Romney’s Big Mistake?

Ross writes:

Instead of making the conversation about issues where Huckabee is vulnerable and Romney isn’t, the Romney campaign has guaranteed that for the next two weeks at least and probably beyond, the media conversation will be about, well, Mormonism. If there were more time before the actual voting begins, that might not be the worst thing in the world; they could get the wave of coverage out of the way, inoculate themselves to some extent, and then shift gears and start hammering Huckabee on taxes and immigration and so forth. But there isn’t time: Christmas is coming, there’s a very narrow window in which to define Mike Huckabee as a Mexican-loving crypto-liberal, and the Romney campaign has just ensured that everyone will be talking about the Urim and the Thummim instead of the Arkansas gas tax. Unless Romney gives the best speech in the history of speeches, I just don’t see how that helps him win – in Iowa, New Hampshire, or anywhere.

I think it all depends on the speech itself. Romney will be given a national platform. How he handles it will be telling.

Tsar Vladimir

Piggydmitrykostyukovafpgetty

If you add it all up, around 80 percent of the vote:

Discomfort with the election is evident in wide swaths of Russian society, even including Russian security forces. The overwhelming majority of Russians, one survey puts it at 69 percent, suspected even before the election that the results would be manipulated. In a survey by Moscow’s Levada Institute, 94 percent of those polled said they had "absolutely no influence" on politics in their country.

David Hearst on Putin’s new options:

He has enough of a majority in parliament to change the constitution. But he could equally well decide to anoint a successor as president, confident in the knowledge that he is popular enough in the country to be able to dominate from whatever other position he chooses for himself. His aides have recently floated the idea of Putin leaving the presidency but remaining "a national leader" – whatever that is. But if there is a choice between putting a weak placeman in power as president (such as his current prime minister Viktor Zubkov) and a strong one (such as his hawkish defence minister Sergei Ivanov) this result paradoxically favours the latter. It means that Putin is so well-established in the national consciousness, that he can afford to put a stronger man in as president, paying slightly less heed to the risk of splitting the leadership of Russia.

(Photo: Supporters of pro-Kremlin Young Russia movement stand near a cage with piglets symbolising, according to them, mercenary Russian politicians, serving US national interests as they celebrate the overwhelming victory by President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party in parliamentary elections in central Moscow, 03 December 2007. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday hailed his party’s landslide election victory, even as Western governments voiced concern and urged the Kremlin to investigate allegations of fraud. By Dmitry Kostyukov/AFP/Getty.)

The Case For McCain

Pieter Dorsman blogs:

John McCain is in all likelihood the only man who can soft-land the Bush agenda in calmer waters by taking the sharper edges (think torture, think measurable milestones in Iraq) off a legacy that was not flawed in principle, but flawed in its execution.

A reader dissents:

My problem with McCain is that he has said over and over again that even if we knew there were no WMD in Iraq he would still have invaded.

The plain truth is that invading Iraq was wrong. Iraq posed no imminent threat. You can’t go around killing people or nations just because you think they MIGHT do something. There has to be an imminent threat before you can use force. That principle applies to people as well as nations.

Bob Reich Bashes Clinton

Ouch. Her Majesty’s assault on Obama’s character gets him particularly pissed off:

I just don’t get it. If there’s anyone in the race whose history shows unique courage and character, it’s Barack Obama. HRC’s campaign, by contrast, is singularly lacking in conviction about anything. Her pollster, Mark Penn, has advised her to take no bold positions and continuously seek the political center, which is exactly what she’s been doing.

All is fair in love, war, and politics. But this series of slurs doesn’t serve HRC well. It will turn off voters in Iowa, as in the rest of the country. If she’s worried her polls are dropping, this is not the way to build them back up.