This screenshot from the front page of Real Clear Politics pretty much sums up the GOP nomination process as we enter December: To wit: every pundit and commentator in America is pretty much making it up as they go along at this point. Personally, I think that it’s good: electing a President is a serious business, so we should take seriously. Besides, look on the | Read More »
Before you ask: I was raised in a union household. I know precisely what that word means, and I am using it precisely as my late father the local union president would have used it if he had lived to read this Wall Street Journal article by former SEIU boss Andy Stern. Let me summarize said article: I, Andy Stern, am a cheap date* who | Read More »
This New York magazine article on the Occupy movement is interesting, and that’s not a euphemism: author John Heilemann is not only aware that the supposedly leaderless movement has plenty of self-appointed (and I’d add, ‘imposed’) leaders to it, but he’s even willing to admit to it in writing. Heilemann also has some pretty good insights on the Occupy movement, and the Democratic establishment, and | Read More »
Quick background: there’s a lot of oil in Canada. Quite a bit of it is tied up in the form of oil sands, which radical Greenies hate with the same passion that normal people reserve for ax murderers or child rapists. Despite this hatred, the Canadians have noticed that the price of oil makes oil sand development highly cost effective, which is why they were | Read More »
Via Drudge comes the beginnings of clarity on this issue: it’s now being tacitly admitted by the Pakistan government that Saturday’s conflict was initiated by their own troops. Essentially, Afghan/American troops were raiding Taliban in Afghanistan when Pakistan troops fired on them (the Pakistan government maintains that their troops were attacking on what they thought were insurgents). NATO airstrikes were the result, which shot up | Read More »
[Please note the edit below: the implication in the CNN article was that Bauer's endorsement of Gingrich was welcomed by the campaign, but there's still wiggle room for Team Newt. I've emailed the Gingrich campaign to confirm. - Moe Lane] Team Newt announced today that they [CNN reported today that the Gingrich campaign] had picked up the endorsement of Andre Bauer, who is: a former | Read More »
Such a quiet death rattle, all things considered: As a practical matter, the Obama campaign and, for the present, the Democratic Party, have laid to rest all consideration of reviving the coalition nurtured and cultivated by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The New Deal Coalition — which included unions, city machines, blue-collar workers, farmers, blacks, people on relief, and generally non-affluent progressive intellectuals — had the advantage | Read More »
A quick review of the recent breakdown in Pakistani-American relations: Last Saturday a NATO airstrike reportedly killed 24 Pakistani troops located in military bases on Pakistani soil. The exact details of the situation are still unknown: the Pakistanis are claiming that the assault was completely unprovoked, while (admittedly anonymous) Afghan sources claim that NATO troops were returning fire. Either way, the population of Pakistan is | Read More »
Background: several weeks ago the LA Times reported that the Obama administration had steered nearly half a billion dollars’ worth of a no-bid contract on a secondary smallpox vaccine – one not actually tested on human beings – to Siga Technology, a company controlled by longtime Democratic party contributor Ronald Perelman. Needless to say, the drug’s much more expensive than the primary drug, the government | Read More »
(Via Instapundit) I find it mildly astonishing that this even needed to be written, honestly: What we are seeing here is the latest iteration of an old political program that has been given new strength by the failures of the global economy and the power of postmodern technology. [snip] … the concerns of labor intersect only tangentially with those of Occupy Wall Street’s theorists and | Read More »
…but the white guy insists that it’s not a big deal that he publicly posted a promise to murder an Indian-American female governor if nobody else does. “I hope someone murders you before I do,” Shafer said he commented on the post. “How’s that for freedom of speech?” (H/T: Verum Serum) Well… not to editorialize here or anything, but since Nathan Shafer asked: it’s [a] | Read More »
I talked with several folks from Heritage and AEI after the debate, in order to get their reactions to how the debate went, how it came off, and how they felt the debate came across to watchers. As you can see, spin rooms are kind of noisy; they’re also pretty focused places. Everybody in there – including probably you – needs a specific piece of | Read More »
My post-debate take, which is of course made vastly more relevant by the fact that… I followed it onsite rather than online. Well, online at onsite. Generally, these events are a bit different from the inside, including (surprisingly) less chances to schmooze with the candidates than you’d expect. A ‘spin room’ is there primarily to get access to raw material for the article that you | Read More »
Soren and I are here to cover the debate and the post-debate ‘spin.’ The debate will be at 8PM; it’s hosted by CNN, Heritage, and AEI, and will focus on national security and foreign policy. And now, a look at the glory that is a Press File Center: (Or… not) I know: fascinating. This is going into diaries; most of my commentary will be via | Read More »
A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to speak with Gary Glenn, who is president of the American Family Association of Michigan and one of the primary candidates in next year’s Senate race in Michigan against sitting Senator Debbie Stabenow. Gary is actively seeking the Tea Party vote and has been endorsed by Mike Huckabee: we spoke with him for a bit on the | Read More »
Some unsolicited, un-paid for, and probably unwelcome advice to the Democrats: if it is true – again, if, if, if, if, if, if – that Dale Kildee is in fact guilty of the sexual molestation charges made against him, it will be in the Democratic party’s best interests to force Kildee to resign now. Consider the following Representatives: Mark Foley (R, FL-16). Resigned due to | Read More »
This is going to be one of the messy ones. The basic details: Rep. Kildee – who is in his eighties, and who announced earlier this year that he is not running for re-election – is being accused by family members of sexually molesting his second cousin fifty years ago. The alleged victim was twelve at the time; Kildee would have been in his thirties | Read More »
But never mind that, Comrade. Surely it must be understood that oversight of the glorious proletarian class struggle against the capitalist bosses and their running-dog international banker lackeys requires a full effort from those chosen to speak on behalf of the workers, yes? And since the Struggle has reached a critical moment, the stresses on, and expectations of, those individuals so chosen are at their | Read More »
It’s a non-debate GOP debate that starts up at 5PM EST; it’ll feature neither Romney nor Huntsman, and will focus on social issues. I will be kind and not speculate on any possible relationship between those two data points. I suspect that it will auto-start, so the livestream is after the fold.
The Polling Company did a survey of Iowa Republican voters for Independent Women’s Voice* to determine what those voters are looking for. Click the link for the actual numbers (although I will note that possibly the most eyebrow-raising one is that “[n]o GOP hopeful has locked up more than 9% of Iowa caucus-goers”), but here’s the executive summary: At this point it’s impossible to predict | Read More »
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