This is how some futurists predicted we’d be be dressing right now. I can’t express how disappointed I am that they were wrong.

Though futurists of the 40s and 50s disagreed wildly on many things, there was unanimity on one thing—the 1-piece jumpsuit was the wave of the future. For men anyway. For women? Well some thought this would catch on:

Apparently this designer assumed that in our present-future women would never have to contend with wind, vigorous activities, or unflattering backlights.

to Abraham Lincoln–who would have been 199 today (but due to the age-accelerating pressures of occupying the White House, would probably look 225.)In his honor, I point you to some recently discovered photographs of Lincoln’s second inaugural. Kind of cool.

In a comment on this post, F.O.B. Ted tried to cheer me up about Republican presidential prospects in the Fall.

In today’s Wall Street Journal John Fund validates Ted’s optimism. He’s done the electoral college math. Have a look.

 

A report on NPR’s weekend edition of “All Things Considered” today had me staring at my radio in slack-jawed, gobsmack-edness today.

It covered a upcoming visit to the U.S. by Mexico’s President Calderon. (Listen here.) It opened by stating:

Mexican president Felipe Calderon will tour the United States this week, but he’s not likely to meet with President Bush or the presidential contenders. Instead, Calderon is heading to cities with large Mexican immigrant populations. Calderon has a message of support for those immigrants, who still play an important role in domestic Mexican politics.

The report went on to point out that “ex-patriots” were an important voting block in electing Calderon to the Mexican presidency and that the billions of dollars they Western Union back across the border each year is a vital component of the Mexican economy.

As the report makes clear, in a very real sense President Calderon is touring major cities in the U.S. to visit his constituents. And there are tens of millions of them. As the NPR piece also points out, they’re a little put out with El Presidente because he’s not putting more heat on Washington to reverse the recent increase in enforcement.

Finally, the report describes Calderon’s view that the economies of “the Americas” should be integrated with a free flow of labor. It’s quite stunning, really. Do give it a listen.

 In the newest installment of our ongoing series exploring the space-age, atomic world in which we’re supposed be living right now (as envisioned in the 1950s, anyway), we have an age in which the American dream still involves owning a little place of your own with a white picket fence—only it’s nestled in an orbiting snow globe. (click image for full size view)

Mr. Mooney from the “The Lucy Show” will be your Realtor and you’ll commute to work in a giant Contac cold capsule. Sure, the meteor showers and solar flares are a constant hazard; and the neighbor can use his telescope to to see you if you watch TV in your underwear. But on the positive side, that danged Schnauzer of his can never leave a memento on your lawn.

. . .that is the question, now isn’t it? 

Prior to Mitt Romney’s withdrawal from the race, you heard and read a lot of conservatives agonizing out loud about whether they could vote for McCain in the general election. I was one of them.

You need to know that I approach this decision by reminding myself of a few things.

First of all, the Republican Party and the conservative cause are not exactly one and the same. Yes, there is a lot of overlap, but what’s good for the party is not always necessarily good for the movement, and vice versa.

It’s possible that a McCain victory could be good for the Republicans in the short term and disastrous for the conservative cause (and for the country) in the long run, particularly where immigration is concerned. NRO’s John O’Sullivan made a brief down payment on that case the other day:

 Many conservatives believe that the key question in this election is: Are there to be two multiculturalist open-borders parties or one? If McCain’s election were to make the GOP fundamentally similar to the Democrats on immigration, bilingualism, racial preferences, and all the National Question issues, that would be a resounding historical defeat for conservatives.

On the other hand, I’m an incrementalist, not a purist, where the public policy and the culture wars are concerned. What I mean by that is, I think it’s stupid and self defeating to reject half a loaf when the alternative is no loaf at all. It’s a posture I’ve seen many times over the decades in the prolife movement.

I don’t know how many times I encountered “principled” prolife activists who stubbornly refused to support legislation that would have sharply reduced the number of abortions being performed because it contained some exceptions clauses. Anything that wasn’t pristine and uncontaminated by compromise had to be rejected.

They refused to accept incremental progress toward the goal. If they couldn’t have the whole thing, they’d settle for nothing.

Meanwhile, the dominant, practical wing of the Left was perfectly willing to advance their agenda one little bit at a time, nibbling away at the remnants of traditional values and free market-orientation in our laws and regulations.

Interestingly, the practical wing on the Left has lost power and the Democrats are increasingly dominated by the liberal counterpart of those pro-life purists. The radical, Daily Kos types have rejected incrementalism and tend to throw wall-eyed hissy fits if they don’t get exactly what they want. Thus the demonization of moderate Democrats like Joseph Lieberman. (Case in point: They’re running Cindy Sheehanagainst Nancy Pelosi because she’s too supportive of the war.)

