Joe Carter has some interesting comments on Michael Barone’s US News comments on a McCain/Leiberman ticket.  I just love this:

McCain is (rightly) despised by conservatives and Lieberman, an incumbent Senator, can’t even win his own state primary to keep his job. McCain couldn’t win the Republican nomination if his running mate were William F. Buckley, Jr.; having a running mate who is liberal on every issue except the war on terror would only seal his status as a pariah.

Amy Ridenour puts a nail in George Allen’s coffin.  Speaking of Allen, it seems Instapundit has discovered his real problem.

Speaking of Allen - KLo blames him for a pro-polygamy rally in Utah.  Every time these wacko-Mormons stick their heads up it worries me.  They generate more press coverage than a city full of normal Mormons.  Lowell:  One quibble:  They’re not Mormons And even if they were some kind of dissident group within the church, they would represent perhaps six-tenths of one one-thousandth of all Mormons.

A Christian version of Snopes.com called TruthMiners.com and Answers.org.  (HT: Reformed Angler)  This could be interesting in a season when many, many urban legends are likely to spring up about faith, politics and Mormonism.  Both sites seems to be creedal Christian - it will be interesting to see if, and if so, how, they tackle Mormon related rumors.

Romney in California:

1. He appears to have the OC wrapped up, which, given that there are few other reliable Republican strongholds in California, is a big deal.
2. His remarks to the California Party Convention are somewhat remarkable - told here and here.  When I heard him, I thought he had slightly misplayed the immigration issue, and given the levels of anti-immigrant rage in this state, I would have thought comments as moderate as those he made at the convention would have gotten a mixed reception, but it appears I was wrong.  Maybe he has his finger on this issue better than I expected - but then he has a lot of family in Southern California.  Lowell:  In my view, as one who’s blogged a great deal about immigration and has followed the issue closely, Romney has adhered to the most important general conservative view– control the border first and foremost– while refining the issue by taking the position that we need more skilled immigrants.  I do not think that approach will offend the hard-core base at all.  What will be more interesting is what Romney will say about a guest worker program or any kind of “path to citizenship.”  The base goes nuts when anyone proposes a solution that includes those ideas.

This post is about “blogging as a social construct.”  It’s heady Christian stuff, but I thought it worth a comment here in light of my shots at “the Mormon question” asking punditry last week.  Blogging, and journalism in general, certainly have social aspects, which results in “memes” - ideas that get echoed and echoed - often until they become fact, even without substantiation.  I am genuinely concerned about that and the “Mormon question.”

Michael Novak responds to Heather MacDonald’s athiestic claims.  It’s a great bit of apologia.  Most fascinating, however, is Novak’s necessity to respond to MacDonald’s atheistic desire to group Mormons and creedal Christians.  This demonstrates two things 1) save to the religious themselves, the difference between Mormons and creedals are insignificant and 2) Mormons and creedal Christians have virtually everything in common in the political realm. Lowell:  It seems to me that viewed from the skeptic’s perspective, we are all indeed “in the same boat.”  We all believe incredible stories or doctrines, whether those be Noah’s ark, Moses dividing the Red Sea, Christ’s bodily resurrection, or Joseph Smith translating ancient golden plates given to him by an angel.  In a way, that diverse community of believers is what the notion of a larger community of Christians is all about.

Speaking of which, this is an interesting analysis of why Evangelicals are unlikely to ever vote Democrat.  Question: Is there anything in the analysis that would not apply equally to Mormons.
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