(1) Michael Barone analyzes Arlen Specter's defection to the Democratic party and concludes: "When [Winston] Churchill left the Liberals, they had led governments for 16 of the preceding 18 years. They never did so again. A party in decline should adapt its basic philosophy to new policies and positions in order to win over voters, rather than stand on principle and expel heretics." (2) According to the pool report, the vice president of the United States, Joseph Biden, visited Texas yesterday and concluded: "You Texas guys are ugly as hell, but your women are beautiful." (Incidentally, according to the Houston Chronicle, Biden also remarked that, since his audience included some Pakistani Americans, he'd have to answer their questions or "there'll be a Pakistani revolution." Stay classy, Joe.)