What was he thinking of? That was the first question that came to mind when the story of New York governor Eliot Spitzer’s involvement with a prostitution ring was reported in the media.

People on the left often use other countries as examples of things that we should do. If other countries have a government-run medical system, then we should have one too, they say. If other countries control prices, then we should control prices — or so the reasoning goes.

It is becoming increasingly and painfully clear that voters in both parties are having a hard time settling on a front runner.

“History,” Napoleon remarked, “is a lie agreed upon.” This bit of wisdom is superbly illustrated by the conventional wisdom concerning the Communist Party of the United States of America.

It’s no exaggeration to say that the establishment media’s initial response to the “blogosphere” was panic. The idea of mere citizens talking back to the press was unsettling to Washington media celebrities. Pundits who’d exhibited no qualms about the sordid imaginings of, say, the American Spectator or the Wall Street Journal editorial page, recoiled in horror at online mockery. It was laugh-out-loud funny to see a Washington Post reporter infamous for treating Kenneth Starr’s backstairs leaks like holy writ make a show of pretending the now-defunct Web site mediawhoresonline.com had literally accused her of prostitution. How the system had always worked was this: They dished it out, everybody else had to take it.

So why is Rudy Giuliani — a thrice-married, pro-choice, Italian Catholic from New York — the leading candidate in a party that has moved steadily to the South, the West and the Right?

On page 28 of last Sunday’s New York Times, right opposite the page where the obituaries were, at the very bottom was a news item almost exactly the size of a 3-by-5 card.

Memorial services were held Saturday, September 22, 2007 in the Resurrection Life Worship Center for Harry Ward Samson, Jr., 86, of Carriere, who passed away Saturday, September 22, 2007 in Picayune.

With former Sen. Fred Thompson’s official declaration of his candidacy, the race for the Republican presidential nomination has now assumed the shape that seems likely to characterize it right down to the finish line. Conceivably some new and unexpected contender could still enter the contest and win it, as Wendell Willkie did in 1940, but the odds against such a development are high. Some observers, noting that the national political conventions won’t be held until the late summer of 2008, argue that there is still time for a surprise.