URLs du Jour

2007-01-02

  • Shawn Macomber brings his sharp eye to John Edwards' campaign event last week in Portsmouth NH, with special attention to the arrangements that left a lot of ticket-holders standing outside.
    Catering to politicians, unions and the media while The People are left standing in the cold New England air is an interesting launch for such a class conscious pseudo-populist campaign, but it was not without its logic: If Edwards people had adjusted the plastic cordon line back three feet to accommodate all comers, every major newspaper in the country could not have used variations on the same ready-made headline, "Overflow Crowds Greet Edwards!"
    I don't want to go all Holden Caulfield on you, but Edwards strikes me as unusually phony, even for a politician. Shawn's appropriately merciless.

    Patrick Hynes was also there (with YouTube video). Missing in action: Pun Salad, totally and blissfully unaware of Edwards being here until after he was gone.

  • David Frum remembers Gerry Ford the libertarian:
    Among his very first acts in office, he signed legislation ending the 40-year ban on the private ownership of gold.

    It sounds incredible but from 1933 utnil 1974, it was a very serious offense for a US citizen to own monetary gold. Jewelry was ok, but ingots and kruggerands were strictly prohibited.

    Everyone remembers FDR ending Prohibition; it's less well-remembered he set another Prohibition up.

  • Don Luskin points out the coming 180-degree Democrat turnaround from pre-election deficit-hawk fiscal rhetoric to post election fiscal realpolitik. Hint: it involves FDR's old formula of "tax and tax, spend and spend, elect and elect." Well, hey, we still get to own gold.

  • But it's not all FDR-bashing here at Pun Salad today. Jane Galt has a nomination for the "stupidest smart person in the world." You'll want to check it out, if only to make sure it's not you.

    Jane's pointer, by the way is to the 2007 Edge Annual Question ("What are you optimistic about? Why?") asked of a number of smart people. I couldn't find anything bloggable, but you might be luckier.