<![CDATA[The Daily Wrap]]>Today on the Dish, Andrew urged Obama to call the GOP's bluff on spending, and Pawlenty pandered to the far right to Andrew's dismay. The Big Lie parroted by the right seeped into American opinion, and Andrew saw a secular hope in Apple's vision of the future. Freddie de Boer charged the blogosphere with being anti-leftist, Ryan Avent questioned de Boer's union love, and the GOP needed the middle but still didn't want to take the civil route. Nate Silver showed Douthat the stats on Palin's pull, and Andrew couldn't imagine Frum's Huckabee victory. Journalists fabricated turning points for narratives, and Herman Cain could add a touch of crazy to 2012.

Jennifer Rubin got trounced for giving neocons credit for Tunisia, while Scoblete defended her. Josef Joffe pinned Tunisia's revolution on being rich, Scott Lucas chronicled the new government's concessions, and the immolation trend in Egypt was getting out of control.

Andrew Cohen parsed the rocky road ahead for DOMA, Ezra Klein previewed the real showdown in healthcare revisions, and PTSD spread to civilian professionals. Loughner's ideology didn't fully square up with Nietzsche's, Jim Sleeper compared him to 1993's Colin Ferguson, and Gabrielle Giffords' husband kept grace alive. Sedentary screen time kills us, Gary Sick questioned the Stuxnet worm, the Twittering machine shrieked, and cigarettes got cropped from stamps. The police state lived, the enthusiasm gap evaporated, and Ike's last bested JFK's first speech. Julia Sherman traced the international hair trade, marriage evolved, and America reinvented herself. Irin Carmon defended casual sex, karate slippers used to get you into the club, and LBJ talked about his junk.

Chart of the day here, FOTD here, MHB here, VFYW here, and the VFYW contest winner #33 here.

–Z.P.

]]>