The Wall Street Journal documents the astonishing sales that follow every appearance of comics’ foremost new hero:  Barack Obama. (Thanks to Doug Hackney for apprising me of this.)

No, I don’t like this sort of hero worship. To quote another hero, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Without oversight and skepticism, that great power is too often used irresponsibly. And yes, there is enormous opportunism going on here (it would be hard to believe that other publishers didn’t take notice when Marvel grossed more than a million bucks on Obama’s appearance in “Spider-Man.”).

But there are two other factors going on as well:  1) Obama benefits by comparison with the quote-unquote president he succeeded; and 2) Obama is a self-confessed comics fan, especially of Spider-Man. (Which helps explain how he got so many votes. Just counting everyone at Comic Con, that’s more votes than several key Western states combined.)

And by the way, what precisely would be wrong with looking at an attractive young woman? (Other than getting yourself compared to more foolish members of your profession.)

Given what’s been going on with the tail end of this political season — with Nevada’s Senator John Ensign and South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford admitting to chasing tail — I understand the eagerness of people like Matt Drudge to find and transmit what appears to be an image of President Obama admiring a 17-year-old’s back side. Like so:

But now watch the full video — in, not out, of context — and you’ll see that Obama was helping a woman on the steps. Helping, not having. Will there be a retraction coming from Drudge or the New York Post? No. Will this ridiculous image show up in some campaign, or provide lore for the right-wing fringe? (“Sure, the mainstream media come down on the GOP for sexual impropriety, but they didn’t do anything when it was their president.”) You bet.

The Fourth of July isn’t until tomorrow, but today it feels like it’s Christmas that came early:  Sarah Palin is resigning her governorship. Why? No one knows — least of all, it seems, her. She says she “knows when it’s time to go,” and I’m sure that everyone who actually voted for her knows when that time is too:  when her term is over. Resigning early tells us there’s something up, even if we don’t know what it is yet. I’m sure that right now all my theatre friends in Alaska are cheering and buying rounds of drinks.

Man, that election last fall is the gift that keeps on giving.

Stephen Colbert reminds us how past words of GOP Congressmen come back to haunt them.

My taxes are complicated:  kids, mortgage, Schedule C income from writing, business income from my business, employment income from teaching, and any number of separate forms and deductions. All of it straight-up, but none of it qualifying as simple. Earlier this year I paid the full amount of what my accountant estimated I owed the state of California for 2008. Yesterday he came to me with a revision, based upon what’s going to be the final filing, and the good news is that the state now owes me a refund.

The bad news is that the state now has no money and who knows if I’ll ever get that refund. Starting today, my fair state started issuing I.O.U.’s. (Mostly to people in wheelchairs, judging from the news coverage.) No, there’s no forecast on when they’ll be repaid, or if there’ll be any interest. What if we all adopted this system? I go to fill up my car and hand the gas-station owner an I.O.U., redeemable… oh… when I get around to it. What if, after that, he decides that he needs someone to write him up a good sign explaining why he can’t accept I.O.U.’s, and we agree that I’ll let him redeem the I.O.U. in exchange for me writing that sign? Then we have a barter system — which I’m starting to think is where California is heading in its financial management.

Hey, by the way, if you’d like to take a crack at balancing the state budget (which would allow paying off those I.O.U.’s, and would wind up meaning more money in my checking account, thank you), here’s a fun interactive Deficit Meter on the L.A. Times site. Let me save you some time:  No matter what you do, you can’t follow the state GOP’s playbook of no-new-taxes and still balance it. At least, not without enormous I.O.U.’s to everyone in the future, wheelchair or not.

I well remember the revelation I had one day in my junior high history class. We were studying the fall of the Roman Empire, and we got to the point in history where the barbarians are at the gates. Classically this is presented as the fall of a great people before lesser, slobbering, uncultured, undeserving barbarous hordes. Although I’d heard about these barbarians before, for some reason this time I realized that these were what we would now call Germans, and I thought, “Hey, these are my people.” And then, quick as that, I thought, “Who says they were barbarians?” The answer:  other people other.

History’s funny that way.

I just finished reading <a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0609809644?ie=UTF8&tag=counterintu0f-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0609809644″>Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World</a><img src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=counterintu0f-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0609809644″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” />, a book I picked up while back East.

Here’s the image of Genghis Khan I grew up with in school and have gotten used to via innumerable cultural references:  bloodthirsty conqueror with no regard for human life. I never gave that any further thought until reading this book, which paints Genghis Khan as someone who treated most of his people far better than the dictators, tyrants and aristocrats before him, who shared the wealth of his conquests across his lands, who was tolerant of all religions, and who encouraged the spread of science and learning. And he did this while conquering a terrain four times the size of the Roman Empire at its height, and doing it in 20 years (it took the Romans 200).

Who knew?

