Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

As evidenced in recent days, she has deliberately chosen to play the Indiana and North Carolina voters for suckers - by staging what is arguably the most shameless pandering act of this long primary season - and in the tallies tomorrow it will be instructive to see whether she succeeded in coaxing the voters to fool themselves.

In the annals of presidential politicking, this has been known to happen. Voters - not all, but many millions - typically complain that politicians "just tell us what we want to hear," but the truth is, many voters reward these politicians for precisely that sort of pandering. The truth is, many voters like it when politicians propose stupid quick-fix bromides, or make sweeping feel-good promises ("read my lips, no new taxes") that cannot be kept. And the opposing politician who says no to such foolishness, who tries to invoke logic and common sense, often winds up being punished.

-- DICK POLMAN

As if awakening from a long, languorous slumber where dreams of the perfect liberal being comfortably ensconced in the White House made it impossible for the press to get up, rub their eyes, and return to the real world, it seems that the American media has finally decided to start treating Barack Obama with a little of the curmudgeonly cynicism that has been the hallmark of political reporting in this country for much of its existence.

-- RICK MORAN

I'm so inured to the idea of my fellow voters stupidly falling for everything that I often find myself kind of happily confused when some transparently cynical ploy fails. This has happened only a few times on major (non) issues that I remember -- the Clinton impeachment and the Terri Schiavo episode are the major ones.

It's too early to be confident, but I'm hoping that maybe the gas tax mess will be another episode of this kind. If the relevant points can be gotten into circulation -- the oil companies eat up more than half of the tax cut, and this is a dumb short-term fix that does nothing to address the deeper problem -- it's possible that a political debate will actually be won by educating people so they come to have the right views on policy. Weird.

-- NEIL SINHABABU

"There's not an expert out there that believes that this is going to work. There's not an editorial out there that has said this is actually the answer to high gas prices," Obama said of the gas tax holiday plan. "In fact, my understanding is, today, Sen. Clinton had to send out a surrogate to speak on behalf of this plan, and all she could find was, get this, a lobbyist for Shell Oil to explain how this is going to be good for consumers. It’s a shell game, literally."

Obama was referencing Steve Elmendorf, a Clinton supporter, who told CNN that Clinton's gas tax holiday plan was a good proposal. Elmendorf is also a lobbyist from Shell Oil.

-- JAKE TAPPER and SUNLEN MILLER

John McCain says free enterprise will make it more efficient, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama want to tinker with it, but the evidence keeps mounting that American health care is a disaster that keeps overwhelming not only the uninsured but those who have "coverage."

-- ROBERT STEIN

Sen. Barack Obama won the endorsement of the Teamsters earlier this year after privately telling the union he supported ending the strict federal oversight imposed to root out corruption, according to officials from the union and the Obama campaign.

It's an unusual stance for a presidential candidate. Policy makers have largely treated monitoring of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters as a legal matter left to the Justice Department since an independent review board was set up in 1992 to eliminate mob influence in the union.

-- BRODY MULLINS and KRIS MAHER

Don't try to pass a salt shaker to John McCain. He won't take it from your hand because it's bad luck.

The Arizona senator also won't throw a hat on a bed — it means death will soon visit the household — but he regularly carries 31 cents in lucky change in his pocket. . . .

Mr. McCain has dozens of superstitions and rituals, many stemming from his days as a Navy fighter pilot, a notoriously superstitious bunch. He carries a lucky feather, a lucky compass and a lucky penny — not to mention a lucky nickel and a lucky quarter.

-- JOSEPH CURL

Cartoon by Ben Sargent/Universal Press Syndicate