The American Spectator

No I Didn't See That (I Guess I Was M.I.A.)

Posted by Aaron Goldstein on 2.6.12 @ 11:24PM

Unlike Ross Kaminsky (and much of the world), I missed M.I.A. giving the world the old familiar suggestion during Madonna's Super Bowl half time show. Most of Madonna's music doesn't interest me so I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the proceedings.

Well, eight years ago, I also missed Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction. Her music didn't interest me either.

In recent years, I've been more apt to pay attention to the music during the Super Bowl Half Time Show with Paul McCartney, The Who and Bruce Springsteen. Come to think of it I didn't mind The Black Eyed Peas. Not so much for their music. Fergie is pretty easy on the eyes.

So who should be the Super Bowl Half Time performer next year? How about Bob Dylan? Or maybe The Allman Brothers? Maybe Stevie Wonder would fit the bill. I think we're due for a Simon & Garfunkel reunion. America, Chicago or Carly Simon would also be cool.

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Thoughts on Queen Elizabeth II @ 60

Posted by Aaron Goldstein on 2.6.12 @ 10:39PM

Sixty years ago today, Princess Elizabeth ascended to the throne becoming Queen of England and of all nations in the British Commonwealth after the death of her father, King George VI.

Today, Queen Elizabeth II has reigned longer than any other British monarch save for Queen Victoria who sat on the throne for 64 years. During that time, there have been twelve British Prime Ministers and twelve U.S. Presidents (hopefully soon to be thirteen.) I attribute her longevity to the fact that the Royal Protection Service have managed to keep Reggie Jackson away from her.

Of course, Queen Elizabeth II reigns over Canada and has made many visits to my home and native land. Perhaps her most memorable visit took place in 1973 when she set foot in my hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario. It was there that she met the acquaintance of our Mayor Walter Assef who, well, "made news when photographs appeared to show him exercising a certain familiarity with Queen Elizabeth." To be precise, Mr. Assef's familiarity was focused upon a certain part of the Queen's anatomy. Well, let's just say she hasn't been back to Thunder Bay since.

I realize there was a Revolutionary War because we didn't want a monarchy but since Britain has been a long standing ally of the United States I think people in this country generally respect Queen Elizabeth II because of her steadiness. At 85, she is still going strong and I wish her best for years to come.

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The Nevada Caucus Results

Posted by W. James Antle, III on 2.6.12 @ 3:52PM

Since Las Vegas rivals New York as the city that never sleeps, the Nevada GOP finally announced Saturday's full Republican caucus results earlier today:

Mitt Romney 16,486 50.1%
Newt Gingrich 6,956 21.1%
Ron Paul 6,175 18.8%
Rick Santorum 3,277 10%

It's noteworthy that Mitt Romney cobbled together a bare majority, though he was down slightly from his 2008 percentage. Ron Paul finished behind Newt Gingrich despite improving his vote percentage by a few points from four years ago. But the results represent Paul's smallest growth in vote totals from the last campaign by far.

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When You've (Potentially) Lost Doug Kmiec...

Posted by W. James Antle, III on 2.6.12 @ 2:51PM

Doug Kmiec, a prominent "Obamacon" and leading Catholic apologist for Barack Obama's abortion position during the 2008 election, has indicated that he might not support the president's reelection because of the HHS contraception mandate.

Kmiec was a veteran of the Reagan administration and former adviser to Mitt Romney's 2008 campaign before supporting Obama. He wrote a book and many articles arguing that pro-life Catholic could -- and should -- vote for the Democratic nominee in that election. Kmiec was rewarded with an ambassadorship to Malta, from which he resigned after a State Department report criticized him for talking and writing too much about his religious beliefs. Kmiec didn't really emphasize his just war objections to John McCain and supported the health care bill from which the mandate he opposes ultimately sprang.

He told The Hill that "there were several ways to reimburse employees of Catholic institutions for the expense which did not implicate any of the ethical concerns of the theologians. Why exactly did we not walk down a path that would have led to common ground - namely, coverage without ethical objection? That's what I need answered before deciding on 2012. I find it most troubling to be tossed into this dilemma since as a Republican with independent, if not latent Democratic, tendencies, I am very proud of the president's success on the healthcare initiative and his withdrawal of troops from Iraq..."

