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.

It’s not as though it needed another one. But check this out:

At a time when concerns about both identity theft and government spying are paramount, Congress wants to create a new honey pot of private data that includes Social Security numbers. This bill reduces privacy across America’s payment processing systems and treats every American small business or eBay power seller like a criminal on parole by requiring an unprecedented level of reporting to the federal government. This outrageous idea is another reason to delay the housing bailout legislation so that Senators and the public at large have time to examine its full implications.

You know, the revolutionaries in Boston had it right. Time to revive tar and feathers.

Ann Althouse is trying to figure out Obama’s position on Gitmo. His flowery rhetoric doesn’t offer much of a clue, apparently.