One of the few genuine pleasures of the GOP nomination process has been playing witness to the Rick Perry implosion. It is strikingly reminiscent of the events that led to the failed candidacy of Fred Thompson in 2008. With his genial grandad persona and “plain spoken horse sense” Thompson was annointed a sort of Republican child Lama, the reincarnation of Ronald Reagan who would carry the presidency by channeling the Gipper, raised aloft into the White House by a throng of GOP faithful. Yet when he dropped into the race, instead of walking on air, Thompson fell to earth with a dull thud. Apparently the guy was just too lazy to get up and walk, and the rest of the field just ambled past him. Read more »

A year-old girl finds magazines distressingly unresponsive to her touch, because, y’know, that’s how flatscreens are supposed to work. We presume it’s our duty to fret about the future of humanity in a world of iGadgets — and if we don’t, somebody else will — but honestly, we canceled our remaining magazine subscriptions, oh, eighteen months ago, so we’re probably not the best advocate for Traditional Reading Values.

[via Yahoo]

Michele Bachmann: “For my tax plan, I take a page out of one of my great economists that I admire, Ronald Reagan. And under my tax plan I want to adopt the Reagan tax plan. It brought the economic miracle of the 1980s. Why not go with what works? I want to reinstitute the Reagan tax model from the 1980s.” PolitiFact: “The top [tax] rate dropped immediately to 50 percent in 1982 and stayed there through 1986.” [TPM]

Mrs. Perry on Mr. Perry: “He is the only true conservative — well, there are some true conservatives. And they’re there for good reasons. And they may feel like God called them too. But I truly feel like we are here for that purpose.” [MSNBC, via Political Wire]

[Messages from the Cloud]

While we remain on Impossible Project Deadline, please enjoy this Russian kitty who’s channeling our thoughts.

[via Know Your Meme]

“New Hampshire’s secretary of state warned Wednesday that he could set a primary date as early as Dec. 6 unless Nevada moves back the date of its caucuses. Bill Gardner, who has set the date of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary since 1976, issued a memo calling Dec. 6 and Dec. 13 (both Tuesdays) ‘realistic options’ unless Nevada agrees to set its primary for Tuesday, Jan. 17 or later.” [MSNBC, via Political Wire]