Dino Rossi leads both Christine Gregoire and Maria Cantwell in latest Rassmussen poll

Washington State gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi leads both his opponent, Christine Gregoire, and Washington State's U.S. Senator, Maria Cantwell, in a recent Rasmussen poll

A February 25 Rassmussen poll indicates that, in a survey of 500 likely voters about the 2006 Washington State U.S. Senate race, Dino Rossi attracts 47% of the vote to Maria Cantwell's 44%.

Overall, Rossi is viewed favorably by 55% of Washington's voters, while Cantwell is viewed favorably by just 54%. Further, gubernatorial candidate Christine Gregoire is viewed favorably by just 50% - and, remarkably, JUST 42% BELIEVE GREGOIRE LEGITIMATELY WON LAST NOVEMBER'S ELECTION!

Forty-four percent (44%) believe Rossi was the real winner! 15% of respondents indicated that the didn't know who won.

Stefen Sharkansky of Sound Politics predicts that soon-to-be Governor Rossi, by then in the middle of his second term, would be a very formidable challenger to Patty Murray in 2010.

Via Sound Politics and Polipundit.

Gallup Poll: Ronald Reagan is people's choice as greatest American President

A Gallup Poll has found that Americans rate Ronald Reagan as the greatest American President in history


A Gallup Poll has found that Americans rate Ronald Reagan as the greatest American President in history. Via Editor and Publisher.

I highly recommend Reagan's autobiography, An American Life. It was a real page-turner - and I was continually amazed at Reagan's modesty and humility. That such a kind, gentle man could also be such a strong, pivotal world leader must be attributed to an inner strength - and strength of convictions.

Reading Reagan's autobiography - his life story in his own words - makes clear how silly and cartoonish were the criticisms he received from the liberals of Europe and America during his Presidency. Reagan was the "dumb" "unilateralist cowboy" of the liberals' caricatures in the 1980's. Such caricatures seem all too familiar today. Then, as now, liberals' response to strength and clarity was ad hominem attacks that said more about them than their target.

Fortunately, the 700 million people freed behind the old Iron Curtain know better - as do a new generation of Reagan admirers back home. (And the 50 million people now living in freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq will recognize George W. Bush as Reagan's true heir). Indeed, in a very real sense, the Presidency of George W. Bush would never have happened but for the trail blazed by Ronald Reagan.

Reagan was one of history's greatest advocates for freedom - and perhaps freedom's greatest champion. And yet he tells his life story with a gentleness and humility that astounds. His personal "city on a hill" was a humble adobe ranch house, in his beloved California mountains, which he helped build with his own hands.

The people's choice for greatest American President - Ronald Reagan - is the right choice.

Here are some other Reagan resources:

Images from President Ronald Reagan's funeral

Text of Margaret Thatcher's Eulogy for President Ronald Reagan

The Cheerful Cold Warrior: President Ronald Wilson Reagan, 1911 - 2004

Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Ronald Reagan Foundation

Young America's Foundation (saved and preserved President Reagan's Western White House, Rancho del Cielo, in 1998)

Reagan condolence book and tributes

President Ronald Reagan: Recipient - Presidential Medal of Freedom

The new Evil Empire: Global Terrorism -

Al Qaeda murderers behead innocent American civilian, Nick Berg, in or near Baghdad, Iraq on May 11, 2004.

The New Screaming Left ("NSL") Party

The New Screaming Left ("NSL") Party: Juan Cole + Howard Dean = the vanguard of something new and nasty. A new political movement. The NSL.



NSL eminence grise, Juan Cole, provides a series of nasty ad hominem attacks against Jonah Goldberg in the true spirit of the New Screaming Left ("NSL") Party

Wonder what got this lefty to screamin' (this time)? Go read the rest of the story here, plus some more thoughts on the subject here.

Flexing its muscles, the NSL has taken control of a reeling Democratic Party, installing the NSL poster-boy, Howard Dean, as Chairmain of the DNC.



Howard Dean during his "I have a scream speech" - the touchstone moment (and scream) for The New Screaming Left ("NSL") Party

While were talking about the "I have a scream speech," my favorite Dean scream remixes are the ones with background music by Outkast and Ozzy Osbourne, but I digress.

Dean's DNC Chair selection has caused serious misgivings among non-NSL Democrats - and disbelieving joy among Republicans.

So - who will be celebrating at the Presidential Inauguration of January 2009 - Juan Cole and the NSL or Jonah Goldberg and the Republicans? With the DNC Dean selection, I believe the Democrats have laid the groundwork for more nasty, screaming commentary from Juan Cole - and from the rest of the NSL - four years hence. In short, the DNC Dean selection will work to the Republicans' benefit - as long as Bush and the GOP stick to their principles and plans, thereby reliably driving the NSL metrosexuals and other NSL Party faithful in apoplexies of white-knuckled, venom-spitting rage (see, again, the Dean photo, above).

The New Screamling Left (NSL) Party might consider making this their home page. Or this. Or this. See? The New Screaming Left ("NSL") Party. I wasn't kidding. To paraphrase Faber College's Dean Wormer: loud, vicious and full of hate is no way to go through life, son.

Meanwhile, the antithesis of the NSL, Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice gets it right:

* * *

"There cannot be an absence of moral content in American foreign policy," she says. "Europeans giggle at this, but we are not European, we are American, and we have different principles."

* * *

Indeed, Condi. More like this, please.

Funniest line I've read lately: "If i ever owned a pilates studio, i would call it Pontius Pilates." Ha. From annika's journal. That's #56.

Last but not least, some VERY incredible photos from the Hubble space telescope. Via Normblog.