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- In today's edition of groundless electoral prognostication, Stuart Rothenberg takes great pains to understand why, after triumph in 2006 and 2008, Democrats are not poised to make big gains in 2010. Jon Chait refuses to believe that Rothenberg is unaware that the president's party historically loses seats in the first midterm after the election, and wonders why he "seems to be grasping for some fact in which to ground his otherwise groundless assertions that the Democrats' legislative strategy has produced political disaster." Further, while Rothenberg acknowledges unemployment as a drag on the incumbent party, he turns to a myriad of other possible explanations to understand Democrats' electoral problems. I realize that "presidential approval rating tracks with the unemployment rate" is unsexy and a conversation ender, but it's the truth, and trying to find other causes is just killing time until the election.
- Turning to the genre of "I can read the minds of U.S. Presidents," Roger Cohen writes a rather insulting column where he asserts that "at heart, Obama is not a Westerner, not an Atlanticist" who was not shaped by "the great struggles of the Cold War, which bound Europe and the United States," "whose intellect and priorities were shaped by globalization," and "he’s probably the first U.S. president for whom the Allied landing [at Normandy] is emotionally remote." This is the companion piece to the Ponnuru and Lowry thesis of American exceptionalism: Only whereas the latter believe Obama has been too corrupted by European ideas, Cohen believes Obama lacks sufficient "ties" to Europe. Both are false, and both assume that there is something illegitimate about this president.
- Conspiracy-theory roundup: The Obama administration contemplates a ban on sport fishing; Glenn Beck argues that the Census increases slavery; buy your "survival seeds" privately, because the "secret" government hoard isn't for Real Americans; and Senate Democrats are trying to silence the alternative media (Drudge) with software viruses.
- Remainders: I spoke too soon, the welfare queens are back; reflecting on the quality of California's next potential Republican governor, one must conclude that The Onion got it right again; I think this Scott Brown fellow might be too reasonable to caucus with the GOP; the libertarian's endless contempt for our "nightmare" government helping people is beyond my ability to comprehend; Stephen Spruiell doesn't think much of automobile safety, and he's pretty sure the government is to blame; and for the last time, David Petraeus is not, repeat, not, running for president.
--Mori Dinauer
