I’m far from being a Randian, Peter (FWIW, you can see my thoughts on Ayn Rand here), but if she is indeed having a mainstream moment (I’d be somewhat skeptical), then that merits at least two cheers. Rand was what she was and her philosophy was what it was, but beyond the ranks of a few of the pur and the dur, her true significance in today’s miserable age of Obama is as a more general symbol of individualism and economic liberty. Rand as symbol bears (thank heavens) only a limited resemblance to the real woman and, at a time when the GOP seems to hover uneasily between the mushy collectivism of the Bush years and the words-fail-me of Huckabee County, as a symbol of a significantly better alternative she will do very well indeed. Hell, make that three cheers.