Mark Kleiman

Four candidates left on the Republican side, and only one actual Protestant. I suppose that represents progress, of a sort. Paul, whatever his theology, is certainly a WASP. But the fact that the one Protestant in the race is the one candidate certain not to get the nomination still shows that this is not your […]

Newt Gingrich’s handlers should be sued for political malpractice. The time to raise the Damon fraud story was earlier; now, insofar as it’s getting any press at all, it’s as one more Gingrich attack on Romney. So far, Romney hasn’t even bothered to respond to the charges, or if he has I can’t see a […]

On ill-considered impulse, I decided to subject myself to the CNN Republican debate Thursday night. Pretty appalling, all around. Even the joy of watching Republicans form a good old-fashioned Democratic circular firing squad couldn’t making up for the dreariness of living – even for only two hours – in the dim-witted, ignorant, insular, fact-free, hate-filled […]

Marijuana legalization initiatives at the state level – Prop. 19 in California in 2010, the proposals likely to be on the ballot in Colorado and Washington State this fall – run into a tricky set of problems. Marijuana, if legalized, ought to be regulated and taxed. But how can you tax and regulate, at the […]

I thought he knocked it out of the park. [Full text here; wasn’t “Built to Last” a Dead song?] The three people I watched it with, all smarter and wiser than I, thought the same. He managed to be “confrontational” and inclusive at once, making it clear who’s being unreasonable. He did what amounted to […]

In a Southern Republican primary, adultery turned out to be less of a burden for a candidate than Cayman Islands bank accounts. That reflects a clearer moral sense than I would have credited Southern Republicans with. On the other side of the ledger, a single billionaire donating $5 million to a Super-PAC completely turned the […]

I was worried that Gov. Romney had gotten some sort of Invulnerability Potion from his friend Professor Snape, but Gov. Huntsman managed to hit him hard this morning. Romney had hammered Huntsman for serving as Barack Obama’s Ambassador to China, and … “Country first” is pretty good, but bringing in his sons in uniform was […]

The Joe McCarthy character in The Manchurian Candidate can’t keep track of how many Communists he’s claiming have infiltrated the government, so his wife – also his KGB handler – picks the number 57 off a Heinz ketchup bottle and tells him that’s the official number. It’s been clear for some time that Mitt Romney’s […]

Santorum? You mean the guy who wants a Constitutional amendment to un-marry currently married gay people? I guess this is a measure of how much rank-and-file Republicans really don’t want Mitt Romney. Still, I think we may be approaching Peak Crazy. At least, I hope so. [Cross-posted at The Reality-Based Community]

Hopes that Mitt Romney’s backbone shortage and post-modern way with the facts might lead to his getting less-than-hagiographic media coverage took a big hit with Roger Simon’s latest Politico column, which is more or less a recitation of Romney-campaign talking points about the struggle for the Republican nomination. Most of the political analysis seems right […]