Dissent of the Day

A reader writes:

Bass players everywhere finally find their candidate, and you’re going to deny us this?  We knew Sid Vicious and Sting were foreign-born, and that Dee Dee Ramone was unelectable; Geddy Lee was terrible on the stump and Krist Novoselic was a one-issue pony on Bosnia. 

But with Huckabee, finally an electable bass player. You and the MSM are conspiring to get this wrong and rob us of our time.

The Wider Appeal Of Huckabee

A helpful analysis from Michael Medved:

According to the exit polls used by major news networks, a majority of voters who described themselves as “evangelical” or “born again” Christians actually voted against Huckabee –with 54% splitting their support among Romney, McCain, Thompson and Ron Paul. Yes, Huckabee’s 46% of Evangelicals was a strong showing, but it was directly comparable to his commanding 40% of women, or 40% of all voters under the age of 30, or 41% of those earning less than $30,000 a year. His powerful appeal to females, the young and the poor make him a different kind of Republican, who connects with voting blocs the GOP needs to win back. He’s hardly the one-dimensional religious candidate of media caricature.

The Politics of Doctor Who

Well, I’m interested anyway:

In general, we noticed the Doctor is more likely to overthrow the government on alien planets, or in the distant future. When he visits present-day Earth or our history, he’s an arch-conservative. (He ousts Harriet Jones as prime minister of England in "The Christmas Invasion," but that’s not the same as destroying the whole government.) Also, the Doctor acted out way more during the Thatcher era than any other period. During the Blair/Gordon Brown eras, he’s been quite well-behaved.

The Clintons’ Mistake

They simply misjudged the mood. By focusing on the Penn-trees, they missed the Obama-forest:

Another adviser said Mr. Penn and Mr. Clinton were consumed with polling data for so long, they did not fully grasp the personality deficit that Mrs. Clinton had with voters.

Obama’s victory over Clinton in Iowa reminds me ever-so-slightly of how Bill Clinton once beat George H. W. Bush. And that’s got to hurt.

Clinton and African Americans

She has a very perilous path ahead. A reader writes:

I have been having some email exchanges with friends of mine about what happens next after Obama’s win in Iowa.  We are all 30-something, educated, professional, black men and the consensus seems to be that Obama is going to be smeared big time via surrogates and whisper campaigns in order to put Hillary Clinton back on top. I am not so sure, but everyone else believes it to be a forgone conclusion. But here is the kicker, if that does happen and it works, we have all said that Hillary can forget getting our vote in November. None of us are going to vote Republican.  We’ll all vote in our local, state, and congressional races,  But the vote for president will either be left blank, third party, or better yet, we are talking about writing in Obama

Hillary smears Obama at her peril come November.

Call And Response

It isn’t just Obama who is winning this campaign. It is the infectious conviction of his supporters:

Barack Obama’s campaign won the organization battle at the 100 Club. They got signs into his supporters’ hands, and must have issued instructions to not save the sign-waving for his speech. So visibility through the night was theirs. But the swell and crackle of energy in the room when he spoke? That was organic, and it was overwhelming. Every time Obama started to lose me with a line I’ve heard one time too many this long campaign season, the crowd would bring me back in.