Signs and Wonders 03.05

Endorsement season. One of the nation's top pro-life groups, the Susan B. Anthony (SBA) List, announced in February its endorsement of Rick Santorum (see "Pro-life pick," by Edward Lee Pitts, Feb. 17). It is the group's first-ever endorsement of a candidate during the GOP primary season. According to Jane Abraham, chairman of the SBA List board of directors, the board unanimously decided to back Santorum. GOP leaders are lining up behind Romney. Endorsements for Romney have been piling up as his candidacy begins to take on more of an air of inevitability. On Sunday, Eric Cantor and Tom Coburn-both of whom have solid conservative bona fides but who had been hanging fire-threw their support behind Romney. Their endorsement came the day after the Washington state caucuses, which Romney won handily.

Andrew Breitbart, R.I.P. Conservative flamethrower Andrew Breitbart died last week at age 43. Some loved him, and some hated him. I knew Andrew and liked him, though I would not call myself a fan of his tactics or his commitment to the facts. What he did was not journalism. It certainly didn't rise to the journalistic standards of WORLD. But I never heard him claim to be a journalist. He was unabashedly an activist. Those who hated him missed his sense of humor and irony. He viewed politics as, among other things, theatre. I always viewed Andrew as something of an avant-garde performance artist in this theatre. Also, he also had an understanding of modern liberalism not merely as the other side of a political spectrum, but the other side of a moral spectrum-as dangerous, a clear and present threat. He understood his role was to expose their whereabouts and warn their victims. I think he often stepped over the line. I wouldn't do what he did. But I'm sorry he's gone. There's now one less person in the world with the courage to say the emperor had no clothes.

University says Christian group isn't "religious." The Alliance Defense Fund filed a lawsuit last Wednesday against the University of North Carolina at Greensboro for actions it took against a Christian club on campus. The school says the "Make Up Your Own Mind" club must allow students of all belief systems hold leadership positions because it's not affiliated with a church and therefore not a "religious" group. But the club has a Christian mission and currently requires all its members and leaders to agree with a statement of faith and uphold the value of human life. Several student groups at the school work with nonprofit organizations rather than churches but are not denied recognition. (See Leigh Jones' complete report at WORLD on Campus.)

Up, up, and away? The U.S. stock markets were down slightly on Friday, but so far this year-in fact for the past five months-the market has been supercharged. The Standard & Poor's 500 has been up eight of the last nine weeks. Last week, the Dow closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 2008. The NASDAQ crossed the 3,000 level last week and is trading at its highest level since 2000. Don't get too comfortable, though. Strategists have been calling for a pullback, especially since indexes are hitting new milestones and the fourth-quarter reporting period is winding down.