LIGHTNING ROUND: THE ENDURING APPEAL OF UNAPPEALING AMERICANS.

• As Congress is preparing to (grudgingly) approve the final round of supplemental war funding ($96.7 billion) for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, Gen. David McKiernan, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, is being replaced with Lt. Gen. Stanley McChrystal. The McKieman shakeup seems to reflect the reality that things aren't going all that well in Afghanistan and that McChrystal, a special ops commander who served under David Petraeus in Iraq, would be a better fit.
• Clearly, the public's ignorance of what cap-and-trade is presents an opportunity for opponents of the legislation to continue making false claims such as it will cost the average American family an addition $3,000 per year, but it also presents an opportunity for cap-and-trade proponents. One can imagine a popular political figure, perhaps somebody who heads the executive branch, taking advantage of that public misconception and associating his oft-repeated commitment to jump-starting the green economy with this mysterious idea known as "capntrade."
• The latest GOP conspiracy theory, this time promoted by Rep. Pete Sessions (R-The Five States of Texas), is that Barack Obama secretly desires to "diminish employment and diminish stock prices" in order to consolidate power. This crackpottery lacks even basic internal coherence. Since when have voters rewarded presidents for presiding over high unemployment, much less presidents who made a policy of it? Did Sessions forget to mention the part where Obama declares himself dictator-for-life as a prerequisite for implementing this fiendish plan?
• Like Jon Chait, I'd really like to know why Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour keeps ending up on the 2012 GOP presidential candidate short list. Does he have national name recognition I'm not aware of? A a broad and loyal base of support? Fundraising prowess? Seems like you need at least two, if not three of those things to be a serious presidential contender, and Barbour has, well, none. At least the imaginary political appeal of Gary Sinise is the product of a deliberate conservative effort to feel out the actor's policy positions.
• Gallup has some informative polling on the generation and independent gaps facing the GOP in the near term. This hasn't stopped, however, unpopular Republicans like Dick Cheney from endorsing unpopular Republicans like Rush Limbaugh, nor has it decreased the sensitivity of political journalists to the hurt feelings of dinosaurs like Pat Buchanan. Like Josh Marshall said, I guess it really is a center-right nation.
• Weekend Remainders: Obama does Egypt; Jeff Sessions predictably flip-flops on the homosexual litmus test for SCOTUS appointments; A People's History of the Republican Comeback; and don't deny the importance of symbolic political gestures towards repairing America's image at home and abroad.

--Mori Dinauer