Quotes From Around Yon Blogosphere

While the current US administration was busy replacing the notion of America the Righteous (as in Saving Private Ryan) with America the Self-Righteous (it's opposition to the Kyoto protocol, for example), the rejection of the American story in Iran has run in the opposite direction. Who would have believed this could happen in a country where one the world's youngest populations has no memory of the revolution, and who have grown up having to shout "death to America" routinely with the morning school roll call? In fact, the distrust of the government and its severely compromised ideology meant that the citizenry grew up assuming that everything the government told it was the opposite of the truth. As a result, despite the "war on terror", Iran is one of the few places left in the world where America is genuinely popular.

The large Iranian-American Diaspora is one of the most economically successful in the US, and while internal rifts stop it from being a significant political lobby in Washington, every family in Tehran has at least one tale of cousins who went to America with nothing and now own a chain of pizzerias, or was the first woman space tourist, or started eBay. Such stories resonate painfully and powerfully in country of high unemployment and rampant inflation. The list of social ills that cripple the country - from drug addiction to prostitution and widespread corruption - are long, and the prospect of tackling them is daunting. In comparison, the prospect of an attack from Israel or the US seems like a holiday.

-- MASOUD GOLSORKHI

Barack Obama favors direct talks with Iran and John McCain doesn't, and now here comes George Bush apparently clearing the deck for direct talks. So what does McCain do now? He'll tap dance a bit, of course, claiming that Bush is not doing precisely what Obama proposed (which is true), but he's certainly moving in that direction. Doesn't this cut McCain's legs out from under him? Doesn't it make Obama look more prescient and presidential? Shouldn't this at a minimum be a fascinating topic for fact-free cable news speculation and talk radio bloviation? I think so!

-- KEVIN DRUM

The liberal Democratic base is already feeling edgy about Barack Obama's various centrist moves, but the big test is yet to come. Will he choose a running mate who amplifies and underscores his message of change (thereby triggering exhalations of relief within the base) - or will he pick somebody for the sake of "balance," who appears to contradict his message of change (thereby triggering cries of betrayal, and even some vows to sit out the November election)?

. . . For "change" candidates, there are two basic templates: John F. Kennedy went for balance in 1960, and picked Lyndon Johnson; furious liberals complained that choosing the Senate wheeler-dealer undercut the promise of the New Frontier. But 32 years later Bill Clinton chose to amplify his change message by picking a young fellow southerner, Al Gore. I'll leave it to the historians to debate whether Kennedy or Clinton would have won their races if they had embraced the opposite templates. The point is, Obama could go either way in the interests of winning.

I tend to think that a running-mate deemed unacceptable by the base will not ultimately damage Obama's prospects, if only because anger over a veep choice tends to dissipate quickly in the heat of late summer. Nevertheless, Obama's decision may well open a valuable window on how he thinks, on how he weighs idealism against pragmatism.

-- DICK POLMAN

Al Gore may have lost the legendary "fire in the belly" for higher office, but he might be persuaded to reenter the arena to forward what has become the cause of his life.

-- ROBERT STEIN

Phil Gramm, the senator-banker who until recently advised John McCain's campaign, did get it right about a "nation of whiners," but he misidentified the faint-hearted. It's not the people or even the politicians. It is Wall Street -- the financial titans and big-money bankers, the most important investors and worldwide creditors who are scared witless by events. These folks are in full-flight panic and screaming for mercy from Washington. Their cries were answered by the massive federal bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac, the endangered mortgage companies.

When the monied interests whined, they made themselves heard by dumping the stocks of these two quasi-public private corporations, threatening to collapse the two financial firms like the investor "run" that wiped out Bear Stearns in March. The real distress of the banks and brokerages and major investors is that they cannot unload the rotten mortgage securities packaged by Fannie Mae and banks sold worldwide. Wall Street's preferred solution: dump the bad paper on the rest of us, the unwitting American taxpayers.

-- WILLIAM GREIDER

After Sen. John McCain publicly repudiated his close friend and adviser Phil Gramm's comments about a "nation of whiners" and a "mental recession," the two old political comrades patched up their relationship.

Gramm apologized to McCain for his remarks that gave Democrats an opening against the Republican presidential candidate and provided several days of ammunition for blogs, cable television and radio talk shows. McCain told Gramm not to worry about the expected pitfalls of a campaign surrogate. Gramm will continue as an adviser and surrogate.

-- ROBERT NOVAK

Former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm resigned Friday from his role as Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign co-chairman, hoping to quiet the uproar that followed his comments that Americans had become a "nation of whiners" whose constant complaints about the U.S. economy show they are in a "mental recession."

. . . Gramm said in a statement late Friday that he is stepping down to "end this distraction."

-- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS