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- Feb 1–4 5–11 12–18 19–25 26–29
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- Apr 1–7 8–14 15–21 22–28 29–30
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- Nov 1–3 4–10 11–17 18–24 25–30
- Dec 1 2–8 9–15 16–22 23–29 30–31
Saturday, September 1, 2012
Hal David, R.I.P.
Posted by on 9.1.12 @ 7:38PM
Lyricist Hal David passed away today of complications from a stroke. He was 91.
David got his start in the 1940s working with the likes of Sammy Kaye and Guy Lombardo. But he really came into his own in the 1960s with his collaboration with Burt Bacharach.
Bacharach-David were responsible for turning Dionne Warwick into a star. They composed hits such as “Do You Know The Way to San Jose?”, “Message to Michael”, “Walk on By”, and “I Say a Little Prayer”.
Consider this list of Bacharach-David compositions which became part of the Great American Songbook:
“Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” - B.J. Thomas
“This Guy’s In Love With You” - Herb Alpert
“What The World Needs Now is Love” - Jackie DeShannon
“One Less Bell to Answer” - Fifth Dimension
“Look of Love” - Dusty Springfield
“Only Love Can Break a Heart” - Gene Pitney
“What’s New Pussycat” - Tom Jones
“(They Long to Be) Close to You” - The Carpenters
That’s an album unto itself.
“(There’s) Always Something There to Remind Me” was written in the early 1960s but didn’t become a huge hit until the British duo Naked Eyes recorded it in 1983. R.B. Greaves also did a great version of that song in 1970.
David also collaborated with Albert Hammond “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before” which became a monster hit for the unlikely duo of Willie Nelson and Julio Iglesias.
Last year, Bacharach and David were honored by the Library of Congress with the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song although David was to ill to attend the ceremony.
Michelle Malkin Is a Racist Like Me
Posted by on 9.1.12 @ 10:53AM
In light of my column yesterday, it turns out that Michelle Malkin, too, is a raving racist. I welcome her to the club.
Michael Moore Predicts Romney to Beat Obama
Posted by on 9.1.12 @ 2:17AM
I usually take Michael Moore’s words with a grain of salt. In fact, several gallons of sodium.
But the portly film director thinks Mitt Romney is going to win the election in November.
This tells me that the Left is losing faith in President Obama. Three and a half plus years in office with nothing to show for it. Moore isn’t counting on Obama to fool the country again. Sure Moore qualifies his statement by saying that Romney will only win because of money. But President Obama isn’t exactly running on a shoestring budget. In fact, he has a billion dollar budget. But as long as Obama’s ideas aren’t worth a dime and his policies continue to put us into the hole, a billion dollar budget isn’t worth anything.
I am not underestimating Obama. He plays for keeps. But I am getting more and more optimistic about Romney’s chances everyday.
Why Eastwood Helped Romney
Posted by on 9.1.12 @ 2:04AM
While some Republicans may have been bewildered by Clint Eastwood’s address at the RNC, I think they should be happy about things.
First, despite the unorthodox delivery, most of the delegates liked what they heard and were laughing and applauding with him.
Second, the liberal media isn’t complaining aboout Mitt Romney being an extremist. Instead they’re getting “misty” over Clint. After Eastwood played the crazy but funny uncle, Romney came across as a downright normal guy who wants “to help you and your family” instead of lowering the rising tides of the ocean.
Third, ditto about President Obama. Instead of tweeting about Romney, he’s tweeting about Eastwood. Again, Eastwood makes Romney look normal and reasonable, not someone who would willingly let the spouse of a former employee die of cancer.
Should Romney win in November, Republicans will remember Eastwood’s speech with good cheer.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Christine O’Donnell Breitbarts CNN’s Soledad O’Brien
Posted by on 8.31.12 @ 4:56PM
CNN Anchor Soledad O’Brien believes President Obama is a Communist.
At least, that’s the corner she backed herself into in a set-to with former GOP senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell. And O’Donnell performed a valuable public service this morning illustrating what’s really going on over at CNN. Now that the late Andrew Breitbart’s name has become a verb, concerning taking down the left-leaning media, you might say Christine O’Donnell Breitbarted Soledad O’Brien.
Take a good look at this CNN clip in which O’Donnell and CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien square off, the former with some assistance from Utah’s Congressman Jason Chafetz.
In the clip, Ms. O’Donnell says — correctly — that the 2012 campaign is essentially about “capitalism versus collectivism.” She accurately cites President’s Obama’s well-stated beliefs in redistributing wealth (here’s an example) and economic equality as well as nationalizing private business. Although O’Donnell didn’t cite it, the Obama’s administration’s government takeover of General Motors is exactly an example of “nationalizing.”
O’Brien immediately gets worked up and says that when O’Donnell uses the word “collectivism” O’Donnell is accusing President Obama of being “a communist.”
Actually, that isn’t what O’Donnell said. At no time did she accuse the President of being a communist. Period. Yet O’Brien kept trying to get O’Donnell to say it. So O’Donnell said this:
“President Obama himself has said that he wants to nationalize more of the private sector, and that’s not what America is all about.”
O’Brien bridles. She becomes visibly agitated. A debate is suddenly on and the two spar on nationalizing, with O’Brien indignant the President would be accused of nationalizing. Citing the fact that her mother is from Cuba, O’Brien says she knows something about the subject.
O’Brien: “So when you talk about ‘nationalizing’ something and you’re really taking sort of the words that they use in Cuba, frankly. And Communism. Really.”
Stop right here.
Now why in the world would Soledad O’Brien get so visibly agitated at O’Donnell’s insistence that Mr. Obama is in favor of nationalizing?
Ms. O’Brien is a smart woman. Surely she knows as a CNN anchor that O’Donnell was correct that the president is a fan of nationalizing. And O’Donnell certainly isn’t alone in saying so.
For example, here’s the Washington Post in June of 2009 (bold emphasis mine):
President Obama laid out his case yesterday for committing billions of dollars more to the rescue of General Motors, arguing that the nationalization of the industrial giant was necessary to bolster the foundering U.S. economy.
… The government has needed to take ownership stakes in private enterprises during the economic crisis, Obama said yesterday, “for the simple and compelling reason that their survival and the success of our overall economy depend on it.”
But hey, Soledad, if President Obama himself and the Washington Post aren’t enough of an authority to back up Christine, here’s perhaps an even better authority on the subject of Mr. Obama’s record on nationalizing.
That would be no less than Fidel Castro’s old chum, Venezuelan’s leftist leader Hugo Chavez. As seen here, when Chavez noted the President’s GM takeover and referred to him as “Comrade Obama” for nationalizing GM — saying that if he, Chavez, and Cuba’s Communist dictator Castro didn’t watch out they would be to the right of Obama.
Interesting, no?
Humorously, Hugo Chavez, President Obama, and the Washington Post all are on exactly the same page as Christine O’Donnell. They all agree: Obama loves nationalizing. The only difference being O’Donnell is appalled at nationalizing.
When O’Brien insists that saying Obama believes in nationalizing is to accuse him of being a communist, O’Donnell immediately closes the trap O’Brien got herself into, and correctly says:
“You’re saying that the words that they use in Cuba are coming from President Obama.”
To which an alarmed O’Brien, perhaps realizing what’s she done, vehemently replies:
“Oh certainly not! You’re saying that!”
Fascinating.
