Penned up

Frank Rich notices McCain's failure in Pennsylvania and fleshes it out with some cool numbers. Any column that refers to a Democratic surplus of a million voters is a cause for some happiness amidst all the current gloom, mine included.

The national pundit's cartel is going to have to take away his membership for going against the received and conventional wisdom, especially since he confesses to heterodoxy in paragraph 2.

Well buried but worth getting to is this slam at McCain:

The “action” the candidate outlined in the text of his speeches may strike many voters as running the gamut from inaction to inertia.

If he would stay in Iraq for his entire less-than-century-long presidency, there's no money to do anything else. He's not going to raise taxes for love nor the deficit.

So all he has is recycled photo op compassionate conservatism. He'll be happy to emote and sympathize, as long as we don't ask for anything more.