How a candidate should talk.

He doesn’t bluster or call names or claim omnipotence about fence-building or need a haircut.

Can we imagine the inveterate enemy-placater Obama saying this?

“We wanted to be here, among all those who saw these atrocious things, to say that we will lead the fight, and it will be merciless,” he said.

“When terrorists are capable of committing such atrocities, they should be certain that they are facing a determined France, a united France … a France that will not let itself be intimidated, even if today we are expressing endless emotion at this drama and this tragedy,” Hollande said. “This was an abomination because it was a barbaric act.”

No.

What a woman saw:

A 25-year-old woman who was inside Bataclan at the time of the attack said gunmen wielding automatic rifles sprayed the concert hall with gunfire, pausing to recharge their weapons. The gunmen were wearing black-and-white keffiyehs, she said.

this keffiyeh: ” a mix of cotton and wool, which facilitates quick drying and, when desired, keeping the wearer’s head warm. The keffiyeh is usually folded in half (into a triangle) and the fold worn across the forehead. Thus Keffiyeh – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It’s what you see Palestinians wearing, like Arafat used to.

Wall St. Journal’s Kimberley Strassel has questions for the candidate with the least meat on bones of plans and intentions:

His new TV ad features the tagline “heal, inspire, revive.” This is soothing for an American electorate still aching for the hope and change Barack Obama never delivered.

Yes. Once fooled by empty promises, does the electorate mean to make it twice in a row?

He has called for government to take responsibility for providing catastrophic health insurance, funded by taxes on insurers. He has called for turning insurers into “nonprofit service organizations with standardized, regulated profit margins.” He’s suggested that he’d be OK with a total tax rate (federal, state, local) of 37%—or 42% for those earning more than $1 million. He’s suggested having government pay for child-care facilities. He has proposed (as recently as January) a “luxury tax on very expensive items, which provides an opportunity for the wealthy to pay down the national debt.”

A grab-bag of Big Daddy solutions.

Mr. Carson spent a long time suggesting he’d replace government health programs like Medicare with cradle-to-grave health savings accounts—to which the government would contribute. When asked about it recently, Mr. Carson said, “That’s the old plan. That’s been gone for several months now.”

Several months. A lifetime in a fast-moving campaign featuring a slow-talking candidate.

He has changed his mind four times on the minimum wage—criticizing Mr. Obama for proposing a hike, then saying the rate did need to rise, then proposing a two-tiered system tied to inflation, and then (at this week’s debate) opposing any changes (again).

Want flexibility? He’s your man.

He has changed his mind four times on the minimum wage—criticizing Mr. Obama for proposing a hike, then saying the rate did need to rise, then proposing a two-tiered system tied to inflation, and then (at this week’s debate) opposing any changes (again).

So it goes. The great man is thinking. Let him alone. And wait, because as he himself might say, patience is a virtue.

Chauncey Gardiner all over again?

Black officers punished unfairly? Not said here, if anywhere.

Here they are: Colleen Mastony, Jon Hilkevitch, Maggie Gentilcore, Bob Secter, Barbara Brotman, Rich Wronski, Bonnie Miller Rubin, Stephan Benzkofer, Dawn Turner, Lisa Black and George Knue.

Liberal Catholics have a juicy target in Speaker Ryan, questioning his grasp of Catholic social doctrine — here in their flagship publication, National Catholic Reporter, — but conservatives have an extended rebuttal here, in The Catholic World Report, whose long-ish article is provocatively headed “Paul Ryan: Faithful Catholic or Ayn Rand disciple?”

Lots can be unearthed in such a debate. I refer to teachings and tradition that do not regularly find their way into the Catholic discussion.

More later, obviously.

Mayor Rahm contrasts educators and career-builders with accountants in nixing sale of City Colleges asset, for which perish the thought.

Eek, a fiscal solution. As educator and career-builder he is above that. As a politician, on the other hand, he CARES about fiscal things, in fact raises money as a living.

City Colleges have money problems? So what? Don’t muddy its skirts with crass green-eye shade solution.

The comment captures the nub of Chicago and Illinois as incipient basket cases, and it’s b.s. besides.

“If you wear green eye shades [as an
accountant], you would look at it as a financial asset,” he said. “We’re in the business of education. We’re in the business of building careers. . . . You can look at it as an accountant and financial gain or you can see it as a tremendous educational opportunity that enriches our students and prepares them for a future, a job and a career. And to be honest, that’s our bottom line.”