The Daily Top Five: February 6, 2007

1. Mitt Romney is schedule to declare his candidacy on February 13. In doing so, according to Politico.com, he may lose the use of nearly $2 million he raised for state based leadership PACs.

2. Here is an interesting publicity stunt. Of course the measure is doomed to failure, but it does raise and interesting point--is marriage just for procreation.

Proponents of same-sex marriage have introduced a ballot measure that would require heterosexual couples to have a child within three years or have their marriages annulled.

The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance acknowledged on its Web site that the initiative was "absurd" but hoped the idea prompts "discussion about the many misguided assumptions" underlying a state Supreme Court ruling that upheld a ban on same-sex marriage.

Hat Tip: the Instapundit.

3. Political blogging on the decline? I am not so sure. I think James Joyner is right:

The bottom line is that there is an incredible amount of quality material being produced out there and it’s therefore harder to compete. The sites that are thriving have either generated a “community” through the addition of reader diaries and/or a steady diet of partisan red meat or provide incredibly unique content, especially videos.

I think the transformation will be to more niche blogs dealing with specific topics in politics. For example, this blog tends to focus on election law, campaign finance and education related politics. I think you will a little more of that specialization coming.

4. A must read George Will column on global warming.

Climate Cassandras say the facts are clear and the case is closed. (Sen. Barbara Boxer: "We're not going to take a lot of time debating this anymore.") The consensus catechism about global warming has six tenets: 1. Global warming is happening. 2. It is our (humanity's, but especially America's) fault. 3. It will continue unless we mend our ways. 4. If it continues we are in grave danger. 5. We know how to slow or even reverse the warming. 6. The benefits from doing that will far exceed the costs.

Only the first tenet is clearly true, and only in the sense that the Earth warmed about 0.7 degrees Celsius in the 20th century.

The cloer is also brilliant.

5. Edspresso has started a three party debate on No Child Left Behind. A great primer on the three main schools of thought on the bill.