While I am not in the business of totally dismissing the Republican Party's chances of making waves, I don't know that I agree with the Chron's idea that Tom Craddick has been significantly buoyed by what's happened thus far in this election cycle. But there it is.

Also, here are two takes - one from the Dallas Morning News and one from the Star-Telegram - on Perry's decision to run again.

Well, dear readers, we're officially into the final weekend before Pennsylvania votes on Tuesday. Thanks to the hit job/talk radio's greatest hits/debate/farce that ABC put on earlier this week, the traditional media is abuzz with all the important issues like flag pins, whether or not Reverend Jeremiah Wright loves America (he is still not running for office, in case you were curious) and what happened on that runway at Tuzla instead of those boring old issues like the economy, foreign policy and health care.

Pope Benedict XVI is wrapping up his first trip to the United States as Pontiff this weekend. This morning he addressed the United Nations and this afternoon he became the first Pope to visit an American synagogue. Besides being the first foreign leader to be greeted at Andrews Air Force Base personally by President Bush, the Pontiff has also held mass at a packed Yankee Stadium and a packed Nationals Park (the Washington Nationals' new ballpark).

Howard Dean is trying to put The Fear into the superdelegates that remain uncommitted, saying he needs their decision as of immediately.

When I'm telling potential candidates the kind of stuff they have to do in order to get elected, I often talk about earned media. Earned media is where you do stuff and the media reports on it, getting you in the paper without having to pay for it. A felony burglary charge, however, is the wrong kind of earned media.

Finally, we have an answer to what Fox News actually means when they say they're fair and balanced!

Via Think Progress, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff recently served up a real dog's breakfast on the topic of fingerprints as biometric data and privacy. While attending a conference in Canada, Secretary Chertoff had the following exchange with a reporter:

QUESTION: Some are raising that the privacy aspects of this thing, you know, sharing of that kind of data, very personal data, among four countries is quite a scary thing.

Governor Rick Perry announced his intentions to seek re-election in 2010 at a forum in Grapevine on Thursday. When asked by the Dallas Morning News about the possibility of facing Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst in what would be the most entertaining Republican primary in years, Governor Perry simply said "I don't know about the other two. You need to ask them."

Here's what "the other two" had to say:

Via CNN, more disturbing news about the state of the Transportation Safety Administration. This time it's about the state of the air marshal program:

More than a dozen current and former marshals said that so many federal air marshals have resigned and are not being replaced, airport screeners are being employed to fill the dwindling ranks.

But the Transportation Security Administration says that's not true and that the rate of those leaving has remained at 6.5 percent a year since 2001.

In a unique 7-2 decision in Baze vs. Rees, the Supreme Court upheld that Kentucky's three drug mix used for execution by lethal injection does not constitute cruel and unusual punishment. This decision was unique because there were seven different opinions written on the case and Chief Justice Roberts' deciding opinion was joined by only two other Justices (Kennedy and Alito).