JOEL KOTKIN: The Smackdown Of The Creative Class. “More than anything, this election marked a shift in American class dynamics. In 2008 President Obama managed to win enough middle-class, suburban voters to win an impressive victory. This year, those same voters deserted, rejecting policies more geared to the ‘creative class’ than mainstream America.”

PHYSICISTS GET SET for little Big Bangs.

NOT GETTING MUCH MEDIA PLAY, but it’s the one-year anniversary of the Fort Hood Massacre.

JIM TREACHER: Don’t need a Weatherman to know Obama’s not happy to see Bernardine Dohrn pop her head up again.

IN THE MAIL: Operation Dark Heart: Spycraft and Special Ops on the Frontlines of Afghanistan — and the Path to Victory.

WANT TO HELP WOUNDED SOLDIERS? Please support Project Valour-IT.

THE LATEST THREAT: GLOBAL AGING. “Saving more and working longer are a crucial part of any overall reform strategy because they provide the best means — indeed, the only means – to shore up the living standard of the old without imposing a new tax or family burden on the young.”

We need to seek a Longevity Dividend.

TIGERHAWK: Ships To India: If Only It Were True. “When a good history of the George W. Bush years is finally written, his breakthrough with India may turn out to be the most important foreign policy initiative of his administration. The Indian Ocean hosts lanes for the oil from the Persian Gulf and an ever larger share of its trade, and India sits in the middle of it. It is also the geographical center of transnational Islamic terrorism. It is essential that the United States maintain a strong deterrent in the Indian Ocean, and that it preserve and enhance its ability to coerce whatever clown revue happens to be governing Pakistan at the moment. India is the key to both. That Barack Obama recognizes this is to his credit. It is quite possibly the most deft foreign policy move of his administration — admittedly, a low standard — and he deserves credit for it. Let’s just hope he doesn’t apologize too much while he’s there.”

UPDATE: Obama Recasts Asia Trip As Jobs Mission. “If that’s recasting the point of the trip, what was it previously supposed to be about? And whatever the original purpose, why didn’t Obama figure out that this would be a good thing to say before the elections?”

I’m beginning to wonder if he’s as smart as people have been telling me. Or maybe it’s whether the NYT is as smart as people have been telling me. Or, to be more accurate, if either is as smart as the NYT people have been telling me . . . .

GOOD QUESTION: “Which is in worse shape, the state of the American economy or the state of American punditry?”

CIVIL WAR: Progressive Greenwald vs. ‘Socialist’ O’Donnell.

TUNKU VARADARAJAN: Obama’s India Problem. “Two years after Bush’s departure from the White House, India is still Bush Country—a giant (if foreign) Red State, to use the American political taxonomy. By that I mean that the political establishment and much of the non-leftist intelligentsiaa still looks back with dewy-eyed fondness to the time when India’s relations with the United States flowered extravagantly under Bush. It wasn’t just a matter of securing a mold-breaking nuclear deal with Washington; it was a case of India dealing, for the first time in the uneven history of its relations with the United States, with an American president who saw India as a partner-in-civilization. . . . Obama has let the alliance with India wither on the vine. This has frustrated India deeply, especially as a perception came to grip New Delhi that some of Obama’s neglect was payback to India for its closeness to his predecessor.”

“THE MOST SOBER Tsunami election in history.”

UPDATE: Dealing with defeat: Republicans in 2006 and Democrats now.

ROBERT GIBBS: Efforts to repeal ObamaCare won’t get past the Senate. That’s okay. Make ’em vote for it again. . . .

UPDATE: Reader John Miller emails:

Yes, you make the Senate vote on ObamaCare again.

You make them vote on a lot of things.

Were I in Boehner’s shoes, I’d be preparing a long list of very short, very simple bills, each covering a single issue with broad public support.

Race-neutral enforcement of civil-rights laws.

Sanctioning ‘sanctuary cities’.

Voter ID.

Forcing the DOJ to implement the voter-roll cleanup provisions of HAVA.

And so on. Single-issue bills that can be read by any voter in five minutes.

Run them through the House and, should a few more of these Senators staring 2012 in the face decide they don’t dare oppose the bills, we get to see Obama double-talk his way through vetoing motherhood and apple pie.

Yes, great idea.

UPDATE: Read this from John Boehner. And my Sunday Washington Examiner column — written, alas, before I’d seen this Boehner column — has some similar ideas, though I wish I could have made it a response to Boehner’s piece today.

L.A. TIMES: HOWARD DEAN’S surprise Presidential announcement. “To prove this denial theory, tonight at dinner, while grinding the pepper, volunteer to your spouse out of the blue that you are definitely not cheating with someone else.”

AT AMAZON, a 48-hour sale in HDTVs and video.

PJTV: Andrew Klavan: Lies! Deceit! Treachery! You Too Can Be a Mainstream Media Reporter.

AMERICAN THINKER: Truth and Science and Facts vs. Unwashed Hillbillies.

MORE YACHT TAX TROUBLES FOR JOHN KERRY.

KEITH OLBERMANN’S POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS: “MSNBC host Keith Olbermann made campaign contributions to two Arizona members of Congress and failed Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway ahead of Tuesday’s election — a potential violation of NBC’s ethics policies. . . . Olbermann, who has become of the most prominent liberal commentators on cable television, has been a critic of the political donations made by Fox News’ parent company, News Corp.”

TIME FOR A CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION? Reader Lance Neff thinks so: “Now that the GOP has 26 statehouses and a large minority in many others, coupled with the public’s mood, isn’t it time to push for a constitutional convention to discuss, say, Randy Barnett’s proposed amendments? Or at the very least a balanced budget amendment? (Which, by the way, was on the ballot here in Florida, as a non-binding resolution, and passed with 71.87% which means alot of I’s and D’s voted for it).”

Funny you mention that. The Tennessee Law Review is now working on an issue about the substance and procedure of a Constitutional Convention, with contributions from Randy Barnett, Richard Epstein, and a host of other stars.

MARK TAPSCOTT: Why does anybody not working on K Street take Trent Lott seriously anymore? Beats me. Plus this: “What Lott really meant is that he would likely have had absolutely zero influence with Tea Party backed senators whereas with the Establishment-types he would have been lining his wallet with cold, hard lobbying contract cash. Did Politico, which reported Lott’s remarks in a story bylined by Jonathan Martin and Manu Raju, point out this fact? I’ll bet you can guess the answer to that question.”

COMET FLYBY PICTURES from the Deep Impact space probe.

RENEE ELMERS, who beat Bob “who are you?” Etheridge, is now asking for help to cover recount expenses. Lawyers aren’t free.

UPDATE: Reader Bob Ayers writes: “I googled Etheridge to remind myself … then donated $250.”

MARK TAPSCOTT: Memo To McConnell: Earmarks Must End. Indeed.

DANIEL FREEDMAN: STRIP JOE BIDEN OF HIS MOTORCADE? “Since the Obama administration announced a series of measures in October last year to put an end to distracted driving, including an executive order directed at federal employees, Vice-President Joe Biden’s motorcade has been involved in at least five crashes. That’s an unusually high number for such a motorcade. . . . Whether distracted driving or something else is causing the high number of incidents involving Mr. Biden’s motorcade, it’s still dangerous and unacceptable – and it’s setting the wrong example.”