I wrote at length about Kmiec's campaiging for Obama a while back. Apparently the president has finally -- perhaps -- gone a bridge too far.

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Super Bowl XLVI and the Tiquan Underwood Curse

Posted by W. James Antle, III on 2.6.12 @ 12:42PM

Not to channel Gisele Bundchen, but the Super Bowl really came down to the New Giants receivers being able to make plays when they needed to and the New England Patriots receivers failing to do so. Tom Brady wasn't perfect -- his throw to Wes Welker on what could have been the game-winner in the penultimate drive was off, his intercepted pass to Rob Gronkowski was underthrown, and that safety on the opening offensive play was costly. But there were also drops on beautifully thrown balls and open receivers not coming up with them when the game was on the line.

In a game that close and competitive, every mistake is magnified. The Patriots' 12 men on the field penalty negating a fumble recovery and setting up a Giants' touchdown, an offside penalty on 3-and-7 negating a key stop on the Giants' 11 in the fourth quarter, the repeated, costly drops on the final desperation drive. The two teams were by turns hot and cold, with the winner determined by who still had the ball at the two-minute warning.

Take nothing away from the Giants. Their pass rush was solid, their receivers clutch, and Eli Manning has cemented his case to eventually join his brother Peyton -- who has just half as many rings -- in the Hall of Fame. Eli possesses accuracy and composure, even if he lacks the big persona of other elite NFL quarterbacks. Eventually, the media ought to give him some respect rather than constantly peppering him with questions about Peyton.

But what accounts for the uncharacteristically high number of Patriots' mistakes? Believers in karma may point to the release of a wide receiver the night before the Super Bowl (though he would have still gotten a ring had the Patriots won and is due for a Super Bowl bonus) to promote a player from the practice squad who was a non-factor in the game. It highlighted a Bill Belichick trait that has makes him unpopular outside New England. Call it the Tiquan Underwood curse.

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Happy Birthday, Mr. Reagan

Posted by Quin Hillyer on 2.6.12 @ 11:05AM

Ed Meese has a great column on the Reagan legacy here. My take on it is here. Frank Donatelli also has a good tribute to the Gipper.

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Super Bowl XLVI: Did You See That?

Posted by Ross Kaminsky on 2.6.12 @ 9:07AM

Another tremendous comeback victory by Eli Manning and the New York Giants over the New England Patriots in yesterday's Superbowl. I didn't really care about either team, but was going for the Giants (despite being a Redskins and Broncos fan -- drifting more toward the Broncos with each year I live in Colorado) just because I was born in NYC.

Mario Manningham's fourth-quarter catch was one of the greatest in Super Bowl history. Like David Tyree's catch in Super Bowl 42, it was another incredible passing play by the Giants during yet another late fourth quarter drive to beat Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

Denver must be a fairly happy place, at least considering the Broncos aren't in the game, based on what I heard on my show and other radio shows in the past few days: the city (and probably the state) was cheering for the Giants, not because Coloradoans like the G-Men, but because the Patriots seems to be widely despised around here. Callers were tired of Tom Brady, over Bill Belichick whose stand-offish attitude doesn't play well in the Rocky Mountain west, and still angry with Josh McDaniels who came to the Broncos from the Patriots in 2009, and as head coach engineered a .500 season followed by a disastrous 3-9 start to the 2010 season before being fired -- and returning eventually to the Patriots. Congratulations to the Giants and their embattled coach Tom Coughlin who some people thought might be fired mid-season. It's been a long time since I've been happy about a New York team winning anything...

The other "did you see that" moment came during the half-time show. I've never been a big Madonna fan but I was really impressed with and enjoyed the show. Her singing was good and the show itself was great. Pretty impressive all around for a woman in her 50s. I wonder how much Vogue magazine paid for that "product placement."

