Out on a Limb

The following is an excerpt from OpinionJournal’s “Best of the Web” at WSJ written by the editor, James Taranto.

Out on a Limb

• “Russia Could Have a Dark Ulterior Motive for Propping Up Assad’s Regime in Syria”—headline, Business Insider, Sept. 16
• “Planned Parenthood Officials Deeply Concerned About ‘PR Issue’ ”—headline, Washington Examiner, Sept. 15
• “Hillary Clinton’s Drop in Polls Hinges on More Than Her Private Email Server: Analysis”—headline, Press Herald (Portland, Maine), Sept. 15
• “AP’s Pace: Clinton’s Falling Favorability ‘Calls Into Question’ Campaign Strategy”—headline, Washington Free Beacon, Sept. 15

Problem and Solution—I

• “Hillary Clinton Is Still the Candidate to Beat”—headline, Eugene Robinson column, Washington Post, Sept. 15
• “Clinton’s Big Obstacle Is Herself”—headline, same column, Real Clear Politics, Sept. 15

Politics Ain’t Brain Surgery
“Ben Carson Is a Great Doctor,” a Vox headline allows. “But That Wouldn’t Make Him a Good President.” That may well be true, but the piece’s author, Dan Diamond, makes some dubious appeals to authority, including Donald Trump, who says: “Ben’s a doctor, and he’s not a dealmaker.” Then there’s this one:

The writer Malcolm Gladwell even says we overestimate the difficulty of surgery, and claims that with enough practice—and fine motor skills—nearly anyone who can drive a car can also be a heart surgeon.

“I have a very low opinion of the difficulty of cardiac surgery,” Gladwell confessed in an interview last year.

Carson is a brain surgeon, not a heart surgeon, and Diamond observes: “I think Gladwell goes too far.” Indeed. Would you want to be cut open by Malcolm Gladwell?

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.”