JOHN MCCAIN: An instinctive regulator? Ugh.

WASHINGTON WIRE: Political Perceptions: Was Ferraro Right? It was certainly a clever way of baiting the Obama campaign into playing the race card — and they took the bait.

Related thoughts from Mickey Kaus, who finds support from Andrew Sullivan. “If Obama were white, he wouldn’t embody hopes of a post-racial future. Duh! That’s part of his appeal. It seems obvious. Why does Obama dispute it?”

UPDATE: Interesting Obama defense from this commenter. The Obama campaign needs more of this stuff, and less of the calling people racist. Here’s a bit: “One of my roomies — total arch conservative — was on law review with him, and said he was a totally great guy. I think one of the reasons is that he treats everyone with respect and consideration. he treats conservatives as friends he disagrees with, not as satanic enemies like Hillary and most of the left do. And that matters a lot.” Again, the Obama campaign should remember this and not rise to Hilary’s bait, which is predicated on making him come across like a traditional Angry Black Candidate.

GIVEN THE G.O.P.’S PROBLEMS, this is pretty surprising: John McCain is competitive against either Democratic candidate.

PULLING A KILL BILL — and doubling profits? The final Harry Potter movie will be split into two parts.

QUICK, COMPLAIN TO THE W.T.O.: “German Law Bars American Ph.D.’s From Calling Themselves ‘Doctor’.”

PROTESTERS TRYING TO confine military recruiters to a “movable cage.” Do Senators Clinton and Obama approve? Someone should ask them.

THE POLITICO: “American public support for the military effort in Iraq has reached a high point unseen since the summer of 2006, a development that promises to reshape the political landscape.”

JAPAN TAKES THE LEAD in medical nanorobots.

COMPARING Eliot Spitzer, Mike Nifong, and Ronnie Earle. One thing they have in common: Media support for their misdeeds.

ROBERT NOVAK ON HOW the Bush White House is blowing it on gun rights.

MAX BOOT: Fallon didn’t get it.

EAT YOUR green beans.

PAUL KRUGMAN: “I’m sorry to say that a large part of the progressive movement seems to have lost its sanity.”

You know, he may have a point.

Plus, “Come on Democrats, Let’s Stop the Cannibalism.”

THIS LOOKS HANDY: How to Open Locks with Improvised Tools.

Of course the classic work in the field is the old MIT Guide to Lockpicking.

UPDATE: Reader Bill Twist emails:

I learned from this book, back when I was a teenager.

It’s hard to argue against a book on picking locks written by a guy called “Eddie the Wire”.

I got good enough that I could make a rake with a paper clip and a tension lever from the clip of a pen in only a minute or so, and open a reasonable lock in just about the same time with those same tools. Honestly, though, the best way to do it is to “borrow” the key and trace it. Then use a file on a key blank. I and my cronies had the run of the high school because of this (Janitors should lock up keys when going to lunch!). Ahhh, my mis-spent youth!

Ah, indeed. And “Billy the Twist” wouldn’t be a bad pen-name either . . . .

IOWAHAWK: Amid Charges of Spitzer Tryst, Embattled Prostitute “Kristen” Expected to Resign.

ELIOT SPITZER WAS NOT CAUGHT BY THE PATRIOT ACT: “Currency transaction reporting requirements were enacted in the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, and money laundering was made a crime in overhaul of the federal narcotics laws that took place in 1986. Believe it or not, Karl Rove did not diabolically dream these provisions up to trap unwary Democrats, nor are they part of George W. Bush’s post-9/11 Politics of Fear.”

And here’s much more on the relevant law, and Spitzer’s scrutiny, from Phil Carter. (Via Professor Bainbridge).

ALSO INTERESTING: Report: Obama Outspent Hillary 2:1 on Ohio Ads, Still Lost.

INTERESTING: “In a sign that the increasingly bitter Democratic primary campaign may provide some assistance to the Republican nominee, Rasmussen shows McCain ahead of both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton in the normally blue state of Michigan. And in worse news, McCain has pulled even in Pennsylvania as well.”

THE OBAMA-CLINTON-MCCAIN PARADOXES.

In short, the Clintons have been completely Clintonized, and when they turn to the media for their accustomed help, as in the past against the Right Wing Attack Machine — they learn it has become a Left-Wing Attack machine and directed at them!

McCain may become a proper antidote for all this. Unlike the verbose Michelle Obama, he really has suffered in his life; unlike Barack Obama he really has reached across the aisle and paid a price for it; and unlike Obama’s promises of transparency, he really does talk in specifics and bluntly rather than in mellifluous platitudes. And as for an against-the-odds candicacy, in postmodern America a 71-year-old survivor of communist torture and malignant melonoma seems to match the narrative of a young Ivy-League graduate of mixed ancestry.

It’s been fun to watch so far, anyway.

ARRESTED FOR D.U.I. with a 0.0 Breathalyzer. Nice move, guys.