In this week's issue, coming on Friday, TIME magazine suggests that former Rep. Bob Barr, the Libertarian candidate for president, "could help nudge the Presidency to Barack Obama."
Nathan Thornburgh observes, "Since 2000, Libertarian candidates have peeled off enough votes from Republican congressional candidates to cost the party races in Washington, Nevada, Montana and, most recently, Louisiana ... Now there's the Libertarian Party, which sold a little bit of its hard-line liberty-loving soul in exchange for the most respectable candidate it has ever had: recently converted former Republican Congressman Bob Barr, who's polling nationally near 6% and could conceivably Naderize John McCain in a few key states and help nudge the presidency to Barack Obama."
The article is titled, "The (Not So) Lunatic Fringe." Ron Paul remains, at best, lukewarm about Barr, but the article concludes: "Libertarians are getting ready for the mainstream, and mainstream America may finally be ready for them."
Elsewhere in the issue, columnist Michael Kinsley urges Clinton supporters to finally "get over it." He writes, "Professional unscrupulousness--the kind of do-anything-to-win pragmatism that Democrats envy in Republicans--requires more than just working yourself up into a lather of dislike. Sometimes, in fact, it requires the opposite: putting aside your dislike, your disappointments, your anger, your feelings of betrayal. In the case of Hillary Clinton's erstwhile supporters, all of these feelings seem overwrought to me. But there is no point in arguing about this, or at least not now. Now is the time to just get over it."
Finally, style guru Tim Gunn endorses Michelle over Cindy--and we don't mean Michelle Malkin and Cindy Lauper. On why he likes Ms. Obama better than Ms. McCain "[Michelle] looks so comfortable and relaxed in her style, in her fashion, and she exudes that. She has a presence that gives you confidence in her."
*
Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq. It includes a chapter on Limbaugh. Mitchell is editor of Editor & Publisher.