MICKEY KAUS: “It’s going to get ugly in the South. By the time Hillary is through with Obama, voters will think his middle name is ‘Hussein’!”
Plus, Mickey generously offers “a way McCain could get right with GOP conservatives and virtually guarantee his nomination:”
A ROUNDUP OF REACTIONS to last night’s election news. And here’s more.
UPDATE: An NRO symposium on what’s going on.
ANOTHER UPDATE: From TigerHawk, a cheerful take:
Watching McCain’s victory speech, I agree with my co-blogger CardinalPark — the Republicans have a pretty good field. So far, I could support all of McCain, Romney, Giuliani, and Thompson in the general election. I would have a hard time forcing myself to the polls if Mike Huckabee were the Republican candidate (given our likely choices on the other side), but if he cannot win in South Carolina, where can he win?
Read the whole thing.
A LOOK AT MESSENGER’S photo-flyby of Mercury, which I meant to blog earlier this week. Better late than never — now there are more pictures, anyway.
A TURNTABLE THAT transfers tunes directly to an iPod without a PC.
FOX NEWS FADES?
JAMES LILEKS: “You can say this for winter: when it’s five below at one in the morning and the wind makes worried moans, it’s good to be inside with a fire and a toddy and similar boons of civilization.” Plus, a Jessica Rabbit reference.
FROM JACK BALKIN, A LOOK AT which American legal blogs are banned in China.
FOX, CNN, AND NBC HAVE CALLED IT FOR MCCAIN. Huckabee is second, and Fred Thompson still seems to be holding onto third. I think this is pretty big — If McCain can win South Carolina convincingly, he can win conservatives, and if Huckabee can’t win in South Carolina, where can he win? And a third-place finish is good enough to keep Thompson going, I think — especially when a lot of his votes come out of Huckabee’s hide, since Thompson clearly isn’t a Huckabee fan.
UPDATE: I’m watching Huckabee’s concession speech and all of a sudden he’s talking about the evils of big government.
ANOTHER UPDATE: We’re at my dad’s and he’s happy that Romney’s fourth, so he can’t claim “a bronze.” The Olympic analogies are getting old.
“DEAR THIRD WORLD FARMER:” Ouch.
HUCKABEE COMES IN FOURTH among non-evangelicals.
OOPS: “AMERICA’S favourite television presenter is paying a painful price for her intervention in the US presidential campaign last month. Oprah Winfrey has been dubbed a ‘traitor’ by some of her female fans for supporting Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton.”
AT THE MOMENT, THOMPSON IS IN THIRD PLACE, but it’s close with only 33% of the vote in. Here’s a report that it’s gloomy at Fred HQ. He gave a great speech, though. I don’t see why he’d quit the race before Super Tuesday, especially if he pulls 3rd in South Carolina.
UPDATE: 68% in now, but still about the same so far.
STEPHEN GREEN is drunkblogging.
SUNDAYS WITH DAD, AND MORE: At The Line Is Here, an “Anti-Nanny-State collective.”
A RUBE GOLDBERG APPROACH to web design. Just watch for a few seconds after it loads. (Via Samizdata).
BASED ON EXIT POLLS, CNN says it’s a close race for #1 in South Carolina between McCain and Huckabee and for #3 between Thompson and Romney, but too close to call.
HOW THE WORLD views Obama. “The European right appears more enthusiastic about the liberal Obama than the left. . . . The Latin American left, sensing that the story of racial mobility implicit in Obama’s personal story is too good an ad for American society, has chosen to moderate its embrace of the black American senator. “
FOX HAS JUST CALLED NEVADA FOR HILLARY. Obama’s behind, but not all that close. A fairly big win for Hillary, I think — judging by how stressed she and Bill have seemed this week, they obviously thought a loss in Nevada would have been very damaging.
SOME MODEST PROGRESS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS IN TENNESSEE: “The state Senate voted 24-6 on Wednesday to authorize Tennesseans with pistol carry permits to take their weapons into establishments that sell alcohol, so long as they don’t drink themselves.”
I’M BEING SUPPRESSED: “Bill Clinton, speaking at a Vegas YMCA last night, made more charges against Obama and claimed to have, with Chelsea, personally witnessed voter suppression by the Culinary Workers.” Hey, some of them carry cleavers.
WILL SUPER-DELEGATES sink the Democrats? I’ve made a similar point myself. Too much insider politics may turn off Democratic voters, particularly if Hillary is the beneficiary.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON: “After reading most of the McCain animus on conservative blogs, I’m a little worried that some of it goes over the top. . . . McCain’s past support for the flawed immigration bill, McCain-Feingold, and opposition to tax cuts, as well as temper flare-ups at those who questioned his conservative fides are legitimate concerns. But many believe that the two key issues right now are winning, in conservative fashion, the war in all its theaters, and controlling out-of-control spending. He seems in the forefront there. Moreover it seems odd to fault him for telling the truth—however politically unwise—that all the jobs in the automotive industry simply aren’t coming back as before.”
STANLEY KURTZ: “The mainstream media is now the key to the battle against Canada’s so-called human rights commissions. Despite the sensation on the blogosphere, the Ezra Levant inquisition is being ignored by big media in Canada, and here.”
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