But during Madonna's new song, "Give Me All Your Luvin'" (she also played 3 old songs). one of her lead supporting singer-dancers -- a Grammy-nominated British singer who goes by the name M.I.A. -- had an anatomy malfunction: she flipped the audience the bird. It was brief, but when my wife and I were watching the halftime show (on DVR so I could rewind/replay it) I immediately said to her "Did you see that?" We played it again, and sure enough there was the extended middle finger. It's getting almost as much attention as the game.

It also sounded like the lyrics M.I.A. sang were "I don't give a sh*t" though not as many news outlets are mentioning that. So much for "proper" British manners.

NBC apologized, and the NFL attributed the fact that the middle finger gesture escaped through the system to the game's roughly 115 million viewers around the world to "a failure in NBC's delay system." I bet someone's not looking forward to showing up at the office today.

Meanwhile, M.I.A. is now known to millions of people who never heard of her before. How's that for product placement?

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The Day Ahead: Monday, February 6

Posted by Matt Naugle on 2.6.12 @ 8:10AM

In general election poll, Obama holds lead over Romney (WaPo)

The man behind Rick Santorum's money (ABC News)

Kathleen Sebelius defends unconstitutional contraception rule (Politico)

Round 2 of the Obama, Ryan budget battles (The Hill)

Politics could be in Tim Tebow's future (HuffPo)

Forclosure deal between states and federal government is near (WSJ)

Revolving door between Treasury Department and Wall Street (Financial Times)

Medicare Premium Support: The Best Reform Option (Heritage Foundation)

A JFK White House intern releases book on affair (NY Post)

The hidden burden of ultra-low interest rates (Bloomberg)

Twitter is harder to resist than alcohol, cigarettes (The Guardian)

Mexico conservatives back a female presidential candidate (Reuters)

Tens of thousands rally against Putin (Fox News)

Greece agrees to harsh spending cuts (NY Times)

VIDEO: Clint Eastwood's Super Bowl commercial: "It's Halftime in America"

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Giants Best Pats - Again

Posted by Aaron Goldstein on 2.5.12 @ 10:11PM

As Yogi Berra famously said, "It's Deja Vu all over again."

The New York Giants defeated the New England Patriots 21-17 to win Super Bowl XLVI. It is the second time in five years that Tom Brady has fallen short against Eli Manning who won his second Super Bowl MVP. It is the second time in five years that Giants head coach Tom Coughlin went from being fired to going to Disney World. It is the second time in five years a Giants receiver has made a sensational catch late in the fourth quarter with Mario Manningham doing his best David Tyree impersonation.

As was the case in 2008, once again we had two great teams playing a great game and someone had to lose and, unfortunately, once again it had to be the Pats.

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Clint Eastwood 2012

Posted by Aaron Goldstein on 2.5.12 @ 8:55PM

The only Super Bowl commercial I am going to remember is the spot Clint Eastwood did for Chrysler. In two minutes, the lifelong Republican made a more convincing case for America than any of the GOP hopefuls have in six months.

"It's half time America and our second half is about to begin."

Damn! Talk about words of iron.

President Obama has to be thankful he doesn't have to share a debate sage with Eastwood.

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Super Bowl Prediction

Posted by Quin Hillyer on 2.5.12 @ 6:29PM

As a Manning loyalist, I am rooting hard for Eli and the Giants. But my prediction is for the Pats to win, by 11 or more points.

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Mitt Romney Wins Nevada

Posted by W. James Antle, III on 2.5.12 @ 12:00AM

Mitt Romney has won the Nevada caucuses. The outcome wasn't a surprise, but the margin may be as large as 20 points. Romney benefited from strong Mormon turnout -- 91 percent of his coreligionists voted for him -- but he put together a broad enough coalition to win even if not a single Mormon had voted. He carried strong conservatives, self-described Tea Party sympathizers, evangelicals, and voters at every income except below $30,000 a year.

Romney becomes the first candidate in the 2012 race to win two binding contests consecutively. This will kick off a month in which Romney will attempt to reestablish his inevitability heading into Super Tuesday. While only 43 percent of precincts have reported as I write this, it appears that Newt Gingrich is likely to eke out a second place showing. Despite the potential consolation prize of beating a better-organized Ron Paul, the former House speaker may be melting down. He gave an odd, long press conference where he said he would be returning to a positive campaign but proceeded to attack Romney for everything from liberalism to lying to vote suppression. Gingrich is clearly not dropping out anytime soon.

