Saturday, May 17, 2008

About those parts shortages

Readers (if you exist) may recall an earlier post on the shortage of parts for the Dallara, brought about by unification.

Today is a reminder of why this is problematic. Both Rubicon and esp. PCM are going to struggle now to make the show, and that's a shame.

In other Indy news, Will Power and EJ Viso recovered from hard wrecks yesterday to qualify (slower than they would have liked) today.

Decent runs so far by Rahal, Junquiera (!), and Wilson.

Friday, May 16, 2008

Quick thoughts

George Bush: Infuriating and not very bright. Barack Obama thanks you, sir.

Indy: Shocking! Red Cars dominant. Power's crash was devastating to any hopes the talented Aussie. This might be Dixon's month. More quals., hopefully, tomorrow.

GO CAVS!

Monday, May 12, 2008

The Future of American Conservatism

A nice David Brooks piece on the fortunes of the British Tories. Can lessons be learned?

I think Douthat is pretty spot on here, in that modern American conservatives are much more socially conservative (intolerant) than their Tory counterparts. Furthermore, the likes of Norquist and others would love to take the sledgehammer to modern government. Tories seek to decentralize gov't, not destroy it.

Can these elements of US conservatism be tempered into moderation? Well, McCain is trying. See this too:





Very Cameron-esque. But does the base constituency want to follow? Signs point to NO.

Sullivan and a reader suggest that the GOP is beginning the path of "detoxification" in terms of the zealots. For the sake of our country, I hope they are right, but two problems emerge, one short-term, one long-term.

Short-term, look, would John McCain be the GOP nominee without the jumbled race we had from Jan. until March 3? Doubtful. McCain's important victories (NH, SC, and FL) were won with, oh, 35% of the vote. Had there been one clear Movement Conservative candidate v. McCain, the AZ Sen. would have been routed. In short, they STILL don't like them.

Longer term, even if Sully's right, then what? Having experienced high political involvement since the '70's, are the socons just going to abandon the system, or just be quiet? Even if they think the country has fallen to Satan? Doubtful. So, what do they do?