John Edwards for Vice President? And -- A Great Site for Good News from Iraq

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JOHN EDWARDS FOR VICE PRESIDENT?

I'll be posting more about this, but my early quick take on Kerry's selection of Edwards is that Kerry felt he badly needed some charisma in his campaign. (It does not take a rocket scientist to reach the conclusion that Kerry has a boring and arrogant persona.)

Edwards is indeed an engaging, personable guy. He's also spent all of one term in the Senate (his only elective office), with no foreign policy experience, and spent his pre-Senate life as a big-stakes trial lawyer-- the kind that sues big companies and earns huge verdicts. It made him a very wealthy man.

Those will be the two big challenges to Edwards: (a) not ready to assume the presidency, (b) and just a trial lawyer. Presumably Kerry's polling people weighed those negatives, and in light of all the political considerations the Kerry campaign apparently decided Edwards was the best choice. Three conclusions leap to my partisan mind:

1. Kerry is so worried about his unattractive personality that he chose his running mate based on the need to shore up that part of his campaign.

2. The choice tells us a lot about Kerry. At a time when the nation is at war against a committed and well-organized enemy (islamofascism), Kerry could have chosen someone like Sam Nunn and showed that he was serious about confronting that threat. I still don't think Kerry is serious. As far as I know he has never repudiated his statement that the war is primarily a law enforcement matter. He does not get it.

3. There will be plenty of partisan debate in this election about the role of trial lawyers in our society. It's about time. That group is a consistent and reliable friend of Democrats everywhere.

AN EXCELLENT SITE FOR GOOD NEWS FROM IRAQ

A blogger named Arthur Chrenkoff, who is based in Australia, routinely posts "Good News from Iraq." Courtesy of Powerline (one of the best blogs going), I learned of Chrenkoff's site. You can find it here. It's quite exhaustive but worth taking 2-3 minutes regularly to see all the advances being made that we know nothing about.

I note that Mr. Chrenkoff uses the same blog software I do. Now, how does he get all that cool stuff to appear on the right side of his blog? Someday I'll figure that out. So far I'm happy just to be able to post pictures.