Andanh.com

Newsweek polling indicates the flip-flop story line on Barack Obama is getting traction. Curse the darkness, Orval, but better figure out a way to light a candle. As luck would have it, a friend (strongly for Obama) sent this thoughtful op-ed today. It's scholarly, but worthwhile reading.

Barack Obama should not move, or even appear to be moving, toward right-wing views on issues -- even with nuanced escape clauses.

... The bottom line: A nuanced policy that looks like a rightward move has the cognitive effect [on voters' brains] of a rightward move. Cognitive effects matter awfully in presidential campaigns.

No. No matter how many rightwing views you move toward, you will be viciously attacked as too liberal, as influenced by radicals, as inexperienced, as unpatriotic, as all words and no content. Stick to your core values. Be yourself. Voters will respect you.

See for verification: the primary.

Obama's repositioning, if it be that, is the political story flavor of the day.

On the other side of the race: it's hard to figure how any woman would want to vote for John McCain after reading the LA Times' takeout on his shabby treatment of his first wife and his dishonesty about it. (I suspect some men might be put off as well.)

Perhaps one last comment is in order on the de-Janetization of the Grand Hall at the Governor's Mansion.

The Beebe administration is generally slicker than owl you-know-what. This time? Not so much.

When you generate sympathy for the Huckabees on matters of perks and self-promotion, you haven't managed the P.R. very well.