sisu

"Yes, many opinions expressed by the students in the poll were silly"

Babe inspects the local flora early morning yesterday for scent clues of the comings and goings of the neighborhood fauna.

"The students are sheeplike in following the bellwethers (castrated rams) that are their professors and media allies, whose reflexive in-the-tank-for Obama, anti-Palin spin shapes student 'opinion,'" we wrote in the comments of The Chronicle of Higher Education's judgment-challenged reportage of the results of a pre-election poll of college students that showed "Most of them don’t like her and don’t respect [Palin] … Students didn’t think much of her capacities, either":

These are devastating findings. If the youth vote continues to show up in +50 percent numbers, and if they continue to lean Democrat by 2-to-1, the Republican Party can’t select candidates who push the young even further away. Yes, many opinions expressed by the students in the poll were silly — such as one in five respondents claiming that America “isn’t ready” to elect a black man president — but 94 percent of them are registered to vote, and 46 percent of them registered to vote just this year.

Tiny on alert this morning for territorial incursions outside the kitchen window as she waits for Tuck to finish his Sunday breakfast — the usual eggs, bacon and muffin plus an inspiration, leftover Thanksgiving Scalloped Fennel and Potatoes as a stand-in for home fries — so she can lick the plate clean. Mmmmm.

"Devastating findings," indeed, but not necessarily in the way the CHE imagines. "To use the word 'think' for these young people’s feelings is a bit of a stretch," we continued in the comments, citing liberal Saturday Night Live Executive Producer Lorne Michaels's refreshingly candid assertion that "When people actually meet her, they're blown away." Unfortunately, the only way most of our fellow citizens who want to have an opinion but prefer to have others do their thinking for them will meet Sarah Palin is through the MSMs distorting lens, as a distortion-correcting post-election Zogby poll revealed:

Survey finds most Obama voters remembered negative coverage of McCain/Palin statements but struggled to correctly answer questions about coverage associated with Obama/Biden …

The survey was commissioned by John Ziegler, author of The Death of Free Speech, producer of the recently released film "Blocking the Path to 9/11" and producer of the upcoming documentary film, Media Malpractice … How Obama Got Elected.

Tiny inspects the Thanksgiving centerpiece prior to enjoying turkey treats (see below) down Goomp's the other day.

"We stand by the results of our survey work on behalf of John Ziegler, as we stand by all of our work," said Zogby in response to attempts by Obama thugs to dismiss the findings as the result of push-polling, a favorite technique of Obama tanksters themselves:

"After I interviewed Obama voters on Election Day for my documentary, I had a pretty low opinion of what most of them had picked up from the media coverage of the campaign, but this poll really proves beyond any doubt the stunning level of malpractice on the part of the media in not educating the Obama portion of the voting populace," said Ziegler.

And now, when it's too late, the malpracticing turkeys' media's "small-donor 'myth'" is revealed for the big lie it always was:

Everybody knows how President-elect Barack Obama's amazing campaign money machine was dominated by several million regular folks sending in hard-earned amounts under $200, a real sign of his grass-roots support.

Except, it turns out, that's not really true.

Citizens of the republic — it looks as if we couldn't keep it — meet the state-controlled media you voted for. Will rumored reinstallation of some version of the UNFairness Doctrine be the final nail? Or can we take heart in reports that "digital superstar" Sarah Palin "continues to dominate search engine queries, cable news and online video sites" three weeks after the election? Will an army of internet surfers turn out to be the "Great Silent Majority" of our day?

Update: "Cats and their humans are often an opinionated lot, especially the Conservative ones, as Daddy and I show all the time, and Sisu is as interesting, thought-provoking, and popular as they come, writes Nikita the Opinionated Pussycat, a most discriminating host of this week's Carnival of the Cats #246 at Musings of a Mad Macedonian:

Sissy Willis, provides the opinion, in a link-filled essay, and while Cats and their Humans, of a Liberal Persuasion may get apoplexy, there is something about this post that everyone will agree on completely: The wonderful photos of Babe and Tiny, complete with colorful descriptions.

Apoplectic liberals? That gets our purrbox going.

Switching places

Can you find the Baby Cakes in this picture? Hint: That's Sweet Tiny Pea left foreground.

Switching places, Babe left foreground frames the Tine.

Chelsea Grays seeing things we don't.

Update: Lots more poods for thought at Carnival of the Cats #245, brought to you by Artsy Catsy, where "Fifteen formerly feral felines train their human artists to create gifts for cat lovers!"

