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Flotsam and Jetsam

Nanny-in-chief? So says Roger Kimball.

Valuable time on SNL for John McCain – self-deprecating while actually tweaking his opponents. About as well as a Republican can hope to do.

The Gray Lady’s Public Editor says the MSM shouldn’t predict or assume an Obama victory, but instead report on the campaign as it unfolds. Now he tells us. Next thing you know he’ll tell us they should have investigated the Rashid Khalidi connection or asked Obama harder questions in interviews.

Now and then Maureen Dowd asks a good question: “Why did [John McCain] allow his staff to put Palin on a couture catwalk in a tin-cup economy and then, when the price tags were exposed, trash her as a ‘diva’ and ‘whack job,’ thus becoming the rare Republican campaign devoured by Democratic-style vicious infighting?” If he doesn’t pull a rabbit out of the hat on Tuesday I bet McCain and Hillary Clinton will have plenty to commiserate over.

Just imagine if a Republican had a relative living in poverty, illegally in the U.S. and on public housing to boot. And who gave illegal campaign donations to him. You don’t think ACORN missed her in their registration drive, do you?

You mean Barack isn’t going to bar lobbyists from his administration? Really, it is amazing people bought all the New Politics hooey. Do you thing they’ll be shocked to find out that 95% of people can’t get tax cuts?

John McCain doesn’t much appreciate Obama’s comment that his faith in America was “vindicated” when he won the Iowa caucus. There is something scary about a candidate who equates his country’s virtue with his own political fortunes. This confusion between country and self is not a healthy thing.

Ross Douthat writes of the McCain camp: “It’s been worse than an evil campaign; it’s been a dumb one.” I may disagree with him as what was dumb, but the bottom line is right. True in the micro-sense (where was this for months?) and in the macro-sense (what was the economic message until Joe the Plumber showed up?).

David Frum writes: “To his credit, Biden has conscientiously worked to familiarize himself with the great questions of national policy.” Yes, but the answers are all wrong. (“Learned nothing, yet remembered everything,” as they say of the Bourbons.)

All that effort and, yet, Obama is doing a tad worse than John Kerry among weekly church goers. Gosh, maybe they don’t like his position on abortion, his view of the judiciary and his past associations. It might be that people of faith aren’t easily sold a bill of goods by someone who doesn’t agree with their values. Who would have thought?

How many politicians quote Maimonides? Not many. And Minnesota voters are having trouble deciding between him and the foul-mouthed comic who didn’t pay his taxes?

After all the issues vetted, all the debates, and all the ballots, the winner is — the poodle. By the way: Obama hasn’t gotten his kids the dog yet. It won’t be the last broken promise.

Fun pundit picks. The bright news for Republicans — no one thinks the Democrats will get to 60 in the Senate.

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