Michael Ramirez political cartoon posted on Jewish World Review

Mainstream media are pulling punches against Obama and the Democrats, Richard A. Viguerie writes at Newsmax.com. They have reported the outrage and vitriol of Republican politicians and rally-goers, but downplay the bad behavior of Democrats. And they are minimizing stories about Obama’s more suspicious associations: convicted felon Tony Rezko, who was a major financial supporter early on; and ACORN, an organization being investigated for voter fraud.

Why are they pulling punches? Because the left hates anti-communists even more than they like communists, writes Paul Kengor, a professor of politics at Grove City College in Pennsylvania who has researched and written about the history of communism in America. Perhaps because of memories of McCarthyist witch hunts or because of how public schools teach the history of communism, Americans have strong reactions to anti-communist sentiments. So “when they hear that Barack Obama has deep roots with communist radicals like Bill Ayers and Frank Marshall Davis, (they) don’t care; they don’t get it,” he writes. For Kengor, that means conservatives are in for frustrating days ahead.

In fact, we could be witnessing the end of conservatism altogether, according to Mona Charen. The doom-speak isn’t constrained to those who hate or fear the Bush regime, apparently. Charen writes that an Obama victory and a Democratic super-majority in Congress could invite threats to First Amendment free speech rights and, indeed, a full-blown depression. And since liberal reforms are never undone, we’re looking at a permanent drift from conservatism.

Hugh Hewitt—three questions for Obama I’d like to hear at tonight’s debate: will you support U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s investigation into Illinois politics (which has already led to the conviction of pal Tony Rezko), will you continue funding the national missile defense shield at current levels or higher, and will you keep the current funding levels for the Department of Defense with special appropriations for Iraq?

Paul Krugman is dead (career-wise), at least if you agree with Donald Luskin. Krugman was recently awarded the Nobel Prize for economics, but Luskin argues he hasn’t been a real economist in a decade. His columns for The New York Times are leftist rants written far below the talent and eloquence he once displayed, which Luskin compares to Nobel prize-winning astronomers doing a column on astrology.