What Christine O’Donnell has accomplished here
Continue reading…Convention Wrap-Up
Posted by on 8.31.12 @ 12:07PM
I don’t have time to explain or defend these ratings below, for which I apologize (and which also means I will probably get skewered by readers, especially those who disagree), but….
What REALLY WORKED SUPERBLY:
* Two of the personal testimonials about Romney’s decency, from the couple whose 14 year-old son died and from the woman whose prematurely born daughter lived to 26 years old before dying.
* Sen. Rand Paul’s speech
* Artur Davis’s speech
* Condi Rice’s speech
* Most of Paul Ryan’s speech (although there were some holes — still not enough Kemp-like growth emphasis, among them)
* Susana Martinez’s speech
What worked rather well:
* Ann Romney’s speech
* Rick Santorum’s speech (even though the “hands” metaphor was overextended)
* About five of Clint Eastwood’s lines which were TV-ad worthy, even if his overal presentation was a bit odd
* Mike Eruzione’s remarks
* Mike Huckabee’s speech
* Luis Fortuno’s speech
* John McCain’s speech in total effect, even if it wasn’t perfectly delivered
* Scott Walker’s speech
* Nikki Haley’s speech
* Chris Christie’s speech
* John Kasich’s speech
* a couple of the other personal testimonials to Romney’s kindness or competence
What worked just enough and did at least some good, but were nowhere near a home run:
* Mitt Romney’s acceptance speech
* Marco Rubio’s speech
* Jeb Bush’s speech
While I saw MOST of the proceedings, I did not see ALL of them. Out of an abundance of kindness, I will not list which ones I missed vs. which ones I thought bombed; that way, anybody not listed above can assume I just missed them, because I thought only two or three bombed. No need to insult people who tried hard but didn’t deliver; nobody bombed in a way that was obnoxious or discreditable; the bombs were just in the sense of a failure ever to achieve liftoff.
Defending Bain, Finally
Posted by on 8.31.12 @ 10:53AM
After months of allowing the Obama campaign and their useful idiots in the media to define Mitt Romney (and more generally all venture capitalists) as heartless predators, Romney is finally fighting back.
During the last evening of the Republican National Convention, the campaign released a slew of pro-Bain videos, some of which you can watch below and all of which are available on Romney’s YouTube channel.
I found them effective antidotes to the Democrats’ Big Lie that Romney and Bain’s modus operandi was to raid corporations, saddle them with debt, close them down, and cause cancer in the employees’ spouses.
Romney’s job-creating career is truly remarkable. And his impact on the 2002 Olympics, as told by grateful Olympians on Thursday night, is inspiring and suggests precisely the kind of leader this nation needs, now more than ever.
But perhaps most impressive — from my perspective as someone who has had very modest success in “private equity” investing — was the degree to which Romney learned not only the details of the businesses he invested in but also learned and cared about those companies’ employees. And not just the CEOs but employees right down the line. If there were ever a venture capitalist who was not a heartless predator, it is Mitt Romney.
The Romney campaign has also launched — and I hope you’ll share the link widely — a new web page laying out Romney’s “Sterling Business Career” on which they discuss companies that Bain Capital helped begin, fixed, or rescued — one of which was Romney’s former employer, the consulting firm Bain & Co.
The tag line for the web page, which is also reachable at business.mittromney.com is “Governor Romney’s work at Bain Capital was about fixing companies that were broken and giving new companies a shot at success.”
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Clint Eastwood Morphs Into Jimmy Stewart
Posted by on 8.30.12 @ 10:31PM
Clint Eastwood’s speech was, well, unique.
Eastwood was more Jimmy Stewart than Harry Callahan. He did a bit with an empty chair next to him and Eastwood was talking to it as if it were President Obama. Now that I think about it, Obama does bear some resemblance to a six foot rabbit.
Well, it didn’t matter. Eastwood had some funny moments as when he referred to Joe Biden as “the intellect of the Democratic Party.” He also drew laughs when he said he “never thought it was a good idea for attorneys to be President.”
The Convention crowd chanted, “Let them go!!! Let them go!!!” after he said, “When somebody does not do the job, you’ve got to let them go.”
I think this makes up for the Super Bowl ad although I never believed for a moment he supported President Obama or that his particpation in the ad was an endorsement of the President.
Well, tonight removed all doubt as to where Josey Wales stands.
RNC Final Night Preview
Posted by on 8.30.12 @ 7:32PM
TAMPA — A few things to expect tonight:
Newt and Callista Gingrich are giving a speech together; they alternate speaking every one to three sentences. I suspect that this will be a little weird.
Jeb Bush is giving a speech focusing on education; a teacher and a student who benefited from his school choice policies in Florida will appear with him.
Mitt Romney’s lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey, will discuss his record in Massachusetts. Romney’s friend and former coworker Grant Bennett will discuss Romney’s good works as a Mormon lay pastor.
Clint Eastwood is making a surprise appearance.
Marco Rubio will introduce Romney, whose big speech will, of course, be the main event.
Concise Explanation
Posted by on 8.30.12 @ 4:07PM
“He lied,” she explained.
This was the response from Obama Deputy Campaign Director Stephanie Cutter when Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC asked her to respond to the tough things Paul Ryan said about her candidate Wednesday night.
I’m not sure I share Mz Cutter’s conclusion. But I have to be impressed with her economy of expression.
Hurricane Musings
Posted by on 8.30.12 @ 3:40PM
For the University of Mobile, I discuss the role hurricanes play in our lives here on the Gulf Coast.
A taste:
Now there are some misguided souls who see these hurricanes as God’s retribution for some real or imagined sin. (“Unfair sh**: GOP spared by Issac! [sic],” Tweeted liberal actor Samuel L. Jackson. “Not understanding God’s plan!”) Yet that’s certainly not how I understand the ways of the Almighty. God’s work in the world, through the ministries of the Holy Spirit, comes not in afflicting us with troubles, but rather in giving us the grace to respond with love and energy to whatever difficulties may arise.
Sometimes, leaders emerge from these trials…..
As I write, it remains overcast in Mobile, but I think the rains have FINALLY ended. I think it rained for almost 36 hours straight…..
Phone-Banking for Fiscal Conservatives
Posted by on 8.30.12 @ 2:41PM
Grassroots “Tea Party” organization FreedomWorks offers technology which allows those who want to help elect principled fiscal conservatives to the United State Senate to call voters in states with key races. They are not only providing a free way to do it, but also voter lists, scripts, and more.
Targeted races include Ohio (supporting Josh Mandel), Arizona (supporting Dave Schweikert), and Florida (supporting Connie Mack). You can help from anywhere that you have a decent Internet connection.
Learn more here:
https://www.freedomworksforamerica.org/posts/using-the-fls-phone-banking-system
The Word “Chicago” is Now Racist When in Conjunction with “Obama”
Posted by on 8.30.12 @ 12:57PM
So says Chris Matthews and the MSNBC crew.
Well….
Barack Obama worked in Chicago after college. Obama went back to Chicago after law school. Obama was an adjunct instructor at the University of Chicago. Barack Obama represented an area of Chicago in the Illinois state Senate. Obama owns a house in Chicago. Obama’s wife worked in Chicago. Obama went to church in Chicago. Obama probably even liked the rock band Chicago.
But does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care? About time?
I bet if Obama spends Saturday in the park, he will do it in Chicago.
Everything You Say is Racist
Posted by on 8.30.12 @ 12:31PM
H/T “Airbus”
Read it and weep…for our nation (and then go order a “black and tan”)
Salam is Correct About Artur Davis
Posted by on 8.30.12 @ 12:27PM
At CFIF, I analyze a great new column by Reihan Salam on rising right-leaning political star Artur Davis, former Democratic congressman from Alabama. Writes Salam:
The really interesting question about Davis’s political future is whether the GOP will become the party of Daniels and Christie and Jeb Bush or, as its critics allege, something narrower, angrier and more ideological. Davis has made it clear that he believes conservatives should seek to reform and improve government as well as contain its growth. This is a conviction widely shared among real-world Republicans.
The key, to me, is to reform and improve ”as well as” to contain its growth. This is not an “either/or” proposition. There is no reason we can’t do both.
Romney’s Right: Ignore the Fact Checkers
Posted by on 8.30.12 @ 11:40AM
Earlier this week, Romney pollster Neil Newhouse declared, “We’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact checkers.”
He’s right and they shouldn’t, especially if the slipshod “fact checking” of Paul Ryan’s speech last night is any indication.
Let’s start with the Simpson-Bowles debt commission. Ryan said:
[President Obama] created a bipartisan debt commission. They came back with an urgent report. He thanked them, sent them on their way and then did exactly nothing.
CNN called the claim “misleading”:
But for their proposal to be adopted as official recommendations to Congress, the Bowles-Simpson commission needed 14 of the 18 votes. It failed on an 11-7 vote, with four Democrats and three Republicans, including Ryan, voting no.
First, the onus of Simpson-Bowles wasn’t on Ryan; it was on Obama who set it up. Ryan did vote against Simpson-Bowles, but only because he had his own books-balancing Path to Prosperity that passed the House. The president’s halfhearted 2012 budget, meanwhile, was voted down 0-97 in the Senate. And Obama’s 2013 budget is a foot-dislocating punt on debt reduction of any kind.
If that’s not doing “exactly nothing,” then it’s pretty close.
Next up is Ryan’s account of a shuttered GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin:
A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that G.M. plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that if our government is there to support you… this plant will be here for another hundred years.” That’s what he said in 2008.
Well, as it turned out, that plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight.
The wizards at Politifact rated this “False” (along with many other fact-checkers) because the plant closed before Obama was inaugurated. That does nothing to undermine anything Ryan said. His point wasn’t that the president personally flew out to Wisconsin on Air Force One and nailed an eviction notice to the door. It was that the Obama economic recovery never materialized, as shown by the closings “in so many towns today.”
Finally my personal favorite: the stimulus. Here’s Paul Ryan:
The stimulus was a case of political patronage, corporate welfare, and cronyism at their worst.
And here’s the Washington Post’s James Downie:
As Time’s Michael Grunwald, who has just published a new book about the stimulus, points out, “Experts had warned that 5 percent of the stimulus could be lost to fraud, but investigators have documented less than $10 million in losses — about 0.001 percent.” Solyndra has been the exception, not the rule.
In other news, Paul Ryan said apples when, in fact, oranges. Ryan wasn’t talking about fraud. He was talking about “political patronage, corporate welfare, and cronyism.” The stimulus tossed money at companies hand-picked by the government, many of which had political connections. General Electric is the most popular of numerous examples.
And even if we are talking about fraud, the verdict is still out. The Justice Department is investigating the possibility of significant fraud in the stimulus’ transportation funding.
A baseline requirement for all fact checkers should be that they check facts. Instead when it comes to Republicans, they prefer to make eye-poking little jabs that have nothing to do with the truth.
Walt Kowalski to Rally Republicans
Posted by on 8.30.12 @ 10:30AM
He won’t be able to get his M-1 past security at the Tampa Bay Times Forum. But no need for him to pack tonight. This will be a friendly audience.
He may be 82, but the famous Clint squint is still there. And the raspy voice is still riveting. On hearing that Clint Eastwood would address the GOP convention tonight, a highly partisan Republican friend whooped, “Our Dirty Harry can kick their Dirty Harry’s ass.”
NewsBusters, Rush Breitbart Yahoo Exec
Posted by on 8.30.12 @ 9:38AM
David Chalian has just been Breitbarted.
NewsBusters does it again.
And don’t forget Rush.
As my colleague Stacy McCain notes in his column this morning on a new film on the late Andrew Breitbart (I still have a hard time writing “late”), in the wake of his death Andrew’s last name has become a verb. As in: To Breitbart — to reveal the left’s ongoing game of bias in the media and general shenanigans everywhere. You can put that priceless ACORN undressing in the “Breitbarted” column. The film focuses on Andrew’s war against leftist media bias (among other things) and not by chance has Matthew Sheffield of NewsBusters discussing Andrew.
As we were saying earlier this week, NewsBusters has become the indispensable source for tracking the left-wing bias media game. A game which consists of pretending to be objective and an above board referee when in fact said media are vital team players in advancing the liberal narrative.
A bare two days after that column ran, NewsBusters caught out the Yahoo Washington bureau chief, David Chalian, in a typical example of how the game works. The NewsBusters story, here, outed Chalian as saying of Mitt and Ann Romney — on a live mic — that
They aren’t concerned at all. They are happy to have a party with black people drowning.
The reference, of course, was to Hurricane Isaac bearing down on New Orleans as the GOP Convention prepared to open in Tampa. And of course, it was an updated version of the disgusting theme from Katrina that George W. Bush let people drown because they were black. In other words, more racial garbage from the Party of Race.
The story was broken by, yes, Matthew Sheffield. The same Matthew Sheffield who appears in the Breitbart film. And the same Matthew Sheffield, as we also noted in our earlier column, who played a key role in getting the Media Research Center’s NewsBuster site up and running in 2005.
Then something else occurred.
As Stacy notes, Matthew had his breaking story up on the NewsBusters site at 10:22. By noon, Rush Limbaugh was on the air and began to talk about it. Chalian’s appalling joke was everywhere.
The New Media model was on the job.
Within hours, David Chalian was out of a job.
Now. We have no grudge against Mr. Chalian. To lose a job anytime is not fun, and in the Obama economy especially.
But the real lesson here, dating perhaps from the day in 2004 that Dan Rather’s story about Bush and the National Guard was revealed by the folks at Powerline to be an utter phony, the conservative media — the New Media — is here to stay.
NewsBusters is watching.
Rush is watching.
Sean Hannity and Mark Levin and all of talk radio are watching.
Fox is watching.
The American Spectator and our colleagues in conservative magazines and newspapers and blogs are all watching.
The old game of the Old Media is over. For good. As Mr. Chalian has now found out in a highly personal fashion, those who choose to play this patently dishonest game are now risking paying the ultimate professional price — their jobs and reputation.
Somewhere, Andrew Breitbart is laughing.
Breitbart is here.
Paul Ryan: When is Obama Going To Take Responsibility?
Posted by on 8.30.12 @ 12:13AM
Paul Ryan’s speech started off slowly but hit all eight cylinders by its conclusion.
I was struck by Ryan’s humility especially when speaking of his deceased father said, “I’d like to think he’d be proud of me.”
He seemed to hit his stride when he spoke about President Obama:
President Obama was asked not long ago to reflect on any mistakes he might have made. He said, well, “I haven’t communicated enough.” He said his job is “to tell a story to the American people” - as if that’s the whole problem here? He needs to talk more, and we need to be better listeners?
