David Frum is starting to annoy me:

The news that Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston have canceled their engagement doesn’t come as very much of a surprise. The arrangement looked from the start like an election-season pretense. With the election decently behind us, the pretense can be dropped.

Now Bristol and her baby can recede into private life for the next 3 years or so. But as she goes, Republicans and conservatives need to think seriously about the lesson she has taught us – or more precisely, about the illusion she has punctured.

Many conservatives carry in their heads a mental image of American society that’s a generation out of date. They imagine the existence of a huge class of socially conservative downscale voters, ready to vote Republican because of abortion and gay marriage.

The story of Bristol Palin should help puncture this illusion.

“Socially conservative downscale voters”? Who, exactly, does he think he is? Someone who puts on his socks two feet at a time?

I would venture to guess that young Ms. Palin is not the first, nor the only, American teenager (white, educated, rich or otherwise) who finds herself pregnant without meaning to. I’m almost certain it’s happened before. Possibly even in nice liberated upscale neighbourhoods. And that in many of those cases, the young mother decides (or “decides,” under pressure from her parents, boyfriend, teachers or all of them combined) to “erase” the mistake.

Are we to consider these young women more “upscale” than Bristol Palin, who chose to keep her baby in extremely difficult – and public – circumstances? Ms. Palin has an awful lot of moral courage. Calling her ugly names says more about you, Mr. Frum, than it does about her. And no, I don’t mean that in a good way.

[h/t Paul Tuns]

[cross-posted to PWPL]

Oh dear. If this were George Bush… But when Bill Clinton makes a mistake like this, most of us just move along. Including the interviewer who, if I’m not mistaken, plays a doctor on TV. [Yes, I'm trying to be cute - it's been a long day. I know who he is.]

[h/t Hot Air]

[cross-posted to PWPL]

You can contradict yourself and not live with the consequences? Andrew Coyne thinks not in this case.

Yeah, well, we’ll see.

Finally, a gadget worth having.

See the difference Readability makes. And it does take a few seconds to set up – no registration, no nothing.

Chrysler threatens to pull out of Canada. Well, goodbye then. What are you waiting for?

Another fine Frum-bashing piece. You could almost say I enjoy those.

Michael Taube is unhappy with this “Conservative” government:

In March 2006, I left the Toronto Sun to become a speechwriter for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In those early days, after an exciting election result and a shock to the political system, the re-emergence of Canadian conservatism — and Canada’s future — looked pretty positive.

How wrong I was.

The federal Conservatives have increasingly become a centrist, non-ideological government. While there have been some incremental steps toward conservatism — including tax credits, GST reduction, and cracking down on crime — they’ve been few and far between.

Instead, the Harper Tories have spent more time propping up bloated social programs they previously opposed, and tearing down political positions they formerly supported.

He is not alone.

[h/t Michael Barone]