Saint David and the Romans

The Romans had bread and circuses. We have the United States Senate, which is even now going through the ritual motions of advising and consenting on David Petraeus's appointment as commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. A week ago it was Obama's War. As of tomorrow it will be Petraeus's War. The most amusing aspect of this ritual is that, while the president could fire Stanley McChrystal for little or nothing, he can't fire Saint David for anything, not even if he goes trash-talking to the New York Times. If he does, he very likely will find himself running against the former four-star general in November 2012. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

Mini Super Tuesday

Well, I was delighted to see Arlen Specter sent into retirement. He was a political opportunist of enduring skill: in 1965, as a registered Democrat, he ran and won as a Republican; in 2009, as a Republican senator with no hope of being renominated, he changed parties again in hopes that Democrats would be more likely to buy his wares.

So there's a mean satisfaction in seeing the turncoat trounced. Beyond that, I don't see much hope for Republicans in what the media have been calling Super Tuesday. The problem for the out party has always been that, no matter how distasteful voters find the incumbents, an election is never about the U.S. Congress--it's about the candidates. Blue skies! -- Dan Ford

The money-bag is THIS big!

John Fund does a back-of-the-envelope estimate of the riches taken in by Sarah Palin since she quit her $125,000-a-year job as Alaska’s governor. Her book Going Rogue has earned $7 million. Fox News is paying her up to $2 million. The Learning Channel (whatever that is!) will pay $2 million for a series about Alaska. And of course there are the speaking gigs, which Mr. Fund estimates have brought in at least $1 million for Ms. Palin’s personal account despite the fact that many of them are charitable outings or fund-raisers for organizations she believes in. That’s a grand total of $12 million, if you’re keeping track, and doesn’t include the $400,000 that her Political Action Committee has raised.

Mr. Fund argues that Ms. Palin's money machine is so attractive that she won’t be running for president in 2012, but instead will still be “securing her financial future [and] repairing cracks in her credibility from the 2008 campaign.” This is, of course, to bet that Mr. Obama will beat whichever candidate the Republicans put up against him in 2012. Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty are the leading contenders, and it's true that neither seems a slam dunk against our transformational president. On the other hand, the Rasmussen poll shows Mr. Obama leading Ron Paul--Ron Paul!--by only one percentage point, 42 to 41, with 6 percent undecided and 11 percent of us holding out for a better choice. Blue skies! – Dan Ford