From my personal visits to three polling places today (at one I asked a poll worker about turnout), blog reports, and talking with folks, turnout does seem to be remarkably high.

The Real Switcheroo? [John J. Miller]

In an email, Greg Pollowitz of Sixers calls attention to this item on TNR's The Plank:

LINC BATS HIS EYELASHES:

I have a friend in Rhode Island—a Democrat torn between his affections for Lincoln Chafee and his desire to make Harry Reid majority leader. Over the weekend, my friend attended a Chafee event and cornered the senator. Now, my friend doesn't have a personal relationship with Chafee, but he put the question bluntly to him: Why should I stick with you in a race with so many national implications? Chafee pulled my friend aside, lowered his voice, and told him that he might not be a Republican for much longer.

This is just one report. Take it for whatever its worth.

—Franklin Foer

Quite frankly this would  not be surprising in the least.  Linc is not only a RINO, he's just plain, well, weird..

 

Bill Kristol on the Hume show:

"Democrats seem to be more willing to talk to exit pollsters...it seems like Republicans walk out of the polls and they're surly and don’t want to talk to someone holding a clipboard.”

I can attest to this from personal experience.  I spent today with a cameraman doing a few stand ups and exit interviews as part of my demo roll for my new career in journalism.  At one polling place, as a couple in their 50's came out I asked very politely if I could ask then a few questions. What I got was a very surly and stern "No" from the man as he steered his wife away from me.

Given that this was in a Republican area, and Kristol's comment, I can only assume that Bill is right.

 

I wrote last week about Jimmy Carter and Kim Il Sung.  Here he is laughing it up with Danial Ortega.

What is it with Carter and vicious dictators?  There is no doubt that both KIS and Ortega ran countries that committed thousands of brtutal human rights violations (to use a kind phrase.)  But Carter always looks like he's hanging with old college buddies when he greets them.  For someone who writes about "values" he certainly has strange ones..........

Rich Lowry on National Review Online

.........But if there’s one consistent lesson from our experience in Iraq, it is to avoid half-measures — go to war with more troops, more deadly force, and more vigor rather than less. Muddling through and hoping to succeed with just barely enough resources, is a fool’s policy.

As Napoleon said, “When you set out to take Vienna, take Vienna.” We took Baghdad, but never with the level of commitment to ensure it would stay taken in any form worth having.

With apologies to Napoleon, if you are going to invade a country, invade a country. The Powell Doctrine calling for overwhelming force might not be applicable in all situations, but it is a reasonable rule when undertaking a major ground invasion of a country with a 400,000-man army. Instead, Secretary of Defense Don Rumsfeld constantly bid down the U.S. invasion force.

No disagreement here......I never understood why if we sent 500,000 to retake Kuwait, a country, that is on sixth or one seventh the size of Iraq, where we were greeted as liberators, why we only sent a little over half that to Iraq.  We have a great military, why didn't we use it?