NICK SCHULZ: Is Obama a Chicago-style pol? If only.

ROB PORT: Joe Miller’s primary victory illustrates problem with GOP. “During an election cycle in which its clear that the American electorate wants change, you would think that the Republicans would embrace change within their own party. At a time when Americans are sick and tired of the status quo in Washington DC, Miller’s victory in Alaska represents voters demanding that change with their votes. What business do national Republicans have being hostile toward the candidate Republican voters in Alaska voted to represent them in the election? That there is apparent hostility speaks to the fact that Republicans still aren’t getting it.”

Hey, Murkowski was an insider, and part of a dynasty. National GOP folks like that. And this is why I like seeing Tea Party activists take over the party from the ground up. All those precinct-chair and state-committee things really matter, and theyll matter more over coming years.

UPDATE: Tea Party Wins One In Alaska.

THE RULING CLASS: The Hill: Wealthy lawmakers increased their riches as U.S. economy sputtered in 2009.

JERRY POURNELLE: “I do not think it impossible that a year from now Obama will appear to be the moderate if the Republicans win big in November. I don’t think it likely because I don’t believe that Obama can do as Clinton did when he lost his Congressional majority. Clinton began triangulation, became the moderate, and took advantage of Mr. Gingrich’s mistake when Newt over-reacted to a personal slight and took that as an attack on the office of Speaker. Clinton skillfully played the Moderate and made the Republicans responsible for the Train Wreck, and won re-election. I don’t think Obama can do that. He is surrounded by ideological advisors and unlike Clinton, Obama has an ideology. It is not clear that he can play this game with Clintonian charms and skill. . . . [But] Obama retains a number of the advantages that got him elected. He is one of the best orators of his generation. He has lost the ability to disguise himself as the honest broker who will bring fundamental change, but he is doing is best to throw all the blame for his failures to bring about the hoped for changes on the Republicans and his predecessor. Bob Dole and his Country Club Republican cohorts were able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It could happen again.”

ALASKA: Murkowski concedes.

A FRIEND EMAILS FROM MEXICO: “Shit’s about to collapse in MX and points south. It is frightening. I am seeing first hand, am traveling. Total anarchy and terror unfolding.” Well, that’s encouraging. All those counter-insurgency and nation-building skills we’ve honed in Iraq might come in handy closer to home.

Or, you know, we could just legalize drugs and pull the rug out from under the cartels.

UPDATE: A followup email:

It’s so complex. The USA unilaterally legalizing weed, as many have proposed, wouldn’t stop the violence — there are any number of possible outcomes to that. The causes are complex and brewed over time… all I know is that all signs are pointing to a far worsening situation down there, and increasing impact here.

Militarizing the border isn’t a solution, but having seen what I’ve seen, I’d be terrified if we weren’t hardening that border right now.

Time to come back to the States, I think.

MORE: Reader Michael Ubaldi emails:

Speaking of Iraq: I’m sure academics could explain how Mexican drug gangs are totally unlike insurgents in Iraq, but I tell you, the groups’ modus operandi sound awfully similar. One marked difference, of course, is that few try to justify the gangs’ actions.

The world will take a big step forward when it understands that violent people are simply violent people.

Indeed.

CHANGE: Dow Logs Worst August in 9 Years.

ED DRISCOLL: All This and Weimar, Too: The Million Reichsmark March.

ALL ABOUT THE BEER INDUSTRY.

ABSOLUT VICTORY: STEPHEN GREEN IS Drunkblogging Obama’s Iraq Speech.

Bush got a mention, the troops got two mentions — but I haven’t hear thanks to either one. . . .

What the hell is this? Seriously. We were promised an update on Iraq. Instead we’re getting a defense of Obamanomics, which unlike the Surge (anyone?), has been a total failure.

Read the whole thing. And weep, or laugh, or something. Drink!

UPDATE: More from Prof. Jacobson.

And here’s the full text of Obama’s speech.

Plus, what Obama said about the surge when it mattered.

ANOTHER UPDATE: More then-and-now comparison.

MORE: Obama In The Oval Office: “First, a visual observation: he looked scrawny and ill-at-ease at the large, empty desk. There were no funny hand gestures this time, as there was for the Oil Spill address. This speech did have some good moments, which I will start with.”

MORE STILL: Celebrating V-I Day back in 2008.

STILL MORE: Bill Kristol: “It wasn’t a bad speech.”