Update II:  More animals of every stripe at Modulator's Friday Ark #219.

"Catch and handle your birds gently and calmly, and there will be less stress (for both you and the bird!)"

Okay. This ain't easy for us. Ann Althouse dismisses the snuffing of a turkey in the background of a Palin interview (above) with "Deal with it, you candy-asses. If you eat meat, something like that is going on in the background for you too." And it is. Two 12-15 pounders are on deck for Thanksgiving down Goomp's this Thursday.

Sarah Palin's turkey has come home to roost. We watched drumstruck dumbstruck as each side of the political divide came down predictably for or against the horrifying spectacle of the former Republican VP candidate's recent interview set against a backdrop of turkeycide. From the reflexively Sarah-dissing "Dish Rag" blog at the LA Times:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin pardons Tom the Turkey, then babbles on, making little to no sense (as usual), while talking turkey and politics to a news crew.

What she does not know is that at least two helpless turkeys are being slaughtered in the background, their legs wiggling as their heads are stuffed into a grinder by a smiling camera-hog executioner.

"The turkey goes into the killing cone headfirst," according to Blue Oak Ranch Pastured Poultry. "Catch and handle your birds gently and calmly, and there will be less stress (for both you and the bird!). Restrain them by holding the shanks, and try to avoid rough handling. The first cut to sever the jugular vein and carotid artery are made just behind the tendon attachment for the beak and tongue. You can feel the hard cartilaginous piece behind the jaw attachment and ear canal."

Turkey butchery is not for the faint of heart. We were horrified ourselves, being totally empathetic with our fellow sentient creatures, but "stuffed into a grinder" set our nose for news aprickling, and we discovered that the torture chamber reported repeated by all the news outlets to be a "grinder" was no such thing at all. The alleged grinder was a "cone killer," where you put the trusting beastie upside down in a metal cone, pull its head out the bottom and slit its throat so it can bleed unto death. They say the turkey goes into shock and loses consciousness within seconds. Let us pray that is so. As Michelle Malkin suggests, not without irony, "I guess they’ll all be going tofurkey this Thanksgiving."

On the qui vive

Inside looking outside: Seeing things we don't, Babe scans the landscape outside the kitchen window early morning, looking for signs of illegal incursions onto the home turf by members of the local faunal community.

Inside: Basking in the warmth of radiator heat rising through the kitchen counter grille, Tiny keeps the homefires burning.

Outside: Babe in the side yard patrols the borders of the estate.

Inside: Perched in the dining room cabinets, he inspects the tableware.

Outside: On watch at the edge of the front porch, his sister reads scent messages borne on the wind.

"Bloviating, grandstanding, bullying political hacks with little to no understanding"

"There's something seriously wrong with an America that constantly re-elects people who all but laugh in your face while squandering taxpayer money. It isn't even real money to them," observes Dan Riehl re Barney Frank's latest comment about "spending your money" for a Detroit bailout: "There's no downside to trying." Barney Frank, above, in a CNBC "Closing Bell" interview October 20 tells Maria Bartiromo "I think there are a lot of rich people out there whom we can tax at a point down the road and recover some of this money."

"Are people buying things where you live?" asks The Barrister at Maggie's, tossing readers a short list of provocative questions about what goes on here in this autumn of our discontent. A few excerpts and then on to our own thoughts and finally — best for last — our favorite answer in the comments at Maggie's:

Is this a hyped-up ordinary recession, with great stock market buys that will make you wealthy in a few years?

Are we headed towards a long global depression?

Is this all an emotional reaction?

Don't ask us, but our gut tells us hype, playing upon our all-too-human emotional reaction to change, is a major player, the stuff of which political and journalistic careers are made and the reason why free markets aren't necessarily free in this "Republic, if you can keep it" of ours. We agree with Rand Simberg in his Pajamas Media essay "Want Change? Let's Try Free Markets," but don't hold your breath:

Joseph Schumpeter famously — and admiringly — wrote about the “creative destruction” inherent in the actions of the free market. I refuse to use the word “capitalism” in this context, because it’s really a Marxist term and doesn’t capture the essence of a system in which individuals and corporations freely exchange goods and services without government interference, if indeed it ever did. When so-called “capitalists” who run the finance, real estate, insurance, and now automotive industries come to Washington, hat in hand, for taxpayer dollars, it’s laughably ludicrous to call them supporters of the free market. Moreover, the term “capitalism” doesn’t capture or connote the importance of property rights and the ability to exchange them freely that are at the base of human liberty in the way that the phrase “free market” does.

