Deplorable Campaigning  —  Mike Huckabee: “Many of us who have been Republicans out of conviction . . . the social conservatives,” he told reporters, “were welcomed in the party as long as we sort of kept our place, but Lord help us if we ever stood forward and said we would actually like to lead the party.”

Durbin warns Bill Clinton  —  Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the second-ranking party leader in the Senate, says President Bill Clinton's comments about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are getting “too personal” and called on the former president to refrain from attacking Obama's integrity.

Romney leads McCain in Michigan, poll shows  —  WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney leads John McCain days before a potentially pivotal Republican primary in Michigan, with Romney's business experience and home-state ties apparently helping in a state where the economy is taking center stage, according to a new McClatchy-MSNBC poll.

Sex and the Teenage Girl  —  THE movie “Juno” is a fairy tale about a pregnant teenager who decides to have her baby, place it for adoption and then get on with her life.  For the most part, the tone of the movie is comedic and jolly, but there is a moment when Juno tells her father about her condition …

Clinton blames Obama camp over remark  —  RENO, NEV. - Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday faulted chief rival Barack Obama's campaign for twisting her comments about slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.  —  Clinton was questioned by reporters …

A CASE STUDY IN RESISTANCE  —  In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville famously concludes with a warning of the kind of despotism to which democracies are especially susceptible.  Tocqueville warns that the passion for equality will give rise to a certain kind of degradation …

Liberal Fascism And Its Critics  —  Here is some free advice for liberals who don't care much for Jonah Goldberg or his (bestselling) new volume: Either confine yourself to dismissive snark, of the sort perfected by my colleague Matt, or buckle down and actually read the damn thing.

McCaskill endorses Obama  —  WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill endorsed Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Sunday, calling him “an extraordinary man at an extraordinary time in history."  —  McCaskill said she would do “everything I can” to make sure he wins the Missouri primary and the party's nomination.

So We Thought.  But Then Again . . .  HARRY S TRUMAN once said he wanted to talk to a one-armed economist, “so that the guy could never make a statement and then say: ‘on the other hand.’ ” Yet economic knowledge continues to progress in unexpected ways.  Here are a few of the things we learned in the last 12 months:

Cloudy Fortunes for Conservatism  —  Well, this wasn't the plan.  —  As pretty much everyone has noticed, the Republican race hasn't exactly followed any of the scripts laid out for it.  Mitt Romney has been hacked apart like the Black Knight in “Monty Python and the Holy Grail.”

The Media Does It Again  —  Today, the NY Times has the first part of a special series - War Torn:Across America, Deadly Echoes of Foreign Battles.  It appears that the troops are coming home and becoming murderers. … And we're presented with a litany of tragedy.

Unwarranted Pinocchios  —  Michael Dobbs, in his “fact checker” column in the Post, gives Huckabee “two Pinocchios” for “significant omissions or exaggerations” because he partially modeled his immigration plan on an NR cover story I did.  Now, I'm no big Huckabee fan, but that's simply unfair …

Scotland Yard believes Al-Qaeda assassinated Benazir Bhutto  —  BRITISH officials have revealed that evidence amassed by Scotland Yard detectives points towards Al-Qaeda militants being responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.  —  Five experts in video evidence and forensic science …

Al-Qaeda's white army of terror  —  HUNDREDS of British non-Muslims have been recruited by al-Qaeda to wage war against the West, senior security sources warned last night.  —  As many as 1,500 white Britons are believed to have converted to Islam for the purpose of funding …