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- Although there's every reason to be skeptical, I suspect that Chris Dodd's statement that some members of the Republican congressional caucus are tiring of the "Party of No" strategy is probably correct. Particularly with newer members like Bob Corker, you have ask why these guys got into politics, and it's hard to make the case that it was simply to "toe the party line." The thing is, the incentive to provide a unified obstruction to the Democrats' agenda only made sense when that strategy had some purchase. Now that that strategy has failed to stop health-care reform, the Bob Corkers of the world are going to be more interested in putting their stamp on future legislation, assuming the impulse extends beyond Corker himself. Besides, it only takes one senator to bring the Senate's business to a halt.
- Daniel Larison, in his ongoing examination of the absurdity of Barack Obama's foreign-policy critics, suggests that they are so invested in their caricature of the president as "the embodiment of everything they fear and hate" that it's simply too late to admit error and acknowledge that Obama is a "typical, boring center-left Democratic politician." While I can't read the mind of the critic in question, Victor Davis Hanson, I would gather from the tenor of his writing on the subject that he actually believes, like the rest of the gang at National Review, that the Obama presidency is destroying American exceptionalism and spearheading nothing less than a domestic insurrection of radical, foreign ideas. If that is true, then the bulk of the American Right, at least concerning foreign policy, is unbelievably stupid or insane. It's less disturbing to conclude that they are simply partisan hacks.
- Our friend John Avlon (see here and here), author of such thought-provoking titles as Wingnuts: How the Lunatic Fringe is Hijacking America and Independent Nation: How Centrists Can Change American Politics, has an item in The Daily Beast discussing a poll I alluded to a few days ago. The poll provides shocking evidence that large numbers of self-identified Republicans hold outrageous beliefs about President Obama. So what's the problem? The poll in question is worthless because it is methodologically unsound. For all we know, the poll could reflect reality, but we have no way of verifying that, and Avlon doesn't bother to inform his readers about such details; he's just looking for evidence to corroborate his thesis, regardless of its validity.
- Remainders: Today's lesson in false choices is brought to you by Max Boot; Meg Whitman wants to be California's CEO pretty badly for someone who didn't even bother registering to vote until eight years ago; I'm having trouble believing that a "very interesting conversation" could be had between Jonah Goldberg and Glenn Reynolds on our political zeitgeist; we have a few new additions to the "Obama needs a Republican Congress" fan club; Judd Gregg is a national treasure; and David Frum, apostate of the conservative think-tank circuit, frees fellow apostate Bruce Bartlett to comment on the closing of the conservative mind.
--Mori Dinauer
