Mark Halperin lists fifteen ways that John McCain underestimates Barack Obama. Halperin doesn't offer any concrete insight into McCain's campaign, however, so who knows whether McCain is really that blind. But many of Halperin's points do seem relevant, in particular his point #3 is particularly apt:

3. The inherent difficulty/sensitivity of running against two figures at once. McCain will have to 1) explicitly criticize a sitting Republican president before Republican audiences and 2) prevent the historic event of electing the nation’s first African-American president that many in the country (and the media) desire.

It occurs to me that there's a relatively painless solution to this problem: don't criticize Bush/Cheney, just criticize Cheney. He's the real lightning rod in the administration, the most powerful vice president in our nation's history.

(via RCP.)

Resistance Is Useless

...says the Vogon.

Meanwhile back on Earth, the French feel the need to regulate...country line dancing?

The nut graf...

In a peculiarly Gallic approach to the phenomenon, French civil servants say line dancing should be submitted to the same rules as sports such as football and rugby. This means imposing training courses for line dancing teachers and a state-approved diploma for anyone who wants to give lessons or run clubs.

Amateur instructors will have to take 200 hours of training under the new rules. Professionals will get 600 hours, including such subjects as line dancing techniques, “the mechanics of the human body” and the English (or at least Texan) language. They will also learn how to teach line dancing to the elderly.

The cost of the courses, about €2,000 (£1,570) for the professionals and €500 for the amateurs, will be largely met by taxpayers. Mr Chauveau said the regulations highlighted the French state's obsessive desire to organise all public activity. “France is the only country in Europe apart from Greece where sport is controlled through the state,” he said. “Line dancing is now considered a sport, so it is being controlled, too.”

(Via Instapundit.)

Sen. Clinton and Anti-Woman Bias

E.J. Dionne notes that many women are upset over the way Sen. Clinton has been treated. He offers the following quote from the Therese Murray, president of the Massachussetts Senate...

"From the beginning, she's been treated very badly," says Therese Murray, the president of the Massachusetts Senate. "No woman would have run with Obama's resume. She wouldn't have been considered." But Clinton has been "demonized by the press and the talking heads. How do you get away with that?"

Ridiculous. What exactly is on Sen. Clinton's resume that isn't on Sen. Obama's?! That she's married to a former U.S. President? Wow.

Krugman and Denial

Paul Krugman makes the point that Republicans don't want to admit that government must solve the pollution problem, even thought the Bush 41 administration gets credit for having solved acid-rain via tradeable emission permits. It's a fair criticism.

Missing from his analysis, however, is the fact that in 1996 government solved the welfare problem largely through a rigid cap on unemployment and welfare disbursements. Clinton took all the credit he could for this policy, even though it had been both a Republican idea as well as a Republican ideal.

Now Obama is trying the same tactic on the pollution front, taking a traditionally Republican idea (market-based reform) to solve a Democratic ideal. I would think that if Krugman really cared about the environment, he'd applaud Obama rather than criticize him.

Penny Arcade On Letting Experts Be Expert

At 26:29 in this podcast (warning: it's a big dowload), Penny Arcade's Mike Krahulik makes a point about working with experts...

I don't have the skills, and I don't really understand animation, and so I feel like I would be stepping on toes if I laid out second by second what they need to be doing. Honestly I prefer when I'm collaborating with somebody who has a specialty, I like to give as little instruction as possible, because the whole reason that I'd be working with them is because they're good at what they do.

Would that more people understood that principle.

Bob Wright on Software Design

Some good stuff from a non-software developer.

Software Design is Harder than House Design

Software Design is almost a Moral Challenge

Obama: the Democrats' Goldwater?

The Wyoming Democratic Party chairman says Wyoming voters dislike Hillary Clinton. He goes on...

If Barack Obama is the democratic presidential nominee, we will be the party of new ideas that understands that a united America will be much better able to address the serious problems facing our country than a divided America. If Hillary Clinton is our party’s nominee, every democratic candidate in Wyoming will be painted with that same liberal, big government brush.

I detect a certain naivety in Obama's policy formulation, particularly when it comes to foreign policy. But it's clear his values and principles are broadly shared. It's equally clear that many people admire his style and approach to politics.

I'm not old enough to remember Goldwater, but I see some parallels. Goldwater rose to prominence through local politics and then the U.S. Senate. His views found great sympathy among (for the time) radical members of his political party. He championed civil rights.

Obama has also risen through local politics and the U.S. Senate. He has a lot of support among the Democratic base. He's taken a fairly hard line against corruption in general and earmarks in particular.

Of course, Goldwater got creamed by Johnson. I don't think Obama would necessarily lose, let alone lose in a landslide. But win or lose, I wonder what impact Obama will have long-term on the Democratic party.