There’s a classic bit of stand-up comedy from the “Flip Wilson Show” in 1972 (you can find it on YouTube.com) where the great Albert Brooks imagines what might happen if the United States ever decided it needed a new national anthem.

Ben Grant, Maine’s Democratic Party chairman was a happy man on Wednesday, after hearing that voters repealed the ban on same-day voter registration.

Today we will tackle Herman Cain’s mounting pile of dirty laundry.

It was a bad week for displays of good character.

The Obama presidency has been very good to the political opposition, giving Republicans control of the House and now putting them in a position to take the Senate and White House as well.

When Andy Rooney died at age 92 last week, almost all the obituaries said he was a curmudgeon, which was meant as a compliment. As one who takes the old-fashioned view that if it’s in the newspaper it must be true, it appears to me that America’s status as No. 1 in curmudgeons has to be seriously threatened.

The 2011 off-year elections are a warning to Republicans. The 2010 party is over. 2012 will be a struggle.

Given the defeat of Questions 2 and 3 in Tuesday‘s voting, the leaders of Biddeford and Lewiston are going to have to find a sounder economic development plan than “playing the house odds.”