August 11, 2008

Best Post of the Day

By: James Poulos

It’s Dan McCarthy by a mile, name checking Jello Biafra, Dead Kennedys, Telos, and George Will in a twisted appreciation of once — and Future? — Governor Jerry Brown.

In second place with a bullet, Dave Weigel:

The “evidence” for Johnson’s claim is the now-familiar murmurings of “sources” and GOP “operatives” (who appear in these things quicker than agents of H.Y.D.R.A.) and the fact—not reported in too many places, but never disputed—that when Lolo Soetoro became his adoptive father, the young Barack was enrolled in school as “Barack Soetoro.”

But was there anything at all odd about that as it concerns a candidate for president? Bill Clinton was William Blythe III until he turned 14 and his mother married Roger Clinton. Gerald Ford was born Leslie Lynch King, Jr., and three years later his mother married Gerald R. Ford and unofficially re-named her son. The younger Ford didn’t legally change his name until his was 22 years old. Is Larry Johnson or one of his pseudononymous fellow travellers going to retroactively challenge their legitimacy or veracity? Probably not.