The Dish

My take here.

Peggy Noonan’s take on the GOP race:

Mr. McCain is in the middle of a shift. Previous strategy: I’m John McCain and you know me, we’ve traveled through history together. New strategy: I’m the old vet who fought on the front lines of the Reagan-era front, and I am about to take on the mantle of the essentials of conservatism—lower spending, smaller government, strong in the world. He is going to strike the great Reagan gong, not in a way that is new but in a way that is new for him…

Do conservatives take inspiration from Mr. Romney’s newness? Or do they take comfort and security from Mr. McCain’s rugged ability to endure, and to remind?

William Greider on the Clintons’ formula:

The recent roughing-up of Barack Obama was in the trademark style of the Clinton years in the White House. High-minded and self-important on the surface, smarmily duplicitous underneath, meanwhile jabbing hard to the groin area. They are a slippery pair and come as a package. The nation is at fair risk of getting them back in the White House for four more years. The thought makes me queasy.

A Red Stater says that since Bill Clinton isn’t a candidate for federal office – like George W. Bush – unlimited money can be spent attacking him in the campaign. Yes: it really is back to the 1990s.

I suppose there are worse ways for Milwaukee to spend $85,000.

"This is good practice for me so, you know, when I take on these Republicans I’ll be accustomed to it," – Barack Obama on the Clintons’ tactics.

A noun:

The inability to become aroused over any of the choices for president put forth by either party in the 2008 election year.

"I felt, once again, that there was this underlying hostility for homosexuals and Democrats and, well, hippie types. I cannot tell you how much I did not want liberal or gay people to be my enemies. I liked them. The real issue in the Christian community was that (love) was conditional … You were loved in word, but there was, without question, a social commodity that was being withheld from you until you shaped up," – Donald Miller, author of "Blue Like Jazz: Nonreligious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality."

Alexander Nazaryan makes the case:

When Gawker first began, blogs were a renegade enterprise, sniping away at the edges of the media empire. They were seductive, and maybe even a little bit illicit. But now, some five years later, each newspaper has a plethora of blogs, and any major event will be blogged about before a drop of ink is spilled.

These days, for a blog to continue to be relevant, it cannot merely take shots at the media: rather, it needs to offer the same quality of writing that one expects from a newspaper or magazine. The best blogs are essentially fora for the kinds of shorter pieces that might not make it into a monthly, or even a weekly, journal. They are not, as Gawker has become, a repository for YouTube videos or celebrity sightings.

According to this poll, Obama is doing fine with Latinos. He beats Clinton 53 to 17 percent. of course, differnt Hispanic populations in different states have different perspectives. Obama is third among South Carolina whites, though.