Over. And Obama now has a twelve point lead in South Carolina, according to Rasmussen. It’s hard to see how she can recover if he beats her well tomorrow.
First Column, Major Error
Kristol’s off to a great start, quoting Michelle Malkin when it was Michael Medved.
Changing The Paradigm
Jedediah Purdy on Obama’s "sweet spot":
This is what Obama’s critics on the left fail to understand, notably the usually invaluable Paul Krugman. Talk of unity and bridge-building may be a sign of weakness in the zero-sum game of ordinary politics. In the politics of realignment, when you can make the words do something, it is the mark of strength.
“What fresh hell is this?”
So . . . Republicans looking for a presidential candidate to inspire them are now faced with a tax-and-spend religious rightist who would have the federal government regulate everything from restaurant menus to local schools.
And Kristol brings up Obama’s nanny-statism.
Fired Up, Ready To Bore!
Dana Milbank visits the Clinton campaign in New Hampshire. You kinda don’t want your audience to be leaving in droves halfway through your Q and A:
Obama and the Right IV
A reader writes:
I was shocked to hear my father, a dyed in the wool Republican, say he’d vote for Obama before he voted for Hillary or Giuliani (he’s still a Romney guy). He said, "I’d rather vote for the young guy (Obama) than these two (Giuliani or Clinton)." By that he meant the cynical, machine candidates.
I said, "Dad, this (Obama) is like Bobby Kennedy running." He said, "I know."
My dad is a 75 year old Korean War vet, an Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan Republican. He said he understands my excitement about Obama and that he would vote for "Hillary or Obama" even over Giuliani, because "Giuliani is such a scumbag."
Andrew, you can’t believe the shock I feel that my father would even consider a Democrat. He says his favorite Dem is Richardson. If anyone wanted to know how scattered the Republican party is, consider my father. The man has an "R" floating through his bloodstream, yet he is seriously considering Dems.
Frum’s Conservative Soul
Ross likes David’s new book. I haven’t read it, but the reviews suggest it has many proposals that seem eminently sensible to me. Frum explains:
My big concern at the moment is precisely that the radical rise in American economic inequality since 1980 – and the serious slowdown of midde-class income growth that has set in since 2000 – will tempt America to adopt quack economic ideas that will impoverish this country and do radical damage to the world economy.
…
My prescription for that – for raising middle-class incomes – involves universal (private-sector) health insurance, curtailment of unskilled immigration, greater subsidies to lower-middle-income saving, and tax reforms aimed at lightening the burden of the payroll tax rather than the income tax – and a bunch of other ideas that will alas cause my old colleagues at the Wall Street Journal editorial page to sputter and cough.
“Naughty Deaf Roommates”
The hearing-impaired community gets its first porno company: Deaf Bunny. One deaf blogger writes:
My first thought: ‘Huh, so that’s what they talk about in porn.’ Interesting idea. I hope they keep it up.
Science and Race
Even though it’s a very crude marker, references to racial groups are simply inevitable in looming debates about science and genetics and politics:
The invisible hand of the market will inevitably nudge us toward the use of categories with the most cultural traction and that represents the biggest social groups. So, when genetic research leads to the development of a drug designed for a specific population, the marketing campaign will, naturally, be aimed at a visible racial category as opposed to the more precise sub-population. For example, marketing to "Blacks" is easier than marketing to individuals with Western African ancestry.
Hat tip: Matthew Nisbet.
