Re Palin, I Go Out on a Limb

I've been wrong so many times before, I might as well stick my neck out again: Sarah Palin won't be on the ticket on election day. People are talking Geraldine Ferraro but I'm thinking Thomas Eagleton--unvetted, thoughtlessly selected, a decisive source of regret and remorse. Or maybe I am talking about Geraldine Ferraro--a choice who never looked better than during the first 72 hours after her selection. I'm tempted to think about Harriet Miers, but this choice is perhaps least apt: Miers was brought down ultimately by the wingnuts for her tepid record on the hot-button evangelical issues. For Palin, the evangelicals are the one thing that may save her.

I don't want to suggest I am delighted with all this. If the Republicans do have to make a second choice in late September, the chances are they'll do something even more impulsive and reckless. "Get to know this woman and give her a chance," Alex Castellanos is saying. My guess is that is exactly what he is hoping we do not get a chance to do.

Afterthought: If I'm wrong (as I probably will be), then I'll say she's Ronald Reagan, and that some hacker wrote this post.

Update: This guy thinks they planned it that way all along. "Anon" in the comments here seems to think so too.

Update II: Or maybe just a hoax.

Nothing Lasts Forever: Ringtones

Longtime Underbelly loyalists will recall our affection for that great staple of the American industrial behemoth, the telephone ringtone. But apparently nothing lasts forever. Here, the folks at TheDeal.Com consider how Steve Jobs is once again driving and defining the entertainment biz (link):

Take, for example, two of the more important drivers in the industry's brave new world: ringtones and social networks. Apple's iPhone stands poised to upend both models.

In a recent conversation with an entertainment lawyer, I remarked what a surprisingly large source of income ringtones has become: $4 billion, $6 billion, $9 billion each year, depending on whose figures you trust.

The lawyer scoffed. Limited shelf life, he responded, no future. Then he added:

"You have the new iPhone, right?"

I nervously fidgeted my Motorola before admitting I wasn't one of the
cool kids.

With the iPhone, he patiently explained, it's easy to convert any MP3 into a ringtone. "Talk to any 15-year-old," he advised. I did, well, at least, indirectly. It's happening, I was told. Sure enough, the Web's full of advice on free - and perfectly legal - ringtone creation, using iTunes and the iPhone.

Ringtones, we hardly knew ye. The p oint about "social networking," BTW is that the iPhone has broken the barrier between the telephone and the on-line sharing operations. As one who just this month got a Facebook monicker, I suspect this one is way above my paygrade. But it's not about me, anyway.