AS ONE OF GEORGE WILL'S FAVORITE THINKERS ONCE PUT IT...

At first, I detected a bit of racism in the opening phrase of George Will's latest column:

Energetic in body but indolent in mind, Barack Obama in his frenetic campaigning for a second term is promising to replicate his first term, although simply apologizing would be appropriate.

"Energetic in body but indolent in mind"? Sounds like something that would have been said in the nineteenth century, prefaced by "The Negro is...," in defense of slavery.

But in Will's defense, I offer a couple of previous uses of the phrase:

Bush is energetic in body but indolent in mind.

That was, um, George Will on October 22, 1992.

Can Quayle, who seems so energetic in body and so indolent in mind, temper his enthusiasm with lucidity?

And that was, er, George Will again, on October 7, 1988.

So I draw two conclusions: (1) We can't find Will guilty of racism beyond a reasonable doubt now that we know he used this expression in reference to two trust-fund WASP Republicans, and (2) we now know that Will is a serial auto-plagiarist.