“REGULAR PEOPLE”

That appears to be the new Bob Forehead term deployed by the Democrats. John Edwards, in particular, seems to have retired the “Working Families” mantra in favor of the “Regular People” formula. Maybe these things work. But the way in which these focus-group locutions deaden the language, rob it of any life or meaning or specificity is truly depressing. No “regular people” talk about “regular people.” My other problem with Edwards is that he’s a Southerner. For the Democrats to nominate a Southerner for the fourth time in four election cycles may make electoral college sense, but it still slights the parts of the country that are more dependably Democratic. Still, I like his politics – they seem sanely to the right of, say, Al Gore. And he has a touch of the Tony Blair about him: the slick yet somehow earnest combination. Hard to pull off.

WILL BLOGGING PAY? The prospects are looking brighter. John Scalzi just got a book contract because of a blog serialization. And my first pay check (thanks to you) comes in two weeks. Woohoo.

GREEN BUSH: Belated recognition of this administration’s tight diesel fuel emission standards. The news got some play, but we’re still a long way from denting the reflexive Bush-is-anti-environment chorus. The administration bears some responsibility for this. The diesel fuel decision is a real pro-environment call – not just blather – that the president should have gotten real credit for. It should have been announced in dramatic, news-making fashion, by the president himself. Instead, it was buried in turn-of-the-year blahs. A lost opportunity. If I were Mr Rove, I’d be planning several pro-green initiatives for the next two years, with major presidential backing for them. Get Matthew Scully to write the speech. Show why responsible conservatism cares about the natural world, its conservation, its health. There’s a record here. Trumpet it. And force the lazy hacks to change their script.

SCHEER ILLOGIC: Here’s a classic from Robert Scheer in the Nation:

In fact, the Shiite fundamentalists must be high-fiving in Tehran over the costly American makeover of Central Asia. These fundamentalists would be the biggest benefactors of any takedown of neighboring Iraq, as they were when the United States installed Iran’s longtime puppets, the Northern Alliance, as top dogs in Afghanistan.

Does Scheer really believe that the fundamentalist tyrants clinging to power in Tehran want a successful regime change next door? And yet he’s the one accusing the Bush administration of illogic.