Friday’s column from Peggy Noonan frames a major theme the general election campaign: Mr. McCain is the Old America, of course; Mr. Obama the New. There is something to this, of course.  McCain is older; Obama is younger.  Obama has demonstrated the ability to attract many young people to rallies — and the ballot box — in the primaries; though this phenomenon is somewhat overrated in the media, it could make a difference

Yesterday in Philadelphia, Barack Obama lifted one of Sean Connery’s lines from The Untouchables: “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said. Another Connery line from the same movie is the signature for my ongoing look at “the Chicago Way” here at pw.  But the screenplay was written by David Mamet, who recently declared that he is no longer a “brain-dead liberal.”

Last weekend, the New York Times covered the upside of Barack Obama’s  “Facebook politics” and openness to contributions from those working outside the campaign organization, suggesting that he may qualify as the first real “wiki-candidate.”  The article focused on people who created popular videos and posters for the campaign.  It did not take long for others — like Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs — to notice that MyBarackObama.com tended to

Tim Russert dead, Big Russ still still watching from Barcalounger. h/t Pablo To whom will Chrissy look up, now?

House Negro Ward Connerly, puppet to the Man, writing in the WSJ: With all my heart — and for the betterment of my country — I desperately wanted to believe that Sen. Barack Obama was not one of the same tired voices who peddle arguments about “institutional racism.” I have heard him say that America is not about “black and white.” I was inspired when his supporters chanted at his

Professor Richard Lynn, emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University, said many more members of the “intellectual elite” considered themselves atheists than the national average. A decline in religious observance over the last century was directly linked to a rise in average intelligence, he claimed. But the conclusions – in a paper for the academic journal Intelligence – have been branded “simplistic” by critics. Christopher Howse responds: Clever people are

This week, the left-leaning Tax Policy Center published an analysis of the Barack Obama and John McCain tax plans, concluding that their plans were predictable (as was the analysis). According to the TPC: Each would raise the national debt by trillions of dollars. Obama would provide modest tax cuts to low- and moderate-income people while imposing stiff tax hikes on the very wealthy. McCain would cut taxes a bit for the working-class and a lot for the rich.

I spent most of the day Wednesday in airports, without my computer, which I thoughtfully left home so that it could be broken.  As a result, I finally read Larry Wright’s The Path to 9/11, which was, as advertized, excellent in most respects.  As it wore on, though, I became increasingly surprised not to find Jamie Gorelick’s name mentioned anywhere.  Wright’s research was obviously meticulous, and among the many whom he interviewed

Back on May 31st, Excitable Andy wrote of of the proposed Iraq security pact: 50 long-term military bases. How is that not empire? The answer was obvious then, but now even he admits the term is “excessive,” though he still views the pact as “something perilously close” to empire.  One reason he offers is that “Muslims everywhere would regard such a large US presence as an affront.” Yet a mere four paragraphs

Mens Lace Up Leather Thong on A Dangerous Age [Darleen Click] One Life 2 Live Black La Love Hoodie on Dems 2008: The Obama Doctrine of “dignity promotion” [Karl]