The Prez is Sinking Like a Stone in the Polls

The latest poll numbers don't look good for Bush. Yes, there's a long time to go before the election, but there isn't much precedent, if any, for an incumbent surviving pre-election poll numbers such as these. Proving once again that empty posturing and B.S. only work for so long in a free society, where people eventually find out what's happening.

But that doesn't necessarily mean I'm thrilled with the alternative, Kerry. And I'm not alone. This election blog entry in The New Republic nicely outlines why Kerry is far from a November shoe-in, despite Bush's mushrooming problems. Of course, some of that is accounted for by the din of the Republican attack machine. But be honest: who among even the most hardened Dems aren't wondering aloud these days whether this grave loner is really up to the world's toughest job? About the best case that many people can make for him is that he'd make a less-disastrous hash of it than Bush has. And that's not a very compelling case to go to the polls with in November.

Here's That Glass Half Full I Mentioned Earlier. The Washington Post does a good job of profiling the soldier who blew the whistle on abuse at Abu Ghraib. Shamefully, but perhaps not surprisingly during wartime, Joe Darby is being met with more than a little hostility in his Maryland hometown. No one ever said being a hero is an easy way to go. But doing the right thing has its own rewards.

'Random Acts of Journalism.' In some circles, the controversy over whether blogging constitutes journalism is a never-ending one. Much of that debate is too overheated for me to bother you with, dear reader. But occasionally I come across a story that sheds more light than heat. This transcript of a conversation ran in the Online Journalism Review, an excellent online-only journal affiliated with the University of Southern California's journalism school. It includes some smart observations, including a guy who opines that bloggers tend to perform "random acts of journalism." There's also an interesting riff on how gossip and news are merely points along a continuum, something little understood by most civilians...