Safe Haven

5 Sure Signs You Are Jason Kettinger 5. You buy 'The Blue Marlin' Nintendo game from some dude in Pennslyvania. That's right, Nintendo. [What are you, 6?--ed.] Yes, yes I am. 4. While reading the erudite encyclical Deus Caritas Est , wherein the master theologian-pope distinguishes between eros and agape with a skill that might even charm Hitchens and benefit all humanity if we followed his advice, you are not thinking about agape at all. Ahem. 3. When reading the same encyclical, a mention of Jacob's Ladder prompts you to sing "Jacob's Ladder" by Mark Wills, even though you hate every other song by Mark Wills. Don't worry, Anne; I know you won't click on the link anyway. But Jamie will! That song isn't about agape, either. "Late one night by the harvest moon..." 2. Discussing two of your favorite baseball players on your favorite team, it sounds like you are discussing a fish and a brand of peanut butter. (Let the reader understa...

The Reason Pawlenty Can (And Should) Win I always remind people of the first axiom of American politics: "Politics is an art, not a science." The Republican Party played right into the hands of Barack Obama and the Democrats in 2008; they weren't too "conservative" or "dogmatic" or even the opposites of those things. But they did 3 fundamental things wrong: 1) They alienated committed Republicans with McCain's nomination, they 2) failed to take account of the electoral map as it stood, and 3) they completely ignored the special challenge of Obama's ethnicity, rather than use it. In the first case, the 9/11 terror consensus that kept a lid on domestic policy had run its course; the economic "era of good feelings" was over. On the other hand, the GOP's hands weren't clean enough on spending or any other fiscal issue to raise the alarm as to what Democrats would do when in power. The GOP Congress had been profligate by its own st...