In Schumpeter’s view — which is supported abundantly by history — as new technological or financial or cultural innovations arise, or as the societal desires and composition change, so change the markets and business models for existing companies. They have a choice of adapting to that change or, if incapable of doing so for either corporate cultural or other reasons, they can die. They can die, that is, if they don’t have courtiers at the royal court. Then, their options are more varied and they don’t require the necessary and painful change to their ways of doing business that might be required to survive in the new circumstances.

In her seminal book, The Future and its Enemies, Virginia Postrel writes about the real political divide — not left versus right, but what she calls stasists versus dynamists. The former fear change and want to use government power to minimize it, if not eliminate it. The latter accept that improvements in the human condition require change by definition, and understand that the best way to ensure it is to allow individuals the freedom to make choices, with consequences, both good and ill, to be borne by them.

Simberg's pesky "courtiers at the royal court" and the preening, narcissistic Federal Princes they woo bring us back to our above-mentioned favorite answer to the comments at Maggie's, by reader Tom c:

After listening to the Barney Frank committee today one can't help being a little pessimistic. Bloviating, grandstanding, bullying political hacks with little to no understanding of business, economics or the pressures faced by American manufacturers. I wouldn't be looking for leadership from those jokers.

Thank you Tom c for listening to the Barney "The private sector got us into this mess. The government has to get us out of it" Frank committee so we didn't have to. As Jeff Jacoby wrote a couple of months back, "Frank's fingerprints are all over the financial fiasco."

"A virtual ticker-tape parade"

The term "ticker-tape parade originated in New York City after a spontaneous celebration held on October 29, 1886 during the dedication of the Statue of Liberty," a fitting precedent to Saturday's virtual ticker-tape parade, Victory in Iraq Day, dedicated to the liberation of the Iraqi people thanks to the hard work and gritty determination of our own US and coalition forces and the Iraqi military under the stalwart leadership of President George W. Bush. (Unattributed photo of ticker-tape parade celebrating the nation's Bicentennial, New York, July 1976)

"We won. The Iraq War is over," writes Zombie Time [via Instapundit], boldly declaring Saturday, November 22, 2008 "Victory in Iraq Day," an opportunity for "us, the people, to arrange a virtual ticker-tape parade. An online victory celebration":

By every measure, The United States and coalition forces have conclusively defeated all enemies in Iraq, pacified the country, deposed the previous regime, successfully helped to establish a new functioning democratic government and suppressed any lingering insurgencies. The war has come to an end. And we won.

What more indication do you need? An announcement from the outgoing Bush administration? It's not gonna happen. An announcement from the incoming Obama administration? That's really not gonna happen. A declaration of victory by the media? Please. Don't make me laugh. A concession of surrender by what few remaining insurgents remain in hiding? Forget about it.

The moment has come to acknowledge the obvious. To overtly declare a fact that has already been true for quite some time now … And since there will never be a ticker-tape parade down Fifth Avenue in New York for our troops, it's up to us, the people, to arrange a virtual ticker-tape parade. An online victory celebration.

"We also no longer hear about 'the Bush-Petraeus surge,' as Sen. Chuck Schumer dubbed it in September 2007," wrote John McCormack in The Weekly Standard last summer, noting that the Democratic opposition — Soviet style — removed the President and his General from the picture once it had become glaringly obvious that the surge had succeeded. (Getty Images photo of General Petraeus and President Bush in the Oval Office last spring as the President "reiterated his vow to veto any spending bill that puts a timetable on withdrawal of troops from Iraq.")

An inspired idea to lift our hearts and reaffirm our conviction that the national "narrative" being promulgated these many years by our betters on the left side of the aisle inside the Beltway and their fellow travelers in the Fourth Estate is a tangled web of lies and half truths, the product of a relentless campaign "to tarnish the Republican brand." Get that jackboot off your neck, fellow bloggers, and celebrate the truth that will make us free! How to participate:

Just make a post on your blog on Saturday, November 22, announcing that the war is over, and declaring that day to be Victory in Iraq Day …

Once you've posted it, email me the link! And I will post a link back to your blog here on this page.

Make sure to make at least two different postings: Make one now to announce your support of VI Day and to spread the word ahead of time, and make another one on November 22 itself, to celebrate!

Free banner design for Victory in Iraq Day by Bryan Taylor of Black Eye Digital.

