The Dish

Knut the polar bear, a "publicity-addicted psycho." And Matt Yglesias comes out as a bear. A straight, white one.

Peter Sprigg apologizes for his earlier comment:

In response to a question regarding bi-national same-sex couples who are separated by an international border, I used language that trivialized the seriousness of the issue and did not communicate respect for the essential dignity of every human being as a person created in the image of God. I apologize for speaking in a way that did not reflect the standards which the Family Research Council and I embrace

Larison on the anti-war vote:

As I have said before, arguments over Vietnam, like arguments over Iraq, are not simply arguments over a military campaign overseas.  If they were, cost-benefit analysis and simple pragmatism would offer the obvious course of action: get out and get out now.  National polling shows that two-thirds of the country want us out within two years, but this obscures the fact that disapproving of the war does not mean that all the current opponents of the war embrace a thoroughgoing antiwar narrative; many of them certainly would not share my characterisations of the war as immoral and illegal.  So, instead of being arguments about policy, they are arguments about “values” and American identity.  Simply put, the party that has tended to be antiwar during the last 36 years has also been the party on the losing side of these other arguments, even when they have been right on the policy question, and so they have lost time after time in presidential elections where these arguments are most powerful.  An Obama-McCain contest will be an almost perfect test of this proposition.

I’ve read Thomas Merton, of course, but I had never actually heard him till now. And then a friend sent me these rare and recently posted Youtubes where you actually hear his voice. His lectures on Aquinas’s "Ways Of God" are quite remarkable but there is something about the tone, the matter-of-factness, the openness and humor and occasional gruffness – so human and yet so obviously full of the divine. I have often wondered what Jesus himself sounded like, although I have in times of great darkness almost heard his tone. I hear that tone in Merton.

I know you probably don’t have time today but if you are curious about what an open, beautiful faith Christianity can be, do yourself a favor. Part One is here; follow the Youtubes from there.

A reader writes:

A cold night in Venice.  We found ourselves in an empty campo, and a warm restaurant.  The staff welcomed us with humor and grace — both important as we arrived with a sleeping four year old in a stroller. Our waiter, Salvatore, asked us where we were from, and the moment he learned we were from America, he asked, "So.  Are you voting for Obama?" We told him we were, and he replied, "Good.  I like a woman president, but not this one.  Bush, Clinton, the president should not be a family business. It’s time for something new."

We talked about this in the campo after, and how it confirmed our own hopes.  That Obama’s election will confer blessings on our country beyond the obvious.

It’s a small thing, I know. But it was nice to be far from all the scorched earth and kitchen sinks and find ourselves able, if only for a moment, to consider the opportunity his candidacy affords us.

Montrose, Colorado, 8.15 am.

Ross discusses McCain’s foreign policy speech:

Obama’s speech cast the Iraq War as a financial sinkhole, draining billions or even trillions of dollars from America’s coffers. He rolled out a litany of domestic goals that could be pursued with the money the United States is spending trying to stabilize Iraq, and cast the debate over whether to withdraw as a choice between an ruinously expensive nation-building effort on the one hand, and universal health care, affordable college education, tax cuts for the middle class, and "protecting Social Security today, tomorrow, and forever." McCain, by contrast, spoke the language of honor, duty and obligation, and cast the question of whether to leave Iraq in starkly moral terms: "To walk away from the Iraqi people and consign them to … horrendous violence, ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide," he argued, would represent "an unconscionable act of betrayal, a stain on our character as a great nation."

To a war-weary nation, Obama’s cool pragmatism has obvious appeal, but on a fundamental level McCain’s calculus is the right one.

America’s responsibility for the current stability and future prospects of Iraq — a poor, tyrannized nation that our policies have plunged into bloody chaos — can’t be waved away by pointing out that we could be spending those billions on ourselves instead. If Obama wants to claim the moral as well as the political high ground, he can’t just make the case that Americans will be better off if the United States withdraws from Iraq; he needs to mount a persuasive argument that Iraqis will be better off as well.

As the campaign goes on, we see that a segment of (but by no means all) older white Democrats has a persistent problem with Obama. This is Clinton’s real base. Pew:

White Democrats who hold unfavorable views of Obama are much more likely than those who have favorable opinions of him to say that equal rights for minorities have been pushed too far; they also are more likely to disapprove of interracial dating, and are more concerned about the threat that immigrants may pose to American values. In addition, nearly a quarter of white Democrats (23%) who hold a negative view of Obama believe he is a Muslim.

Chait:

There’s been plenty of supposition, and some anecdotal evidence, to suggest that conservative views on race have hurt Obama among older whites. The Pew poll, though, is the first I’ve seen to establish this relationship empirically.

A certain residual core will never accept gays either. I’ve learned that the hard way. But the future is being forged in this election. It really is a generational battle in so many ways. It’s beyond right and left; it’s really about the future and the past. And the future is never born without struggle.

Noam doesn’t buy Balz’s claim that a prolonged primary is helping the Democrats.

So says PEW, echoing NBC:

…the Wright controversy does not appear to have undermined support for Obama’s candidacy. The latest nationwide survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 19-22 among 1,503 adults, finds that Obama maintains a 49% to 39% advantage over Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, which is virtually unchanged from than the 49% to 40% lead he held among Democrats in late February. Obama and Clinton continue to enjoy slight advantages over John McCain in general election matchups among all registered voters.

The new polling suggests that the Wright affair has not hurt Obama’s standing, in part because his response to the controversy has been viewed positively by voters who favor him over Clinton. Obama’s handling of the Wright controversy also won a favorable response from a substantial proportion of Clinton supporters and even from a third of Republican voters.

Know hope.