My first thought about all this was:  If someone can rehabilitate the image of Genghis Khan, for God’s sake, then maybe there’s hope for George W. Bush’s legacy. But then I realized:  Genghis Khan was a top-notch manager; history is never kind to incompetents.

On a similar note, it was nice last week to see another round of releases from the Nixon tapes. Every time I’m afraid we’ll all finally swallow the idea that he was a terrific statesman and gifted president who got unfairly entangled in the sort of scandal that “everyone” does, well, then more transcripts come out and set us straight again. There’s something to be grateful for.

I follow a few right-wing people on Twitter in an attempt to preserve my open-mindedness and to hear what’s going on in one of the other camps. (I consider the extreme left to be in a different camp from me as well.)

The past week these folks seem to be agitating mostly against President Obama’s measured response to what’s going on in Iran. They keep contrasting it with Ronald Reagan’s “Tear down this wall” speech at the Berlin Wall. So I keep asking them what it is they would like Obama to do about this nascent freedom effort in Iran, and not one of them has given me a straight answer. If they want condemnation of how the Iranian protestors are being treated, he’s done that, and he just did it again today. Do they want Obama to forcefully declare his support of the  protestors’ cause? Because that’s sure to backfire (one way to lose popularity with masses in the Middle East:  have the U.S. adopt your cause). Do they want us to invade? That’s so last administration. So… what is it? What do they want — other than to just complain, no matter what the Obama administration does.

I’ve written here before about California Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, a political leader I admire. He may be planning a run for Los Angeles City Council, partly because of term limits, which restrict Assembly members to six years in office.

In other words, soon after learning how to be effective in the position, you’re out. Say what you will about then-Governor Pete Wilson and then-Speaker Willie Brown, they knew enough about California’s levers of power to steer us out of our previous economic collapse, in 1991. That’s because they had been on the job for quite a while — Brown for 27 years at that point. I’m opposed to term limits, and I’m surprised they aren’t unconstitutional.

Anyway, while I was out of town the Burbank Leader ran a story about Paul Krekorian’s probable run for City Council, and I took the opportunity to  knock term limits. This is a mini-spiel I give as often as possible in the hopes that finally enough of us will feel this way that we can get rid of term limits. Everywhere I’ve gone while here in New Jersey, people have asked incredulously about my adopted state’s budget catastrophe, “What happened to California?” My response:  Proposition 13 (which destroyed our tax base), a 2/3 vote requirement to pass a budget (which disproportionately empowers a caveman minority in the Legislature), pay-to-play politics, and term limits. All of which has more of us than ever hoping for a state constitutional convention.

I just got this fundraising email from Jerry Brown, perennial Californian elected-something and former Linda Ronstadt paramour:

Dear Lee,

I have had an unusual opportunity to see California State government and its political process up close for a long, long time. I had my first glimpse – in the fifties – when my father ran for attorney general and then for governor, and again when I was governor. It was profoundly different then. The schools were good, the state wasn’t broke, Republicans talked with Democrats and even voted together when it was important to do so.

The last few years, this has all changed. Acrimony and endless deficits have become the order of the day. And turning it around, especially given the financial meltdown, won’t be easy. But I am trying. I am doing everything I can as your attorney general to make sure that the law is on your side. I sued Countrywide to restructure tens of thousands of mortgages, brought actions against a myriad of scam artists who set up Ponzi schemes or ripped off consumers in various and heartless ways, I sued employers who cheated their workers and vigorously defended California’s environmental laws. Go to Fighting for You for the full story.

I like my current job and truly believe we are getting important things done. Yet, when I see the mess in Sacramento and think about all the people who are suffering as a result, I think seriously about running for governor again. It is rather amazing that the same issues are still front and center: water, energy, prisons, education and, of course, living within our means.

But before I make a final decision, I would like to know if it’s possible to build a large base of supporters from every part of the state and even beyond. Two of the Republican candidates for governor are talking about spending their own wealth on hundred million dollar plus campaigns. To counter this private assault on our democracy, people will have to join together in a grassroots effort by the thousands and then by the tens of thousands. We need to fight back to overcome what will literally be a hostile takeover of the airwaves during the next governor’s campaign.

So would you be willing to join, even at this early date, and donate $25, $50 or $100 to Jerry Brown 2010 and help change the corrosive politics that is destroying our state? Whether I seek re-election as attorney general or the governorship, I intend to do everything I can to turn this state around. But I need your help and your active involvement.

Please forward this e-mail and ask your friends to contribute. Ask them to join our cause, to fundraise, become a supporter on Facebook and follow me on Twitter.

This state is desperately in need of creativity and new ideas. The state also needs – just as much and maybe more – the know-how and experience to get this impossible job done.

If you can today, please consider making a contribution of $25, $50, $100 or any amount you are able to give.

I won’t let you down. We can and we will build a movement – of truth, of creativity, of inclusion.

With respect,

Jerry Brown

Dear Jerry:

May I suggest that you decide what you’re running for first, and then ask for money?

Talk about passing the buck!