News Nugget 1046

DAYLEE PICTURE: A baby Tasmanian Devil at the Torango Zoo in Australia.  From Zooborns.

The Silver Lining on Iran’s Nukes (Eli Lake) from the Daily Beast
"It’s definitely not good news that Iran is moving its nuclear program underground. But on the plus side, its centrifuge design dates to the 1970s."

Summertime Blues: The Slowdown is Spreading Around the World from the Economist [of London]
"The most perturbing aspect of the current slowdown is that the weakness is so widespread, affecting emerging economies as well as rich countries."

China’s Fears Grow Over Eurozone Crisis from the Daily Telegraph [of the UK]
"China has expressed deep alarm at the escalating crisis in Europe and warned against austerity overkill as Europe's crumbling demand sends shock waves through Asia."

Everything You Think You Know About China Is Wrong (Minxin Pei) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Are we obsessing about its rise when we should be worried about its fall?"

Catholic Official's Quote For The Day II (Andrew Sullivan) from the Daily Beast
"A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer ... It's not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn't have his own — and they won't be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping but not having intercourse or anything like that. It's an understandable thing..." - Father Benedict Groeschel, the director of the Office for Spiritual Development for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York."
Clueless.  How long will the Vatican continue to tolerate this "trashing-the-victim" moral insouciance? 

Ohio Early Voting Ruling: Court Orders State To Restore 3 Days Of Voting Before Election Day from the Huffington Post
"A federal judge sided with the Obama campaign and ruled Friday to order Ohio to restore three days of early voting before Election Day, a decision that could affect the outcome of the 2012 election in a key battleground state."

America, the Insecure (Alex Massie) from Foreign Policy Magazine
"Hey, America: You're good enough, you're smart enough, and doggone it, people like you. Thoughts from across the pond on the U.S. obsession with exceptionalism."

Romney Didn't Make the Sale (Larry Kudlow) from CNBC
"Did Mitt Romney make the economic sale at the Republican National Convention? Did he convince people who are living at the margin or unemployed and discouraged that he has the answers to the economy? Frankly, I don’t think so."
This from a very conservative GOP-leaning pundit.

Romney’s Convention Aimed for Swing Voters, but Lost the Tea Party (John Judis) from the New Republic
" There was a downside to the convention, however, that was not visible on television. It pitted Romney against the Republican party’s activist core. That conflict probably won’t cost him the election, but if he wins the election, it could bring him all kinds of grief."

Clint Eastwood Delivers Bizarre, Rambling Speech To Empty Chair from Talking Points Memo
"Clint Eastwood opened up the primetime portion of the Republican convention with a rambling, mumbling and often incoherent address next to an empty chair that was meant to represent President Obama. A creaky Eastwood began by defending Hollywood’s notorious liberal reputation to the crowd, claiming that there were in fact many independents and Republicans in show business."
First, let me say I have always liked Clint Eastwood's movies, both the ones he has acted in and those he directed.  While I had always known that he was a committed Republican, I was sad to hear that he was going to be the GOP's "hail Mary" guest speaker.  I suspected that it would leave him a diminished figure -- and it did.  He looked strange and, to be charitable, his performance will not make his career highlights film.  In the bigger picture, though, I was struck by how "thrown together" his appearance was -- and how derivative it was of the already overcooked convention narrative: Obama bad.  Why the whole "mystery guest speaker" runaround?  Just to  induce some suspense?  Ultimately, what I am left with is: who was REALLY supposed to fill that slot?  Who didn't show?  The whole thing smelled of the McCain campaign''s desperate "we-need-to-do-something-to-shake-up-the-race" Sarah Palin gambit in '08.  A very odd, dissonant event -- something I guess one could say about much of the GOP convention.

In the Line of Fire: The Clint Eastwood Train Wreck (Michael Grunwald) from Time Magazine
"We had heard there would be a surprise guest tonight, but apparently, the surprise was a surprise to the surprise guest. You know how reporters always complain that conventions are too scripted? Eastwood was the first thing on network TV tonight, and oh, it wasn’t scripted. It wasn’t rehearsed. It wasn’t sane."

Pundits Pan Clint Eastwood’s ‘Disaster’ Speech from Politico
"MSNBC pundits said Clint Eastwood’s GOP convention speech Thursday night was a “bizarre” and “embarrassing” “disaster,” and a Fox News reporter wouldn’t even touch it. ... Fox News’s Chris Wallace, meanwhile, wouldn’t even opine on the speech. “Let me say that I get paid to review
politicians,” he said. “There’s no way I’m going to touch Clint Eastwood’s performance tonight.”"

After a Gunslinger Cuts Loose, Romney Aides Take Cover from the New York Times
"Clint Eastwood’s rambling and off-color endorsement of Mitt Romney on Thursday seemed to startle and unsettle even the candidate’s own top aides, several of whom made a point of distancing themselves from the decision to put him onstage without a polished script."

The Assassination of Clint Eastwood by the Coward Mitt Romney (Tom Scocca) from Slate
"Is there anyone this campaign won’t sell out?"

Condoleezza Rice Has a Lot of Nerve (Fred Kaplan) from Slate
Note to readers: Kaplan is one of the more prominent right-of-center neocon analysts out there.
"The former secretary of state presided over a failure. She has no business lecturing Obama on international politics."

If Romney Loses (Ryan Lizza) from the New Yorker
"The most conservative faction of Republicans, to which Ryan may have a claim, will argue that alleged moderates like McCain and Romney have led the party to back-to-back defeats, and thus make the case for purism. This is the most likely scenario."

CAR NUGGET!!
Self-Driving Cars Approved By California Legislature from the Huffington Post
"...what if you were sitting in your car and didn't actually have to drive? What if all you had to pay attention to was getting to the next level in Angry Birds? The California state legislature just moved that dream a little closer to reality by approving a bill paving the way for driverless cars to be allowed on Golden State freeways."