Goodbye, Sarah Palin

Well, that's done. Look, I like Sarah Palin. I'm not among those who say that she's not ready for the national stage, etc. I think she's more than ready for the national stage, but perhaps not as a vice-presidential candidate. She'd be a great Secretary of the Interior, say, or a Secretary of Energy or some such. But what the heck, here she is, and in any case she is to my mind no less qualified to sit around waiting for the Big Guy to kick over then certain other recent vice-presidential candidates I could name. (For you folks on the left who enjoy ripping on Sarah Palin: seriously, there is very little difference between her and John Edwards other than their politics. He was all about style over substance; so is she. And his foreign policy experience? None, just like her.)

But history tells us that once the VP debate is done, so too is the VP candidate, who now gets shipped off to places like Ocala, Florida and Ripon, Wisconsin to rally the troops. For the balance of this period, attention now shifts to the fellas at the top of the ticket. So, goodbye Sarah; we'll see you on the other side.

I realize This Kind of has a Hit-and-Run Feel to It, but....

You know, this is the most favorable climate for Democrats nationally since 1974, yet their candidate can so far only manage a single digit polling lead over the Republican candidate. And this is before most people are even paying any real attention to what's going on.

If I were a partisan Democrat, I'd be extremely concerned. Seriously, how can you screw this up?

NOTE: One could argue that Obama's numbers will go up once more people DO start paying attention to what's going on. But that's not the way it usually works. In the early stages, more people tend to stake out the "soft" default position, which right now would be the Democratic candidate. Then, as the day of reckoning gets closer, a lot of those people defect. this cold be a different kind of year in that respect, but I doubt it.

Take Five: Back from the Dead

1. Where did I go? Eh...blame the writers' strike. Yeah, that'll work.

2. Victor Davis Hanson takes down Pat Buchanan. Buchanan and his acolytes are quite full of themselves these days with all their "you-should-have-listened-to-us-about-Iraq" whoopin' and hollerin'. But the problem, at least in large part, was always the messenger.

3. In late January or so, but in any case at some point before Super Tuesday, Sarcastro predicted an Obama v. McCain general election in a private email to me. I tell you, the man is an oracle.

4. That Michelle Malkin! What a wit.

5. In all honesty, I had never much watched Bill O'Reilly in the past, not because I had anything against him but because his show aired at an inconvenient time for me--right smack in the middle of kiddie bedtime.

But my schedule has recently shifted and so I've watched the show quite a bit and...I must say...

I don't get it. And, By "it" I mean the hatred for the guy by lefties. Quite honestly, I've seen him take on blowhards on the right just as much as he takes on the whackjobs of the left. I mean, yeah, he's "of the right," as it were, but he's not knee-jerk about it.

Anyway, I'm going to keep watching. Maybe I'll finally see some sign of this right-wing demon I keep hearing about.

Tim Russert, RIP

Question: What kind of world do we live in when a guy like Tim Russert must pass while a guy like George Stephanopolus continues to take up valuable airtime?

Congratulations to Barack Obama

You don't have to be a Democrat to recognized what's been accomplished here. It's something never before witnessed in our nation's history, something I certainly never thought I would ever see in my lifetime:

Someone with a great deal of class defeating a Clinton.

I mean, I could certainly see a Clinton getting beaten, but only if the victor got down in the gutter with them.

Were I not such a nasty ol' Rethuglican in the tank for John McCain, I would pull the lever for Barack Obama on that basis alone. Hell, part of me thinks he deserves the White House on that basis alone.

For those who think that Barack Obama isn't man enough to take on our enemies in the world, consider this: the man beat the Clinton Mafia (well, hopefully anyway; I realize they may never die for good). Better than any Republican could do.

Indeed

“Some people say John McCain isn't conservative enough. But there's more to conservatism than low taxes, Jesus, and waterboarding at Gitmo," - P.J. O'Rourke

Courtesy: Andrew Sullivan

Disagree? Well, vote for Chuck Baldwin! And good luck with that.

I'm Still Around

OK, yes, it's been awhile. Too much going on.

Anyway, I just had a thought: who would ever have thought there'd come a time when Hillary Clinton would be the conservative Democrats' choice?