Rogue, the X-Man, has the superpower of sucking the life out of everything she touches. Palin, the ex-governor, can relate.

The first time she unleashed her great power, you’ll recall, she killed John McCain’s 2008 election bid (albeit not an extraordinary feat). Then, mere months after returning to Alaska, she terminated her own governorship amidst mounting ethics complaints — and mounting speculation that her 15 minutes of fame might be up.

It ain’t easy being an elephant. Even the tea baggers (as they prefer to be called) don’t have any love for the Grand Old Party. No, the Republicans lost most of their support from the Ron-Paul-loving-militia-raising-tax-abstaining-home-schooling-Obama-was-born-in-Cairo crazies with their party’s tepid support of TARP. Although the talking heads scream about the democrats’ impending demise due to sinking polls and a degenerative debate on health care, the GOP is the party with real problems. Democrats control the House, the Senate, the Executive Branch and have made serious gains in local and state governments across the nation. Even outside Washington, Republicans continue to struggle with a series of scandals that seem to sweep over the asses across the aisle.

“Raise your hand if you’re a senior … You’re screwed,” George E. Pataki jokingly told Cornell undergraduates searching for jobs in the face of “tough economic times.”

In his lecture titled, “Economy in Crisis: An Insider’s View on the State of the Economy,” Pataki, the former governor of New York, made efforts yesterday to boost the spirits of his audience at Bailey Hall, telling them “to keep [their] eyes on the big picture.”

Pataki pointed to the optimistic and pragmatic character of the American people as well as to the limited nature of the nation’s government as innate qualities that will ensure that the United States will weather the current economic storm.

With George W. Bush skipping town and Colin Powell divorcing the GOP, the Republican Party has been searching desperately for a new romance.

Jealous that the Democrats found their soul-mate in Barack Obama, the heartbroken Party tried to rekindle an old flame with John McCain, but it seemed the age difference was just too large.

Discouraged but not defeated, Republicans took a chance with Sarah Palin. The affair fizzled, however, when the party realized that there is much less to Palin than meets the eye.

As Barack Obama transitions into his first presidential term, he will be backed by an overwhelming Democratic majority in Congress including the addition of at least five new Democratic seats in the Senate and at least 20 in the House. A few weeks after the election, Republican officials remain busy speculating about where they went wrong and which direction they need to move toward in the future.

Most Republican leaders blame the losses on their inability to build a cohesive platform that could resonate with a more diverse group of voters than just the party’s base. The elections exposed the strong divide between the different factions within the party, specifically between the fiscal and social conservatives.

When filling out my absentee ballot, I checked off every Republican, including a white-haired war veteran from Arizona.

But I’m not going to tell you to do the same or tell you why I think they’ll run the country better than others.

I have a Ronald Reagan poster in my bedroom and a McCain-Palin bumper sticker on my car. I gave Governor Mike Huckabee a standing ovation when he spoke at Bailey Hall last spring.

But I’m not going to advocate that you do the same.

What you do is your business. What you believe is your decision. How you express your beliefs is also at your discretion. And I’m not going to think any less or more of you because of who you support and what you believe.

Who am I to judge?

“How dare they!” shouted Rudy Guiliani, “How dare they question whether Palin will have enough time to spend with her children while vice president? When do they ever ask a man that question?”

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was released from a St. Louis hospital Thursday after spending the night to undergo tests for flu-like symptoms.

"I feel great. Take care. Merry Christmas, I'm feeling fine thanks to the hospital. They did a good job," a smiling and waving Giuliani said as he left Barnes-Jewish Hospital en route to returning to New York.

His campaign said he would make planned stops in New Hampshire Saturday and Sunday.

The former New York mayor felt the symptoms while campaigning for the nomination in Missouri, and they soon became worse, campaign spokeswoman Katie Levinson said late Wednesday. She did not describe the symptoms beyond those being commonly associated with the flu.