Happy Valentine's Day!

My wife and I have returned from a little weekend jaunt to New Orleans. If you haven't been there, you should. The French Quarter is great, the Aquarium is neat, and the food is wonderful (the Gumbo Shop should be a national landmark).

Speaking of Valentine's Day, I loved Stephanie Coontz's column about the development of romance within marriage, and the rise of Valentine's Day as a romantic holiday. Love really can triumph over everything.

Now back to politics. There is some interesting thinking going on about how to deal with the Democrats' problems in the South. Stirling Newberry has made the point (in the context of talking about budget issues) that the Democrats need to embrace the role of economic development as a method of breaking out of their fiscal box. He points to the Republicans circa 1860-1920 as a model, but I think a better example would be the Federalists and Whigs. I have made much the same point in previous blogs myself, so it's nice to know I'm not the only one out there thinking along these lines.

There is also a promising new project in the form of the Institute for Southern Studies , which is doing some concrete work on resolving liberalism's problems in the South. They too look to an historical example as inspiration, in this case Reconstruction. Of course, given how that worked out, I wonder how good of an example it really is. But I am watching with interest.

That's all I have for today. Enjoy time with your respective sweeties today.