| Will the reboot of 'The Office' be woke? And if so, will it be funny? Reason's Ed Krayewski asks "at what point will The Office become problematic?" Turns out, those thinkpieces have already been written. From February of last year, there's: Unpopular Opinion: “The Office” Is Very Problematic in Affinity Magazine, and Does 'The Office' Hold Up? in GQ. At one point in her GQ article, Jaya Saxena writes: "There’s a voice in my head telling me I’m reading too much into this." The voices were right, and with any luck, the reboot is going to suck. How will the war planning go? Quietly. On Twitter, John Noonan observes that New York Times abuses the word 'quietly' in its story "Military Quietly Prepares for a Last Resort: War With North Korea." Noonan asks: "How else would the Pentagon do war planning? With splashy editorials and NPR interviews?" Still, the Times writeup of a potential conflict with the North Koreans is worth reading. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Designated Hitter. As an American League fan, I am forever obligated to defend the designated hitter. As a Cleveland fan, call it Tribe-alism. The purist #NeverDH National Leaguers should be worried: We're coming for you. Even the president of the St. Louis Cardinals, the best franchise in the NL, sees it coming. Mike Axisa lays it out: People love offense, clubs want to protect their investment in pitchers. You. Will. Be. Assimilated. #MakeTheNLGreatAgain Closing time for 'It's the Economy, Stupid!'? Over at CBS, frequent contributor Michael Graham has a worthwhile new column on whether the Clintonian adage of "It's the economy, stupid!" is dead. Now, the market and the economy are not the same thing, but things are far better than their Great Recession lows, and getting better for most people. Is that enough? Here's Graham: What's happening? As a young GOP political consultant, I was taught there are three questions a candidate needs to get voters to answer "yes" for a chance to win an election: Do I like you? Do I trust you? Can you do the job? (And yes, those questions are in order of importance.) With a Republican president who's underwater on all three questions, it's no surprise the GOP's fortunes are fading. Adding to the challenge, the issue of managing the economy falls under the third, and least important, question. Better policy and better outcomes may simply not be enough to save the GOP, no matter how good the news might be before the midterm elections in November. Time will tell. —Jim Swift, Deputy Online Editor Please feel free to send us comments, thoughts and links to dailystandard@weeklystandard.com. -30- | 