Finally, we get a poll on the Republican Presidential nomination race after the withdrawals of The Huck, The Huckster, and -- sadly -- The Hoosier. Here is the RealClearPolitics summary.
That perennial favorite, Ida Noe, is tops with 22%. Romney is second with his 17% share unchanged from his RCP average before the withdrawals of Huckabee, Trump, and Daniels. Is that his limit, or is it the effect of his big health care speech?
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Thought I Was Wrong Once, But I Was Mistaken...
Yeah, I know. After I wrote about the Wisconsin Senate seat opening up in 2012, saying that Paul Ryan was certain to get in, he demurred.
But even as I was writing this analysis of the Republican presidential nomination field, including my diagnosis of Newt's ADHD, he had another attack. On the May 15th edition of Meet the Press, he had this exchange with David Gregory:
But even as I was writing this analysis of the Republican presidential nomination field, including my diagnosis of Newt's ADHD, he had another attack. On the May 15th edition of Meet the Press, he had this exchange with David Gregory:
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Is Chris Christie THAT Guy? (Part II)
My New Jersey friend -- whose judgement I trust -- sends her thanks for my spreading her word on Christie, and adds these points:
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Is Chris Christie THAT Guy?
New Jersey governor Chris Christie has drawn accolades from fiscal conservatives for battling with union members and others and for publicizing those battles on YouTube. He certainly is combative and I cheer him for his choice of targets.
But is he a free-market fiscal conservative?
But is he a free-market fiscal conservative?
Stephen Colbert Learns the FEC Way
Actor-comedian Steven Colbert is the on-air personality of The Colbert Report, a Comedy Central TV show that could be called the Leftist Dummy Report, since many of its fans get their only news there.
You may recall that when the Dems ran the House, Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration invited Colbert to testify in character on his vast 10 hour experience working in the fields. That session turned into a sideshow, upsetting John Conyers and other Democrat committee members as well as Conservative Hero Steve King. You can read about it in this CBS report, which amusingly changes Lofgren's last name to Longfren -- presumably to protect her innocence.
When Colbert decided to show how bad the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision was by starting his own PAC, the real hilarity started.
Want to exercise your freedom of speech and association? First get a lawyer, and then ask the Federal Election Committee for an exemption!
You may recall that when the Dems ran the House, Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration invited Colbert to testify in character on his vast 10 hour experience working in the fields. That session turned into a sideshow, upsetting John Conyers and other Democrat committee members as well as Conservative Hero Steve King. You can read about it in this CBS report, which amusingly changes Lofgren's last name to Longfren -- presumably to protect her innocence.
When Colbert decided to show how bad the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision was by starting his own PAC, the real hilarity started.
Want to exercise your freedom of speech and association? First get a lawyer, and then ask the Federal Election Committee for an exemption!
The Man Who Should Be President
If likability and intelligence are the criteria for electability, and, along with a firm understanding of conservative principles, the sine qua non for candidates worthy of conservative support, then Pat Toomey, freshman Republican Senator from Pennsylvania, is certain to be nominated for President someday.
Don't know him?
Don't know him?
Democrats Cover Up True Story of Financial Crisis
As the election approached in September of 2008, John McCain briefly pulled ahead of Barack Obama in the polls. Then the roof fell in on the unfortunate Republican as the financial industry locked up tight and New York money managers stopped loaning to each other. They did so because of the doubtful viability of mortgage-backed securities comprising huge fractions of the financial industry's portfolio, and comprised of terrible mortgages the government had forced the mortgage industry to make. The potent question after Lehman Brothers went down without a trace was whether there would be any more US government bailouts.
TARP followed, and in the aftermath, the government put together a commission to review that credit crunch, and that commission concluded that -- wait for it --
TARP followed, and in the aftermath, the government put together a commission to review that credit crunch, and that commission concluded that -- wait for it --
The IMF Rape
No. Not the charges against Dominique Strauss-Kahn for sexual assault in New York, about which you have heard on the news this weekend.
Rather, the International Monetary Fund Rape is the conversion of the IMF from an advocate of the Washington Consensus -- a largely conservative set of recommendations tempered with a bit of welfare state seasoning for financially troubled emerging economies to restore themselves -- to an advocate of Socialist/Keynesian spend-to-win policies.
The recommendations of the Washington Consensus called for unilateral liberalization of trade on the part of the troubled county in exchange for loans to cover its debt, and were reasonably successful at increasing trade with, and improving the productivity of countries that accepted them.
Of course, the IMF rape victims include most citizens of those states that accept the IMF's new collectivist recommendations, whose economies revert to stagnation.
Rather, the International Monetary Fund Rape is the conversion of the IMF from an advocate of the Washington Consensus -- a largely conservative set of recommendations tempered with a bit of welfare state seasoning for financially troubled emerging economies to restore themselves -- to an advocate of Socialist/Keynesian spend-to-win policies.
The recommendations of the Washington Consensus called for unilateral liberalization of trade on the part of the troubled county in exchange for loans to cover its debt, and were reasonably successful at increasing trade with, and improving the productivity of countries that accepted them.
Of course, the IMF rape victims include most citizens of those states that accept the IMF's new collectivist recommendations, whose economies revert to stagnation.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Kohl (D - WI) Won't Run Again. Paul Ryan to Consider Senate Run.
Senator Herb Kohl (D - WI) announced his retirement Friday. Paul Ryan is thinking about it.
That shouldn't take long. Ryan has super-star popularity with a national conservative base. Raising money should be easy for him.
Wisconsin has been trending more conservative for quite a while. The Wisconsin public employee's union's state-collected-dues cash stream should have dried up by then.
Ryan'll be in by Friday.
That shouldn't take long. Ryan has super-star popularity with a national conservative base. Raising money should be easy for him.
