Ryan enters race in the outside lane

And now, Dear Reader. do we have a 3-man race:  Mitt Romney, Barack Obama and...um...Paul Ryan?

On at least two occasions, Ryan has said he disagrees with Romney's  version of the 47 per centers...Or...that Mitt's remarks were "inarticulate".

Latest polls among diehard Republicans between Mitt and Paul  now give Ryan 37 pct., Romney 26 pct., with the others undecided or still at the seashore. When Ryan's  boss, who has been out to a long lunch, returns to the office,  heads could roll.

Haley Barbour: Another door left open

A WASHINGTON source is reporting that Haley Barbour, the Republican Mississippi governor, has "left the door open" to a candidacy for president in 2012.  In political jargon, Barbour, once the Republican national chairman, is sending a coy signal that he may very well run if the planets line up in his favor.    It's smart politics.  He'll keep everybody guessing that he might be the 25th or 50th potential Republican candidate in the race and lobbyists and donors will tread carefully around him the next year or so  in the outside chance that the will be in the presidential pack. 

The former New York Times columnist Russell Baker once called it the great mentioning game.  And you have little chance of winning a free lunch at McDonald's if you are not at least mentioned on all of the Sunday morning talk shows, particularly by George Will on a good day. Newt Gingrich also says he might run if things don't change.    He had better hope that they do inasmuch as President Obama's latest  ABC News poll numbers gives Barack a startling 72 pct. "favorability" rating with Americans.  Against  congressional Republicans, he leads 61-24.

 But the mere fact that Gingrich is now leaving the door open means he will be a regular guest on conservative talk shows to revive his failed "contract with America."  Right now, there are doubtless 20 others leaving the door open with a promise of letting in some fresh air.  It works wonders with political egos. So if any of them is invited to throw out the first pitch at a baseball game, the announcer is bound to say, "Congressman Smiley is from Arkansas and has left the door open to run for president.

One, however, must be careful not to get too far ahead of the curve.  Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who is mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, made quite a spectacle of himself at a photo-op to declare that Texas might secede if the Feds don't leave him alone with stimulus money and other Big Brotherly incursions.  How silly he must look today after he asked the very same Feds for help in combatting the swine flu epidemic. (Sorry, Texas politicians never think they look silly about anything.)

I never left the door open for myself.  Happily for me, when I came home from grade school with a report card with two c's on it, my mother sensed my gloom, but came though with a consoling remark by a dear mother who preferred bingo to books.    "Don't worry," she said. "You're never gonna be president anyway."

She was right.  Mothers usually are.  

  

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The Pirate hostage rant falls overboard

THE AMAZING rescue of Pirate hostage Richard Phillips by Navy Seals on Sunday also kidnapped the right-wing fomentators' latest assault on President Obama as being something of an incompetent  sissy in standing up to America's enemies.  Led, as always, by the wingers Great White Whale, Rush Limbaugh,  Obama was already cast in pig iron as no match against the Somali Pirates, thus proving once again that we are in great risk without someone as tough as, can we say,  George Bush?  The Seals ruined their anti-Obama  rant by killing three of the Pirates and capturing a fourth while demonstrating to the world that we have not lost all of our smarts.  Until the dramatic rescue, the ranters would have you believe that in an Obama-world,  piracy was just another example of our rising mediocrity, no  matter that   it had been occurring all too frequently long before he entered the White House.  Limbaugh's word for it while  including Hilary Clinton in the wrap, was "inept" - as in, these people have no idea in hell about what they are doing. So  it may surprise them that the Associated Press has now reported that the president was in close contact with the rescue mission, getting as many as six briefings a day after  clearing the Seals  to use deadly force if necessary to bring Phillips home safely.     (Would it be fair to ask Rush how he came by such incisive military insights with not a day of military service on his resume?)  The wingers will keep up the beat, insisting perhaps, that a truly concerned president would have been on the scene disguised as one of the Seals.  All of this reminds me of what Dr. Samuel Johnson, the essayist and lexicographer, said about another fellow:  "The worst of Warburton is, that he has a rage for saying something, when there's nothing to be said."  

Newt on the pulpit

Happened to glimpse the ubiquitous Newt Gingrich for a few moments on TV as he intoned his recurring sermon on President Obama's alleged flawed policies.  His stated matter-of-fact truths reflect the glib style of a bored  Bill O'Reilly,   which says "What I am saying is so universally true that it  hardly needs to be said except for all of the dummies in my audience."   Gingrich has been on a glide path since he was rushed out of Congress in the 90's as a  misbehaving blowhard. But he doubtless wakes up  each morning refreshed by his presumption that he  is a profoundly wise and gifted conservative father figure within a shrinking southern-based political party.  He does get a bit peckish at times, offering last year's failed McCain gambit  that he might have to run for president in 2012 if the less mindful among us don't shape up by then.  Class dismissed.