By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER CONVICTED FELON Tony Rezko. Unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers. And the race-baiting Rev. Jeremiah Wright. It's hard to think of any presidential candidate before Barack Obama sporting associations with three more execrable characters.

By Charles Krauthammer "There are two questions we will never have to ask ourselves, 'Who is this man?' and 'Can we trust this man with the presidency.'" -- Fred Thompson on John McCain, Sept.

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER READ THE FIRST five paragraphs of the NATO statement on the Russian invasion of Georgia and you will find not a hint of who invaded whom. The statement is almost comically evenhanded. "We deplore all loss of life," it declared, as if deploring a bus accident.

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER GAS is $4 a gallon. Oil is $135 a barrel and rising. We import two-thirds of our oil, sending hundreds of billions of dollars to the likes of Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.

By Charles Krauthammer WASHINGTON -- Gas is $4 a gallon. Oil is $135 a barrel and rising. We import two-thirds of our oil, sending hundreds of billions of dollars to the likes of Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia.