For every Southern boy 14 years old, not once but whenever he wants it, there is the instant when it’s still not yet two o’clock on that July afternoon in 1863, the brigades are in position behind the rail fence, the guns are laid and ready in the woods and the furled flags are already loosened to break out and Pickett himself with his long oiled ringlets and his hat in one hand probably and his sword in the other looking up the hill waiting for Longstreet to give the word and it’s all in the balance, it hasn’t happened yet, it hasn’t even begun yet, it not only hasn’t begun yet but there is still time for it not to begin against that position and those circumstances which made more men than Garnett and Kemper and Armstead and Wilcox look grave yet it’s going to begin, we all know that, we have come too far with too much at stake and that moment doesn’t need even a 14-year-old boy to think This time. No, it was Professor Plum with the lead pipe in the billiards room. If things continue to be so unsettled, it’s not impossible that someone may decide to repeat that feat in 2012.
– On the surface, things aren’t looking good for President Obama—but if Republicans want to beat him, they’ll need a viable candidate. And that’s something they don’t appear to have, writes Matt Latimer for the Daily Beast. Instead, they’ve got battered Herman Cain, who’s still at the top of the field. “When you cannot lure voters away from a man who is accused of several counts of disreputable behavior and who seems to lack an understanding of many basic issues, you’ve got yourself a problem,” Latimer writes. Mitt Romney, meanwhile, seems so full of “consultant-fed pablum” that even his controversial ideas—like raising the retirement age—don’t get the media going. Then there’s Rick Perry, who’s still trying to prove he wasn’t plastered in New Hampshire. Even William Kristol is acknowledging that no Republican is going to come from nowhere and pull a 1980 Ronald Reagan-style victory. “Is it time for the GOP to start panicking yet?” Latimer asks. Yep. And it's not too late for a new candidate to jump in. "Just don't anybody give that idea to Donald Trump."