MICKEY KAUS:

Remember when the temporary success of Geena Davis’ Commander-in-Chief was said to pave the way for a Hillary Clinton presidency by getting voters accustomed to a competent female chief executive? Isn’t it possible that–if Pelosi assumes the Speakership and flops as badly as some Dems fear–she’ll perform an opposite function, namely souring the voters on the idea of a female executive? Two-years worth of saccharine robotic liberal pollster phrases about “America’s children” can do that.

Kaus also finds this hilarious quote from Pelosi on her expected accession to the Speakers’ chair: “The gavel of the speaker of the House is in the hands of special interests, and now it will be in the hands of America’s children.” Heh. Indeed.

BARACK OBAMA is considering a run for the Presidency in 2008. Seems a bit early for him, but then I said that about Clinton in 1992.

Of course, this could all just be a clever plan to promote his new book, — and if so, judging by the Amazon rank, it’s working!

MICHAEL BARONE:

In the midst of the campaign month of October came the news last week that the population of the United States has passed the 300 million mark. There’s a sharp contrast between the negativity of the political climate and the robustness of our demographic increase — we were at 200 million in 1967, less than four decades ago.

Then, as now, Americans were in a negative mood, but had much more to be depressed about. We were then mired in a war that produced more than 20 times the number of American deaths as the conflict in Iraq has so far. We were in the midst of the Cold War, with its ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation, and the bipartisan Cold War consensus was about to break down. Our cities were ablaze in race riots, and our economy was about to enter an era of stagflation — low growth and high inflation.

Now, most things are demonstrably better. As I noted last summer, levels of warfare around the world have reached a historic low, so that even the loss of one American life in Iraq can land on the front page. The world economy is growing as never before, with millions of people rising out of poverty every year. The American economy continues to surge ahead.

So why are people so cranky? He offers some thoughts, which mesh interestingly with Josh Manchester’s, below.

NOAH SHACHTMAN reports on wearable electronics and the U.S. military.

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS UPDATE: Josh Manchester has thoughts on the wisdom of crowds.