Lots more info and images at Zombie Time to help you plan your own contribution to Victory in Iraq Day:

Keep reading below to find: evidence that the war is over (for the doubters); an historical discussion of previous postwar occupations and guerrilla violence; a list of blogs which have already joined the VI Day movement; free banners and graphics for you to download and put on your blog, if you so choose; and an invitation to submit your own "victory graphics" for posting here.

Bring 'em on!

Art imitates life imitates art

"The movement of her dress in conjunction with her frank gaze gives a sense of immediacy to the composition and expresses the animation of the sitter," says the Huntington Gallery blurb re the frothy loveliness of Thomas Lawrence's portrait of Sarah Barrett Moulton, Pinkie (1794), paired at the Thornton Portrait Gallery with Thomas Gainsborough's Blue Boy. Fun fact: Moulton's younger brother Edward grew up to be Elizabeth Barrett Browning's tyrannical father.

Similarly to the movement of Pinkie's dress and the ribbons of her bonnet in the Lawrence portrait, the movement of light through Tiny's fur in the photographic image above — backlit by dazzling sunshine streaming into the studio late afternoon — "in conjunction with her frank gaze gives a sense of immediacy to the composition and expresses the animation of the sitter." Peaches and cream. Sugar and spice. Everything nice.

Update: Lots more peaches and cream, sugar and spice and everything nice at Modulator's Friday Ark #218.

"The president delivered a sweeping and eloquent defense of free markets"

"Republicans don’t need a new philosophy as much as they need someone who can explain it" and be heard over the clatter of the anti-Republican chatterers, writes Optimistic Patriot of New England Republican [via Maggie's]:

When President Bush first hit the scene, I didn’t see his tendency to mangle the English language as a real impediment or reflection on his intelligence. I’m still not convinced that’s he “dumb,” but his communication skills caused considerable harm to his presidency and the conservative cause …

His inability to communicate meant he was forever at the mercy of the MSM, where all things Republican wither and die.

The next Republican standard bearer doesn’t have to be Reagan, but he does need those kind of communication skills. I believe Reagan was able to bypass the MSM because he was an effective communicator.

Part of the problem is "there's an IQ War going on, and Republicans are losing it," writes Eric Scheie of Classical Values:

I think the Dems win by convincing voters that they (and those voting for them) are smarter than the other side, by doing their best to make conservative populism — and thereby conservatives — look moronic. P.J. O'Rourke is a damned genius, and as a thinking person he obviously cannot understand why any thinking person would be on the left.

The "Republicans are dumb" meme is nothing new, of course, but the volume was turned up to a deafening din in the chadstorm following the exercise of our franchise November 7, 2000 and hasn't let up since, as Sally Zelikovsky at American Thinker recalls:

From the minute George Bush was elected, the Democrats began their next campaign -- and it was a brilliant one -- to tarnish the Republican brand. With the exception of a short blip during 911, when politicians and their constituents had no choice but to put politics aside, Bush met with nightly assaults in the media on everything he said and did. First, there were the periodicals and the networks; then, the nightly talk and comedy shows; then books and movies; and finally, supposed parodies like "Li'l Bush." It was an endless onslaught defaming the brand and, it's true, you know, if you say it enough, they will believe it.

"I'm really struck at how badly he was treated by the hosts," writes grant1863 in the comments of Maggie's "Peter Schiff Gets It Right on the Economy." Unfortunately, the hosts were personal faves Neil Cavuto & Company, who look pretty foolish in hind sight. "Check out the expression on Schiff's face at 7:48 [above]," we wrote in Maggie's comments. "A truly haunted man sees the writing on the wall but cannot get through to the cock-sure chatterers." And we're talking about Republicans here.

"In a badly needed speech that seemed to bring the stock market back to life late in the day, the president delivered a sweeping and eloquent defense of free markets during a luncheon talk to the Manhattan Institute," editorialized Investors Business Daily yesterday, giving our heart a lift:

Amid all the gloom and the revived enthusiasm for massive government intervention in the world economy, Bush's comments were a breath of fresh air.

"History has shown," Bush said, "that the greater threat to economic prosperity is not too little government involvement in the market, it is too much government involvement in the market."

He went on to show how this was the case in the U.S. with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which were created by Congress and lay behind the whole subprime mortgage mess that later begat our current financial meltdown.

From all this, Bush said, "There is a clear lesson: Our aim should not be more government — it should be smarter government."

And he took it even further, to what he called the "most important principle that should guide our work: While reforms in the financial sector are essential, the long-term solution to today's problems is sustained economic growth. And the surest path to that growth is free markets and free people."

