Aug. 22--MARY BALDWIN COLLEGE: Under the guidance of President Pamela Fox, Staunton's little school that could cracked the U.S. News and World Report rankings of America's best colleges, ranking 21st among 117 master's-level universities in the South. On top of a terrific academic record, Mary Baldwin has remained among the country's most affordable schools, no small thing given the cost of higher education these days.

THE ECONOMY: Well, sort of. A day after another report of heavy job losses, Federal Reserve Chairman Benjamin Bernanke told a crowd of financiers that the recession is chugging to a halt and a slow, steady recovery is on the way. Unemployment, he said, will gradually decline. Oh, how we want to believe Big Ben. But we're ready for our sights to back what Team Obama keeps telling us about a looming economic revival.

AFGHANISTAN: All it takes here to drive down election turnout is foul weather. How about trying to hit the polls with Taliban thugs standing watch? That was the scene Thursday in that war-torn country, but the people like this democracy thing. So out they came.

REST STOPS: OK, all you skeptics. So you think Del. Steve Landes, R-Weyers Cave, only introduced emergency legislation to keep rest stops open as a political maneuver based on the niggling fact that he happens to have an opponent in this fall's race. Like Landes knew his bill was destined to flounder even before getting a vote in a General Assembly special session. All pure coincidence. Like the crumbs on Junior's shirt and the empty cookie jar. Enough already. Privatize the stops. Privatize the liquor stores. And, please, spare us the political haymaking.

OBAMA APPROVAL RATINGS: Memo to the messiah: Refrain for a while from those walks on water. The magic is wearing off. President Barack Obama's approval ratings are continuing to plummet as struggles to regain his grip on the message with regard to health care. Obama is where President Bill Clinton was in 1994, the year of the Republican revolution. He was considered a one-termer. We know how that turned out.

SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE: Half down, half to go. Veep Biden, touting health care reform at a Chicago fundraiser declared, "We provide about 50 percent of the health care already." Great. And untrue. A fourth of Americans are covered by Medicare and Medicaid. Two-thirds are covered by private insurers. That's according to the federal census.

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