News Nuggets 846

DAYLEE PICTURE: Ruins of an old farmhouse in Houston, Texas.  

From Smithsonian Magazine.

UP-FRONT POLITICAL NUGGET!!
The Anti-Obama Cult: In the GOP’s Hatred of the President, the Rote Ravings of True Believers (Gary Kamiya) from Salon
"Why, then, did the anti-Obama cult suddenly take over the entire Republican Party? The main reason, I believe, is that the American right was backed into a corner and had no other card to play. The disastrous presidency of George W. Bush revealed the complete bankruptcy (literally) of the two core right-wing nostrums, “freedom” (good) and “big government” (bad). ... The right survived. But defending this indefensible position squeezed its core beliefs into a kind of black hole, a blank spot of pure resentment, devoid of content, where the laws of logic did not apply."

The Gathering Storm in the Gulf: What Iran Should Learn from Japan's Pre-World War II Mistakes (Robert Haddick) from the Foreign Policy Magazine
"... a conventional naval battle around the Strait of Hormuz would play to the U.S. military's strongest suit. American advantages in sensors, targeting, command and control, precision weapons, electronic warfare, training, and many other dimensions would quickly crush Iran's air and naval forces. Iran would also be unlikely to derive any political or diplomatic benefit from sparking a clash in the strait. Even competitors like China would expect the United States to fulfill its role as protector of the global commons "
One of the most worrisome dimensions to this standoff is the Iranian leadership's fundamental lack of both knowledge and understanding of America and the West generally.  Both Khomeini and Ahmadinejad know very little about America -- and one has to worry about what correlate they will bring to their foreign policy decision-making. Obama = Saddam Hussein (or some other neighborhood autocrat)? One aspect of modern diplomacy that makes a difference in crises like these is that a great majority of world leaders have spent substantial time in Europe and/or America and have some appreciation for the history and nuance of global power politics.  Not so with the Iranians.  If Bush and Cheney were still around, I'd have the same concern about them and their understanding of Iran.  While still imperfect, Obama and his team have a clearer eye concerning what they know and what they don't know about Iran.  One can only prey there is enough collective wisdom on both sides to avoid a terrible miscalculation.

China Has Seen the Enemy and it’s Us (Troy Parfitt) from the Toronto Star 
"... in modern Chinese history, it is not so much westerners themselves or their decadent lifestyles that China’s politicians deride, but western democratic governance, often portrayed as treasonous — a threat to China’s very existence. In 2009, a Politburo member said China needed to construct a “line of defence to resist western two-party and multiparty systems, a bicameral legislature, the separation of powers, and other . . . erroneous ideological interference.” "

Early Results of an Experimental Malaria Vaccine Hold Promise from Time Magazine
"Preliminary findings in animal tests of the vaccine found that it stopped every strain of Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that is responsible for 9 out of 10 malaria deaths, that scientists pitted against it in the lab."

Indefinite Detention: Can We Ask How the United States Got Here? (Scott Wooledge) from Daily Kos
"This diary is intended to invite people to take President Obama out of the equation just for the moment and focus instead on the forces and motivation that brought the bill to his desk. Like, how exactly did this bill come to happen? And why?"

In American Politics, Jobless Trend Matters More Than Rate from the Associated Press
"In a presidential election year, the unemployment trend can be more important to an incumbent's chances than the unemployment rate. Going back to 1956 no incumbent president has lost when unemployment fell over the two years leading up to the election. And none has won when it rose. ... Those precedents bode well for Obama."

Labor Market Gains Traction from the Wall Street Journal
"Jobs Report, Showing a Modest Recovery, Poses Conundrum for President's Republican Challengers."
I guess after the Congressional recess the GOP House leadership will need to shoot some more torpedoes at the US economy  -- to derail the recovery for at least another 10 months.

The Rapid Economic Recovery Republicans Are Praying Against (Brian Beutler) from Talking Points Memo
"Everything that’s supposed to happen in politics this year, and everything that has happened for the last several months, has been premised on the tacit, but seemingly safe assumption: The economy will remain weak for years. ... But what if that assumption is wrong? A contrarian school of thought holds that it is wrong — and its proponents have a growing cache of evidence to back them up."
For Obama and America's sake, I hope this is right -- but I am still highly skeptical that an economic recovery that is actually generating jobs is anywhere on the horizon.  Hope I'm wrong.

Don't Let the Economy Pick Your Major For You (Derek Thompson) from the Atlantic
"Is college worth it? If I had to limit my answer to one word: yes. For every rung you climb on the education ladder -- from high school, to community college, to four-year university, to doctoral degree --unemployment for your group goes down and wages go up, as illustrated in this BLS graph: But that's a 30,000-foot answer. Zoom in, and the complications come into focus. Many community colleges are drop-out factories."
Check out the graphs here.

Changing the State of Play on Network News from the New York Times  
"The network news divisions of ABC, CBS and NBC have shifted the focus to differentiating their newscasts."

