After last night’s contests, it’s time to update my running tallies of the popular vote in the GOP presidential primary and see what further conclusions can be drawn. I continue to break out the votes in three groups – the five conservative candidates (Santorum, Gingrich, Perry, Bachmann and Cain), the two moderate candidates (Romney and Hunstman) and the libertarian (Paul) – for reasons explained in | Read More »
Here’s why tomorrow’s Michigan primary is so important: it’s about establishment confidence in Mitt Romney and the last outside chance of getting another entrant in the race. There are, as I’ve noted previously, a number of different types of “establishment” vs “grassroots” divides in the GOP, but you don’t have to have any particular definition of ‘establishment’ to recognize that Romney’s candidacy leans heavily on | Read More »
At the CNN GOP debate last night in Arizona, the candidates were asked this question: Since birth control is the latest hot topic, which candidate believes in birth control, and if not, why? The question was roundly booed by the audience. Republicans hated this line of questioning when it was aired in a debate a few weeks back by former Democratic White House Communications Director | Read More »
My original essay on the current divide between the GOP “Establishment,” on the one hand, and the Tea Party and other anti-Establishment factions, on the other, sought to explain the leading issue (the growth of spending and the size of government relative to the private sector), the proximate cause (the loss of trust that the GOP Establishment would make a serious effort to stem this | Read More »
There’s been a lot of talk, maybe too much talk, about the struggle between the GOP “Establishment” and “Outsiders,” sometimes – but sometimes not – meaning the Tea Party, however defined. There are many fault lines, wheels within wheels, that divide different groups on the Right, but it’s time to clarify the core issue that has people of perfectly conservative temperament and ideology scratching their | Read More »
We’re far down the rabbit hole of primary season right now, and that inevitably means that charges and counter-charges are flying so fast that the news cycle can change dramatically from morning to afternoon. Naturally, when things are moving this quickly and emotions are running high, people get carried away. This happens to everyone. A lot of people who sit on the sidelines are too | Read More »
It’s silly season, I know. But that doesn’t mean we need to tolerate left-wing nonsense thrown at our candidates. If you’re familiar with his stump speech, Newt Gingrich routinely argues that Obama is a food stamp president and he’d be a paychecks president – that his economic plan would get more people to work so they wouldn’t be stuck relying on government aid. It’s one | Read More »
There are 2,286 delegates awarded in the GOP primaries and caucuses; the nomination thus requires wrapping up 1,143 delegates. Between them, Iowa and New Hampshire award 10 delegates; South Carolina and Florida, the other two states voting later this month, award 75. By contrast, three states (California, Texas and New York) award a combined 422 delegates, more than a third of the total needed to | Read More »
The battle for position as the more conservative alternative to Mitt Romney is a classic showdown of words vs deeds, and it is the deeds of Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich that have led me to support Perry. But there’s no arguing Newt’s way with words. Enjoy this one from yesterday in New Hampshire, which is full of win on so many levels. For a | Read More »
As we all know by now, there’s Good Newt and there’s Bad Newt. If you want the full Good Newt experience, check out this speech he gave to the NRA convention back in April. If you don’t have time for the full 26-minute speech, watch from around the 5:18 mark to about the 14:30 mark. It’s spellbinding.
Let’s imagine the primaries as a conversation between the conservative grassroots and the national media elite (including the conservative media establishment): Elite: Time to find a new national standard-bearer, Republicans. But not somebody dumb, like George W. Bush. Grassroots: We love Sarah Palin! Elite: She’s dumb. You can’t have her. Grassroots: We love Michele Bachmann! Elite: She’s dumb. You can’t have her. Grassroots: We love | Read More »
Ideas don’t run for president; people do. That’s as true today as it was four years ago. So, it is understandable that much of the press and blog coverage of the 2012 GOP primary race has focused on the personalities, experience and record of the candidates rather than their ideas. In fact, until you know the candidates by their actions, you cannot meaningfully judge what | Read More »
Let me offer my takes on last night’s GOP primary debate (I saw all but the very end). -Short answer? The debate reinforced, rather than changed, my impression of each of the eight candidates on stage. Which is usually what these debates do, but there’s always the odd night when somebody really makes a good impression or shoots themself in the foot. -Globally, the bad | Read More »
![[RS]](/t/img/logo-footer.jpg){kind=logo}