National Politics
In part blaming the Illinois legislature for failing to pass a law that would give the people of Illinois the chance to elect Barack Obama’s successor, Governor Rod Blagojevich has appointed former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris to the United States Senate, saying, The people of Illinois are entitled to have two United States senators…
Obama’s “task force to bolster the standard of living of middle-class and working families in America” can’t possibly succeed at its stated objectives, because the ideas and priorities that constitute its basis for formation are deeply flawed, even inimical to the goal that it professes. Here’s a bit of ready evidence (emphasis added): The effort,…
Everybody’s talking about the Electoral College and the national popular vote movement, ’round here. Ian’s on it in the Phoenix. Matt Sledge talks it up on RI Future (although he doesn’t think it pertinent to mention that he’s the executive director of FairVote RI). Most interesting, however, is Edward Fitzpatrick’s column, because the recent FairVote…
Driving into work and listening to NPR (yup, really) I heard this story about Obama’s nationwide “Change is Coming” house party meetup things (there were some in Rhode Island, too). My first thought was: “It’s the holiday season, and these people have no better way to spend their Sunday than regurgitating Obama talking points at…
The Providence Journal’s front-page lead for the New York Times version of the story that Monique mentioned this morning is precious: Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich is accused of trying to profit from his appointment of Barack Obama’s successor in a scheme that didn’t involve the president-elect. It’s possible I’ve missed such things in the past,…
Bill Ayers tries to rewrite his personal life history in this New York Times editorial. J. G. Thayer doesn’t let him get away with airbrushing history: …The facts are simple: Ayers — by his own admission; he described himself after his trial as “guilty as hell; free as a bird” — should have been sent…
As the master of malaprops, Yogi Berra, once said: This is like deja vu all over again. I guess it isn’t enough to pull out all the old books which tackled the realities around the Great Depression and FDR’s New Deal versus the commonly held myths. It now looks like the time to also pull…
Melanie Phillips: Trevor Loudon has got hold of a fascinating analysis of Prez-elect Obama’s administrative appointments by Mark Rudd and Jeff Jones, two former Weather Underground terrorists (chums of Obama’s old ally [chance acquaintance], the unrepentant former WU terrorist William Ayers). The two of them are now on the board of Movement for a Democratic…
Continuing the earlier discussion about the Detroit bailouts, there is a broader debate taking shape: Obama Chief of Staff Hopes to Exploit the Economic Crisis to Expand the Growth of Government: In earlier posts I have emphasized the risk that the combination of economic crisis and unified Democratic control of Congress and the White House…
Glenn Reynolds: Though people still speak of a decision to go to war as something done to enhance the political position of incumbent presidents, history doesn’t support that. Truman fought in Korea and lost the next election. LBJ had to give up the White House over Vietnam. George H.W. Bush won in Iraq and enjoyed…