On Ross Douthat.

I know he got hired as the traditional white male conservative* (converted) Catholic voice on the NYT ed page. A type not known for speed, say, or breaking-the-mold intellectual witticisms.

Still, am I the only one who glances at the headlines to his blogs and columns thinking, "Yesterday's news, or point of view?" Seems to me he's always a few days -- or even a week or two even -- behind the headline news, summarizing what others have already written, with not much new to offer up.

Much of the new journalism is, of course, a circle jerk: link to me, I'll link to you, we'll both be brilliant by each other's consideration. Still, if you're writing about politics, sometimes you really do have to take a leap of faith, and write something fresh. Don't you?

Even somebody who's making trade on marketing himself as a traditional gent:

Yesterday’s big news in Republican presidential politics was a poll showing Michele Bachmann within single digits of Mitt Romney … in New Hampshire. Jon Chait, who’s been beating the “Bachmann can win” drum for months now, naturally claims vindication. I’m going to stick with my boring “Bachmann can’t win, and her rise is good news for Romney” conventional wisdom, buttressing this CW with a great passage from a Will Wilkinson dispatch from Bachmann’s Iowa kick-off:

At Sunday’s “Welcome Home Michele!” reception in Waterloo’s Electric Park Ballroom, one table of three older ladies—all with some relation of marriage, blood, or friendship to [Michele] Bachmann’s family—were uniformly impressed with Ms Bachmann’s integrity, commitment to principle, and attendance at family reunions. But when I asked whether they would be backing Ms Bachmann, one of the ladies sighed “Welllll, yeah…” somewhat warily as she opened the purse on her lap and discreetly flashed a glimpse of a campaign greeting card bearing a picture of Mitt Romney and his handsome family. “I supported Romney, and I think I’ll support him again because of his experience, which I think is more than what she has.” She was not the only one who suggested to me that Mr Romney and Ms Bachmann might make a good ticket.

And to add data to anecdote, I’ll further buttress my view with this Gallup survey, cited by Daniel Larison, which shows that at present only 3 percent (!) of Republican primary voters have a “strongly unfavorable” view of Mitt Romney, compared with 73 percent who feel “favorable” or “strongly favorable” toward the former Massachusetts governor. Of course those numbers will come down as negative campaigning highlights Romney’s various sins and deviations. But they’re grist for my recurring argument that opposition from movement institutions, talk radio and the like are not insuperable obstacles for a well-funded Republican frontrunner to overcome.

Romney remains a weak frontrunner, to be sure — weak enough that I was sure he was a dead man walking a year ago.

Shh... don't tell anyone, Ross, but it really should have been Romney, not McCain, as the nominee back in 2008. Perhaps too many fell for the "but he's a Mormon!" line that plenty are still offering up... or perhaps too many pundits can't distinguish between state innovation in our system of federalism, and a massive overreaching (and like unconstitutional) federal entitlement program, at a time when America should be reducing entitlements, not making more unneeded promises. (The uninsured numbers being amped up by entitlement advocates like Ezra Klein who never bothered to distinguish between the uninsured-by-fiscal-choice and those who are simply uninsurable from a business logic sense.)


* Heir to David Brooks perhaps, the intellectual political pundit turned social scientist of late?

Well, at least Mr. Douthat hasn't come out yet, and called the latest conservative woman in the running a "joke". Something tells me though, in the circles he too runs in, he thinks it.

Betcha Mr. Romney is too wise to make that same mistake.