Ms. Mythbuster

The Anchoress provides what I think may be the most concise, precision-guided, utterly devestating attack on so many of the "Bush is Evil" myths around, here. Largely as a response to Joy Behar's rant on that finest of idle chit-chat among silly women hard-hitting news analysis and political commentary shows, The View. Bring back Lisa Ling!

My Only Real Concern With FDT

I've been pretty enthusiastic about Mr. Fred Dalton Thompson and his chances for the Republican Presidential nomination. But there is one thing that had been bothering me, although I couldn't quite put my hand on it until now. And that one thing is that Fred Dalton Thompson is actually the immortal soul of a Carpathian tyrant trapped for all eternity in a cursed painting:




I dunno though... I think I'm willing to overlook it, as long as Peter, Ray, Egon, and Stan are okay with it.

Pot, Meet Kettle

Finally, a non-politics post, sort of. So the creepy, Michael-Jackson-and-Mel-Gibson-obsessed gossip columnist over at Fox News, Roger Friedman, ran in to George "Jar Jar" Lucas, who had this to say about the success of Spider-man 3, a movie I'm quite eager to see:

Lucas told me he has seen all the summer movies since his company, Industrial Light and Magic, does most of the special effects. The only one they didn't work on was "Spider-Man 3." What did he think of it?

"It's silly. It's a silly movie," he said. "There just isn't much there. Once you take it all apart, there's not much story, is there?"

Well, it's not "Star Wars."

"People thought 'Star Wars' was silly, too," he added, with a wink. "But it wasn't."

He went on to say "I mean, they didn't have a single puerile jab at Georgie Bush, who I think is stupid and mean and probably a Sith Lord! And their non-Manichaean worldview was too subtle, without a single line like my awesome 'Only a Sith believes in absolutes!' That's dramatic gold there, people!"

*Disclaimer: I am a drooling, sycophantic Star Wars Trilogy fan. After George Lucas died halfway through the production of Return of the Jedi and was replaced perennially by Mrs. Johnson's fifth grade class at his former highschool and some impressive audioanimatronics, things just went downhill.

A Parting Friday Thought

As I set to leave work this Friday afternoon, I have a thought. Say what you will about the looniness 9/11 "truther" movement, but at least, thus far, it has not been appended with the dreaded "-gate" suffix.

Huckmentum?

Two comments from The Corner: One by John Podhoretz, and another by Peter Robinson. Both following this quick blurb from Rich Lowry.

I missed the debates (the wife just HAD to watch "Ugly Betty", which I genuinely think she only likes because the protagonist is Hispanic. And I couldn't miss "Scrubs"!) last night, but from the commentary by People I Trust, it looks like the one person who may have come out a "winner" relative to his starting position was Mike Huckabee, my former governor. I've posted before that I like Mike. I would very easily get behind a Huckabee candidacy. So this very much excites me, that he distinguished himself so well, and has now officially put himself on the radar of people who can get his name out there.

Don't worry, Fred. I'm still behind ya. You just have to, you know, actually be a candidate.

So if somebody asked me "Among all the candidates who are currently officially running for President, whose nomination do you most support?", I'd say Mike Huckabee.

The Enemy of My Enemy

If I were to follow the adage that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", and apply that methodology to selecting a Republican nominee for President, I think the result would be interesting, and would not necessarily match up with my current preferences. In particular, if my metric were "the greatest apparent enemy of my enemies is the best choice for President", the result becomes clear.

First, of course, I would have to define "my enemies". Currently, the Democratic hopefuls are too busy tearing eachother apart to care one whit about who they'll be facing in November 2008. Thus, they are not (yet) my enemy (although I'm not so naive as to think that their agents are not currently out and about digging up dirt and possibly spreading some groundwork gossip at this very moment). The enemy is more dispersed right now -- the liberal blogosphere, for one, and more importantly, the liberal media (but I repeat myself).

So, dear readers, ask yourself -- who among the Republican contenders faces the greatest hostility from both the lefty blogosphere and the MSM at this very moment? I offer no supporting documentation, but my gut tells me right now that, according to my specified metric, my candidate of choice should be Mitt Romney.

Anecdotal evidence: the upsurge of "Look At Those Crazy Mormons" pseudo-hit-pieces, accusations of flip-flopping, etc. The opposition seems genuinely concerned about Mitt in a way that neither McCain nor Giuliani evokes among them. As for McCain, his "media darling" status may be fading fast, but he's still got a little bit of that patina that has yet to rub off. And Giuliani has the one-two punch of social liberalism and post-911 "Street Cred" that nobody's bothered to really lay into him just yet, despite his frequent front-running status.

So far, Fred Thompson has laid low enough to avoid the media criticism, the recent kerfluffle about dirt-digging with regard to his wife notwithstanding (and that is suspected to be the work of Republican opposition, anyhow). And I don't think the buzz on Newt Gingrich has reached a sufficient point yet (or ever, I believe) that he is considered enough of a serious threat to really bring out the enemy's fangs. Either of these candidates, if they projected an air of front-runner potential (as I believe Fred will, very soon), could easily and quite soundly trounce Mitt in my described metric.

The Only Fred Shirt in the Landing Party

I'm thinking of changing my blog name to the above title. Read this comment by Peter Suderman at The Corner, followed by this comment, a response by a reader. Then do a little happy dance, like I did in my own mind.

My only gripe is that Suderman immediately gives the speechwriter all the credit in his first post.