The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal.com’s “Best of the Web” written by the editor, James Taranto.
Bottom Stories of the Day
“The Astros Aren’t Changing Their Name”–headline, NBCSports.com, Jan. 29
Does Putnam Have a Patent on This?
Here’s an interesting item from Salon’s Alex Pareene:
We all owe a great big thanks to political scientist Josh Putnam. Putnam actually went to the trouble of looking up the filing deadlines for all the coming primaries and caucuses in order to see whether it would be possible for a new candidate to enter the Republican presidential race and actually win the nomination. Short answer: Sure, if they entered today and won enough write-ins and uncommitted delegates. But by tomorrow, it would be effectively impossible to win the nomination before the convention.
This piece was published yesterday, so the Republicans are stuck with their current lineup. But this gave us a great new idea for a business. We probably won’t get around to starting it, so feel free to borrow.
What if you set up a company that employed a bunch of guys like Josh Putnam who would look up interesting facts? They could augment their efforts by making phone calls to people who know stuff and asking them questions. Then they could write up their findings and post them online, or maybe even printed out for people to read. We could call them “newsmen” or “reporters” or something jazzy like that.
Nah, we guess it’s too crazy.
For more “Best of the Web” click here and look for the “Best of the Web Today” link in the middle column below “Today’s Columnists.”
