President ’08

Poise by Contrast

By Justin Katz | October 19, 2008 |

Ann Althouse isn’t sure how to understand Saturday Night Live‘s script as delivered by Alec Baldwin, standing next to Sarah Palin: Alec Baldwin got to stand next to Palin and insult her — by accident, thinking she was Tina — and then got to say something that’s true: Sarah Palin is more attractive than Tina…

Putting the Inside In

By Justin Katz | October 19, 2008 |

Mark Patinkin’s mea culpa back on the twelfth gave a vaguely unsettling impression that he believes skill at being a Washington insider ought to translate to promotion as a Washington insider: I’ll admit, Palin did better in the debate than I expected, and certainly deserves credit for becoming governor. But when you picture a possible…

Multiple choice options regarding Obama’s “spread the wealth” comment

By Donald B. Hawthorne | October 18, 2008 |

John Podhoretz: Is Obama’s “spread the wealth around” remark to Joe the Plumber the 2008 version of: a) “There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe”? b) “I had a discussion with my daughter, Amy, the other day, before I came here, to ask her what the most important issue was. She said the control…

Crisply defining the core problem with Obama’s economic and tax policies

By Donald B. Hawthorne | October 18, 2008 |

Expanding on the problems with Obama’s economic and tax policy issues described here, John McCain finally nailed it today in describing the true essence of Obama’s economic and tax policies: My opponent’s answer showed that economic recovery isn’t even his top priority. His goal, as Senator Obama put it, is to “spread the wealth around.”…

To Democrats, “Cutting” Taxes Means Not Raising Them

By Justin Katz | October 18, 2008 |

Surprisingly, here’s a point I haven’t heard made: One thing: the 95% number is fundamentally dishonest because I’m pretty sure it measures against the CBO baseline — which assumes all of the ’01 and ’03 tax cuts expire in 2010. Politically, that’s nonsense. But it allows Obama to count extending the politically popular Bush tax…

The Problems with John McCain

By Donald B. Hawthorne | October 17, 2008 |

One of the most striking observations in reading comments by Obama partisans here on Anchor Rising is their utter unwillingness to engage in any debate about the substantive policy issues with people who oppose their viewpoints. Just like their candidate has raised the “racist” label when pushed to explain himself. Charles Krauthammer, who has previously…

The Palin Effect with an Exclamation Point

By Justin Katz | October 17, 2008 |

I’ve had the same reaction to the investigation of Joe the Plumber that Don noted earlier this morning. It’s frightening, and one gets the sense that it’s a taste of what would be to come (perhaps outside of public view) were Obama to be elected. One wonders whether the stage was set by the American…

Presidential Candidates Put Things in Perspective

By Marc Comtois | October 17, 2008 |

The Al Smith Dinner is an opportunity for presidential candidates to take a break and poke a little fun at each other and themselves. Here is John McCain (part 1 and part 2) and Barack Obama. Kinda puts things in perspective. As I’ve written before, while politics is important, they need to be kept in…

Healthcare Intrigue

By Justin Katz | October 17, 2008 |

Granted, they devoted some time to debate talk, but it says something encouraging that Andrew and Matt Allen actually pushed past the time slot on Wednesday to further discuss healthcare. I, for one, would have liked a whole hour of that conversation. Stream by clicking here, or download it.

Yep, that’d be my reaction

By Donald B. Hawthorne | October 16, 2008 |

Getting a lot of emails along these lines: I don’t know why I’m e-mailing you, except that I just need to vent to someone on The Corner. Pass this around to the others if you like — I bet I’m not the only one. I really don’t like McCain. I’ll probably vote for him just…