After a rather disastrous 6th place finish in Iowa, Michele Bachmann today decided to suspend her campaign for the Republican party’s presidential nomination. While Bachmann didn’t endorse anyone today, her dropping out of the race will likely be mildly good news for Rick Santorum, who did well with the same groups that voted for Bachmann.

On Saturday at the latest Republican debate a solid majority of the candidates embraced the prospect of waterboarding a foreigner. Only the marginalized Paul and ostracized Huntsman disapproved.

Thank goodness the GOP is rife with candidates claiming a direct line to the Almighty.

Rin Tin Tin might be the ideal American: rugged enough but loyal and loving; a devoted friend and embodiment of empathy; a loner committed to community

Just shy of a majority of registered voters, 49 percent, say they definitely plan to vote against Barack Obama in 2012, but just 36 percent say they definitely plan to vote for him, according to a new McClatchy-Marist poll.

Resentment has long driven much of American politics, and global politics too. Think of antebellum southern planters who resented northern manufacturers and moral “meddlers” we know as abolitionists. Think of yesterday and today’s anti-immigrant xenophobes. Think of anti-labor tycoons who resent the notion that their workers are human beings to whom a crude definition of “property” should not apply.

But the Right has no monopoly on resentment. Sadly, I’ve heard its call, and acted upon it.

By not embarrassing herself in front of New Hampshire GOP voters in the hall, the national media, and political junkies watching everywhere, Michele Bachmann won the debate.