Nevada demonstrated a shortcoming in Paul's caucus strategy. According to most local accounts, Gingrich's Nevada campaign was in shambles while Paul's was a well-oiled machine. So why wasn't Paul able to clean Newt's clock in the caucuses? But there's a bigger problem, which Paul's son Rand alluded to in an interview with the Atlantic. The caucus state strategy worked for Barack Obama because Hillary Clinton largely bypassed those contests. Romney is contesting most caucuses and is strong in some of the same states where Paul has big pockets of support. Paul is still likely to amass delegates cost-effectively, as his Nevada showing is good enough to do, but to maximize the effect he needs victories.

Rick Santorum finished fourth in Nevada, not a natural state for him.

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NYT Smears Gingrich

Posted by Quin Hillyer on 2.4.12 @ 1:46PM

In an otherwise good bit of reporting about Newt Gingrich's "deep ties" to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the NYT couldn't leave well enough alone. Here's the totally false sentence in the otherwise solid story, with my empahsis in italics:

House rules appear to require him to have filed a report within 30 days after he left Congress under an ethics cloud in January 1999.

Well, no he didn't leave it under and ethics cloud. There were no pending ethics charges at the time, nor even any known, pending, unofficial allegations of wrongdoing. He left Congress because he screwed up the management of Congress and of the 1998 campaigns. As a result, as has been reported and confirmed so many other places by now that it's not worth linking to them all, he just flat-out didn't have the votes for re-election as speaker. But ethics were not a component of his leaving, at least not in any immediate sense, although there may well have been sort of a hangover from his one ethics violation that was disposed of more than a year earlier -- but that hangover, if a part of it, was just part and parcel of the whole overall record as speaker; it did not cause a "cloud" hanging over him by the end of 1998 and early 1999 that directly caused his ouster.

This is just a sheer matter of fact. To repeat, not a single ethics charge was outstanding against Gingrich when he left Congress. The New York Times knows this. The New York Times doesn't care. Not content with publishing facts that tend to discredit the former speaker, it adds an old fiction with which to smear him -- thus discrediting the rest of its otherwise decent work on this story in the process.

As with the racism charge leveled against Gingrich that I dealt with here, this is a load of crud that should not be allowed to stand.

Lord knows I'm no Gingrich fan, but fair is fair. The story on Fannie and Freddie should stand on its own, without a smear being added to it.

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Santorum's Slow-Mo Surge Continues

Posted by Quin Hillyer on 2.4.12 @ 1:28PM

Head-to-head, horse-race polls this far out don't mean a LOT, but they do show important trends. In that light, behold Rasmussen's newest, which shows Rick Santorum as the only Republican to beat Obama head to head. This is the latest in a week-long series of polls, from pollsters left, right and center, showing Santorum doing better against Romney than Gingrich or Paul, or better against Obama than Gingrich or Paul and either better or about even with Romney when matched against Obama -- or, having a significantly better favorable-to-unfavorable ratio (this IS a significant poll number this far out, unlike a horse-race match-up) than anybody in the GOP field.

Also today, Phyllis Schlafly announced she would vote for Santorum. This follows endorsements or "support" statements in favor of Santorum this week from Michelle Malkin, David Limbaugh, Sharron Angle, Tom Tancredo, Jane Norton, Bob Schaffer, and others.

Not bad for a guy who the establishment media keeps writing off.

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Nevada Predictions

Posted by W. James Antle, III on 2.4.12 @ 9:28AM

Today, with little fanfare Nevada will hold its Republican presidential caucuses. Upstaged by the Florida primary, the state neverthelesss gives one candidate a chance to generate some momentum as the frontrunner, another a test run at his caucus state strategy, and the other two an opening to redeem themselves.

This caucus is likely to reward the campaigns that have worked it the hardest. I'm predicting Mitt Romney wins by double digits, Ron Paul comes in second, Newt Gingrich third, and Rick Santorum finishes fourth.

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