served as the California Secretary of Education from 2003–2005 and as Mayor of Los Angeles from 1993–2001. Riordan ran for Governor of California unsuccessfully in 2002.

"I think (Barack Obama's) a much more open person. He's young, he has more energy, more electricity. When I was mayor I had dealings with (Sen. John) McCain where I didn't respect him."

7. Richard Cohen

Richard Cohen, a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, is a graduate of Far Rockaway High School and attended Hunter College, New York University, and Columbia University. He is a four-time honorable-mention winner in Pulitzer Prize competitions. Some of Cohen's social views are ones attributed to American liberalism, but his political views are often conservative.

"Following his loss to George W. Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary, John McCain did something extraordinary: He confessed to lying about how he felt about the Confederate battle flag, which he actually abhorred. "I broke my promise to always tell the truth," McCain said. Now he has broken that promise so completely that the John McCain of old is unrecognizable. He has become the sort of politician he once despised.

Maybe (Mccain) thinks that if he wins the election, he can -- as he did in South Carolina -- renounce who he was and what he did and resume his old persona. It won't work. Karl Marx got one thing right -- what he said about history repeating itself. Once is tragedy, a second time is farce. John McCain is both."

6. Ruth Marcus

Ruth Marcus is a journalist who currently writes an op-ed column for the Washington Post. In March 2007, she a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in commentary. The Pulitzer board cited "her intelligent and incisive commentary on a range of subjects, using a voice that can be serious or playful."

"Every campaign calls on the candidate to calibrate, at some point, how far he is willing to go in pursuit of the prize...

Sitting on the couch with the women of "The View" last week, McCain offered a litany of excuses for his conduct this time around: Obama's ads are hard-hitting, too. The tone wouldn't be so negative if Obama had agreed to more debates. McCain's own lipstick comment was different because he was referring to health care.

You had to wonder: Are there any corners left for McCain? Is there any reason to trust that a man running this campaign would go on to be an honest president?"

5. Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly is an American television news anchor for the Fox News Channel. Kelly, a graduate of Albany Law School with an undergraduate degree in political science from Syracuse University, is an attorney who practiced as a litigator with Jones Day in New York City, Chicago and Washington, D.C. before leaving to pursue journalism. She joined Fox News in 2004.

"...but you guys (the mccain campaign) have suggested he's (obama) gonna raise taxes on the middle class and virtually every independant analysist who took a look at that claim says that's not true...they say that claim is false. and if that's false, why would john mccain do that...? why wouldn't he just level with the voters?"

4. David Brooks

David Brooks is a Canadian-American political and cultural commentator. Brooks served as a reporter for the Washington Times, a reporter and later op-ed editor for The New York Times, a senior editor at The Weekly Standard from its inception, a contributing editor at Newsweek and The Atlantic Monthly, and a commentator on NPR and The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

"Sarah Palin has many virtues. If you wanted someone to destroy a corrupt establishment, she’d be your woman. But the constructive act of governance is another matter. She has not been engaged in national issues, does not have a repertoire of historic patterns and, like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness."

3. The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal is an English-language international daily newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company in New York City with Asian and European editions. As of 2007, It has a worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million, with approximately 931,000 paying online subscribers.

"Last week, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain said his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, hadn't sought earmarks or special-interest spending from Congress, presenting her as a fiscal conservative. But state records show Gov. Palin has asked U.S. taxpayers to fund $453 million in specific Alaska projects over the past two years."

2. Karl Rove

Karl Rove (born December 25, 1950) was Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush until his resignation on August 31, 2007. He has headed the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Public Liaison, and the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives. Since leaving the White House, Rove has worked as a political analyst and contributor for Fox News, Newsweek, and the Wall Street Journal.

"McCain has gone in some of his ads -- similarly gone one step too far, and sort of attributing to Obama things that are, you know, beyond the '100 percent truth' test."

1. The St. Petersburg Times

The St. Petersburg Times is a daily newspaper based in St. Petersburg, Florida, that serves the larger Tampa Bay area. It has won six Pulitzers since 1964. It is published by the Times Publishing Company, which is owned by the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit journalism school in St. Petersburg directly adjacent to the University of South Florida campus in St. Petersburg.

"McCain's straight talk has become a toxic mix of lies and double-speak. It is leaving a permanent stain on his reputation for integrity, and it is a short-term strategy that eventually will backfire with the very types of independent-thinking voters that were so attracted to him.

He's more than willing in this election to put his name on campaign lies. The leader who says he would rather lose an election than lose a war now risks losing his reputation in an attempt to win the White House."