Noemie Emory writes that Obama’s problem is not race–it’s arugula:

..let us imagine a different candidate, one who looks like Barack Obama, with the same mixed-race, international background, even the same middle name. But this time, he is Colonel Obama, a veteran of the war in Iraq, a kick-ass Marine with a “take no prisoners” attitude, who vows to follow Osama bin Laden to the outskirts of Hell. He comes from the culture of the military (the most color blind and merit-based in the country), and not the rarefied air of Hyde Park. He goes to a church with a mixed-race congregation and a rational preacher. He has never met Bill Ayers, and if he did he would flatten him. He thinks arugula is a town near Bogota and has Toby Keith on his favorites list. Would he strike no chords at all in Jacksonian country? Does anyone think he would lose 90 to 9 in Buchanan County? Or lose West Virginia by 41 points? For those Jacksonians who would be fine with a black man in the White House (not as tiny a group as Newsweek thinks), Colonel Obama is the one we are waiting for. When we will get him is anyone’s guess.

Interestingly, the Republican candidate in my district in Boca Raton, Florida, seems to be “Colonel Obama.” Except his name is Colonel West:

WEST, WHO DISMISSES Obama as “an empty suit,” normally doesn’t raise the race issue himself, preferring instead to emphasize what he calls “American issues” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Riding the strength of that message, West says he’s not intimidated by the Democrat’s money advantage. “We don’t need to match Ron Klein dollar for dollar,” he says. “There’s a difference between being a fundraiser and being a leader.”

Reflecting on his own experience of being pushed out of the Army for doing what he felt necessary to protect his troops, West touches on the theme of character that is central to his campaign.

“In life, you’re going to get knocked down,” he says. “The measure of someone’s character is what you do after you’ve been knocked down.”

It should be an interesting race.

[Sunday morning update]

Wow.

In the course of investigating how Rush Limbaugh and I could be in the same congressional district (he’s way up north near Jupiter (the island, not the planet), I think, while we’re down south), I looked at the district boundaries. I’d never really paid that much attention. Now that’s a gerrymander on steroids. Someone ought to challenge it.

Byron York writes that Obama is running for president of the wrong country:

I have a friend in London, very Euro in outlook, who is terrifically frustrated and worried about the election.

His chief concern: the role of Americans. “It’s a pity that Americans are the ones who elect the president,” he says. “It would be much better if the people of the world voted on the American president.”

And guess who would be elected in such a scenario? Here’s a hint: It’s not John McCain.

Of course, as he points out, this is the only country in which he’d have a chance of running.

Anyway, I hope they’re very disappointed in November.

[Evening update]

Here’s some cold water thrown on the hopefuls for a world-president Obama:

…frothing phantasms over how Mr. Obama’s “imagined persona” — as a Muslim or a third world person — are already crowding this view, fanning out of the airwaves of Al-Jazeera TV into effervescent Arab websites and public opinion polls, all murmuring about miraculous turnabouts and new alliances.

An Obama administration shall deliver a free Palestine, a defanged Israel liberated enough of its Jewishness to welcome millions of returning Muslim Palestinians, instant friendship with Iran’s mullahs, a handover of the Golan Heights, and prompt departure from Iraq.

Mr. Obama needs to burst these bubbles, as none of this is likely.

Yup.

Unfortunately, in his attempts to square these circles, he’d be likely to do a lot of damage, Jimmy-Carter style.

Thoughts from a Canadian artist:

Under Bill C-10, film producers will no longer be able to use tax credits as collateral when receiving their interim loans from banks (thus lessening their chances of securing these loans), nor will they be able to work them into their cash flow as a way of funding post-production needs. However, there is nothing stopping these producers from getting their money from another source. There is also absolutely nothing stopping them from making their films in this country, regardless of the content. All the bill says is that some films will not be made on the public dollar.

Compare that to what could happen if a human rights tribunal decides against Maclean’s: It could order the private magazine to publish material and images against its editors’ wishes. Let me repeat that: The state will order Maclean’s to publish something it does not want to publish. Isn’t that what China does? So why don’t ear-to-the-ground, free speech-loving Canadian artists denounce it?

First they came for the right-wing **sholes. But I’m not a right-wing **shole, so I said nothing…

Is John McCain ready for a flip on ANWR?

For years, McCain has opposed drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

But McCain said he’d be willing to reconsider that stance as well.

“I would be more than happy to examine it again,” McCain said.

A perfect way for him to do it would be to actually go there (as he’s rightfully demanded that Senator Obama go to Iraq), and then standing there, in the barren wasteland, cameras rolling, point out the area that would be affected, how far away the beautiful mountains are, how tiny a percentage of the area would be impacted, etc., and say “I have always been in favor of the environment, and have opposed drilling up here for that reason. But with gas at four dollars a gallon, much of the price being driven by speculation that Congress will continue to oppose opening up new supplies, and now that I’ve seen how minimal the impact will be on the refuge as a whole, I agree that it’s perfectly reasonable and appropriate to tap this huge resource for the American people, and the world.”

It would be a huge win for him politically, and it has the additional virtue of being good policy.

By the way, this wouldn’t be a “flip flop,” which is a term that applies to changing one’s position multiple times depending on the political winds. This would be a single flip, based on dramatically changing economic circumstances, rather than politics. As Keynes once said, “when confronted with new facts, sir, I change my opinion. What do you do?”

One other point–this would also be a perfectly reasonable justification for Obama to change his position on Iraq, given the progress in the last year. But unlike a McCain flip on ANWR, it might kill him politically, by sending the nutroots to Ralph Nader.

Is John McCain ready for a flip on ANWR?

For years, McCain has opposed drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

But McCain said he’d be willing to reconsider that stance as well.

“I would be more than happy to examine it again,” McCain said.

A perfect way for him to do it would be to actually go there (as he’s rightfully demanded that Senator Obama go to Iraq), and then standing there, in the barren wasteland, cameras rolling, point out the area that would be affected, how far away the beautiful mountains are, how tiny a percentage of the area would be impacted, etc., and say “I have always been in favor of the environment, and have opposed drilling up here for that reason. But with gas at four dollars a gallon, much of the price being driven by speculation that Congress will continue to oppose opening up new supplies, and now that I’ve seen how minimal the impact will be on the refuge as a whole, I agree that it’s perfectly reasonable and appropriate to tap this huge resource for the American people, and the world.”

It would be a huge win for him politically, and it has the additional virtue of being good policy.

By the way, this wouldn’t be a “flip flop,” which is a term that applies to changing one’s position multiple times depending on the political winds. This would be a single flip, based on dramatically changing economic circumstances, rather than politics. As Keynes once said, “when confronted with new facts, sir, I change my opinion. What do you do?”

One other point–this would also be a perfectly reasonable justification for Obama to change his position on Iraq, given the progress in the last year. But unlike a McCain flip on ANWR, it might kill him politically, by sending the nutroots to Ralph Nader.