3 Up 3 Down

SWEET TIMES: Head to Stuarts Draft Park today for a slice of fun, central Shenandoah Valley style. The annual Sweet Dreams festival starts at 9 a.m. and runs to 5 p.m. It features a pancake breakfast, an arts and craft show, a bubble-gum blowing contest and more fun for the kids, music and good food. And this time around, you can check out the Hershey Kissmobile. Now that’s the way to while away a summer day.

COMPETITION IN SCHOOLS: President Barack Obama is waving $4 billion in federal money at public schools with the aim of reducing the limits on the formation of charter schools and tying teacher pay to performance. Schools will compete for the money in a program Team Obama calls the “Race to the Top.” Hopefully, it’s a sign that Obama is coming around to the importance of competition in all spheres.

HITTING BOTTOM: Princeton University economist Alan Blinder writes in The Wall Street Journal that the economy has hit bottom. The second quarter gross domestic product will be slightly negative and the third will be slightly positive, he predicts. The second half of the year, Blinder adds, will be better than expected. It’s a tad early to declare victory with so many other indicators pointing in the wrong direction, but we’ll take the good economic news.

THE RACE CARD: President Barack Obama played it on the subject of Harvard prof Henry Louis Gates’ arrest for disorderly conduct. Neither Cambridge, Mass., cops nor the neighbor who called them were initially aware that the guy trying to break in to Gates’ home was Gates himself. The cops say a problem developed when Gates became belligerent. Gates, who is black, says it was a race thing. Obama repeated that charge. The cops are fuming. So now a controversy supplants health care in the news. That can’t be what Obama wanted.

THE RELIGION CARD: Augusta County Supervisor Tracy Pyles curiously played it against a fellow Democrat, state House 20th District nominee Erik Curren, a practicing Buddhist. Pyles, apparently, covets Curren’s spot now that Republican Chris Saxman is out of the race. Next time, Mr. Supervisor, jump into the race or pipe down.

SAY IT AIN’T SO, JOE: Visiting the Ukraine, Vice President Biden announces, among other things, that he digs the local ladies. “I cannot believe that a Frenchman visiting Kiev ... didn’t say he discovered the most beautiful women in the world,” Joe gushed. To which local officials said something to the effect of: “Uh, gee, thanks Mr. Vice President, but you’re kind of creeping us out.”