Mark Halperin's attempt to "grade" the performances of various Republic 2016 contenders who spoke at CPAC is one of those moments when the veil briefly lifts. He grades each candidate on "substance" and "style," and then presents an "overall" grade that is... not an average of the other two grades. It is clearly completely arbitrary, though his "overall" grades tend to track the "style" grades more than the "substance" grades. In other words, Halperin is outright revealing that, for him, "substance" (whatever he means by that) is simply a quality a politician must perform, not something they must possess, and it is a quality that he deems less important than "style."

Frank Bruni's New York Times column today consists of Frank Bruni talking to his old college teacher talking about how times have changed, at college. Frank Bruni himself has not changed recently.

Here is a sentence written by professional newspaper columnist Richard Cohen, a man paid to analyze politics, and published today in the Washington Post, America's most respected political news outlet: "I am an ardent supporter of Israel, but I am also an American: Do not insult my president!" Well done, everyone.