"Europe's leaders, so in love with top-down economic solutions and socialism, are clearly losing the long battle for economic supremacy. So they're using a financial crisis to tear down the one global economy that truly delivers for its citizens," concludes IBD. Not unlike "Nancy Pelosi's Motown Juggling Act."

Update: For a sweeping and eloquent defense of free felines, head on over to Carnival of the Cats #244 with Kashim, Othello and Salome at The Catboys Realm, "living a Bohemian life in Vienna."

The road to Hell and all that

"I haven't taken the train for 30 years," Tuck told our totally awesome conductor (above) on the Newburyport/Rockport Computer Rail we flagged down just around the corner here in Chelsea-by-the-Sea this morning. He had the jacket, the hat and the attitude that took us right back to "Better get on board, son." We told him we were in it for the romance. Lots of salt marshes and suburban backyards along the way.

"How do we instill more conservative and libertarian ideas into schools?" asked Dr. Helen the other day, inviting readers' suggestions on where to find conservative culture:

My guess is that public schools teach more like the latter professors than the former, giving students more exposure to liberal ideas than conservative ones.

Basking in the vintage sights and sounds inside the railroad car took us back to old times.

We totally agree with Dr. Helen re the insidious hegemony of leftist propaganda in public school curricula and offered our own two-cents' worth in the comments, quoting from one of our own posts:

We wonder how many busy parents caught up in the controlled frenzy of their many-faceted lives are unaware of not only what goes on outside at recess but, perhaps even more importantly, inside the classroom, where zombies teachers inculcated with the Marxist talking points of influential anti-capitalist propagandists like Obama neighbor Bill Ayers are, as Sol Stern wrote, assiduously working below the radar to “turn the little ones into young socialists and critical theorists." 

 

Newburyport, MA, our destination this day for a magical luncheon with our sis at the fabled Ten Center Street, is a blue town in a blue state. We were totally thrilled to find this fearless dissident statement on the back window of one of the cars in the commuter-rail parking lot of this p.c. community.

Now John Stossel — in a must-read analysis of what was right and what was terribly wrong with the recent historic election — reminds us of where the nation's schools and other cultural institutions went off track, citing another must-read, Sheldon Richman's "The Goal Is Freedom: Humility or Hubris?":

Somewhere along the line the fundamental lesson taught by the economists was unlearned. Political “leaders” lost whatever humility liberalism had instilled in them and assumed a pre-modern hubris in which they believed that nothing but lack of will could keep them from accomplishing their goals …

Sound familiar? Today’s political leaders, regardless of party and including, alas, Barack Obama, operate with this pre-modern mentality. We saw it throughout the presidential campaign, and heard its words when Obama said, “There is nothing we can't do, nothing we can't accomplish if we are unified.”

This is opposite of the classical-liberal insight, which can be summed up with this bumper-sticker slogan: Economics. It’s not just a good idea. It’s the law. 

Only six cars, but it looked like a gazillion waiting there at the station for the return trip to Boston (via our stop in Chelsea).

The very point we made a couple of years back in one of our own all-time fave posts, "Bloggers are 'cracking, popping, drilling and peeling their victims open,'" quoting from a review of paleontologist Dr. Vermeij's Nature:  An Economic History:

From humans to hermit crabs to deep water plankton, all living things compete for locally limiting resources.  This universal truth unites three bodies of thought -- economics, evolution and history -- that have developed largely in mutual isolation. Here, Geerat Vermeij undertakes a groundbreaking and provocative exploration of the facts and theories of biology, economics and geology to show how processes common to all economic systems — competition, cooperation, adaptation and feedback -- govern evolution as surely as they do the human economy, and how historical patterns in both human and nonhuman evolution follow from this principle.

As darkness descended outside and the lights went up inside during the ride back late afternoon, attention turned away from the passing landscape and onto our fellow passengers, who boarded the train at every stop along the way. We'd asked our morning conducter whether rising gas prices in the last period of time had been good for business. Yes, he said, and even when things began to improve for car drivers, some of the commuters had decided to keep on trainin'.

Our own conclusion at the time of that February '04 post was unfortunately prematurely optimistic in light of recent developments:

The leftist utopian dream was doomed from the start because it denied the economic logic of nature and human nature. The long-repressed voices of opposition in a free society, now ringing loud and clear through talk radio, cable TV and — of course — the blogosphere, will force the left to rethink its arguments or go extinct.

