National Politics
Rich Lowry and Ramesh Ponnuru had an excellent cover piece in the National Review before last on the domestic battle over American exceptionalism, which divides pretty conveniently along the current line of left and right. President Obama is obviously a key figure in the dispute. Not surprisingly, what strikes me is the gargantuan task facing…
Yesterday I mentioned the report that federal employees make more than private employees in most occupations. Now we learn that 6 out of the 10 wealthiest counties ( and 11 of the top 25!) are suburbs of Washington, D.C. Rank County Population Median household income 1 Loudoun County 277,433 $110,643 2 Fairfax County 1,005,980 $106,785…
Chatter about the comparison of circumstances between President Obama and President Reagan has been everywhere, and it all falls apart on one basic question. Here’s an example from Henry Olsen (subscription required): Where does this leave us? Republicans should first remember that politics is like tennis, and the Democrats are serving. It’s very hard to…
National Review conducted a poll (subscription required) to find out what we all know about the tea party movement. First of all, Americans think well of the movement. McLaughlin and Associates asked respondents whether the tea parties represented an angry fringe or consisted of “citizens concerned about the country’s economic future.” 57% chose the latter,…
When people behave irrationally, there are fundamentally two possibilities: incompetence or calculation. I fear that Andy McCarthy may be right that we’re looking at the latter, in Washington: I hear Republicans getting giddy over the fact that “reconciliation,” if it comes to that, is a huge political loser. That’s the wrong way to look at…
… after accusing them of carrying swastikas, implying that they incite violence and calling them astroturf. [Thanks to NewsBusters’ Noel Sheppard for sitting through the interview so as to bring this to light.] [House Speaker Nancy] PELOSI … But, you know, we share some of the views of the Tea Partiers in terms of the…
Reuters. “It breaks my heart that 10 years ago we had a balanced budget, that we were on the way of paying down the debt of the United States of America,” [Secretary of State Hillary Rodham] Clinton said. “I served on the budget committee in the Senate, and I remember as vividly as if it…
One question. Why?? [H/T the Fred Thompson Show.] If last year’s bailout of the financial industry caused you to start muttering words like investment banker and robber baron in the same sentence, it may cheer you to know that Timothy Geithner, the man responsible for crafting much of that bailout, agrees with you. “I am,”…
I caught about 25 minutes or so of President Obama’s State of the Union address on 630AM/99.7FM WPRO on my way home last night, which served to make me even more relieved to pull into the driveway. Put aside all the cortex-numbing spin, the take away message from what I heard, and what I’ve read…
The Providence Journal ran this story on the front page, Saturday, with the headline “Stealth GOP effort helped Brown win.” The first paragraphs surely give comfort to those who continue to prefer that the upset not be proof of real grassroots unrest and voter discontent with the Democrats’ policies: The stunning Republican come-from-behind victory in…