NR and WSJ Miscellany

I just received the latest issue of National Review, (3/23/09), the one with socialist icon Obama on the cover. As a special treat, there are two pieces each by Mark Steyn and Rob Long. A conservative looking for a persuasive argument against Obama's Europeanization of America could do no better than Steyn's on page 22. Let a "progressive" you love read it and learn what we're progressing towards.
For comic relief there's Long's brief, hilarious take on Joe Biden. As I've written before, there is an upside to having these clowns in office.

Embedded in Long's piece is the best description of the 'stimulus' package I've seen.
The stimulus package is a big, greasy pile of industrial sausage — chock full of wasteful nonsense, hilarious left-wing 1970s retreads, graft, payola, foolish wish-fulfillment, and pointless grandiosity. It’s not a bill; it’s a smash-and-grab. It stimulates nothing except contempt.

Also in this month's NR is a profile of John Negroponte, the diplomat who has worked with leaders of both parties. Interviewed by Jay Nordlinger, this is what he has to say about George W. Bush : Bush himself acknowledged that “he wasn’t as good with words as he might have been,” Negroponte continues. And one thing this problem did was “mask a great intelligence.” He is “a very smart man.”

I was happy to see (in a WSJ op-ed today by Rasmussen pollsters) that Obama's favorability numbers continue to fall, now at 56%. Significantly, one-third of respondents strongly disapprove of his performance. He has a lower approval rating than G. W. Bush did at the same point in his first term. Polls are very volatile, of course, but these numbers along with those of some upcoming Congressional races at least provide some hope that the Age of Obama may be very short indeed.