New Wisdom...

As promised, I will try to highlight "wisdom before it's conventional" after thoroughly perusing each day's Hotline. Some thoughts after devouring today's issue:

-- Change is in the air: The single most overlooked item in today's issue has to be the Cleveland mayor's race. Incumbent Jane Campbell not only was forced into a runoff but didn't even finish first yesterday. She's not alone. Incumbent mayors from mid-to-large-sized cities have been taking it on the chin this year. See Los Angeles (incumbent lost), St. Paul (incumbent losing), Minneapolis (incumbent in trouble), St. Pete (incumbent in trouble) and Detroit (incumbent losing). Why does this matter? More after the jump. [CHUCK TODD]

-- In '93, the pre-cursor to the '94 anti-incumbent (and eventually anti-Dem) tsunami, saw incumbents or incumbent machines get ousted in cities all across the country. New York and Los Angeles were the most prominent, but Detroit and many other cities saw the old machines get tossed. For those believing '06 is setting up as a "throw them all out" type of election, these '05 mayoral contests may had to their argument.

-- California gov't really must be broken. How is it that the runoff for the CA 48 special election is in Dec. and not being held simultaneously with Arnold Schwarzenegger's special ballot init. election? We know state law has specific requirements about when specials are held but why didn't the GOV and the legis. get together and try and save the O.C. money on this one?

-- I wanted to desperately write an update today that didn't mention Miers, but I can't help myself. Buried in the tick-tocks about when Bush formally asked Miers to be the SCOTUS nominee was the fact that he did it at dinner with Laura Bush present (scroll down for Ed Chen's piece). L. Bush has been tagged as closeted pro-choice and has never come across anti-gay. We know L. Bush is usually untouchable in political debates but if she's one of the big Miers advocates, should social conservatives be scared?

-- Can't you just sense a coming NYTimes or Newark Star-Ledger story coming about how Republicans really, truly, have a shot in NJ this year? Corzine has been acquiring just enough mediocre press and mediocre polls to justify a "it could happen" story. Of course, it probably won't. But check out today's NJ GOV story, the GOP wishful thinking story is begging to be written.