The Spin and Bounce of Sturm und Drang

As another close and personal presidential election nears, my favorite political blogger has got to be Mickey Kaus. He's reasonable, incredibly well-informed, and able to to discuss complex political strategy in a surprisingly entertaining way.

Reading Kaus is like watching a great game of chess. At high speed. With one person playing both sides of the board. Who explains the subtle cleverness of the moves in boldface! Or italics!

Read his August 10th post on the politics and tactics behind the leak of 'turned' Al Qaida operative, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan. Or check out this July 5th post on how Kerry should manipulate his public election funds, pre- and post-convention.

It's dizzying analysis of each side's potential moves and countermoves, their possible motivations, and what they probably should have done instead. Imagine the best exchanges in the West Wing, except with real people maneuvering around real events.

No one's safe -- not the Bushies, their vitriolic enemies, or the hack press that clumsily pounces on both of them. Yet the posts are surprisingly upbeat and fun. [maybe it's because he's not beating you over the head with his ideology, instead letting the ideas do the dazzling -- ed.] Oh, right.