Saturday, February 05, 2005
Our Moderate Acquaintance
by Tom Bozzo
Specifically, Althouse readers were treated to:
One other thing, Ann later suggested Condoleezza Rice as a Republican opponent for Feingold in '08. That wasn't the first Rice '08 post I've seen; Stephen Bainbridge is a Rice fan, too, for whatever reason, though he'd need her to take the anti-abortion pledge before he'd consider voting for her. That points to one big hurdle, as she'd have to get past a number of white guys with known conservative credentials.
Feingold '08 might be a long shot as long as Hillary Clinton has presidential aspirations, but is a good enough idea that it just might work. In thinking of Rice '08 as a much longer shot, I may well be underestimating the state of Republican foreign policy delusion — Bainbridge, after all, thinks that the problem in the Boxer-Rice confirmation exchange was Sen. Boxer's politeness rather than Dr. Rice's credibility — but I'll still go out on a limb and put some money on the 2008 Republican nominee being someone else. A blogger dinner at Charlie Trotter's, on my dime, perhaps? Someone want to take the other side of that?
Yesterday in blog world ended up being "OMG I completely agree with Ann" day. And she was posting on topics of national politics, not Madison-related stuff where I am already used to agreeing with her.
Specifically, Althouse readers were treated to:
- A suggestion that Russ Feingold is tops among potential Democratic presidential aspirants, followed by an update clarifying that she wasn't meaning to damn the Democrats with faint praise in saying so. I agree wholeheartedly. Hopefully a hypothetical Feingold '08 campaign wouldn't be managed by the losers who drove the Gore and Kerry campaigns into the ground.
- A correct statement that private accounts don't solve the Social Security funding issues. Furthermore, recounting an exchange with a correspondent, she offers a line to which a smart Democratic strategist might take note. Ann says, "I wrote back that I felt I was being forced to figure out a lot of new things just to keep my full benefit." That's as good of a one line plain-English summary of the plan complexity and risk-shifting problems I've yet seen. Of course, while the unknown actual Plan will eventually tell all, I suspect that privatized reality will actually be worse.
- A well-argued tirade to the effect "that there is no need to push away religious believers to justify the separation of Church and State. This [Nation] article [the subject of Ann's ire] is harmful to its own cause, by making it seem as if one has to hate religion to support the separation of Church and State." The Founders, as she points out, were smart and took care to sell the benefits of church-state separation to the religious.
One other thing, Ann later suggested Condoleezza Rice as a Republican opponent for Feingold in '08. That wasn't the first Rice '08 post I've seen; Stephen Bainbridge is a Rice fan, too, for whatever reason, though he'd need her to take the anti-abortion pledge before he'd consider voting for her. That points to one big hurdle, as she'd have to get past a number of white guys with known conservative credentials.
Feingold '08 might be a long shot as long as Hillary Clinton has presidential aspirations, but is a good enough idea that it just might work. In thinking of Rice '08 as a much longer shot, I may well be underestimating the state of Republican foreign policy delusion — Bainbridge, after all, thinks that the problem in the Boxer-Rice confirmation exchange was Sen. Boxer's politeness rather than Dr. Rice's credibility — but I'll still go out on a limb and put some money on the 2008 Republican nominee being someone else. A blogger dinner at Charlie Trotter's, on my dime, perhaps? Someone want to take the other side of that?
