Down Mexico Way

THE WEEKLY STANDARD’S second annual cruise is now underway. We left from San Diego harbor just after 5:00 p.m. on Saturday. Then, despite the fact that we’re in the Pacific Ocean, we switched over to the Mountain time zone, which made Sunday morning a little strange. What made it stranger was the fog. Just after 8:00 a.m., the MS Oosterdam sailed into a thick bank of the stuff. Visibility was about zero, the ship’s horn sounded every couple minutes, and I was having Skull Island flashbacks. Nonetheless, we’re steaming southward on a track about 40 miles off the coast of Mexico and, despite the fog, the seas are calm and flat, with the occasional whale spouting off to port.

We started Sunday with a lecture by Fred Barnes, who talked about the George W. Bush, the nature of his relationship with official Washington, and the character of his presidency. Lots of deep insights into the mind of the president. Also, secrets of the Barnes mystique were revealed (hint: watch the use of semicolons in his writing). Afterwards there were panel discussions on the state of the Republican party, the prospects for the new Supreme Court, and the future of the blogosphere and the New Media.