Chicago Daily Observer

For a long time, the Supreme Court did its best to avoid the implications of the Second Amendment’s reference to “the right of the people to keep and bear arms.” Its decision today is a constitutional landmark, a triumph for individual freedom and a tribute to the power of ideas.

The decision is the long-awaited result of an intellectual revolution in the legal academy. A generation ago, law professors generally regarded the idea of an individual right to own guns as a dangerous anachonrism.

Barack Obama is a liberal, but not a conscientious one. I don’t much care if he declines to wear a flag pin; I can overlook his wife’s limited capacity for patriotic pride; and I defended his relationship with his former pastor. But his comfortable association with an unrepentant former terrorist should induce queasiness in anyone who shares the humane values that Obama extols.

Democrats often pillory Republicans for their economic errors. From the 1930s on, they reminded Americans of Herbert Hoover’s Great Depression. In 1960, they blamed Dwight Eisenhower for slow growth. In the 1980s, they decried the “trickle-down” policies of Ronald Reagan. And today, they excoriate the damage caused by the North American Free Trade Agreement passed under… Bill Clinton.

Even Hillary Clinton treats the accord with a warmth she normally reserves for Kenneth Starr. She never misses a chance to denounce what she calls “the shortcomings of NAFTA,” or to insist she was always against it. But she has to deal with Barack Obama, who often gives the impression that his opponent’s name is Hillary Nafta Clinton.

A couple of weeks ago, John McCain was straining to ingratiate himself with the activists gathered at the Conservative Political Action Conference. It was an uphill climb: By that point, some movement icons had publicly renounced the presumptive Republican nominee, and attendees were urged not to boo him. Some did anyway, and McCain was left to ponder the possibility of being abandoned by much of his party’s base.

He shouldn’t have worried. All it took to rally conservatives behind him was the intervention of The New York Times. Thursday, it published a flimsy, anonymously sourced story suggesting that nine years ago, McCain may have canoodled with a female lobbyist whose clients had business before his committee. How bad was the article? Years from now, if you type into Google, “Why do people hate the news media?” this story will pop up.

Though this is the time to voice his discontent, the contender is content to not heat up the hustings

TIPTON, IOWA—Barack Obama has been campaigning since early this morning, and as he addresses his last audience of the day, he professes some strong emotions about the distance many Americans feel from their government. “It makes me angry when folks feel they have no one working for them,” he declares to some 250 people who have gathered on a Tuesday evening at the Cedar County Fairgrounds.

As he invariably does when outlining his discontent with the status quo, the Illinois senator sounds firm. He sounds sincere. What he doesn’t sound is angry.

In the wake of the Minnesota bridge collapse, House Transportation Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) was struck with a blinding insight on how to solve the problem of neglected infrastructure. Before you continue reading, let me suggest that you take a pair of vise grips and use them to get a tight hold on your wallet. Because what occurred to Oberstar is that the federal government needs more money to spend on aging bridges.