Words to ponder during election season:

. . . When voters say they want “change,” what they really mean is they want nice. If you’re not into politics 24/7, it is one of the most unpleasant arenas of American life. Take any other competitive environment and they’re using entirely different standards of “meanness” — Simon on American Idol, for example, would be a pussycat if you signed him up at Daily Kos. So come presidential nominating season, a big swath of the populace expresses a kind of aesthetic distaste for the entire business by plumping for the freshest face on the national scene — i.e., Obama or Huckabee. Both of them seem nice mainly because they’re new. A primary or three later, and they don’t seem so new, and don’t seem so nice. Politics will do that.

-- Mark Steyn, "Damn Unity," National Review (reprinted by the Saratoga County Republican Committee)