The XX Factor: Slate women blog about politics, etc...

Who's the Most Happy Fella, Obama or McCain?

According to this report and this new book, conservatives are generally happier than liberals, "because liberals lack ideological rationalizations that would help them frame inequality in a positive (or at least neutral) light." Which is a nice old liberal way of saying whee, no -isms to worry about, plus no drowning polar bears or reason to get all glum about Iraq. There are a few holes in this theory: Anything related to the '60s can still kill the glee, as can government regulations and gay people. (Washington is not supposed to tell us what to do; for that we have a much-married addict who issues instructions on the radio.) The ability to rationalize does seem to have kept our tap-dancing president from losing any shut-eye; in fact, he thinks our troops are having such a "romantic'' time in Afghanistan that he envies them, sometimes. And since the sunnier presidential candidate usually wins, this might even explain the Republican hold on the White House; "Morning in America'' trumps malaise every time. Or as Jeff Greenfield explained it, Bugs Bunny always beats Daffy Duck. Only, who's the Bugsiest in this scenario, McCain or Obama?

I have to say that evidence of the famous McCain temper as served up by the Washington Post  was a little on the disappointing side—if one petty, score-settling phone call and some righteous rage at Arizonans who didn't want MLK to have a holiday is the worst they can say of him, where's the threat to the republic? Sometimes, he does say "my friends" like he could gladly strangle somebody, but I've also seen him shrug off bad press in a way that not many officials are able to. (Yes, I did see him go off on Elisabeth Bumiller, but in the main, there is a reason he gets favorable coverage.) And the more I read about him not voting for Bush in 2000, wanting us out of Iraq (before he started the whole 100-year thing), and even suggesting that we went in over oil, the more reasonable he seems. (Could he secretly be a liberal sourpuss?) Until Tuesday, Obama hadn't had a lot to laugh about in a while. But his cool-customer demeanor and ability to pull off a little physical comedy—as when getting the dirt off his shoulders—took our (way more antic, but apparently just hilarious) current president a long, long way. Too far; this contest is not a joke, which is why I find the whole Operation Chaos nonsense so demeaning to the process. But to win it, you do have to be able to laugh at yourself, as "I'm older than dirt. More scars than Frankenstein'' McCain can, and make that smile matter when you give it up, as Obama does. Could one of their debates please be on Comedy Central?