And now a question for your first-year law school Criminal Law exam: Is it fraud if you solicit donations to fund a campaign for an office for which you are inelligible?

Also, this is a great exchange:

“If you want to know the law and nothing else, you must look at it as a bad man, who cares only for the material consequences which such knowledge enables him to predict, not as a good one, who finds his reasons for conduct, whether inside the law or outside of it, in the vaguer sanctions of conscience.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

We here at Federalist Paupers are nothing if not ecumenical, and we have a guest post by President Barack Obama a senior White House Official who spoke on deep background, off the record, yadda yadda yadda.  Some of his thoughts about potential 2012 Republican nominees:

Mississippi governor Haley Barbour Please nominate this man.  I The President would make this a campaign between a black man from the Land of Lincoln against the lawyer-lobbyist from the Land of Jefferson Davis.

South Dakota Senator John Thune He did a statesman like thing, voting with me then-Senator Obama on S.R. 213 in the 110th Congress: that is, voting for the $700 billion bailout.  Watch the Tea Partiers sit out an election, and we can do it while praising his record.  For that matter, just about any Senator or Congressman would be fun for us to run against.  They’ve got lots of votes on issues and pork to defend.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney He’s one of a handful of people in American politics who makes me the President look genuine.  Plus we can thank him for providing inspiration in our health care bill; remember Romneycare preceded Obamacare.  We’re sure the tea partiers will love that, almost as much as they loved him in the 2008 primaries.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin We’re sure we can let Tina Fey do most of the dirty work.  Palin gave us a huge gift when she didn’t finish her term of governor, and we can tie every wingnut she’s endorsed around her neck: Christine O’Donnell and Sharron Angle are gifts that’ll keep on giving. Imagine the ad: O’Donnell says something kooky, cut to Palin praising her.  Angle says something nuts, cut to Palin endorsing.  Lather, rinse, repeat.

Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty He may represent a state that has the longest streak of voting for Democrats, but this two term governor never actually won with a majority of the vote.  He’s wonkish, though, and might be able to out argue me the president, which good old John McCain never quite did.  He could be a threat, but we’re not sweating yet.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels Here’s a potential threat.  A governor, balanced the books.  Fortunately, he’s a Bush administration alumnus (OMB director).  Thankfully, he has the charisma of plain oatmeal.

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee He’s from the land of Clinton, where anything’s possible.  His social conservative bona fides are impeccable, but will the tea partiers make peace with him?  If they unite, this man has the charisma to be dangerous.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal The man wrote an article defending exorcisms.  It’s almost a shame that Christine O’Donnell lost: the Jindal-O’Connell ticket would balance an exorcist with a (former) witch.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich The man is a human pinata: we can bash him from almost any angle and good stuff comes out.  He can’t stay on message.  Plus it isn’t that hard to get him to say nice things about the Rockefeller Republicans, which will infuriate the Goldwater-lovin’ tea party crowd.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani If he could win the nomination, he’d roll into the presidency.  Since he won only one delegate in 2008 after millions spent, we’re not worrying about him.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie This man’s a threat.  The tea partiers and the establishment Republicans all love him, plus he’s effective.  He’s claimed he ain’t running, but then, I the president did that, too.  Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt had both served less than 4 years as governor when they were elected president, so there’s precedent.

Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell See Chris Christie, but fortunately, McDonnell managed to get himself tangled up in the Confederacy.  That won’t hurt him in the south, but it’s poison in much of the midwest.

Presidential Strategy: If the election is about my Barack Obama’s record, Democrats lose, just as George Bush would probably have lost in 2004 had he not been given the gift of a ridiculous candidate.  The urban parts of the country are safely Democratic. New England and the Pacific West are safely blue. Nevada, New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado are places we should be able to hold or pick up—Harry Reid and Michael Bennet give me hope.  The midwest is seething right now, so the best thing for us to do is pander to them.  Even so, my probable opponents the Republican nominees, whom we hold in the highest esteem, have baggage we can exploit.  Yeah, we got the political equivalent of a bloody nose a few weeks ago, but from where we sit, things look reasonably on track for a second term.

(H/T)

[The 5000 Year Leap] spins the Constitution in a way most legal scholars would not recognize — even those who embrace an “originalist” interpretation.

It argues that the Founding Fathers were guided by 28 “principles of liberty,” above all, a belief that government should be based on “Natural Law,” or “a code of right reason from the Creator himself.” The founders, Skousen wrote, believed in the equal protection of rights, but not the equal distribution of things — an argument that many Tea Party activists now make against the health care overhaul passed in March.

Natural Law! A code from the Creator himself! Founders weren’t Communists? What a bunch of wingnuts!

The Tea Party is the most interesting and widespread (and therefore important) political movement in America since the Civil Rights movement. And the way our journalists have treated it is instructive: first, they dismissed it; then, they mocked it (teabagger – anyone heard that term lately?); then, they called them racist; then, they called them radicals; now, they’re using the Tea Party as a tool to prove their own ignorance.

If the mainstream press’s attempts to destroy the Tea Party weren’t enough of an argument to stop taking journalists seriously, the fact that millions of protesting Americans marching in the streets know more about our nation’s history than the writers and editors of the The New York Times should be enough to show that the ideal of journalism is dead at America’s major newspapers. I mean, if you get your information from the Times, you’re getting it from people who literally do not know what they’re talking about. That’s the opposite of journalism.

Meek tried to relate to Hispanic viewers too, but flubbed when it was unclear whether he was calling Crist a pastry using the word “pastelito,” or a postcard using the word “postalito.”

-Michelle Goldberg

Yeah. Right.