Politics and other nightmares

Just a chief political trick that Gov. Daniels is wise to avoid (so far):

The Indiana Statehouse has become the latest place to go gun-free, sort of:

Pistol-packing tourists at the Statehouse soon will have to leave their guns at home.

Lawmakers and judges, however, will be exempt from new Statehouse security restrictions that go into effect June 4.

Have we gotten so used to ceding power upward that we have trouble even understanding local control? That's one conclusion to draw from new state fireworks legislation:

I don't know if this is supposed to be "political analysis" or just a feature story about delusional Democrats:

A cadre of leading Indiana Democrats is beginning to believe that John Edwards has the potential to do what no Democratic presidential candidate has done since Lyndon Johnson in 1964: Win in Indiana.

After the primary, I wrote an editorial saying, among other things, that Republicans wouldn't stay divided this year the way they did in 1999, that they would unite behind Matt Kelty in a way they didn't for Linda Buskirk. Here, in a Kevin Leininger column, is a hint that I might need to rethink the issue:

Here's an intriguing idea, advanced by Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson and apparently endorsed by Gov. Mitch Daniels -- a constitutional convention to "realign Indiana's 19th Century government to meet the challenges of the 21st Century."

President Bush's approval rating stands steady at 33 percent, according to Gallup, which the left will make much of. The right will focus on Congress:

Twenty-nine percent of Americans approve of Congress, down slightly from last month's reading (33%) and this year's high point of 37%.

We will never run out of minutia to micromanage. Next up, LEDs:

Council will have to examine how often a message on a sign can change (Crawford suggests six seconds), whether messages can scroll (move vertically) or travel (move horizontally) and how bright and big the signs can be.

Crawford said he expects a preliminary vote Tuesday and a final vote May 22. He said he'll also encourage council to discuss the proper size and placement of all signs and give that to the plan commission.

A lot of local bloggers wasted your time in the last few weeks with small potatoes, making predictions about who would win in city primary races. I am now ready to wow you with the big one -- the presidential race in 2008: It will be between -- are you ready? -- Ronald Reagan and Harry Truman.

You might remember that in the first GOP presidential debate, Reagan was invoked more than God:

We will still be afflicted with rogue, unlicensed interior designers, but at least those scandalous massage therapists will have to shape up: