A bit of polling data.  The more of this I see, the more I think it is pure name recognition at this point.

Reports on Romney in Iowa - one - two - three -four.  Couple of brief comments:  First, the panel idea to fix Social Security says, as all such panels do, that our legislative branch cannot function.  I have a problem with that, and worry about assigning that much power purely executively.  Secondly, when it comes to entitlements, what does Romney think about the faith-based initiative?  It’s on these issues where evangelcals left-and-right most quickly divide.  Lowell:  I tend to agree.  I think we are seeing here Romney’s CEO style of leadership:  He’s asking, “How do we get this done?”  Good management, maybe not always great politics.

Interesting, and very aggressive, Jed Babbin piece.  I’m wondering about it, and “The Question,” and a Romney strategy?  Lowell:  I hope Romney or his people are reading Jed’s piece. 

Was a line crossed?  Too many unknown factors at play here to know for sure, Harris has been vilified by so many in so many circumstances, of all political persuasions, that it is difficult to sort the facts from the rhetoric.  The parsing of the quotes is pretty interesting in the piece.  Major point?  The left remains the biggest enemy to religion in public life, note the abundance of “D” objections in comparison to the single “R.” With such a foe, do purely sectarian divisions matter so much?

To my mind, Evan Bayh remains the most interesting Dem possibility for ‘08.  He’s moderate enough to win and not nearly so polarizing as you-know-who.  I know nothing of his religious tendencies, if any….

The MSM McCain lovefest continues - San Jose Mercury News, while in the race in general the a Dallas paper, quotes Right Wing News as grouping Romney with McCain and Guliani in terms of moderation.  PLEASE!  Lowell:  They need something to talk about.

And now an observation…Romney spent the weekend in Michigan, and with the exception of a few eyewitness blog accounts, I find no in-depth reporting, unlike Iowa of the day before.  What does this say about what how the MSM covers this stuff?  More importantly, what does this say about how to run a campaign?

Lowell adds:

This piece by Walter Russell Mead is an interesting discussion of the role of religion in foreign policy.  And this Washington Post profile of John McCain, despite its length, does not say a word about McCain’s religious beliefs or activity.  That is not a bad thing at all, but it’s interesting to ponder the question, “Why not?”
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