So . . . Will conservatives stay home in large numbers in November? I don’t think so. First of all, only political junkies like myself and people like you who tend to visit this happy corner of the blogosphere are even aware of how noxious and obnoxious John McCain has actually been over the last 8 years. Most conservative voters just don’t pay that much attention (which explains the numbers of them voting for Huckabee.)

Second, there is the human nature factor.

Up until know, McCain has been the Republican favorite of the mainstream media and has received generally fawning coverage. But the moment the Dems figure out who their nominee is going to be, look for the press to turn on him with a vengeance.

As soon as Hillary, the liberal media, and bunch of pompous Hollywood know-nothings all start piling on McCain for the numerous conservative positions he does hold, we’re all going to start feeling defensive of him, just as we have for George W. Bush over the past seven years.

And I will be one of them. The psychology is irresistible.  

The moment Susan Sarandon launches a rant about how McCain the warmonger is going to be responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of more “innocent civilians” and Bill Maher starts calling him a fascist for wanting to withhold federal funds for abortion—John McCain is going to be suddenly transformed in our hearts into our cantankerous but sweet grandfather who’s being cruelly pecked at by demonic, shrieking harpies.

And after several months of that, all but the most extreme purists among us will happily pull the lever for McCain. But we’ll probably lose anyway.

Of course, here are two things that McCain could do to help us along on that journey and improve his odds of victory.

1. He can allay our concerns about open borders and amnesty. Saying, “I’ll secure the border first,” as he has done recently, is a start, but it isn’t good enough. We need secure borders AND beefed up enforcement here, with NO talk about an imminent amnesty so that a good number of the 20 million or so illegals already here will go ahead and self-deport. If they think all they have to do wait a bit because an amnesty is right around the corner, then they will be incentivized to stay put.

2. Pick a real-deal conservative as a running mate.The Choice of VP is a big deal, given McCain’s age and ideology. Picking Guiliani or Huckabee or someone like them will make it that much harder for us nose holders. I nominate Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn form Tennessee. She strong on every issue in which McCain is weak with Conservatives. And if the Dem nominee is Billary, having a woman on the ticket won’t hurt either.

. . .was en fuego this morning–full S&S mode (sarcasm and satire).

I love it when something really hacks him off. It doesn’t happen often. If he’s not already a part of your morning routine, have a look.

The New Republic’s John Judis puts the McCain “victory” in perspective:

McCain beat Romney in California–that’s the end of Romney. But McCain continues to depend on moderate, non-evangelical Republicans for his victories. In California, conservatives made up 62 percent of the primary electorate; McCain only won 30 percent of them. In Tennessee, 73 percent of the voters were conservatives; McCain won 22 percent. In Missouri, 65 percent were conservatives; McCain won 25 percent. In these states, McCain failed to win a majority of Republicans. And he might face a revolt of these conservatives in the fall. They won’t vote for a Democrat, but they might not vote at all.

One group that is clearly dissatisfied with McCain are Republican evangelicals. In Tennessee, which Huckabee won, 73 percent of the primary voters described themselves as born-again Christians. McCain won 29 percent of these voters. In Missouri, 54 percent of voters described themselves this way; McCain won 24 percent. The other group that doesn’t like McCain is Republicans who think illegal immigration is the most important issue. In California, 30 percent of the Republicans thought it was; 23 percent voted for Republicans; in Tennessee 25 percent thought it was the most important. Only 21 percent went for McCain. It’s not clear how McCain can win these voters over.

You’ll find the whole thing here.

F.O.B. Ted (Friend of Blather) directs my attention to this George Barna report about how born-again folks have begun to wander off the Republican farm
titled “Born Again Voters No Longer Favor Republican Candidates.”

In the opening paragraph we find:

One of the most reliable constituencies of the Republican Party in recent years has been born again Christians. A new national survey of likely voters conducted by The Barna Group, however, shows that the Republicans have lost the allegiance of many born again voters. The November election is truly up for grabs – and if the election were held today, most born again voters would select the Democratic Party nominee for president, whoever that might be.

To understand what is going on, you first have to understand why, for several decades, evangelicals (and a lot of catholics for that matter) came to feel more at home in the GOP in the first place. Two seismic events drove it.

Continue reading →

Unless he has a change of heart come November, it looks like James Dobson is going to sit the election out if McCain is the nominee. Have a listen:

btw…I’ll be posting some deep thoughts about this question later.

Update: I failed to mention—not that it was necessary—that what Rush and others have been saying for several days is absolutely true. That is: A vote for Huckabee today is a vote for McCain to be the nominee. If you’re okay with that, off you go.