A few scattershot thoughts...

All three networks felt the need to tell us that Bush's approval ratings are lower than anyone except Nixon. Why? First, this should not be a surprise. Bush's margin of victory was pretty close. You would expect that to be reflected in his approval ratings. The obvious reason is to undercut his mandate.

It turns out that when CBS asks for your resignation, you can say no. The three Memogate executives are still employed. Their lawyers are negotiating.

The whole Memogate fiasco probably happened because of the liberal narative for Bush. To them, everything that George W. accomplished in his life happened because his father pulled strings. There were a lot of complaints fro the left in 2000 and 2001 that H. W. Bush's campaign workers had pushed W. Bush on us as a political favor. The idea that W. needed help to get into the guard and to get out of trouble simply extended this narative.

Barack Obama got good reviews for his conduct in Rice's hearings. That's good for him, but... the good reviews were from conservatives. During his speech at the DNC, much of what he said would not have been out of place at the Republican convention. The problem for him is that the Democrats don't seem to want moderates any longer. How long before the Democrats realize that Barack is a moderate (or at least talks like one) and disown him.

Note to Ted Kennedy - it's Obama, not Osama.

Robert Byrd is leading the attack against Condi Rice. He is also the only former member of the KKK in Congress. Does anyone else see a problem here? Will this lead to a high-tech lynching?

Michael Powell is resigning as head of the FCC. Good. The over-reaction to Janet Jackson is bad enough. He also approved the broadcast flag. This will allow broadcasters to control what you can and cannot record from TV.

There was a wire-service story about Michael Moore's bodyguard being arrested on a gun charge. Actually, he had guarded Moore but that was not his assignment at the time. He reported the unloaded gun in his luggage as required by law. Because he was at JFK, they decided to arrest him for passing through New York without a NYC gun license. This probably will not stand up in court.

Feminists have been telling us for years that women think differently from men (and are therefore better able to run the world). Suddenly the suggestion that this might handicap women in science s sickening.

Yes, there were a lot of protestors at Bush's inauguration. Many of them were not protesting Bush personally. They would have been there to protest Kerry since his position on Iraq is about the same as Bush's.

Common wisdom among Democrats currently says that Kerry lost because he did not answer the Swift Boat Vets fast enough. As is often the case, common wisdom is wrong. An analysis done at the time shows that only 40% of the country even heard about the Swift Vets prior to Kerry's counter attack and only half of those who heard about it believed it. The split probably is along Bush/Kerry voters.

Actually, Kerry was the best of a poor field of candidates. It was unlikely that a northern liberal Senator could win. Democrat presidents since Kennedy have been southerners. The Democrats don't have any southern governors to draw from and their stock of senators is getting pretty thin. Where are they going to find new candidates?