1) From the Washington Post, “The Curious Mind of John McCain” by Robert G. Kaiser

A couple of days ago, we glanced at a Jonathan Chait column that whined about the way Democratic general election candidates are always labeled flip-floppers. Well, today it’s the Republicans’ chance to whine. Every presidential election since 1976, the press has determined that the Republican candidate is less intelligent than his big-brained Democratic opponent. The Republicans who got away with such a simple comparison were the lucky ones. Others like both Bushes and Ronald Reagan were lampooned as dunderheads.

The narrative never really fit. The first blog post I ever wrote that anyone other than Mickey Kaus noticed posited that John Kerry wasn’t so bright. I based this conclusion on his failure to get into Harvard Law School in spite of his undergrad degree from Yale and his impressive pedigree as a war hero cum war protestor. I argued that only his grades at Yale could account for his strange failure to attend Harvard Law, and concluded that his grades had to be so dreadful they could accurately be labeled “sub-Bushian.” You should have seen the hate mail I received.

The media preferred the narrative regarding Kerry’s intellect that Howell Raines peddled. Raines, then the recently deposed editor of the New York Times, said in a 2004 op-ed piece, “Does anyone in America doubt that Kerry has a higher IQ than Bush? I'm sure the candidates' SATs and college transcripts would put Kerry far ahead.” When Kerry released his transcripts in 2005 long after his national ambitions had been extirpated, his grades turned out to indeed be sub-Bushian. Naturally, every single lefty who wrote me a piece of hate mail regarding my blog post wrote a subsequent letter to apologize and Howell Raines publicly acknowledged his error and conceded that respectable journalists shouldn’t substitute biased speculation for actual knowledge. At least that’s how I like to picture our noble friends on the left.

Anyway, today the Washington Post puts John McCain’s brain under its microscope. Marc Ambinder a short while ago referred to Barack Obama’s “talented, incredible gift of a mind.” Obama’s no dummy, but any evidence of Obama being an original or particularly insightful thinker is hard to find. Regardless, Ambinder certainly won’t be drawing the same conclusion after reading this glib Post exposé on McCain’s intellect. The “curious mind” sobriquet in the story’s title doesn’t sound nearly as impressive as a “talented, incredible gift of a mind.”

And thus, the Post continues an ignoble tradition – the facile and knee-jerk conclusion that the Democratic candidate is always the smarter one.

2) From the Wall Street Journal, “Too Fit to be President” by Amy Chozick

The Journal speculates that Obama’s physical fitness may make him unfit for office, or at least unfit to win the election:

In a nation in which 66% of the voting-age population is overweight and 32% is obese, could Sen. Obama's skinniness be a liability? Despite his visits to waffle houses, ice-cream parlors and greasy-spoon diners around the country, his slim physique just might have some Americans wondering whether he is truly like them.

The candidate has been criticized by opponents for appearing elitist or out of touch with average Americans. A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll conducted in July shows Sen. Obama still lags behind Republican John McCain among white men and suburban women who say they can't relate to his background or perceived values.

"He's too new ... and he needs to put some meat on his bones," says Diana Koenig, 42, a housewife in Corpus Christi, Texas, who says she voted for Sen. Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.

"I won't vote for any beanpole guy," another Clinton supporter wrote last week on a Yahoo politics message board.

There was a time when Barack Obama seemed a cinch to win the beer primary. That was before He showed the amazing ability to actually make even Hillary Clinton seem lovable. Personally, as a fellow 40-something fitness nut, I admire Obama’s discipline and commitment in this area. It’s a sign of how poorly He’s wearing that even His strengths are becoming liabilities.

Which reminds me – today’s Gallup tracking poll shows things all tied up. Five days ago, Obama had a nine point lead.

3) From BarackObama.com, “My Desperate Plan to Pander to Voters and Ruin the Economy” by Barack Obama

Obama has released a stimulus plan! In it, He will tax the “windfall profits” of oil companies and demand they “share” their booty with the American public. The sharing will result in stimulus checks of $500 for every worker or $1000 for every family. See, there is such a thing as a free ride – just target the oil companies!

In regards to the plan, the word “simplistic” springs to mind. One wonders whether Obama knows that Exxon Mobil is not in fact owned by the greedy pair of Mr. Exxon and Mr. Mobil but rather by millions of stockholders, including virtually every citizen with an interest in a mutual fund or a pension fund. It would be fun to see how CALPERS (for instance) would react if President Obama became serious about diminishing the value of their portfolio.

The other word that springs to mind regarding the plan is “demagoguery.” There was a time in this election when John McCain conceded he didn’t know much about economics. With the release of this plan, Barack Obama has essentially screamed, “Me too! Doubly so!!”

4) From The Blog, “McCain Campaign: Bill Clinton a ‘Force for Good’ on Race” by Stephen F. Hayes

Hayes rightly calls this a stunner. As for me, I wish I could say I was stunned but I’m not. The McCain campaign and a potential McCain campaign administration will consistently show a genius for finding common ground with political opponents in a manner that will make conservatives furious. McCain has rather perfected this habit over the years, and we knew of it long before we made him our nominee.

A while back, I suggested the best way for conservatives to think of John McCain would be as a sort of better version of Joe Lieberman – right on foreign policy, wrong on many other things. Unlike Lieberman, McCain holds the conservative position on many issues, but we should look at those instances as happy bonuses.

Tell the truth - if the general election were between Joe Lieberman and Barack Obama, it would make for an easy decision in the voting booth, right?

5) From the Boston Globe, “Going, Going, Gone” by Dan Shaughnessy

On the Boston local news last night, the broadcast featured a father and his young son who were so appalled by the Red Sox unloading Manny Ramirez that they made their way to the nearest sporting goods store and stocked up on Yankee paraphernalia. Mercifully, such knuckleheads are in a startlingly small minority. Manny Ramirez is the greatest right-handed hitter in the history of the Red sox franchise, and hardly anyone in Boston is going to miss him. Yes, it’s true – his act had grown that tired. Manny was perhaps the most pathetically self-involved professional athlete in Boston sports history.

Tonight, the Red Sox can resume their march on their third championship in five seasons, finally unencumbered by their mercurial slugger whose strange moods held the franchise hostage. Look for Manny’s former teammates in Boston to soon begin singing regarding what a headache Manny was. Curt Schilling’s always entertaining blog will be a good site to check in on, especially if the Big Lug ever gets around to updating it.