Ladies and gentlemen, these past four years we have suffered no shortage of words in the White House. What’s missing is leadership in the White House. And the story that Barack Obama does tell, forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old. The man assumed office almost four years ago - isn’t it about time he assumed responsibility?
I hope both Ryan and Romney ask, “The man assumed responsibility four years ago - isn’t it about time he assumed responsibility?” every chance they get. Because it was President Obama who spoke of embarking upon “a new era of responsibility” when he was sworn into office. Of course, Obama’s idea of responsibility is different from the rest of us.
The funniest sentence of the speech was when Ryan said, “College graduates should not have to live out their 20s in their childhood bedrooms, staring up at fading Obama posters and wondering when they can move out and get going with life.”
And to think I can remember a time when our rooms were full of posters of Cheryl Tiegs or Farrah Fawcett. Obama posters? Kids these days.
But I digress.
Here is Ryan at his philosophical essence:
None of us have to settle for the best this administration offers - a dull, adventureless journey from entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country where everything is free but us.
Listen to the way we’re spoken to already, as if everyone is stuck in some class or station in life, victims of circumstances beyond their control, with government there to help us cope with our fate.
It’s the exact opposite of everything I learned growing up in Wisconsin, or at college in Ohio. When I was waiting tables, washing dishes, or mowing lawns for money, I never thought of myself as stuck in some station in life. I was on my own path, my own journey, an American journey where I could think for myself, define happiness for myself. That’s what we do in this country. That’s the American Dream. That’s freedom, and I’ll take that any day over the supervision and sanctimony of the central planners.
If you want to understand the difference between Mitt Romney and President Obama, Ryan summed it up this way:
And you are entitled to the clearest possible choice, because the time for choosing is drawing near. So here is our pledge.
We will not duck tough issues, we will lead.
We will not spend four years blaming others, we will take responsibility.
We will not try to replace our founding principles, we will reapply our founding principles.
It doesn’t get any clearer than that. The rest is up to us.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Susana Martinez: Obama Built The Deficit
Posted by on 8.29.12 @ 11:25PM
While waiting for Paul Ryan, I caught New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez’s speech. I liked it. It was a feisty a little number.
She told a couple of funny stories.
With regard to her parents’ security guard business she said, “Now, my Dad made sure I could take care of myself. I carried a Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum - that gun weighed more than I did.”
Martinez also spoke about her past as a Democrat and recounted a time where she and her husband had lunch with two Republicans who wanted her to join the fold. She planned to politely receive them and be on their way. Things didn’t go as planned. She said, “And when we left that lunch, we got into the car and I looked over at Chuck and said, “I’ll be damned, we’re Republicans.”
But the highlight was her precise critique of President Obama:
If he can take credit for government building small businesses, then he can accept responsibility for breaking his promise and adding 5 trillion dollars to the national debt.
Because he did build that.
Quite nice.
Rand Paul’s Home Run
Posted by on 8.29.12 @ 9:29PM
Until tonight, I had a really hard time warming to Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky. No longer. Tonight, his speech was absolutely superb. A major, major home run. On a night that so far has been completely underwhelming (I write as Pawlenty speaks), with a series of really boring speaches and bad music, Paul hit the theme of individual liberty with terrific language and excellent delivery. My wife agreed. Wow!
Christie Big Hit, But Challenges Loom
Posted by on 8.29.12 @ 6:54PM
Several months ago, Ben Dworkin, a political science professor at Rider University in N.J., predicted that Gov. Chris Christie would be the keynote speaker at the National Republican Convention, not the vice-presidential candidate. This was contrary to conventional thought and Dworkin, who serves as the director of the New Jersey Institute for Politics, was spot on in his assessment of Christie’s national appeal. The Republican governor has helped the party to break orbit from its Southern base, Dworkin said during an interview after last night’s speech.
“He’s like the Beatles when they first arrived in America, there was nothing else out there quite like them,” he observed. “Christie is a rock star; he has his own unique style. Because he has become national figure, he has also become a point of pride for people in New Jersey, not just Republicans.”
Just a few years ago, the idea that New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Massachusetts would serve as the platform for leading Republican figures would have been unthinkable, he added.
In addition to having former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney as the presidential nominee, the Republicans also have Sen. Scott Brown occupying the “people’s seat” previously held by Ted Kennedy. Rep. Paul Ryan is from Wisconsin, where the polls are tightening. In Gov. Christie’s New Jersey, leaders in both parties prevailed over entrenched opposition.
“They said it was impossible to speak the truth to the teachers union,” Christie said during his keynote. “They were just too powerful. Real teacher tenure reform that demands accountability and ends the guarantee of a job for life regardless of performance would never happen. For the first time in 100 years with bipartisan support, we did it.”
Even so, there are political landmines Christie must navigate his way through in the not too distant future, Dworkin said.
“Of course, upon his return to New Jersey, he will still have to deal with 9.8% unemployment and the possible mid-year budget cuts totaling hundreds of millions of dollars resulting from anticipated revenues falling far shorter than expected,” Dworkin said. “The poll numbers and excitement stemming from tonight’s success will eventually dissipate but the harsh realities of New Jersey’s economy will still be here.”
Dworkin also suggested that Christie’s crowd-pleasing maneuver at the end of the speech should be a point of concern to Romney campaign operatives.
“I found that the Governor’s rift at the end calling on the convention body to ‘stand with me’ made it oddly about Christie, at the very moment when the focus needed to be on Romney,” he said. “It seemed curious that the Romney folks allowed that to stay in.”
But Foster Lowe, a Republican delegate from Bergen County, disagreed.
“Christie was one of the first, if not the first, major elected official to endorse Romney,” Lowe said. “He has also been criticized by the New Jersey Democrats for going out of state to campaign for Romney. He was asked to give the keynote because he has a compelling story to tell. It was clear to me that his goal was to boost the Romney-Ryan ticket.”
A WHOLE Lotta Damage
Posted by on 8.29.12 @ 5:21PM
I still don’t think national audiences understand all the damage that Isaac is doing. I think Bay St. Louis and Waveland, Miss., are in horrible shape, as is probably the western third or half of Pass Christian. I think low lying areas of Mobile County, AL are in horrid shape, and there is lots of street flooding in areas closer to the rivers and/or bay. And the reports of bad conditions in my original hometown of New Orleans keep growing, as is evidenced by this very handy (and admirably thorough) summary on the city’s website. For most people, this list won’t mean much, but for me, it is full of meaning; it worries me sick. And with reports of 17 inches of rain at Audubon Park, where I grew up, I bet a lot of surrounding streets are seriously flooded; the park used to flood badly with just 8 inches of rain, not 17. Here in Mobile, the winds are only intermittently super-gusty, but the rain has been coming down for 24 hours now, and the past few hours it has been coming down in absolute torrents.
Back to Pass Christian: I just spoke with my aunt and uncle, who are in the higher, east side of the town. They have a tree on their roof and major leaks from it into their bedroom. They say that Highway 90 there, as in Gulfport, was overtopped for at least a while — and overtopping there means bad things for anybody who has rebuilt on the lower, west end of the town near Henderson Point.
Much of the news has rightly focused on the bad situation in Plaquemines Parish, LA, where Parish President Billy Nungesser has done a great job of getting attention (much merited) for their plight; what I am wondering is how bad things are in the other coastal parishes: St. Bernard, Terrebonne, West Jefferson.… I do know there is lots of street flooding in Algiers, directly across the river from downtown New Orleans, in areas that mostly escaped bad flooding in Katrina.
And the INLAND flooding hasn’t even started yet: Lots of little rivers will be well overflowing their banks and flooding whole neighborhoods.
In short, while this is a storm that has not featured extremely high winds, it has brought enough water from above and from the Gulf that it is certainly a serious disaster.
Snub This, Gwen
Posted by on 8.29.12 @ 5:04PM
In their rush to pack the presidential debate moderators with far-left liberals, the Commission in charge of these shenanigans somehow managed to miss PBS’s Gwen Ifill who was reported to be “livid” at being snubbed.
On Monday night, ABC and Yahoo! News broadcast over the Internet a video in which a Yahoo! reporter (their Washington bureau chief) named David Chalian was heard saying, regarding Mitt and Ann Romney’s reaction to Hurricane Isaac hitting the Gulf Coast, “They’re not concerned at all. They’re happy to have a party with black people drowning.”
(You can hear him starting about 5 seconds into this video.)
On Wednesday, Yahoo! fired Chalian, offering this statement: “David Chalian’s statement was inappropriate and does not represent the views of Yahoo!. He has been terminated effective immediately. We have already reached out to the Romney campaign, and we apologize to Mitt Romney, his staff, their supporters and anyone who was offended.”
While I am more than tired of reporters being fired for one statement, even a stupid one, it’s interesting to note Gwen Ifill’s response to the events, as posted on her Twitter feed: “One mistake does not change this. @DavidChalian is God’s gift to political journalism.”
On his own Twitter feed, Chalian apologized: “I am profoundly sorry for making an inappropriate and thoughtless joke.”
He should be sorry, of course.
And while I cannot say with utmost confidence that Chalian should have been fired, his comments certainly reinforce our understanding of the intensity not just of “liberal bias” in the media but of the outright disdain that so many “reporters” hold for all Republicans.
We have seen a couple of welcome pangs of conscience and professionalism from non-conservative journalists such as Jake Tapper and Anderson Cooper (must see video here). For me, this is like a patient getting the results of an initial test suggesting cancer. The question now becomes whether the media sticks its head in the sand, or takes the next test to confirm, the first major step toward radiation and chemotherapy to cure a disease which is most likely otherwise to be fatal.
Meanwhile, today’s events suggest a small shred of wisdom among the Commission on Presidential Debates to avoid Ms. Ifill.
Lefties Race-Bait by Accusing Conservatives of Race-Baiting
Posted by on 8.29.12 @ 2:45PM
Joan Walsh is officially a lunatic. Now she says that Rick Santorum’s speech last night was race-baiting. Words fail.
Is there no end to the leftist attempt to ramp up black turnout for the Dems by creating a straw man named Jim Crow to try to scare black voters? Talk about a racist dog whistle! It is people like Walsh, who turn ordinary discourse about issue disagreements into racial issues, who are the race baiters. Indeed, by seeing race where race is not intended or reasonably assumed, it is they, the leftists, who are the racists.
Tampa is Braced, Busy, and Full
Posted by on 8.29.12 @ 2:20PM
TAMPA - In what might be the strangest “news” to come out of Tampa, FL, the venue for the Republican National Convention, not a single police officer has objected to having his photo taken. While police officers in other areas of the country have become known for a whispered “War on Cameras,” the Tampa Police and their supporting departments from elsewhere in the state have all been very happy to have their photos taken.
We’ve seen them walking or biking in bands of anywhere from 5-8. Not a single block is without police protection. As late as 3 a.m., we observed police officers standing on corners, taking shelter under awnings, waiting for the rain to pass. As Larry Thornberry observed, the ratio of Occupy protesters to police is shocking.
That said, many of the events I’ve been attending have been very mindful of security. A major Republican Party event that recurs every evening downtown is using different tickets for every night. Ybor City’s events have a mob of doormen to ensure that uncredentialed people do not wander in. And the rest of Tampa itself is on lockdown, having taken a page out of Gotham City’s playbook in the Dark Knight Rises. Tall, portable gates line major blocks, admitting no entrance, with checkpoints along the perimeter. The police smile and nod as you pass, but probably don’t want you to come too close.
Events are scattered throughout the city. Ybor City, a historic cigar-manufacturing section of town that looks a bit like an industrial Bourbon Street, is playing host to most “after-parties” not in the convention. But venues have reached as far as the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, over 30 minutes away, or a Yacht Club that would cost 40 dollars to reach by cab. Most, however, have shuttles that make commuting convenient for convention-goers.
For non-convention goers, however, the Downtown area should be avoided at all costs. Some roads are arbitrarily blocked off. If you want to get out of Downtown, you will not be allowed to come onto the highway, which only worsens the congestion. Tampa drivers aren’t keen on allowing people into their lanes, a habit that makes driving tense when directions are unclear. Mess up, and there’ll be a driver eager to put you in your place (which, again, is not in their lane).
As for the attitudes surrounding the convention center, most small businesses are either overwhelmed or disappointed in the unpredictability of the crowds coming by. Journalists and protesters alike are squatting in coffeeshops. Parking spaces are marked “two hours only” with no meters to feed —- major lots close by are charging ten dollars for a full day of parking.
Ron Paul supporters are still lingering about, distributing leaflets and excited to tell you about how Dr. Paul is the only sensible candidate. At my hotel, I noticed a fellow who’d come from a rally. “How’d it go?” “Great! Lots of people there. Do you support Ron Paul?” How quickly he came to the point.
Meanwhile, what few protesters have appeared — they’ve taken to camping out in a “Romneyville” a few blocks away from the Convention Center — aren’t keen on having their photos taken. Many are wearing bandanas around their necks for easy anonymity, which should make anyone nervous (and the media eager). The rains sweep through every hour or so, drenching everything in an all-out downpour, and within minutes, it’s sunny again. It’s tough to remain outside when Mother Nature is tossing buckets onto you without any level of predictability.
The great clash hasn’t yet materialized. It may not. But people are generally braced.
President Obama, Not Todd Akin, is the Extremist on Abortion
Posted by on 8.29.12 @ 1:57PM
The pro-life Susan B. Anthony List has released a powerful ad highlighting President Obama’s opposition to a bill in the Illinois legislature that would have protected infants born alive after botched abortions.
The spot is an effective counter-thrust to the ample mileage that Democrats have gained from the “legitimate rape” fiasco. It also demonstrates how powerful perception is in politics. Undoutedly, more Americans today know about Todd Akins’ gaffe than about Obama’s extreme record on the sanctity of unborn human life. A sign of the times, and of our sound-bite driven political cycle.
Mia Love: “The America I Know.”
Posted by on 8.29.12 @ 12:47PM
Mia Love, the mayor of Saratoga Springs, Utah and the GOP candidate for Congress in Utah’s 4th District, made the most of her four minutes at the Republican Convention last night.
The theme of Love’s remarks was “The America I know.” She spoke of how her parents came to the United States from Haiti with $10 in their pockets:
When tough times came, they didn’t look to Washington; they looked within. So the America I grew up knowing was centered in self-reliance and filled with the possibilities of living the American Dream.
Love also contrasted the America she knows with one presented by President Obama:
President Obama’s version of America is a divided one often pitting us against each other based on income levels, gender and social status. His policies have failed us. We’re not better off than we were four years ago and no rhetoric, bumper sticker or Hollywood campaign ad can change that.
I would add that President Obama also pits us against each other where it concerns race. It would have made Love’s remarks even more powerful had she added that single word to her remarks. Nevertheless, she was direct and to the point. The image of a young black woman criticizing President Obama tells all Americans that it’s OK to criticize a black President.
As for Mia Love, she is going places. Even if she is not going to Washington in the new year, this won’t be the last we hear from her.
Demonstrators in Pre-Season Form
Posted by on 8.29.12 @ 11:16AM
TAMPA – It’s still early. Perhaps still pre-season as these things are calculated. But the demonstrators in town to disrupt the GOP convention haven’t been much of a force so far.
A couple of bands of idlers attempted to block streets Tuesday, but disbanded when the cops told them they would be arrested if they persisted. There was a comic moment, of sorts, when that Cloud Cuckoo-Land church out of Kansas, the bunch that’s obsessed with gays and protests homosexuality at military funerals, was confronted by another group of protesters whooping up gays rights. Men kissed men and women kissed women in front of the Kansas red-hots in an attempt to rile them up. The cops separated and dispersed them before things went off the rails.
Senator Marco Rubio, who became a fair hand at repartee with hecklers on the campaign trail, went one on one with several malcontents at a breakfast at the hotel the Florida delegation is staying at in Palm Harbor. While Rubio was speaking a middle-aged man with a tattoo on his neck stood up and shouted, “Hey Rubio! We demand that the GOP stop whoring themselves out to the big money interests that are raping this planet and trying to squeeze every last dime out of the working class.”
Rubio replied, “I guess he’s not happy with the hotel assignment,” alluding to the fact that the RNC had stashed the Florida delegation at a hotel a good distance from the convention site.
After cops had escorted the heckler out and Rubio started to speak again, a woman blurted out, “Hey Rubio! Corporations need to pay their fair share!”
Before breakfast and Rubio’s speech were gotten down, five demonstrators had been escorted out, given trespass warnings and promises that they would be arrested if they returned. They didn’t.
Compared to other events where demonstrators have been the tail that wagged the dog, this is small beer. But there are two days left for the ratbags to hit their stride. And the clouds and rain of early in the week are being replaced by late-August Florida heat, which may add surliness to the demonstrators’ discontents.
So far the ratio of cops to demonstrators at these minor eruptions has been about three to one. A fine proportion, which may not survive the week. On a personal note to illustrate this, I did see three cops standing together, supporting themselves with tears in their eyes yesterday. I asked a by-stander who appeared to be knowledgeable what the officers were so disturbed about. “It’s very sad,” he told me. “Their demonstrator went home.”
Speeches by Ann Romney, Chris Christie: View Here
Posted by on 8.29.12 @ 10:15AM
In case you missed Ann Romney and Chris Christie’s speeches, reader SA has once again come forward.
Here is Ann Romney.
Here is Governor Christie.
Both speeches in full, not clips.
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
What Mitt Romney & Ted Williams Have in Common
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 11:53PM
One part of Ann Romney’s speech before the GOP Convention which has struck people was the part she devoted to her husband’s generosity. She said, “Mitt does not like to talk about how he has helped others because he sees it as privilege, not a political talking point.”
In this sense, Mitt Romney reminds me of Ted Williams. The Splendid Splinter had a taciturn relationship with both Red Sox fans and the media to whom he referred as “the knights of the keyboard.” Yet despite Williams’ sour disposition, he devoted countless hours to visiting sick children afflicted with cancer on behalf of the Jimmy Fund. If the public had known about these deeds, he would have surely been more popular. But Williams insisted that these visits not be publicized. He told one reporter who was unwise enough to pry, “What I do for the Jimmy Fund, I do for the kids.” Those visits were for the children, not his personal glory.
Of course, Ted Williams never sought public office. Like it or not, an election is a popularity contest and one has to toot one’s horn when running for office. I’m sure Romney’s generosity trumps President Obama’s governmental version of compassion. Modesty might prevent Romney from talking about his good deeds but if there’s a perception that he doesn’t care about his fellow man then he won’t have a chance to good deeds in the White House.
Christie: Romney Will Tell Us The Hard Truths We Need to Hear
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 11:16PM
As with Ann Romney’s speech, my internet connection was iffy with Governor Christie’s speech.
What struck me the most about his remarks was when he said, “Mitt Romney will tell us the hard truths we need to hear.”
The question, of course, is if the American electorate ready to handle the hard truth.
Ann Romney’s Poignant Question
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 10:48PM
I watched Ann Romney’s speech online. My connection wasn’t reliable so I didn’t catch everything she said.
But there was one question she asked I really liked.
“Did we raise our children to be afraid of success?”
No, but the Obama Administration is banking on the youth of America to resent it.
Some of her other good lines included:
“We’re smart enough to know there aren’t easy answers. We’re smart enough to know there are better answers.”
“Mitt Romney was not handed success, he built it.”
“This man will not fail. This man will not let us down. This man will lift up America.”
Ann Romney demonstrated why she is her husband’s best asset.
I can’t wait for Governor Christie’s speech.
GOP Convention Found Here
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 9:11PM
On Morton Blackwell’s Fight Against Insiders’ Power Grab
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 4:14PM
I am glad Jeff published the entirety of Morton Blackwell’s letter on today’s rules fight at the GOP convention. I second Jeff’s concerns. Morton is absolutely right; This power grab by the Ben Ginsburgs of the world (read: low-life profiteering petty tyrants) is totally unnecessary. Indeed, it is worse than that; it is counter-productive. Just when the right needs unity, these %&%&&%*)&# jacksnappers inject discord and divisiveness into the proceedings.
Not only that, but the new rules they want to inflict on us are idiotic. By front-loading the primaries again, they harm the competition that makes us strong and gives us the chance to identify candidate strengths and weaknesses. By grabbing power for the presidential campaigns at the expense of state parties and individual activists, they trample the grass roots, dispiriting our hardest workers and denying new talent a chance to emerge.
If I saw Ginsburg (the longtime, over-respected lawyer who specializes in screwing up election-law battles) right now, it would be all I could do to keep from grabbing him by the lapels and shaking him within an inch of his life. (To be clear: I would not do this; this is no threat; it’s just a near-justifiable urge, borne of the need to throttle a %*#^%*&#%& little %^#%*#)&%()#&.edy so and so.)
“We Built It”
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 3:06PM
TAMPA — President Obama’s “you didn’t build that” remark was a revealing moment that created a potent line of attack. It was a blunt statement of Obama’s blinkered, government-centric view of the economy, and that view rubs many voters the wrong way: In a July Washington Post/ABC poll, 42 percent of independents said Obama’s views on the size and role of government are a reason to oppose him, while only 20 percent said they’re a reason to support him. Republicans are doing everything they can to exploit the opening. Today’s theme at the Republican National Convention is “We Built It.”
Governor Bob McDonnell of Virginia will hit this theme hard in his speech today. Among the excerpts that have been released:
The times call for new leadership to get this great nation out of debt and back to work.
