The Dish

Ajijic, Mexico, 5.45 pm.

Hillary goes negative in Wisconsin:

The election campaign heats up:

The political advertisements provide a revealing lens on the campaign strategies of Pakistan’s political parties.  The People’s Party has been light on policy, though it has long been associated with the pro-poor slogan "Roti, Kapra, Makan" (Bread, Clothing, and a Home), and bullish on its newest martyr, Benazir Bhutto.  Before Benazir’s murder, the PPP mobilized the masses with a charismatic populism, and this approach has only intensified afterward.  Both the Muslim League-Quaid and Muslim League-Nawaz present themselves as results-oriented governors behind far-reaching economic development and humanitarian projects.  Both try to say, "We get stuff done."  But while the PML-Q lacks a popular base and a central figure, Nawaz Sharif has a loyal following in northern Punjab and transformed from a Zia-protege to a man of his own semi-charismatic self.  He has long been the development guy, but now Sharif also seeks to be the defender of the judiciary, media, and inflation-struck poor and middle classes.

Yglesias says Clinton still has some strength:

…the most recent poll of Ohio shows Clinton with a big lead, and considering the convincing nature of Clinton’s wins in states like Arizona, Oklahoma, and California I think you need to assume she’ll win there until we see some kind of poll offering clear evidence to the contrary. Obama’s put together a string of impressive wins, but it’s still the case that in the Democratic Party women outnumber men, whites outnumber blacks, working class people outnumber college educated professionals, and senior citizens outnumber under-thirties. Under the circumstances, Clinton continues to be in a strong position.

All salient points. But this is a campaign. Campaigns are dynamic. They have mood and momentum. On both, the Clintons are in more trouble than they have ever been in an election before (barring Bill’s failed re-election as Arkansas governor).

"After an impressive 24 quarters of economic growth, it only took newly anointed Speaker Pelosi and her liberal colleagues less than one year to hobble a previously growing economy," – Tom Feeney.

A political parable – and one that tells us so much.

Joe Gandelman on the weird dynamic:

[McCain] will have to do what most candidates don’t do during elections: move more to the right to try and appease the hard-line conservatives.

Victor Hanson speculates:

For McCain to win in this current anti-incumbent, anti-Republican climate of war and economic uncertainty, everything will have to break right — the base will have to make a choice for the better, not the best, alternative and soon cool the rhetoric; the VP choice will have to be inspired; independents and moderates will have to be convinced that McCain’s unique life-story and national security fides trump all else; and he will have to wage an effective campaign, hope his opponents don’t, and trust that Iraq will continue to improve while the economy is stabilized.

Not too encouraging.

For many women, so much is in the head:

We have measured autonomic and brain activity during orgasms that women have produced by thought alone. During the thought orgasms, the magnitude of the increases in heart rate, blood pressure, pain threshold, pupil diameter, and brain regions are similar to those that we observe during vaginal or cervical self-stimulation-induced orgasms (Whipple et al., 1992). It is not surprising that in those cases of thought-induced orgasms, the specific genital sensory thalamic and cortical, and specific limb-motoric regions, are not activated.

Men just don’t have that option, I guess. More here.