OK, let’s look at how wrong that is. In substance, it’s wrong because a recent Fox News poll of Republicans for their choice for Romney’s running mate found Condi sitting at the top of the charts, with 30 percent. Ouch! Secondly, thirty seconds of “research” on the Internet would have told me that the tune I was groping for was titled “Down in the Depths on the Ninetieth Floor,” which is a lot funnier (that’s why he’s Cole Porter).
What’s impressive to me is that 30 percent of the Republican Party wants a pro-choice Rockefeller Republican on the ticket. I would love to see it happen, because it would infuriate the remaining 70 percent. It’s also nice to know, as my source for the Republican poll, The Hill, points out, “Of late, the majority of vice presidential speculation has centered around former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, Sen. Rob Portman (Ohio) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — but none of the three cracked double digits among the Republican voters surveyed by Fox.
“Jindal was the most popular, earning 5 percent of those surveyed, while Portman was the choice of 3 percent of voters and Pawlenty a mere 2 percent.”
Two percent! Haw! Tough luck, Tim! Sometimes things work out better when you stick to the facts!
I like to think that I didn’t mess up the Libor thing quite as badly as my badly bungled takedown of Ms. Noonan. I went after Matt Levine at Dealbreaker for his “no big deal, everybody knew” take on the London banks’ fake rates scandal, and at The Baseline Scenario Simon Johnson puts the wood to Americanos Tim Geithner and Ben Bernanke as well. I would say the “growing” Libor scandal, the $7.25 billion payout of Visa, Mastercard and others in the biggest anti-trust settlement in U.S. history, plus all the wood the Democrats can throw on the Bain Capital fire might give President Obama’s mildly populist campaign a moderate headwind in the Fall. But some decent economic news would be a lot more helpful.
