Some see portable nuclear power as an energy breakthrough. Others as a Jihadist wet dream. (Are they allowed wet dreams?) I fear the worst, of course. More here.
Ah, Yes. Clinton’s Real Problem
"I have no problem whatever with looking at old women, their hair turned gray (or white), their faces filled with wrinkles. They have a certain grandeur to them. They’ve earned their gray hairs and wrinkles. I have no problem looking at Hillary Clinton. My problem is that I don’t want to listen to her for the next four or eight years," – The Glittering Eye.
I kinda like the old hag look. Gandhi, Thatcher and Meir were weathered. But Hillary is too insecure to go with her wrinkles.
Winning Ugly
That’s what the Democrats want, when polled nationally. Clinton’s national lead in the Fox poll is pretty stunning, given her struggles in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. The salience of national polls is iffy, of course, but it’s still a striking result. Obama may have peaked too soon to stymie the Clinton smear machine. But the Dem voters have their eyes open:
Democrats are much more likely to say Clinton "would do anything to win" compared with her competitors, and is almost three times as likely to be "practicing dirty politics during the campaign."
The classic Clinton smears and lies are fine with the base, it seems. Like Paul Krugman, they seem to want more of the polarization of the past, more politics as revenge. Meanwhile, the Republicans nationally are a three-way race: Giuliani, McCain and Huckabee. Again: one should use caution in national numbers. But the McCain surge seems to be real.
Richelieu’s Gut
The Weekly Standard’s lower intestine detects a Huckacrash in Iowa.
Halperin vs Drudge
What can he possibly mean by this?
Why is Drudge highlighting the McCain story, but has not touched other political hot potatoes that are swirling in the ether? Answer that, and you probably will have a better handle on who the major parties will nominate than any polling data can give you.
That’s way more conspiratorial than I’d wager. Drudge has an internal NYT scoop. It’s hot news. Why do you need any more explanation than that?
Megan On Ron Paul
A spirited attack:
Ron Paul is not going to win. Ron Paul is the ultimate refutation of the notion that money is what determines races. Like fellow Texan Ross Perot, Paul appeals to people who are fed up with the political process, including a lot of libertarians. But many of his positions are deeply unpopular, and he can’t triangulate because his precise appeal to his supporters is the image of standing rock-steady in the face of politics-as-usual. Nor has he, as far as I can tell, injected his own politics into the race by forcing other candidates to kowtow to him. Since he can’t win, and isn’t forcing other candidates to react, why not use the platform he has to push a single issue? Not the Iraq war, upon which no one seems open to much persuasion, but something where he might conceivably actually change America a little? Wasting it on actually trying to get elected seems extravagant.
Ron Paul has some beliefs that I like, such as his opposition to eminent domain abuse. But he also has a number of beliefs that are, not to put too fine a point on it, utterly insane. The gold standard is one; the belief that NAFTA is a trojan horse for the North American Union is another. Much of his persona, sincere or not, seems to boil down to "Foreigners are scary, and people who like foreigners are plotting to take away all your stuff."
I’m wth Matt:
If you’re as dyspeptic about both political parties as Megan claims to be it seems to me that a protest vote for Ron Paul on a Libertarian Party line would be the best thing to do.
My own endorsement of Paul is more about protesting what has happened to this country and to the GOP than about whom Paul would make defense secretary. I have a feeling that I’m not the only one.
“No Recollection”
That’s different than a denial, as Froomkin observes. There are, I think, two options. Either the president was utterly unaware of a torture session of a key al Qaeda suspect where the methods were, according to Kiriakou, meticulously recorded and approved all the way up the chain of command; or he knew all of it. Either he is a war criminal or an incompetent. I don’t think he’s that incompetent. The more we find out, the clearer it is that the torture program was the primary pillar of this president’s war policy – before the Afghanistan war or the Iraq war. Every formulaic statement – "we do not torture;" "I have no recollection" – is related to that fact. And they destroyed the tapes not just to protect themselves, but to protect him.
Yes, this is like Watergate. But that was a petty break-in the president covered up. These are war crimes. Directed from the very top.
Shorter Romney
Cris Kelly sums up what we actually know:
We can all agree that George Romney and Martin Luther King were both alive in June, 1963.
A Guitar Hero Epiphany
An eye-witness account of a teen nailing the most difficult song on Guitar Hero in a Best Buy. Yes, kids these days …:
There is complete silence. Even my son is staring slackjawed, like he does in church during communion, not understanding the content of the ritual but understanding the tone and sacredness of the space. At just over 6 minutes, the song becomes even more ludicrous. While actually playing it will ever remain for me an uncrossable gap, I am enough a student of the form to recognize the crux. He is Lance Armstrong approaching the bottom of Alpe D’Huez: Will he attack? Kyle has yet to use the Star Power crutch he has carried throughout his meditation. He continues to ignore it.
If you’re curious what this looks and sounds like:
Merry Christmas, dudes. Hat tip: Kottke.
The Energy Bill
Good news, I’d say:
One of the bill’s most valuable and least-discussed features is the more than $6.5 billion in energy research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) funding the bill appropriates for the next decade, including $1 billion for renewable energy programs and $2 billion for carbon capture and sequestration RD&D, both spread over the next 5 years.
Unleashing the private sector would be preferable, but I see no real response to climate change that doesn’t include a technological breakthrough and some basic government research can help. Plus: phasing out incandescent bulbs! Of course, Malkin is pissed. There aren’t other examples of government meddling worth more concern? Drum weighs in here. My favorite response:
When I was I kid, I maybe thought that by my old age (I’ll turn 61 in 2020) I’d be flying around like the Jetsons — I never guessed that society would long for a Ford Fiesta.
Heh.