The choice is clear: the status quo of the entitlement society, or dynamic change to an
opportunity society.We need a President who will say to a small businesswoman: congratulations, we
applaud your success, you did make that happen, you did build that!Big government didn’t build America: You built America!
Small businesses don’t come out of Washington D.C. pre-made on flat bed trucks.
That coffee shop in Henrico; that florist in Virginia Beach….that bakery in
Radford…they were all built by entrepreneurial Americans with big dreams….not a big
spending government with a wide open wallet full of other people’s money!”
Virginia is a crucial swing state, and if Romney manages to win there, the argument that McDonnell is pressing will be an important reason why.
Mark Levin Updates Rules Fight: Calls for Defeat
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 2:43PM
Mark Levin explains what the Rules change means. He reads Morton’s letter and explains why the Romney/RNC insider change must be defeated.
Take a listen here.
Morton Blackwell to Delegates on Romney Rules Fight
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 2:02PM
So let me see if I understand this.
The GOP Convention is set to nominate Romney and Ryan with plenty of kumbayah.
And out of the blue…Team Romney sets in motion this Rules fight?
What are they thinking?
There is a backlash building…Rush has been talking about this as an anti-conservative, anti-grassroots move…….There are a lot of upset people out there.
Here’s a letter from our old friend Morton Blackwell to Convention delegates explaining the situation:
Continue reading…Dear Fellow Delegate,
On Tuesday of this week, as Republican National Convention delegates, you and I will be voting on rules changes that could fundamentally change our Republican Party — and not for the better.
Over the years, I’ve served on the Louisiana and Virginia GOP Rules Committees. I currently serve on both the Republican National Committee’s Standing Committee on Rules and on the National Convention’s Committee on Rules and Order of Business.
I was Barry Goldwater’s youngest elected delegate in 1964, I was honored to serve on President Ronald Reagan’s White House Staff from 1981-1984, and I have attended every Republican National Convention Rules Committee meeting since 1972. My wife and I have contributed major donations to the Romney-Ryan campaign.
These rule changes are the most awful I’ve ever seen come before any National Convention.
Obama Quite Literally Approves Baby Killing
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 1:45PM
The inimitable Mark Levin has the full goods on Barry Obama’s unconscionable opposition to the Illinois version of the Infants Born-Alive Protection Act. What a cold, cold man Obama is. This man does not value human life. Period.
McMahon the Frontrunner in Connecticut?
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 1:18PM
When Rasmussen released a poll six days ago that found Republican Linda McMahon leading Democrat Chris Murphy by three, many wondered if it was an outlier. Connecticut is a deep-blue state and McMahon lost by twelve points last time.
One poll’s an outlier, two could be a trend:
Republican Linda McMahon holds a slender lead over Democrat Chris Murphy in a new Quinnipiac University poll of likely voters released early Tuesday.
Forty-nine percent of those surveyed favor McMahon; 46 back Murphy. The poll’s margin of error is plus or minus 2.6 percentage points. Just 4 percent of voters are undecided, the survey found.
Murphy had the lead in every poll taken before last week. Two margin-of-error leads for McMahon certainly don’t represent a seismic shift.
But it’s worth asking if something bigger is happening in Connecticut. President Obama has probably lost more ground in the Nutmeg State than anywhere else. The state unemployment rate has been rising for most of the year and is now higher than the national rate. And Connecticut, brimming with wealth in Fairfield County, has a slightly more fiscally conservative flavor than neighboring Massachusetts or Rhode Island.
Connecticut’s governor, senators, and representatives are all Democrats except for Joe Lieberman. It may be that after decades of tax-and-spend liberalism, the Land of Steady Habits is ready to try something different.
The Flower and the Hammer
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 12:27PM
TAMPA — The speaking sequence for tonight’s Republican pep rally is Ann Romney followed by Chris Christie. I believe in law enforcement circles they call this technique good cop, bad cop.
Writ Petition: SS Benefits Should Not be Linked to Medicare
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 10:58AM
I’ve written about this case several times here at the AmSpec, but now it gets a new boost from the Medicaid part of the Supreme Court’s ObamaCare decision. Basically, the feds say you cannot decline Medicare benefits unless you forfeit all your Social Security benefits too. It’s crazy. Five plaintiffs are challenging this illegal bureaucratic rule. The high court says there are limits to governmen’t power to coercively use its spending authority to force other “benefits” down our throats. Hence, a new angle to an already strong suit.
Read about it here.
Here’s a taste:
Or, as the new petition puts it, if “a robber gives you a choice between your money and your life,” that’s notreally a choice – and neither are the sorts of coercion involved in both the states’ Medicaid dilemma andthe citizens’ decision whether to forfeit potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars of SS benefits due to this moronic POMS rule.
The new petition makes a strong case that the same principles governing the decision to strike down the coercive parts of ObamaCare’s Medicaid provisions also should apply to the government’s attempt to force citizens to accept Medicare coverage they don’t want. “In neither case,” write the plaintiffs, “may the government constitutionally ask a party to sacrifice one entitlement for the refusal to accept a second.”
Let’s hope the Supreme Court grants cert.
Protesters Duck ‘Storm’
Posted by on 8.28.12 @ 10:46AM
TAMPA — The first demonstration of the convention season took place in Downtown Tampa yesterday. Spokesmen for the various groups of madcaps, indignatos, and misfits, in town to raise hell, said 5,000 would show up to demonstrate how much they opposed, well, whatever you got. Only 250, with signs and really bad clothes, made it. They were chaperoned by 1,000 cops. Nothing much happened. Folks stood around for a bit. By and by they all left. Police arrested one cockup who brought a machete with him.
The only explanation anyone could come up with for the anemic turn-out was bad weather from the skirts of Tropical Storm Isaac. Gee, I thought anti-everything demonstrators were made of sterner stuff. Monday was truly a mild day in Tampa, with a few showers and occasional mild breeziness. Absolutely nothing compared to our frequent afternoon thunderstorms this time of year. If this kind of weather keeps demonstrators off the street — wait till the clouds leave and Tampa’s oppressive summer heat moves in.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Here’s The Real War on Women
Posted by on 8.27.12 @ 4:53PM
For months now, the Democratic Party and left-wing activists have accused Republicans of conducting “a war on women.”
Well, check out this horrific scene in Afghanistan’s Helmand province. The Taliban have been accused of beheading 15 men and two women for having a party in an area of that province controlled by the Taliban. The two women were apparently dancing.
So the next time President Obama or his surrogates suggest Republicans are engaging in “a war on women” they ought to be reminded that it is President Obama who is seeking to negotiate the return of the Taliban back into power. And if that happens, then will you see a real war on women.
RNC Deja Vu
Posted by on 8.27.12 @ 2:09PM
TAMPA — This feels familiar.
Four years ago, the first day of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul was canceled. Hurricane Gustav was heading toward the Gulf Coast, and GOP leaders didn’t want to appear insensitive in the event of a Katrina-like disaster. Fortunately, Gustav didn’t end up causing damage on that scale.
Today, day one of the RNC is canceled once again. This time it wasn’t just for sensitivity’s sake; Republican leaders were worried that Tropical Storm Isaac would make travel to the convention center difficult or impossible for delegates. As it turns out, Tampa has been only marginally more affected by Isaac than St. Paul was by Gustav. It’s been raining intermittently, but not enough to cause any major flooding, and the National Weather Service has canceled the tropical storm warning for the area. The convention could have easily gone on; most of the parties and sideline events outside the convention hall are continuing as planned. (UPDATE: Given the downpour that started about 10 minutes after this was posted, I should probably clarify that it’s not impossible that flooding could become a serious issue after all; it just hasn’t yet.)
