Barnicle On Huffington, And Other Notes

--Mike Barnicle has an article on Huffington Post (his first there since the primaries), in which he laments that the once-honorable John McCain is now MIA, "held captive by ideologues who dominate his strategy sessions and what is left of the Republican party." Safe bet that he'll be rained upon by the right for being a stooge of liberal MSNBC, both for the content and the venue of the piece. Safer bet that the criticism won't bother him.

--It's no surprise that there are ideologues of all stripes who leap to simple answers to complex issues, rather than actually take the time to learn anything about them, and then pronounce their conclusions as if obvious, unassailable fact. What's always frustrating is when those types rise to national prominence, where they have influence over millions of people. So, it's nice to see Byron York exposed.

--WaPo's Juliet Eilperin reports from NC:

Palin also made a point of mentioning that she loved to visit the "pro-America" areas of the country, of which North Carolina is one. No word on which states she views as unpatriotic.

I hope she's not suggesting a contrast with the area she was in before NC: New England.

--Conservative blogosphere superstar Glenn Reynolds is now leaning toward Bob Barr. Reynolds lives and votes in Tennessee, and could be a leading indicator of a decision that a fair number of folks, especially in the South (Barr is Georgian), may be considering as they start to see McCain's defeat as inevitable.