…of the baseball playoffs is over, and the Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros are both still in. This raises the possibility of a World Series matchup of Massachusetts vs. Texas, just days before another such battle.

LIKE A, WELL, YOU KNOW: Most of the pro-Bush arguments I’ve read have left been short on logical reasoning, long on crude insults and appeals to fear and hate.

In his Tuesday column, P-I business writer Bill Virgin at least attempts to make a thinking man’s case for Bush. I commend Virgin for this effort, though I still disagree with his conclusions. Yes, the world’s a more dangerous place now than it was during the Clinton years. But the man Virgin wants us to re-elect is at least two-thirds responsible for making it this dangerous.

And even the normally conscientious Virgin can’t help but make cheap potshots at Bush’s critics, potshots that require the reader to already believe in the Fox News gang’s character-assassination stereotypes.