The American Spectator

TIGHTROPE WALK
Re: W. James Antle, III’s Country Clubbing for Growth:

The tension between pure ideology and pragmatism creates a tightrope few can easily walk. The rare politician who can walk it is the only hope for the GOP. Certainly Ronald Reagan (before, through and after the presidency) was one; Governor Jindal looks to be another. Too often though, Republicans embrace posers who speak the language of limited government then fold to the powerful winds blowing out of the left. Both Bushes are a fine example of this. Senator Specter hardly bothers to even pay lip service to conservative and limited government ideas.

When given a choice between possibly losing an election by standing on principle or winning by seriously compromising principle, the former is a less costly. If the true conservative loses, a Democrat can be held responsible for actions of the office. This holds a possibility of a day of reckoning and another chance to elect a true believer. Compromising and winning gives Congress a RINO who will often vote with the Left; come Election Day the Republicans are stuck with running an unprincipled representative who does not represent the constituency or losing to the Democrats. So, by running a principled person, the GOP has a chance to have true representation every other cycle or they can run the RINO and guarantee that their ideology will not be represented or put to a vote for at least two election cycles. Running a RINO simply is a bad bet.
— Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York 

THE OTHER TRUE ORIGINS
Re: Peter Wallison’s The True Origins of This Financial Crisis:

Now, I would like to see two pieces of evidence to support your thesis rather than mere verbiage.

1. What are the loss rates for owner occupied homes in the inner city? Well, before those people lost their jobs due to the failure of the markets. From my preliminary examination, those areas have, by far, some of the lowest foreclosure rates. And if you take out the fraudulent mortgages — the ones where the broker doctored the application, the rate goes even lower.

2. The most damage has been done because banks packaged the risk and sold it to other institutions. If they did not do that, we would not be having the current problem. In fact, the banks that kept the risk, and thus kept normal lending practices are doing just fine thank you. Then they came up with Credit Default Swaps which also did more damage than foreclosures. That is purely the result of Republican deregulation.  The only thing that Clinton did was to not veto that act.  These instruments account for 10 times more money than defaulted mortgages, and their bastard offspring, derivatives, account for 100 times that amount. 

Perhaps you will correct me on these matters.

I do not suppose that you will bother to address this.
— Doug Nusbaum

EFFECTIVE FOR ALL          
Re: Peter Ferrara’s Repeal Health Care Fascism:

Yes, I have read the article “Repeal Health Care Fascism.” Now I would like for you to tell us how to go about a crusade to the Federal Coordination Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research. It is extremely important to be heard and to send the message out that our health care costs are rising and we need to find a solution for all of us — not just the selected ones. Not everyone gets the news and I for one would like to have each American have the right to speak out or what it takes to change this.
— Carol Kennedy

I’m so happy living in ObamaLand… It’s kind of like DisneyLand, except everything here is free. Whenever I want something, I just charge it to my USA Credit Card, and it goes directly onto the National Debt. The cool thing is that this Debt never has to be repaid! It’s just handed down from generation to generation, like an old piece of furniture that nobody likes but can’t throw away. I feel bad that FDR didn’t know as much about economics as we do today….He could have avoided the Depression, and also WWII, as most historians agree that the Depression led to the World War.

I wish everybody could join me in ObamaLand, but for now it’s limited to federal employees like me.
— C.Baker
Ft.Worth, Texas

BOB DYLAN, THE OLD AXELROD
Re: Brett Joshpe’s Slickness With a Straight Face:

To paraphrase Bob Dylan’s “A Sweetheart Like You,” lie a little and they throw you in jail/ lie a lot and they make you king (or least a president).
— Ira M. Kessel 
Rochester, New York