We’ll see if Governor Palin can close the deal with the PUMAs (assuming that the rumor is true–she’s reportedly still in Alaska, with no way to get to Dayton by 11 AM–could be another head fake).
People will say that she’s not ready to be CinC. Well, she’s only running for Vice CinC. And she’s at least as ready (with actual executive experience) as the Democrats’ nominee.
[Update a while later]
It’s looking more certain now, but we won’t know for sure for another half hour or so. I wonder if she’ll take Senator McCain on a tour of ANWR?
Bob Beckel looked very depressed on Fox and Friends this morning. He knows how badly the Donkeys screwed up a free lunch this year, even if many others are in denial.
I’m watching the Tavis Smiley show on KCET before I go to bed on the west coast. He has Julianne Malveaux and Cornell West on, whining that “brother” (and they used that word many times) Obama’s speech was too white.
I’d have to go with Reagan (as long as it was the pre-Alzheimers version). Not that there’s much to choose from. Second place would probably be Ike.
But it’s hard to take presidents out of their historical milieu and have a good idea how they’d respond. For instance, what if we’d had a Reagan with a Newt-led Republican Congress? We’ll never know.
[Later afternoon update]
I just went and actually took the poll. Reagan first, Ike a distant second, with everyone else in the noise. I always get suspicious when large numbers of people agree with me. It’s so rare…
Wayne Hale explains why we should shut down the Shuttle.
Everything he says is true–much of the infrastructure and support contractors for the system are already gone. That’s why it will be very expensive to resurrect them to the degree necessary to fly past 2010. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible, but as I wrote in my PJM piece, we have to decide how much ISS is worth to us. And if we want to keep the option open, and as least costly as possible, we need to stop terminating those suppliers and destroying tooling immediately. It’s probably a prudent thing to do, until the next president can make a decision.
They really are setting up a replica of a Greek temple from which The One will give his speech tomorrow. I’ve heard the excuse that they’re just trying to make it like the White House (as though that’s a good excuse…one more time–you’re not president yet). But even if true, it doesn’t fly. Yes, the White House is of Palladian style, but it’s neoclassical, and only the porticos have columns. It looks more like the Parthenon (at least as far as one can tell from the grainy camera photo).
And you know who lives in Greek temples?
Gods.
It will be amusing to see what the McCain campaign does with this one.
It just occurs to me that even if we continue to fly the Shuttle through “the gap” that doesn’t really solve the problem of actually utilizing the station. We are currently planning on relying on dual Soyuzs (what’s the plural of “Soyuz”?) for “lifeboat” capability to allow a six-person crew after completion. If the US is not purchasing Soyuz, we wouldn’t be able to leave Americans on board permanently, unless we wanted to risk losing them in emergency. It seems unlikely that this would actually play out politically, but if there were only one Soyuz there while the Shuttle wasn’t, it would be a Titanic situation, with only enough escape craft for half the crew. Would the Russians just say, “dos vedanya…”? The OSP was supposed to serve in that function, but it was cancelled when the VSE came along.
What a policy Charlie Foxtrot.
I’ll bet that you could find volunteers in the astronaut office, though.