And Pajamas Media.

It’s gonna be one helluva year… whatever happens.

Champagne for tonight: Bonville Blanc de Blancs

Talk about not ready for prime time… Of course, he has competition.

I’m serious. I’d vote for him, if I could. Isn’t he a more vibrant leader than anybody running in our election? Let’s be honest. And now he has the cojones to suspend relations with Syria over the Baathist’s interference in the Lebanese election. Okay, even if we can’t elect Sarkozy, we should elect the person best able to work with him, because he is so much more creative and fearless than any of our politicians. Still skeptical? … There’s more… I ask you … who has better taste in women – Bill Clinton or Nicolas Sarkozy?

Back in the distant days of 1998:

He gave the speech the same year he endorsed the Baptist convention’s statement of beliefs on marriage that “a wife is to submit graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.” Huckabee and his wife, Janet, signed a full-page ad in USA Today in support of the statement with 129 other evangelical leaders.

He and the Saudis should get along just fine.

A lot of Republicans have been angry at John McCain over the years for wandering off the reservation. Never bothered me, of course, because I find rigid party politics soporific. And I like people with free minds, even if I disagree with them.

So having watched this ongoing campaign, I’m not surprised to see the rise of McCain whose semi-maverick qualities (can’t really be a maverick in American politics and hope to win) will no doubt appeal to the public, especially as opposed to candidates running for national talk show host (Obama, Edwards, Romney) and or national preacher (Huckabee). In the shadow of Bhutto, McCain’s experience appeals. What happens next?

From the Academy DVD freebie pile….

The Great Debaters – WATCHED

The Kingdom – EJECTED

Knocked Up – EJECTED (I thought it was going to be funny – twenty-year old stoner jokes)

“…Mr. Edwards’s populism is the worst of both worlds, both intemperate and insincere.”

Her other evaluations are interesting at the link.

And I’m beginning to think so again. How anyone could even consider electing that uneducated clown Mike Huckabee as President is beyond me. Not only is he completely ignorant of foreign affairs in a time of terrorism, he’s a sleazy religious huckster. If the Republicans nominate Huckabee, they will deserve the drubbing they get.

From the SFGate: “Experts say that the depth of the moat and height of the walls could have a large impact on the animal’s ability to escape the enclosure.”

[You should have said Dept. of Duh.-ed. I was being discrete. You?]

Out here in California during Xmas week (waking up at a tardy 7:30), I was the last on my virtual block to learn of the Bhutto assassination. Of course, in the Islamic world we expect these things to happen via suicide bombings, because collateral damage is not considered – or even considered to be collateral. The more the merrier in the name of God.

Since all politics is semi-local, it will be interesting to see what ramifications this event has on domestic presidential politics. The Ron Paul Cult seems pretty absurd in the face of all this. The idea that America can retract into itself in the face of this insanity is, well, insane, but they are, as I said, a cult, so they will likely behave as such. For the more normal candidates the results may be different. Voter interest, I should think, will be refocused on the problems of the world, even though much of the electorate would not have been able to identify Benazir Bhutto. But many do know that Pakistan is nuclear. At least I hope they do.

Sorry to be parochial in the face of such a tragedy, but those are the times in which we live. “Interesting,” as the Chinese curse goes.