EVENING UPDATE,  JANUARY 27,  2008

•   ABC News is reporting that Ted Kennedy will endorse Barack Obama tomorrow.  Mr. Kennedy previously nominated George McGovern at the 1972 Democratic convention.  He ran for the Democratic nomination himself in 1980, but his campaign stalled after he could not give a coherent answer to television reporter Roger Mudd, who asked him why he wanted to be president.  His endorsement is coveted within the Democratic Party.   

•   Meanwhile, in the grown-up world, the thoughtful Max Boot warns about the Democratic candidates' irresponsible behavior regarding Iraq.  Reading "political" reporters' incredible spin on the South Carolina primary result - a multicultural victory for Obama, which it wasn't - you wouldn't even know there were real crises out there, real challenges for the nation that can't be met with slogans.  But noticing that would be so unfair to Barack, whose supporters see this as their "moment."  Do we want to spoil a party, dears, especially a party of the oppressed?

Boot notes that the Democratic candidates are vying with each other to see who can promise faster withdrawals from Iraq.  A key quote:

Imagine what would have happened in the Korean peninsula if the U.S. and its allies had withdrawn all combat troops in 1955. What are the odds that South Korea would have remained independent? Probably no higher than the odds in South Vietnam, where we did withdraw all combat troops in 1973. Within two years the war was lost. 

The sad fact is that the people who control the Democratic Party don't care that we lost in Vietnam.  They did everything they could to arrange it.  They would do the same with Iraq, and then blame President Bush.  And their allies in the press, many of whom marched in those "anti-war" demonstrations of the sixties and early seventies, would cheer them on.

 You'll notice that references to the 9/11 attacks have all but disappeared in the Democratic campaign.  It reminds me of the comment by Paul Robeson, the great American singer who disgraced himself by sinking into Stalinism while American troops were dying on the very Korean peninsula Max Boot mentions.  When asked by a reporter about artists who mysteriously disappeared inside the Soviet Union, Robeson replied, "I do not know of such things." 

Today, the once-great Democratic Party, when confronted with an international threat that has already cost more deaths on American soil than Pearl Harbor, pretends not to know of such things. 

What is stunning is the party's hypocrisy.  Mr. Obama whips up the crowd by promising change, but surrounds himself with failed foreign-policy advisers from failed administrations, including Zbigniev Brzezinski, the spectacularly failed national security adviser to Jimmy Carter.

I guess this is the kind of change he's talking about.

•   And still, no one asks Mr. Obama any tough questions.  On the contrary, certain areas are apparently ruled off limits.  We can question Governor Huckabee about his religious beliefs, but Mr. Obama's voluntary membership in a church with a radical, even racist political agenda is off the table.  We can scrutinize every person Rudy Guiliani ever patted on the back, but apparently Mr. Obama never knew anyone.  We can examine the foreign-policy credentials of Mitt Romney, but Mr. Obama's awkward interference in Kenyan affairs is a non-star.  I mean, who are we...?

We are going to pay a price for this.  The question is whether that price will be too high for any nation to bear.

•   In fact, fantasy seems to be the rule of the day.  I guess that when you've spun so many medical tales in malpractice cases, it leaks into every area of your life.  So John Edwards, taking time out from the important work of cleaning his blow-dryer, now says that his moment may yet come: 

After four consecutive losses in the Democratic presidential campaign, John Edwards said Saturday night that he is forging ahead to Super Tuesday with a belief that the "dynamic could shift at any time." 

Mr. Edwards reportedly also said that warnings of ice ahead were greatly exaggerated, and that the liner would make it to New York on schedule, a victory for the White Star Line.

I can imagine John Edwards, in 35 years, wandering around his mansion, the largest in his county, mumbling, "I am big.  It's the elections that got small." **

** See Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond in "Sunset Boulevard."

•   Of course, there are the dopes who make the shallowness of the political arguments we hear today sound just fine.  They're the heroes of a financial culture in which you "fail upward."  I've seen it in Hollywood many times.  "Okay, so Bud's last ten movies failed, and they forgot to put in sound on the last one.  Well, sure, but it's bad luck, and look at the experience Bud got.  I'd hire him in a second."  And Bud becomes head of another studio.  The man knows, the man knows.  Make sure he gets the first parking space.  

Free enterprise can only work, and prove itself as the best economic system around, if those at the top are held responsible for failure, just as they're rewarded for success.  But Wall Street sees it differently, as reported in this well-done story in The New York Times.  Failure?  Hey, that's for the little guys.  The big guys simply grow with the years.  The key quote:

“People develop relationships that transcend the professional role so that they can rationalize away performance,” said Clayton S. Rose, a former senior executive at JPMorgan who now teaches a course on corporate leadership at Harvard Business School. “There is also a view that they have learned from their mistakes and have now figured it out.”

It's bad enough to vote for the far left.  It's even worse to give the leftist battalions all the ammunition they need.  Some on Wall Street are devoted to that mission.  

•   One of the shocking things about the Duke University lacrosse case was the enthusiasm of some members of the faculty for the legal lynching that almost occurred.  Now we have a report detailing political contributions of the Duke faculty.  You don't need to sit down, or rush for the pills, for there's nothing shocking here.  It simply confirms the lack of ideological diversity that allows arrogance to flourish.  Some 91 percent of campaign contributions went to Democrats, the greatest amount to Obama.  Get this:

The Obama campaign, which received the most contributions-$18,300 from 20 donors-has been particularly appealing among intellectuals, explained Dr. James Tulsky, professor of internal medicine.

"[Obama] is extremely intelligent and resonates with the typical faculty member," he said. "He's a visionary leader... somebody who really understands why politics has gone downhill." Tulsky, an active Obama supporter and fundraiser, has donated $2,300 to Obama's campaign.

Yeah, that's a real intellectual campaign, filled with subtlety and learning.  Why don't I want my X-ray read by this man?

•   Finally, a salute to NBC Sports for its excellent coverage of the US Nationals in figure skating.  I was especially impressed by the imaginative camera work and the quality of NBC's widescreen HD picture.  High definition is like any other technology - it can be used well, or it can be botched.  NBC gave a textbook example of doing it right.

Be back tomorrow.

Posted on January 27, 2008.