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From Newt Gingrich on how to make the American economy thrive:

This is not magic. This is like a cookbook. Lower taxes. Fewer regulations. A focus on American energy.

It’s not as if I think that a lack of bumper sticker mottos is the left’s biggest problem, but still. This is a level of almost atavistic simplicity that you can’t help but be jealous of. Newt will never be president, but he’s still got no equal when it comes to crowd-pleasing sound bites.

And speaking of politicians and sound bites, does it strike anyone else that Sarah Palin has basically become a social media version of Ann Coulter? That is, they’re both conservatives whose schtick mostly depends on generating liberal apoplexy over their periodic word bombs, and who are both fading away because they’re having problems coming up with new material that’s fresh enough for anyone to care about? I didn’t even know Coulter had yet another book out until I saw it at the bookstore today (in almost self-parody fashion, it’s called Demonic), and likewise nobody seems to care very much anymore about whatever Palin’s latest plea for attention on Facebook says (though Tina Brown apparently hasn’t gotten the message yet). Sic transit etc.