Despite all evidence to the contrary, the utopian dream lives on, the unfair Fairness Doctrine looms as a Pelosi prerogative, and, as John Stossel says, "The infatuated chattering classes now demand 'action' on the economy":

They use positive words like "bold steps." The insufferable New York Times suggests the choice is "between a big-bang strategy of pressing aggressively on multiple fronts versus a more pragmatic, step-by-step approach ....

"There is endless talk about how FDR ended the Great Depression and how Obama will apply similar "stimulus."

Please. FDR's "bold" moves didn't end the Depression. They prolonged it by discouraging capital investment. Hoover and Roosevelt turned what might have been a brief downturn into 10 years of double-digit unemployment.

"This is the conceit of what Thomas Sowell calls "the anointed," Stossel writes:

The politicians know best how our money should be spent. The "road to serfdom" is paved with such good intentions.

Not to mention the road to Hell.

"The timeless truths he so eloquently gave voice to"

"Listen. Adapt. Be Positive." Michael Steele's prescription for what ails the GOP could have been written by Baby Cakes himself, above recharging his batteries in the afternoon sunlight during the countdown to supper.

"Ronald Reagan made it cool to be a Republican — it wasn't just his specific policies, but the timeless truths he so eloquently gave voice to, and upon which his policies were based. That's the Republican Party we must re-establish," writes Energizer-in-Chief Michael Steele in "Listen. Adapt. Be Positive" in today's WSJ:

Our challenge lies not in beating Democrats, but in uniting around a message that solidifies our ranks and attracts new people to our cause. We have to listen to what Americans are telling us about their hopes, desires and needs, and then translate that message into proposals for meaningful action squarely grounded on the values we Republicans have always stood for.

Our faith in the power and ingenuity of the individual to build a nation through hard work, personal responsibility and self-discipline is our uniting principle. That is the sacred ground upon which our Republican Party was built. For the sake of all Americans, it is the ground we must reclaim.

Steele's advice to "Listen. Adapt. Be Positive" came in handy last evening as Tiny found herself up a tree at the end of her tether. The line attached to her harness got tripped up in some loose-hanging bark as she tried to climb down head first. Adapting, she reoriented and started to back down. Fortunately, we happened upon the scene just then to help dislodge the line.

We were thrilled to learn from Fox News this evening that Steele, the "former lieutenant governor of Maryland, has decided to run for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee and is in talks with Newt Gingrich to win the former House speaker's endorsement":

Steele declined to comment, but a source close to the situation said Steele would announce his candidacy as early as Thursday.

The source also contradicted a report in Tuesday's Washington Times that Steele and Gingrich were competing for the RNC post [Phew!].

"There is no fight," the source said. "This tension between Michael Steele and Newt Gingrich is totally fabricated and, in fact, Gingrich and Steele are working together to create a new strategy for the direction of the GOP."

In a statement issued by the former House speaker, Gingrich said he was not interested in seeking the post of Republican Party chairman …"my job as an American first is to develop a tri-partisan approach to developing solutions for the challenges we face. I use the word tri-partisan to designate the concept of attracting Democrats, Republicans, and independents to solutions that unify most Americans."

We haven't felt this energized about the Grand Old Party since we saw that Ronald Reagan film that day last August when Sarah Palin emerged metaphorically from John McCain's brow. We've gotten to know Michael Steele's political philosophy, authenticity and easy manner through frequent TV guest appearances during this long election season, and we like the cut of his sail. Some fun facts from a US News series of profiles on possible McCain running mates last April:

He grew up in a family of Democrats. Steele credits his mother, Maebell, and Ronald Reagan with turning him toward the Republican Party. Reagan's pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps message recalled a trait Steele's mother exhibited after her first husband, Steele's father, died in 1962 of alcoholism-related liver disease. She refused to go on welfare. Instead, she went to work as a laundress earning minimum wage to support Michael and his sister.

One of the first in his family to go to college, he earned a bachelor's degree in international relations from Johns Hopkins University and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. Steele also spent a few years at the Augustinian Friars Seminary at Villanova University, in preparation for the priesthood, before deciding instead on a career in civil service.

In 2004, Steele was tapped to speak at the Republican National Convention, eliciting comparisons with Barack Obama's keynote address at the Democratic convention …

On Feb. 1, 2007, Steele was named the chairman of GOPAC, a political action committee working to elect Republicans to office (Newt Gingrich once held the same position).

The fact that Michael Steele is a "mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy" is frosting on the cake, confounding the efforts of Obama & Company to play the race card against people like us who may take issue with his agenda.

Update: All things bright, clean and nice looking at Modulator's Friday Ark #217.