MARKDOWNS ON DVD and Blu-Ray.

BACK TO SCHOOL: Walter Russell Mead on the Higher Education Bubble.

The upper middle class benefited over the last generation from a rising difference between the living standards of professional and blue collar American workers. This is likely to change; from civil service jobs in government to university professors, lawyers, health care personnel, middle and upper middle management in the private sector, the upper-middle class is going to face a much harsher environment going forward. Automation, outsourcing and unremitting pressures to control costs are going to squeeze upper middle class incomes. What blue collar workers faced in the last thirty years is coming to the white collar workforce now.

Yet as their financial prospects darken, students’ educational costs are exploding. Like the health care system, the educational system is being overwhelmed by rising costs and rising demand. And as misguided government policies contributed to the real estate bubble by artificially inflating demand, government programs are burdening students with unpayable loans and contributing to relentless and unsustainable inflation in school costs.

And so, dear students, welcome back! Your generation is going to have dig its own way out of the hole my generation has dug for you (thanks for the Medicare, kids, and sorry about the deficit!), but here are a few tips that may help you get the best out of your college years.

Read the whole thing.

STILL MORE on the spreading bedbug problem. “The bugs are winning this war.”

WHOLE FOODS’ JOHN MACKEY:

Q: What’s the result of the Wild Oats merger?

A: The end result is that it’s been great. Our Wild Oats same-store sales were up like 16% in the second quarter.

Q: Would you do that merger again?

A: No. We’ll never do another merger that requires FTC approval. It was the worst experience of Whole Foods’ corporate life. All my e-mails were examined by the FTC. The $30 million in legal fees. … For what? To prove we weren’t a monopoly? Everyone knows we’re not….

Yay, regulators.

ERIC SCHEIE: If Ann Coulter is now a RINO, can I take my checkers and go home?

LESSONS IN relative deprivation.

WHAT IT’S LIKE Going 307.7 MPH in an Electric Vehicle.

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.

QUESTION: Is There Gold In Fort Knox? Do We Care? If we don’t care, can I keep some of it in my basement?

DEMAND FOR ANESTHESIOLOGISTS to outrun supply. Well, there’s a lot of pain out there, these days.

ONE IN FOUR LAP DANCERS has a college degree.

IF ONLY: Obama could kill fossil fuels overnight with a nuclear dash for thorium.

More on thorium reactors here.

UPDATE: Steven Den Beste says there’s a downside. Yeah, that does chill my enthusiasm a bit . . . .

THE CONGLOMERATE’S FORUM ON PROXY ACCESS is now in the can.

MORE ON THE BEDBUGS’ RETURN. “Early remedies were risky: igniting gunpowder on mattresses or soaking them with gasoline, fumigating buildings with burning sulfur or cyanide gas. (The best-known brand was Zyklon B, which later became infamous at Auschwitz.) Success finally arrived in the 1950s as the bugs were hit first with DDT and then with malathion, diazinon, lindane, chlordane and dichlorovos, as resistance to each developed. In those days, mattresses were sprayed, DDT dust was sprinkled into the sheets, nurseries were lined with DDT-impregnated wallpaper. . . . The reasonable course, Dr. Goddard said, is to recognize that we are, in effect, back in the 1920s ‘Sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite’ era. People should be aware, but not panicky.”

They told me if I voted for John McCain, America would be taken back to the 1920s. And they were right!

UPDATE: Reader Jay Brinker writes:

What a horribly defeatist article. The “future is grim” and we are “back in the ’20’s ” with no proffered solutions? Parsing the lines, apparently there are some pesticides that work, but we are not told what they are. I guess we are supposed to not ask questions and suffer through this plague. This is a perfect metaphor for the Obama age.

And another reader emails:

Our dear daughter just moved into another apartment after she and her roommates lived with bedbugs for eight months, keeping their clothes in plastic bags, getting rid of mattresses and getting others (didn’t work), having the landlord fumigate several times. She guessed the bugs lived in the walls and would be there forever in that old building in Chicago. She is relieved to be out of there.

I would be, too.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE: When I was a kid, we didn’t get any stinking $150 cab rides. Well, when I was a summer associate, I spent a month at Dewey, Ballantine’s DC office, and they put me up in a suite at the River Inn. It was nice. They even picked up the dry-cleaning and room-service tabs, which I didn’t expect. And yes, I did wind up working there, so I guess it works. . . . .