Gustav: Botched Already?

Galrahn thinks the Navy might be late to the party:
The USS Bataan (LHD 5) deployment is coming a day late, and it is particularly noteworthy the Navy will have difficulty deploying more ships from the east coast if necessary. Hurricane Hanna will soon be influencing the lines of communication at sea off the east coast [...]

Polling Isn’t Strategy

Tom Jensen of Public Policy Polling has some advice for the Obama campaign:
Here’s a list of selected North Carolina metropolises that are more populous than Wasilla:
Waynesville, Dunn, Mt. Holly, Washington, Holly Springs, Pinehurst, Kings Mountain, Lincolnton, Hendersonville, Southern Pines, Tarboro, Smithfield, Hope Mills, Newton, Indian Trail, Graham, Wake Forest, Cornelius, Boone, Reidsville, Mint Hill, Albemarle, [...]

Winning Attitude

Ross Douthat:
He’s running for the Presidency at a time when the Republican brand is in the toilet, with a party that seems unable to excite its hard-core supporters or woo swing voters, and a leadership — McCain included — that gets the heebie-jeebies when called upon to discuss any topic save terrorism, 9/11 and the Surge. Even [...]

WaPo Examines Troopergate

Nothing in the Washington Post’s article about the Palin/trooper situation changes my assessment that the issue is a loser for the Dems. For what it’s worth, it seems like a straightforward account of how things got to where they are.

Cub Bidders Shuffle

The Chicago Tribune supplies an update on the state of the bidding for the Cubs. A couple of the competitors are looking shaky, but Mark Cuban could face a battle with Thomas Ricketts, the son of Ameritrade founder J. Joseph Ricketts:
Forbes magazine estimates the family’s war chest at $2.6 billion. The Ricketts’ bid matches the [...]

Quitter (II)

Orson Scott Card, remembering fondly Solzhenitsyn’s Harvard critique of American society:
We are what Sozhenitsyn accused us of being. Unwilling to listen to and learn from him, we are acting out the tragicomedy of national decline. Is there still greatness in us? Just as the dying British Empire, led by the genuinely brave Winston Churchill, had [...]

Switching Places

Thomas Barnett notes how the major parties have changed approach on the way to explaining why he’ll vote for Obama:
When I look at the labeling now with parties, to me it all seems backwards. Republican presidents seem to be associated with huge deficits and more radical foreign policies, while Dem presidents seem to be associated [...]

Palin and Abortion

As usual, the right misses the point when it comes to abortion:
I saw a concerted effort by the media to marginalize her as a far right winger, out of touch with moderate and pro-choice women.  This is unfair to her, and to all of us who respect her admirable decision to carry to term a [...]

Mixed Reviews In Alaska

Palin’s first year and a half in the governor’s office gets mixed reviews from the cognoscenti back home in Alaska.

Not Leaving the Trooper Alone

A long post from Washington Monthly blogger Steve Benen shows Democrats could well get themselves in trouble by making an issue of McCain veep pick Sarah Palin’s efforts to get her state-trooper brother-in-law fired. It’s clear Palin has been disingenuous about her activities and the former state public safety commissioner she actually did fire has [...]