The American Spectator

Enemy of the Week

In happier days Paul Krugman would have been paid in rubles instead of having to settle for a piddling $1.4 million in devalued dollars and a Nobel Prize in economics instead of a Pulitzer or a Peace Prize or a Cracker Jacks trinket.

But you've got to hand it to Dow Jones, which responded to Krugman's win by jumping a record 936 points in Monday trading. Not everyone saw the correlation, however. Some thought the recovery would have been greater if not for Krugman's coup. Others contend the market rebounded simply because it was easier to find parking in downtown New York on a federal holiday amid Columbus Day weekend specials. Or because the undefeated New York Giants would be playing on Monday Night Football.

It goes without saying that Krugman's hatred of George W. Bush had nothing to do with his crowning achievement. It's easy to overlook that he also hates Dick Cheney. And John McCain. Palin hatred he's outsourced to David Brooks.

Which can't be happy news for young Christopher Buckley, who was on to Sarah Palin back when he led the expulsion of John Birchers from his daycare center. Gallantry on the Obama Right is now expressed by comparing Mrs. Palin to a cancerous growth and finding her less "dishy" than Kathleen Parker, another of the rising Palin disdainers. Well, to each his own, at his own risk.

In news that matters, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays buccaneered the Boston Red Sox last evening, 9-1, in the pre-World Series Series. The mind went back to a happier night when John Kerry attended a victorious Red Sox game shortly before reporting for duty at the Democratic National Convention. That was shortly followed by some weekday duck hunting in Ohio, which clinched Mr. Bush's reelection. Because Mr. Bush can't run for a third term, it's up to Sen. McCain to take the GOP to next level. Alaska continues to look winnable for the GOP.

Alabama too, now that Mr. McCain is being compared to the state's Ronald Reagan, George Wallace. About this time next week we can expect Cindy McCain to be called the new Lurleen Wallace. Alas, we'll know if that comparison is apt only if after his two terms President McCain compels Cindy to run for his third term. Will that be erratic behavior enough for you, Senator Obama?

Speaking of such behavioral tendencies, the BBC and its American imitators are celebrating the voting intentions of Sister Cecilia. She is reportedly 106 years old, and has lived the last 50 years if not longer in a convent in Rome. Having last voted in 1952, for General Eisenhower, she has again registered to vote (via ACORN?) and confesses that she intends to cast her ballot for Senator Obama. World peace is her issue, though CBS assumes it has to be abortion. That's why its radio report celebrating Sister Cecilia's conversion emphasized that she's for Obama despite his being on the devil's side of the debate and so it's okay for the rest of you Catholics to stray as well. Nice try, CBS, which must not have caught the part where Sister Cecilia also let on, in decidedly old-school comments on the warlike Muslim world, that "those Eastern people are not like we are." Even if Obama wins, in other words, peace may not be given a chance.

Not like the chance Bill Ayers has been given to be certified as "rehabilitated" by presumed presidential election winner Obama -- a nice trick that, exercising his pardon powers even before they're officially his. Don't like it? Get used to it. Or else you'll be Enemy of the Week -- and for a lot longer than that, too.