I had high hopes

for this guy. A GOP governor that calls for a moratorium on social issues? Says they're not the most pressing things on the table, like budget matters, the economy, and education? Sounds like my kind of politician.

I find Daniels refreshing even if his call for a "truce" on social issues isn't realistic, considering what's going on nowadays, and considering that I have reservations about his views on the budget, having been persuaded, not without some ambivalence, of the wisdom of New Keynesian views on spending during recessions. Even with my reservations, and with Daniels' promised avoidance of issues that are near and dear to so many voters' hearts, I would welcome a return of the Republican Party of Eisenhower, or Rockefeller, or Ford.

But if the odds weren't long enough already, now this comes out. (HT: Stephen Smith) With this revelation, it's even more difficult to imagine Daniels being anything other than an interesting diversion in the upcoming GOP presidential primary, unfortunately.

World's Worst Lumper

I thought about titling this one "We don't need no water let the mother****** burn! Burn mother******, BURN!!" But I've noticed that on my blog so far, I've done mostly lumping, rather than splitting. I don't have anything interesting to split right now, so I'll pass along something relevant I ran across, again from the Bloggingheads link section. It's a very good example, of bad lumping:

Revolution

It's a word that gets used a lot, but my earliest memories of putting it into competent use involve the political sense of the word. The French and American and Russian Revolutions, for example, clearly deserve the title as I first learned it. It wasn't until I got older that I heard of broader societal changes described as "revolutionary," and it wasn't until my Epistemology class that I heard of the word in the context of scientific revolutions. The situation in Egypt seems to warrant the use of the word as I first learned it. Whether it becomes a full-blown revolution or not remains to be seen, but it seems to be getting close.

1)Revolution, Egyptian style: Change is afoot.

2)Things are looking bad for Mubarak.

3)He seems to be having a problem with this.

4)From Iran's recent troubles, to Egypt's current ones, the revolution will not be televised, but.

5)From Andrew Sullivan.

6)This has little to do with Egypt's particular situation, but I couldn't resist.