Month: January 2008

"The winner of Florida will win the nomination," – Rudy Giuliani.

Actor Sylvester Stallone at ‘John Rambo’ press conference today. By Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images.

By looking at his journals, Evan Zimroth tries to decode the private life of John Maynard Keynes:

Keynes obsessively counted and tabulated almost everything; it was a life-long habit. As a child, he counted the number of front steps of every house on his street. Later he kept a running record (not surprisingly) of his expenses and his golf scores. He also counted and tabulated his sex life.

The first diary is easy: Keynes lists his sexual partners, either by their initials (GLS for Lytton Strachey, DG for Duncan Grant) or their nicknames ("Tressider," for J. T. Sheppard, the King’s College Provost). When he apparently had a quick, anonymous hook-up, he listed that sex partner generically: "16-year-old under Etna" and "Lift boy of Vauxhall" in 1911, for instance, and "Jew boy," in 1912.

This list, where he names names but gives no details, Keynes organized year-by-year. He was scrupulously honest, too, even in times of sexual famine. For three years running—1903 to 1905—he records no sexual partners; ‘nil,’ he admitted. As he became older, though, the number of his partners increased dramatically, so that for 1911 he lists eight partners (although half of these are probably one-time pick-ups), for 1915 he lists seven, and for 1913 (his highest score) he lists nine different partners. One or two men are repeaters: DG (Duncan Grant), for example, runs throughout.

The other sex diary is more puzzling and, in a way, more informative. An economist to the core, Keynes organized the second sex diary also year-by-year, but this time in quarterly increments.

Unfortunately for us, however, this second sex diary is in code. And as far as I know, no one yet has been prurient enough to crack it.

(hat tip: Kottke)

Bainbridge does some very helpful spadework that should allay conservative fears about McCain’s judicial picks.

"This latest move by Kennedy, is so telling about the status of and respect for women’s rights, women’s voices, women’s equality, women’s authority and our ability – indeed, our obligation – to promote and earn and deserve and elect, unabashedly, a President that is the first woman after centuries of men who ‘know what’s best for us,’" – Marcia Pappas, president of New York State’s chapter of NOW.

Dave Barry knows:

It’s still wide open. Mitt "Mitt" Romney holds a slight edge in delegates, plus a heifer he got for winning Wyoming. Right behind him are John McCain, Chuck Norris and the late Ronald Reagan. Bringing up the rear is Rudy, who needs a win and has been frantically courting Florida voters. He’s mowing your lawn right now.

Thanks for the many emails from DC today. Here’s a typical dispatch:

Just got back from trying to attend Barack’s AU speech. Couldn’t get in – place was too jam-packed. Passed a similarly rebuffed Chris Matthews on my way out. The line stretched for about a mile from Bender Arena, winding down two neighboring streets. Of the hundreds waiting in line outside I saw every age group and demographic possible. I eavesdropped on conversations between college students and picked up a dropped ham sandwich for an older gent in his sixties. Saw a few diva-looking types in mink coats and folks in baseball caps and jackets.

As the Bourne Ultimatum would have it, the asset has arrived.

Another reader:

It was multi-racial, mutli-generational crowd who were beyond enthused. It really did feel like a movement — the excitement was absolutely palpable. On the line, everyone was chatting about how they used to support Clinton during his presidency. They loved him. They felt so let down and disgusted, as well as disgusted with those who shrug and explain away the Clintons’ sliminess as simply pragmatic, as "what it takes." One said if you told her then that she would be rallying for a candidate running against Hillary for president, she never would have believed it. Everyone agreed.

They’re not even hiding it any more.

"Cynicism towards the kind of vaporous flapdoodle Obama trades in is fully justified, and ought to be encouraged. Doubt that an Obama administration will be able to do any better with the nation’s issues than a Clinton, McCain, Romney, or Paul administration, is likewise fully justified, given Obama’s lack of executive experience, or of experience in any real job; as is doubt that the things Obama says he wants to do, are desirable. Fear that an Obama administration will just take more of our money to sluice away on bureaucratic extravaganzas, ditto.

The man’s a hard-left socialist, for Heaven’s sake. Anyone falling for this stuff learned nothing from the later 20th century," – John Derbyshire, failing to catch the Obama wave.

I would expect no less. But "hard-left socialist" is too crude. Obama is more interesting than that.

Now I know why David Gergen goes to Davos:

Hat tip: JPod.