The weather’s beautiful here on the Central Coast, but I’m suffering from some sort of King Hell sinus infection or allergy attack. So if I occasionally sound like I’m blogging through a fog, that’s why. Here are some non-medicinal midday treats:

* Dave Weigel hangs with the Paulites in Tampa, where hope, and conspiracy theories, spring eternal.

* On Morning Joe, Chris Mathews calls out Reince Priebus on welfare ads and birther “joke.”

* Neo-Dixiecrat Haley Barbour accuses Democrats of playing the “race card,” naturally.

* Long Allen/VandeHei Politico piece is entitled “Romney outlines his governing plan.” Trouble is, there’s nothing like a “governing plan” anywhere in the article.

* Isaac skirts Tampa but heads right towards New Orleans.

And in non-political news:

* Netflix and DirecTV negotiate to bring “The Killing” back from the dead.

Back after exploring my decongestant options.

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Ed Kilgore

Ed Kilgore is a political columnist for New York and managing editor at the Democratic Strategist website. He was a contributing writer at the Washington Monthly from January 2012 until November 2015, and was the principal contributor to the Political Animal blog.