Just the Ticket (Bill Keller) from the New York Times
"The proposal to draft her in place of President Obama this year is preposterous. It exaggerates his vulnerability and discounts Hillary’s loyalty. But the idea that she should replace Joe Biden as Obama’s running mate in 2012 is something else. It has been kicking around on the blogs for more than a year without getting any traction, mainly because it has been authoritatively, emphatically dismissed by Hillary, Biden and Team Obama. It’s time to take it seriously."

A Campaign Pruned of Bushes (Frank Bruni) from the New York Times
"They seldom mention Bush positively. They seldom mention Bush negatively. They also never mention the Bush before Bush — the other slice of bread in the Clinton sandwich — and have thus turned the father and the son almost wholly into ghosts."

Heading into N.H. Primary, GOP Finds Itself Stuck (Joel Achenbach and Peter Wallsten) from the Washington Post
"Romney has drawn respectable crowds but has generated none of the electricity one would expect of a future nominee. In his first gathering, he brought out his former rival, McCain, as a celebrity endorser. The applause was polite. Hecklers disrupted. Romney’s staff had to cordon off the room with big curtains to make it seem more crowded.."

GOP Candidates in Circular Firing Squad (E.J. Dionne) from the Washington Post
"...while Obama has been able to make general election arguments — on behalf of the middle class, in favor of popular tax increases on the wealthy, and against Republican obstruction of his efforts to protect consumers against abuses by the financial industry — the candidates who hope to oppose him have been required to live in a very different world."

Debate Shots That Made Mitt Romney Sweat (Lloyd Grove) from the Daily Beast
"Romney got hit from all sides in Sunday morning’s debate, and the effects seem to be showing. Lloyd Grove on the shots that made him sweat."
"... made him sweat" -- spare me.  See my comment below.

Pro-Gingrich Group To Air Film Critical Of Romney (VIDEO) from the National Memo
"The Gingrich-leaning Winning Our Future PAC said Sunday that the 28-minute video — which assails Romney for "reaping massive awards" while head of Bain Capital — will be posted online soon and could show up on TV ahead of this month's primary elections."
"... ahead of this month's primary elections"?  They're going to have to hurry up to make this deadline. They will air this film -- just in time for it to make no difference whatsoever. This brings up a question I've had about the GOP field and their so-called attacks on Romeny: Are ANY of these folks serious about challenging Romney's walk to the nomination?!  I've heard all kinds of bluster -- but seen and heard nothing of substance since the beginnings of their campaigns in Iowa.  Newt Gingrich "played nice" in Iowa.  WHY?!  None of Romney's rivals aired ANY negative ads against Romney in Iowa.  For most of the last week in NH, the rivals have been attacking each other rather than Romney -- even during the first NH debate on Saturday.  Huntsman spent 48 precious hours attacking ... Ron Paul?!  It's like a fight night amateur hour where a professional takes on any local rube willing to get in the ring with him.  Do ANY of these rivals know how to actually campaign against a front-runner?  The evidence is slim to non-existent.  Romeny will get the nomination -- not for his organization, discipline or most of the other reasons cited by pundits -- but because he has NEVER been seriously challenged.

Social Conservatives Start to Coalesce Around Santorum from The Hill 
"Conservative Christian leaders are beginning to unite behind Rick Santorum to try to avoid a repeat of 2008, when their movement fractured between candidates and denied former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee the Republican presidential nomination."

Grating Santorum (Maureen Dowd) from the New York Times
"Rick Perry baits gays because it’s good politics; Santorum sincerely means it. His political philosophy is infused with his über-Catholicism but lacks humanity. At the Dublin event, 16-year-old Jessica Scharf asked Santorum how her handicapped brother could be cared for without help from the federal government. He replied, ..., that he and his wife “bear the cost” of a handicapped daughter; he said family, friends, neighbors and the church could help, and that caring for someone would knit them closer."

Trailing in New Hampshire, Jon Huntsman Takes the Long View from Politico 
"In an interview Friday, the Utah governor turned China ambassador said bluntly that the GOP had lost its equilibrium in the Obama era but predicted it would eventually return to its bearings — and vindicate his own brand of pragmatism."
I HOPE he is correct -- and I have long thought that his 2012 run was more focused on a more serious campaign in 2016 or later.

Partners in Love and the Presidency: A Review of ‘The Obamas’ by Jodi Kantor from the New York Times
"“The Obamas,” by Jodi Kantor, is the first book about the current presidency to give the first lady, Michelle Obama, her due."
David Remnick of the New Yorker also reviews the book HERE.

MUSEUM NUGGET!!
World's Most-Visited Museums from Travel and Leisure Magazine
"The Louvre Museum, ranked No. 1, benefits from broad name recognition and an enviable art collection, but it also has the good fortune of being located in France, which—along with the U.S.—drew the most international tourists in 2010, according to the World Tourism Organization. More than half of the 20 most-visited museums are located in Paris, D.C., or New York City."