Wisconsin has been trending more conservative for quite a while. The Wisconsin public employee's union's state-collected-dues cash stream should have dried up by then.
Ryan'll be in by Friday.
Stick a Fork in 'Em. They're Done
Michael Barone offers here a perceptive analysis of Mitt Romney's "front-runner" standing in the polls. Barone knows what is easy to see: give people a lit of ten possible candidates for the Republican nomination, and the best known ones will get 14-16%. Interestingly, last night, Mike Huckabee -- another one of the sixteen percenters -- did what I figured and hoped he would do: he dropped out.
The pregnant question is where Huckabee's social conservative supporters now turn.
The pregnant question is where Huckabee's social conservative supporters now turn.
How Do Politicians Get Rich in Office?
I know a fellow named Eric Singer who runs a mutual fund called the Congressional Effect Fund. His management strategy is simple and direct: buy stocks when Congress recesses and sell when it comes back in session. Why is that? Simple. His market studies show that strategy makes money.
How does it work?
How does it work?
How to Use the Debt Limit Votes (Tea Party On, Part III)
Immediately after the Final extension of the 2011 continuing resolution was agreed to back in April, I wrote about debt-limit vote strategy for the Republican House. In particular, I described the political value of insisting on the inclusion of mandatory spending cuts in any debt limit increase this way:
Thursday, May 12, 2011
How to Select a Republican Presidential Nominee?
Jay Cost wrote an interesting piece for the Weekly Standard recently, giving three criteria he thought the Republican Party would use to decide who to nominate for President
I don't think his criteria are very cogent.
i. Electability? The easy answer to that is for the Republicans to nominate -- wait for it --
I don't think his criteria are very cogent.
i. Electability? The easy answer to that is for the Republicans to nominate -- wait for it --
Friday, May 6, 2011
Are You One, Too?
The Pew Research Center has done a recent comprehensive survey on political attitudes, about which you can read more later. As part of that, it has devised a classification of people into political groups by their responses on key issues. Their web site has a very nice quiz form you can use to classify yourself in a minute or two. You will find that here. Enjoy....
By the way, it tells me I'm a Libertarian. Duh! Bet you already knew that.
The story on the poll can be found here.
By the way, it tells me I'm a Libertarian. Duh! Bet you already knew that.
The story on the poll can be found here.
The Fight of the Century
This is more than just a bit of fun. Many years ago, I concluded that getting Hollywood on our side would be the best way to counter the educational establishment's leftist slant and reach the young earlier. The Moving Picture Institute is a group trying to get that going by supporting young conservative film makers to make movies advocating individual liberty. They are doing a great job.
Here is a message from the Institute via their Persistence of Vision blog about the release of a new rap music video -- yes, that's right -- featuring a debate between John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek -- still right -- testifying before Congress. Very slickly produced and lot of fun to watch, these videos are available on YouTube.
These folks at the MPI are having entirely too much fun. You should watch "Fear" before "Fight", and in case you don't know... Keynes is the bad guy!
Enjoy!
Here is a message from the Institute via their Persistence of Vision blog about the release of a new rap music video -- yes, that's right -- featuring a debate between John Maynard Keynes and Friedrich Hayek -- still right -- testifying before Congress. Very slickly produced and lot of fun to watch, these videos are available on YouTube.
These folks at the MPI are having entirely too much fun. You should watch "Fear" before "Fight", and in case you don't know... Keynes is the bad guy!
Enjoy!
Canada Turns Right
With the dramatic double tap on bin Laden still dominating the news, you can be excused for missing Tuesday's results in the 41st Canadian Parliamentary Election held Monday. Conservatives won a flat out majority of 167 seats to 141 for all other parties combined.
This is still further indication that the rise of the Internet and unfettered availability of economic information may spell doom for collectivists everywhere. In years past, only readers of the financial newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times of London would be aware of the financial collapse of the statists' dream social democracies in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and, soon, Spain, and the very real non-financial consequences. Now every grandparent with an Internet connection can alert his friends and family to the disaster that socialists wreak on national economies.
Quite a stunner, eh?
This is still further indication that the rise of the Internet and unfettered availability of economic information may spell doom for collectivists everywhere. In years past, only readers of the financial newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times of London would be aware of the financial collapse of the statists' dream social democracies in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and, soon, Spain, and the very real non-financial consequences. Now every grandparent with an Internet connection can alert his friends and family to the disaster that socialists wreak on national economies.
Quite a stunner, eh?
Fruit Flies Like a Banana
Sherry is fond of telling me whenever our Federal government does something that favors large businesses over small that a Progressivist government prefers a few large companies with which to deal. She's always -- well, almost always -- right, but in such cases she's absolutely right.
It is also true that such companies prefer unionized labor, because they only have to negotiate with one party.
If you don't believe me on that latter point, read this plea from Roger Goodell -- commissioner of the National Football Monopoly... er... League -- for professional football players to be forced not to drop their union.
Some things are inarguable facts: big governments like big companies; big companies like big unions. I suppose for the same reason that fruit flies like a banana.
Please don't tell me I forgot to say "Time flies like an arrow." I didn't because it doesn't. We've gone back to the early 20th century and are reliving the advance of collectivism.
It is also true that such companies prefer unionized labor, because they only have to negotiate with one party.
If you don't believe me on that latter point, read this plea from Roger Goodell -- commissioner of the National Football Monopoly... er... League -- for professional football players to be forced not to drop their union.
Some things are inarguable facts: big governments like big companies; big companies like big unions. I suppose for the same reason that fruit flies like a banana.
Please don't tell me I forgot to say "Time flies like an arrow." I didn't because it doesn't. We've gone back to the early 20th century and are reliving the advance of collectivism.
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