Honesty is a virtue, but his macho claim that, while he might once have changed a nappy in an emergency, he had never cooked a meal at home was a strange boast for someone wanting to lead a party that has haemorrhaged support among women and younger voters.

ECONOMIST: Bagehot

It was a wonderful and strange little Christmas party, with us speaking no Dutch and the nuns speaking no English, except for the tiny bit Mother Superior knew.

NPR: Kate Nolan, WWII Combat Nurse

Meanwhile, Mr Brown is these days in danger of becoming the champion of both the Labour left and the anti-European Tory press: a strange political base for the party's arch-moderniser.

ECONOMIST: Tony Blair and Gordon Brown can't go on like this

Although it is worth remembering too that none of the mainstream parties in Dublin would be likely to enter coalition talks with Sinn Fein until the IRA decommissions its weapons - a strange reflection of the problem the party faces North of the Irish border.

BBC: Sinn Fein in the spotlight

In a strange twist to bipartisanship, both McCain and Bradley -- political outsiders who are running against their own party establishment and the establishments' favorite candidates -- find themselves employing the same themes, even, at times, using eerily similar language.

CNN: By Stuart Rothenberg/