Dave Weigel has a profile of South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford over at the Washington Independent today, which I strongly recommend you check out, not least because, if you're reading me, odds are you're someone who has some time for very fiscally hawkish individuals who don't mind ticking off large swaths of the political establishment, and big chunks of his own party. Mark Sanford is one such man.

He's also someone who, at least if you buy what Weigel has to say, is managing to entrance some of the same folks who donated heavily to Ron Paul in 2008 (not a candidate who came close to winning, but nonetheless, one who made an impact and raised a ton of money)-- and who could make a viable run in 2012. Or so Allah at Hot Air seems to think: He sees Huckabee and Sanford as those certain to make a play for the GOP nomination, while he also seems to see Sanford and Sarah Palin as direct adversaries. That's an argument I find a little bit off-base (a subject to be discussed at further length in a post to be written not at 9-and-a-bit o'clock PM on a Monday night), but I suppose we shall see-- it's only 2009, I only finished working on a presidential campaign a few short months ago, and yet, we seem to be off again....

I'm competing.  Right now, I'm up against MSNBC's David Shuster.  Feel free to check it out, I am @LizMair, and the hashtag is #fdc. [intro]

This sounds pretty ridiculous.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen was just a few paragraphs into an address at a St. Patrick's Day celebration at the White House when he realized something sounded way too familiar. Turns out, he was repeating the speech President Barack Obama had just given.

Cowen was set to speak twice at the White House on Tuesday night because there were two different parties going on at the executive mansion. No matter — he would give the same speech to the two different audiences.

But Cowen was 20 seconds into his second address when it dawned on him that he was giving word for word the speech that Obama had just read from the same teleprompter.

Cowen stopped and looked back at the president to say, "That's your speech."

Obama laughed and returned to the podium to offer what might have been Cowen's remarks. In doing so, President Obama thanked President Obama for inviting everyone over. (emphasis mine)

H/T Jeff Emanuel at RedState.

I hope this was some sort of joke... but it might not be (it sounds like it could equally well be a case of teleprompter fail). As those of us who got used to watching Obama at virtually every campaign event going during the course of 2008 will tell you, the dude is pretty reliant on his teleprompter. Which might just have let him down this time.

I have no doubt the White House will claim he was just trying to be funny and lighten the mood, whether or not that's actually true....