Official Optimism

The New Republic's Jason Zengerle sees a Hillary pivot coming:

"According to The New York Times, Hillary Clinton sent a letter to thousands of her constituents calling for a plan to withdraw troops next year. But because Clinton--unlike, say, John Edwards--refuses to say her vote for the war was a mistake, she needs to find an ostensible success on which to predicate the withdrawal. It looks like she's found one. In her letter, she writes:

"I believe we are at a critical point with the Dec. 15 elections that should, if successful, allow us to start bringing home our troops in the coming year, while leaving behind a smaller contingent in safer areas with greater intelligence and quick strike capabilities.

"So, assuming nothing absolutely awful happens on December 15, look for Clinton to hail the elections as a victory for progress--and start calling even more forcefully for a troop withdrawal."

The anti-Alito forces may have found their smoking gun:

"Samuel A. Alito Jr., the Supreme Court nominee, wrote a memo in 1985 to his superior in the Reagan administration saying that the Justice Department should set a goal of overturning the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion, and in the meantime should weaken the law by supporting state restrictions," says the Boston Globe .

" 'We should make clear that we disagree with Roe v. Wade and would welcome the opportunity to [present arguments on] the issue of whether, and if so to what extent, that decision should be overruled,' Alito wrote in a memo to the solicitor general at the time, Charles Fried. The National Archives released the memo yesterday.

"Abortion rights activists called the memo definitive evidence that Alito, if confirmed, would seek to limit abortion rights. But Alito's supporters said that he was merely outlining a strategy for the Reagan administration and that the memo does not necessarily reflect how he would rule as a judge."

Merely outlining a strategy?

Slate's John Dickerson examines why John McCain is one Republican who doesn't have to keep his distance from W.:

"McCain can embrace Bush without being hurt by the affiliation because voters think he's winking as he does it. McCain's fans see his stumping for Bush and his policies as completely pro forma and insincere. 'I genuinely like him,' McCain insists to friends, referring to Bush. Remembering how roughly Bush treated him in the 2000 primaries, the friends don't believe the senator, either

"Heightening the paradox is that McCain's nomination for sainthood is based largely on his reputation for unorthodox candor. In this case, the McCain crowd thinks he is so candid he can't possibly be telling the truth. And so he is free to make a show of embracing Bush, whereas politicians with no special reputation for honesty are taken at their word when they make patently insincere gestures of shunning the president. McCain has reversed the political gravity. When Bush's approval ratings go down, other politicians fear being dragged down with him. For McCain, the worse things get for Bush, the nobler his helping hand appears."