Chris Christie, Glass Ceilings, 'Goreite'

Conrad Black continues to amuse. The Wire has remarked before on his colorful columns. But his latest deserves special attention. Here's a selection of the sundry ideas and phrases he manages to jam into a single piece:

• The Most Un-Tea Party Description of the Tea Party You've Ever Seen One doesn't necessarily have to share John McWhorter's view of Tea Partiers' language challenges to find this sentence incongruous:

This fractious and almost unorganized swath of voters is a seam of discontent that is somewhat reactionary; has libertarian, capitalist, nationalistic, traditional, and small-government tendencies; and believes that solutions should be local and referred to more distant authority only when all closer means to a solution have been exhausted.

• Some Thoughts on Christine O'Donnell "A Tea Party woman who had dabbled in exotic religion."

• 'Sci-fi Goreite Hobbyhorse of Carbon Footprints' We Googled "Goreite"--any ideas, readers?

• Republicans Might Want to Have Some Humility

The Republicans have not emerged from the doghouse where the Bushes left them; they are only not its current chief occupants.

• That Said, Chris Christie Is Interesting Because He's as Big as Taft and Shorter Than Van Buren
  

But they have elected some interesting people. The governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, elected last year, and the two-term governor of Indiana, Mitch Daniels, a former federal budget director, are very fearless and sensible. But superficial matters intrude into national electability: No president has been as stout as Christie since the 350-pound William Howard Taft, and none so diminutive as Daniels since the five-foot-six-inch Martin Van Buren. Glass ceilings exist to be broken.

• 'So to Speak, Bums' Another charming archaism:

The voters were correct, in both years--their incumbent leaders were, so to speak, bums, who badly needed to be defeated

• That Said, This Is Serious

The U.S. will continue to drift and not be strong in the world until someone produces a plan of action to arrest the country's decline, as Nixon did in 1968 and Reagan did in 1980. No such credible personality or program is now in prospect. The office is seeking the man or woman and the times are seeking the plan, and the American public doesn't care which party (including Tea) it comes from.