But Isaac could still strike the Gulf Coast at hurricane strength, which raises the question of whether the party might want to cancel part of the procedings for the same reason they did during Gustav. On a conference call yesterday, a GOP spokesman wouldn’t rule out the possibility of changing the schedule again, even though they’ve already compressed a four-day program into three days.
Party conventions have (for a few reason) been scheduled later in recent cycles than in the past; 2004 was the first time that a convention was held in September. As it happens, hurricane season peaks in late August through September. If the convention schedules are at the mercy of the weather even outside the host city, perhaps it’s time to move the conventions back to July.
In the meantime, here’s hoping that Isaac stays relatively weak — and not primarily because of its effect on the RNC, of course.
Will Anyone Be Watching?
Posted by on 8.27.12 @ 1:15PM
TAMPA — The big Republican show, scheduled to get underway here tomorrow after Isaac has passed us by on a course to Louisiana, is costing a bundle to put on. This includes $50 million in federal tax dollars spent on security by the party that wants government to stop spending money it doesn’t have. (The Dems will raid the federal treasury for the same amount for their séance next week in Charlotte.) No one knows what the total tab will be, except that it will be in nine figures.
The idea behind this gaudy spending by both parties is that the conventions will give the parties’ presidential tickets big send-offs into the final two-plus months of the campaign. Both parties hope to use the three days of their conventions to define their candidates in ways that voters will find attractive. And by wide agreement a great deal is at stake in this presidential election. But will anybody be watching the parties’ parties?
A survey released today by Rasmussen suggests that $100 million parties may not get as much attention as the folks putting them on would like. Just 11 percent of likely voters told Rasmussen they would be watching all of the GOP convention. Another 16 percent say they’ll watch most of it. A plurality of 44 percent claim they’ll watch some, and 24 percent say they won’t watch any.
All my life I’ve heard, as most TAS readers have as well, advocates for one presidential candidate or another saying, “This is the most important presidential election in our history.” Finally this long-standing hyperbole is true. This one really matters. But as important as this election is, politicians, even the ones I agree with, can drone on so. And the Rays will be playing an important series with the Rangers at the same time the speechifying is going on. The remote will be right there in front of me. I’m not saying I will weaken and reach for it. But the temptation will have to be dealt with firmly.
Sanford Pops the Question
Posted by on 8.27.12 @ 12:10PM
There are wedding bells in someone’s future!
Former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, whose political career ended when he admitted an extramarital affair, is engaged to his ex-mistress from Argentina.
Sanford, a one-time rising Republican star mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, said in a statement to CNN that he and Maria Belen Chapur are “both happy and excited” about their engagement.
Sanford is the conservative movement’s Greek tragedy. He was charismatic and thoughtful. He was a responsible belt-tightener. He thought South Carolina’s Republican legislature was soft on spending. He even brought live pigs to the State House to protest their pork-barrel ways.
And he irritated all the right people. As Newsweek put it, “By now, Mark Sanford is accustomed to life outside the mainstream. Since arriving in Congress in 1995, he has opposed new spending so mulishly that many critics, including some big-government Bushies, consider him an incorrigible ideologue.” In the age of Bush wars and budget-busting, Sanford was a cool drink. He kept alive Barry Goldwater’s ideas and spirit (if not his temperament).
And then he went for a little hike on the Appalachian Trail.
The presidential race could have been very different if Sanford hadn’t committed adultery. With the rise of the Tea Party, Sanford’s small-government bullishness came back in style. Conservatives would have likely flocked to him.
Then again the presidential race also could have been very different if Sanford committed adultery but didn’t admit it. The Democrats have an army of oppo researchers just to dig through Ann Romney’s wardrobe. It’s hard to think they wouldn’t have discovered Sanford’s dirty little secret.
That would have been some October surprise.
Hey, Did You Know Barack Obama is….. BLACK?!?!?
Posted by on 8.27.12 @ 11:38AM
Chris Matthews was in full-on loony mode this morning, fulminating about Republicans supposedly playing the “race card” against Barack Obama by, among other things, mentioning “work requirements” for welfare. Tell that to Bill Clinton, who signed the bill requiring work for welfare. Really, Matthews’ tired old, over-the-top accusations aren’t really worth the dignity of a response.
BUT…. Why would the right play the “race card” against Obama? Is Obama black?
Ohmygosh! Do we really have a BLACK president? As in, like, not 100% Caucasian? Who knew? Hey, people, wink wink, nudge nudge: Obama is one of those guys with mixed blood. SHhhh. Keep it quiet now. I mean, you know, let all your friends know, but only in code. Like, don’t call it black. Say that he’s “dark.” Don’t call his cheap shots “gutter politics,” call them “street ball politics.” Yeah, stuff like that. Because, you know, he’s one of them. Hey, aren’t Kenyans good distance runners? Call him a distance runner, but one who fades in the stretch. Everybody will know what that means. Or at least everybody who thinks like us. The rest of those fools will never know what we’re talking about. All those people who like the idea of voting for a black man — well, we can tell them Obama’s people are from Kansas. That means white, right? Cue up the Wizard of Oz references, guys. You know, Toto and not in Kansas anymore, all that stuff. That’s what we’ll preach in the “inner city.” For the rest of us real Americans, we’ll make Obama into a regular Kip Keino, if you know what I mean http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0ICn7-Uaqk — you know, the kinda guy who gets defeated by a real Kansan, like Jim Ryun.
Because, really, otherwise we wouldn’t know he was … ooh, this still gives me the creeps… that he was, or rather is, you know, like, black. I mean, if it weren’t for that, we’d all just be loving the Independent Payment Advisory Board death panel death spiral. We love big government, unless it’s controlled by people with dark dreams.
But really, America would never elect a black man as president if we all really knew. Never. Black. Black!! Lord forbid. We’ve just gotta spread the word. Maybe we can all buy some dog whistles and blow them. This guy doesn’t like work for welfare. This guy likes food stamps. This guy wants to tax “the man.” This guy wants to repaint the “White” House. And he really, really thinks he is going to “do the right thing.” Why, he’ll turn the Oval into a regular Spike Lee joint.
But here’s the real problem. I read somewhere the other day that we can’t even joke about Obama, because, well, any joke about Obama is by its very nature racist. What a shame. Because just the other day, from what I heard, a horse and Barack Obama walked into a bar…. And after that, Barack Obama, the Pope, and Henry Kissinger were in an airplane…. And did you hear that there once was a man named Obama, who visited a Bowlarama? Once he was within, he aimed at the pins, but….. Oh, gosh, that’s just too funny to repeat out loud.
But it’s not really believable, you know. Because a man like Obama wouldn’t be bowling; he’d be playing street ball. Wink wink. Nudge nudge.
Sir John on Charlie Crist’s Return to Florida Politics
Posted by on 8.27.12 @ 9:34AM
“Why Hal, tis my vocation. Hal, tis no sin for a man to labour in his vocation.”
Falstaff’s vocation was stealing purses. Charlie’s vocation is politics, considered by many a branch of the same activity. He has neither stomach nor talent for any other. It was just a matter of time.
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H/T to National Review Online
