Happy International Woman's Day--A Pause

++I've received my daily right-wing e-mails accelerating attacks on Sandra Fluke and on President Obama for his statement about withdrawing from Afghanistan. As of this writing about four dozen sponsors have pulled their ads from Rush Limbaugh. But my right-wingers claim that President Obama has a Bill Maher problem. Maher contributed $1 million to a SuperPac for President Obama and has been known to say nasty things about Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin. The slight difference here is that both characters are public figures and not a private citizen attempting to testify before Congress. There is an air here of intimidation that hasn't come up. Michelle Bachmann didn't retreat from her lunacy because Maher caught her out on it. In fact yesterday she claimed that Obamacare would lead to a federally mandated policy of only allowing one child per couple ala China.

++Breibart's earth-shattering revelation from the grave was President Obama speaking at a Harvard demonstration for Derrick Bell. It conclusively showed that President Obama hung out with black people. The problem with the video is that it was shown already on PBS in 2008. Not quite the Fox News exclusive touted by Sean Hannity.

++Bloggers have commented on the neoconservative Weekly Standard's fixation on hippies. In fact the magazine has printed several copies with hippies on them. Richard Reeves in truth dig ,I think, nailed this odd tendency of social conservatives and other types to refight the 1960s. The piece "Sex and the 60s" explains Rick Santorum's hallucinatory views on sex. As I wrote at the height of the tea party time, the baby boomer tea partiers were people who didn't get laid in the 1960s and resented it all their life. Snarky but true.

++Vice Presidential candidate, Governor McDonnell signed into law the mandatory sonar scan bill, which require women considering an abortion to get a sonogram first. He thought this was more humane than the transvaginal probe. Bloggers felt this disqualified him from the Vice Presidential race but I think it increased his chances since Willard needs a Southern evangelical to balance his Mormonism and pacify the social conservatives. Plus unlike Marco Rubio McDonnell is a gringo and looks like a junior executive.

++Here's the Republicans' problem. Mitt Romney leads Santorum in New York State by 38 to 23. But in the Sienna Poll Obama beats Romney 60 to 34 in the same state. You can duplicate this to slightly lesser margins for Obama in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio. Romney may be inching to the nomination but he is only widening the gap between him and President Obama.

++Rachel Maddow analyzed the fact that Romney has only increased the voter participation of the wealthy and that Romney fails to win any other economic class. "Of the Rich, for the Rich and by the Rich." This has enabled Romney to assemble an effective and vile Superpac but his millionaire friends are beginning to be tapped out. The beauty of a long Republican primary is that it might force Romney to dig into his own pockets. Just a comparison, small donors consist of 42% of Obama's donors; only 10% of Romney's. Talkingpointsmemo explained today how the Superpacs might rule the primary season but can not dominate the general election. In fact, Superpac attacks ads that Romney specializes in are seen as less effective in the general election than during the primary season. Rick Galen sees that even now Romney's attack machine has become ineffectual, their effects now neutralized by saturation.

++One huge problem is this--66% of the American people like President Obama, only 26% do not. The Romney line at first has been that President Obama is a nice guy but in way over his head. So far this hasn't sold.