February 6, 2012 — John Hinderaker

Happy Birthday, President Reagan

Steve noted earlier today that it is Ronald Reagan’s 101st birthday. Americans For Prosperity released this video in honor of the occasion, contrasting Reagan’s leadership with that of the current president: »
February 6, 2012 — Steven Hayward

Rock of Ages, and Age of Rockers

Featured imageOr maybe this post should be titled, “From Rock to Rockers.”  Rock and roll may never die, but rockers clearly can’t escape the mortal coil.  The local NBC affiliate website is running one of those cruel before-and-after collections of famous rockers.  Makes you realize the baby boom will end not with a bang but a whimper. I recall Jay Leno joking about one of the forlorn Woodsrock reunions that “they »
February 6, 2012 — Scott Johnson

From Wilson to Obama

Featured imageSteve Hayward has been been touting his new book on the presidents from Wilson to Obama in a good-humored sort of way, but the book makes a substantial contribution to the subject. The book is officially published and available in bookstores next week, though it is shipping now from Amazon. The book comes with recommendations from Jonah Goldberg, Ed Meese and Michael Barone. Here is what I said about it »
February 6, 2012 — Steven Hayward

Deconstructing Romney: Maybe Mitt Should Get a PIG?

Featured imageOkay, so as we saw with Romney’s off-the-cuff disaster about not being concerned about poor people last week, he’s not exactly another Great Communicator.   But if he wins, maybe he could do America and the presidency a service by shutting up.  From The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents: There are two main reasons for the development of the presidency as we know it today. The first is that the »
February 6, 2012 — Scott Johnson

Wonder dog

Featured imageThe current issue of the New York Times Magazine publishes Melissa Fay Greene’s article “Wonder dog.” Greene is a gifted writer. This is an incredibly moving article with heroes including an adoptive mom, two service dog trainers, and a Golden Retriever named Chancer. The family to which Chancer is dispatched measures time in two phases: Before Chancer and After Chancer. Check out the story and you’ll see why. After reading »
February 6, 2012 — Scott Johnson

Obamacare against the Church, cont’d

Featured imageIn a USA Today column this morning HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius defends the Obamacare regulation requiring almost all Catholic institutions to provide health insurance including contraception, sterilization and abortifacients morning. She isn’t that forthcoming describing the regulation, but that’s what the column is about. What does she have to say? Not much. Her lips are moving, but she’s not saying anything — sort of like the boss. Sebelius doesn’t defend »
February 5, 2012 — John Hinderaker

Crisis and Commitment

Featured imageI had a hectic week last week–ten flights in seven days. But one of my travels was for pleasure, not business, as I spent the weekend in Palm Springs participating in the Koch brothers’ semi-annual seminar. It was my first visit to Palm Springs; compared to Minnesota in January, it was paradise–perfect temperatures and soft, dry desert air. If you’ve never been there, you should consider going: The seminar was »
February 5, 2012 — John Hinderaker

Liberal Bullies to Besiege CPAC

Featured imageI’m not going to make it to CPAC this year; too busy in the office. This headline, though, really makes me wish I could attend: “Big labor plans ‘Occupy CPAC.’” That’s right–union goons are going to try to interfere with the conservative gathering. The D.C. AFL-CIO sent a call out to its members: What do Wisconsin Governor SCOTT WALKER, presidential candidates MITT ROMNEY, NEWT GINGRICH, RICK SANTORUM and House Budget »
February 5, 2012 — John Hinderaker

Sewage Stalemate In Samaria

Featured imageIt seems sewage has been much in the news lately, from perhaps the most epic of the epic greenfails that Steve has documented to the appalling personal hygiene of the Occupiers. Today’s sewage story comes from Samaria, where the Israelis are trying to provide proper sewage disposal in twenty Arab villages, and the Arabs want nothing to do with it: Swirling in the strikingly green valley below the southern Samaria »
February 5, 2012 — Steven Hayward

Super Bowl Ad Watch

Featured imageCourtesy of The Hill (and an Instapundit link), the following ad from MoveOn.org was rejected for the 2004 Super Bowl because it was “too political.”  But they miss the obvious irony here: watch it all the way to the end (it’s only 30 seconds long), and ask yourself if MoveOn.Org would run this ad today.  (In fact, it looks a lot like one of the runners-up in the Power Line »
February 6, 2012 — Steven Hayward

Fathers and Schools: Presidential Parallels

Featured imageMichael Medved has an interesting article in today’s Wall Street Journal reflecting on the strange continuity that this election marks the seventh in a row featuring either a privileged son or a man with no relationship with his biological father, and wonders why: In one sense, these extreme backgrounds now dominate the presidential process because that process itself has become so extreme. A rising politico can no longer wait for »
February 5, 2012 — Steven Hayward

Pre-Game Notes

Featured imageNo, not that game.  (Though my chicken wings are marinating.)  The election game.  I watched the “Meet the Press” roundtable this morning, and I was struck with the firestorm David Brooks set off by criticizing the Obama Administration’s moves against the Catholic Church that we have discussed here on Power Line, which Brooks says is being under-covered by the mainstream media.  Brooks, a secular Jew, thinks it is a “huge »
February 5, 2012 — John Hinderaker

Communism Collapsed: Who Cares?

Featured imageIn the Daily Telegraph, Janet Daley asks a question that has often occurred to me, as well: why has the collapse of Communism had so little impact on political discourse in the West? [I]n spite of the official agreement that there is no other way to organise the economic life of a free society than the present one (with a few tweaks), there are an awful lot of people implicitly »
February 5, 2012 — Steven Hayward

Deconstructing Romney, Part 1

Featured imageGiven the increasingly likelihood that Romney is on his way to the GOP nomination, and noting the continued resistance to the idea both in comments here on Power Line and out in the general world (despite John’s endorsement!), I’ll start a new series evaluating how to think about whether he’ll make a good president, or what is required of him to be a good president.  Now, it’s a pretty low »
February 5, 2012 — Scott Johnson

What would Plato do?

Featured imageIt wasn’t enought for President Obama to claim the endorsement of Judaism, Christianity and Islam for his policies of class warfare in his National Prayer Breakfast speech this past week. Obama also cited Plato as stating a version of the Golden Rule supporting his policies. Where’d he get that Idea? Apparently from a statement made by Socrates in The Republic, but no version of the Golden Rule lends support to »