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- Once you start talking about next year's presidential election, it becomes your go-to source on a slow news day. So it behooves me to endorse Michael Crowley's theory about Rudy Giuliani teasing another presidential run. And I have to mention Mitt Romney keeping his distance from the Tea Partiers. Got to talk about what inspires the founders of the "Draft Pence" "movement." Oh, and Huckabee still holds the nomination process in his hand. But most important, Newt Gingrich is still as unpopular as he was 16 years ago.
- One might conclude that in an overwhelmingly favorable electoral climate for Republicans that Meg Whitman's loss to Jerry Brown would be evidence that she was broadly unacceptable to California's voters. But since Whitman is a wealthy businessperson, there must be some other explanation: "Sources say Whitman in the last months has sought a detailed explanation regarding what went wrong in her resounding defeat by Brown. ... As one of America's wealthiest women, several in the know suggest she aims to emerge again with a message and a profile on the California politics scene. And fairly soon." To be fair, if I spent $150 million to win office, I'd feel entitled, too.
- I wouldn't read too much into polls that say Americans want Obama to govern in a "more conservative" fashion as evidence that they are rejecting the "liberal agenda." The problem, of course, is that we have no idea what any of these respondents mean by "conservative" any more than we do "liberal." Additionally, Democrats deliberately avoid association with the "liberal" label while Republicans do everything they can to brand Democrats as commie/socialist/liberal/tyrants -- in such an environment it's hardly surprising that the public would seek solace in the comfort of safe, conservative, policy-making.
- Remainders: A refreshingly honest take on the illusory nature of electoral "mandates" at National Review; the GOP's view on fiscal policy is properly understood as a war on budgeting; Glenn Beck is still a thug; and Dana Milbank has a decent idea.
--Mori Dinauer
