[Updated: 11:25 a.m.]

• Hillary Clinton always comes prepared:
  “If Clinton wins the Democratic nomination (which is far from preordained), it will be as much because of the skills on display at Dartmouth Friday as any other factor. Clinton is relentless, never skimping on her homework, never taking her privileged position (by marriage) in the Democratic pantheon for granted. She may lack what the Bush family used to call “the vision thing,” but she is the 2008 presidential candidate least likely to make a tactical error.”
• Redefining the U.S. Role in Iraq:
  In an Op-Ed in the Washington Post, Republican presidential hopeful, Gov. James Gilmore, writes, “I assert that where and what we fight for must be strictly measured by the interests of the United States…I reject the Democrats’ policy of an immediate withdrawal or a withdrawal on a timetable…But I also believe we cannot continue our present policy. We must find a third way…I believe the only realistic alternative — the least bad option, if you will — is a limited deliberate drawdown of our military men and women and a redeployment of the forces remaining in the region to areas where they can more efficiently and effectively carry out a clearly defined mission.”
• ‘Renegade’ Joins Race For White House:
  “Sen. Barack Obama has a new tag: “Renegade.” That’s what Secret Service agents are calling the Illinois Democrat, in the time-honored tradition of giving “secret” code names to presidential candidates and other protected dignitaries…Sen. Clinton['s] code name is “Evergreen,” given to her when her husband (former president Bill Clinton, a.k.a. “Eagle”) first became a protectee.”
• Countercultural and Alive:
  Regarding the closing of Antioch College, Inside Higher Ed reports that “these small progressive schools have been the nurseries for the cultivation and exploration of new ideas in higher education..These institutions have perhaps never been more important than now, when the forces of centralization and standardization and nationalization of higher education are getting stronger and stronger. If we are going to end up with a national system of regulation of higher education, it will be the end of the leadership of higher education [by the United States] Survival of these experimental, progressive institutions that test new ways of education is essential.” Oh, and P.S. “Goddard has now reached a point where its survival is assured.”