Monthly Archives: January 2008

McCain’ s victory speech

was good and, up to a point, gracious. McCain spoke warmly of Giuliani, whose collapse fueled this victory and whose endorsement would (will?) make McCain the strong front-runner. He also commended Huckabee, whose surprising strength has hurt Romney throughout. He made particular reference to the humor Huck has injected into the campaign. As for Romney, McCain had nothing positive to say. He simply noted that Romney and his supporters ran »

What does it mean?

A victory by John McCain tonight of, say, 2 to 4 percent tonight would not, in itself, be anywhere near fatal for Mitt Romney. It would provide a small dose of evidence that, even though many rank-and-file Republicans don’t like McCain, he may be a bit more popular than Mitt Romney among Republicans collectively, at least when he receives endorsements from a state’s key politicians. But this would be his »

McCain’s night?

With about one third of the vote counted, the Florida primary is too close to call officially. However, McCain leads by about 20,000 votes and two percentage points. Perhaps more signifcantly, Michael Barone, having looked at the vote in two key counties, seems to think the tea leaves point in favor of McCain. In particular, Romney apparently failed to obtain the margin he probably needs in the Orlando area. It »

Obama tries his hand at damage control — and pandering

In several posts last week, I presented information about Barack Obama that, in my view, should raise concerns for Jews, especially Jews who care about the security of Israel. Now, Obama has held a telephone conference with “the Jewish news media” in an attempt to address some of these concerns. I’m not sure what constitutes the Jewish news media, but there is reason to believe that invitations to the call »

Simplified but not simple

This is the first election in which more than perhaps three people have had any curiosity at all about which candidate I support. Yet, to my great frustration, for the first time I’ve been unable to decide. The problem has been that the strengths and weaknesses of four candidates in a pretty good field seem to cancel each other out in an almost diabolical way. After I attended a dinner »

A kind assassin

Last week Joe Cole, Chelsea’s outstanding attacking midfielder, ended Everton’s dream of participating in the Carling Cup final this year by scoring a brilliant goal just as the match seemed to turning in our favor. Nonetheless, Cole was sufficiently impressed by Everton’s performance during the home-away semi-final to say: I think you’re looking at a top-four side here. They’ve got players like Arteta, Cahill, Johnson and Osman; top players. They’re »

Lindsey Graham in a nutshell

I link to this post from Mickey Kaus not because he cited what I wrote about John McCain’s unfounded attack on Mitt Romney, or even because he wrote a clarification to make sure he got my meaning correct, but rather the post contains a great line about Lindsey Graham: “He’s McCain with all the self-righteousness but none of the heroism.” »

A speech divided against itself

The first half of President Bush’s State of the Union swan song brought together a hodgepodge of disconnected themes and proposals. Devoted to domestic issues, the first half of the speech barely alluded to the war in which we are engaged. The discussion of taxes — the proposal to make his tax cuts permanent, the vow of no new taxes, the request that those who support higher taxes send their »

Another view of Governor Sebelius

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius gave the Democrats’ lame response to President Bush’s lame State of the Union address tonight. Michelle Malkin live blogged both the SOTU and the Democratic response. Michelle bitingly captured the governor’s television persona: Boy, is she stiff. Her neck muscles are really, really tense. She should get closer to the fire. She needs to be warmed up. Governor Sebelius is in fact capable of animation. As »

State of the Union, Origins of the Surge

I missed President Bush’s State of the Union speech tonight; we tuned in just in time to see Chuck Schumer standing and applauding. By then the speech was about over, but even the last five minutes were a useful reminder of the President’s power, even in the last year of his administration. We didn’t live blog the speech tonight, but a number of our readers did, here. Their running commentary »

McCain Denies Alito Quote

John McCain held a blogger conference call today, mostly to respond to John Fund’s claim in the Wall Street Journal that he might not appoint a judge like Sam Alito who “wore his conservatism on his sleeve.” (Which, by the way, I don’t think Alito did.) McCain said that he doesn’t recall making the statement attributed to him by Fund, and doesn’t know its source. McCain emphasized that he supported »

Mark Falcoff: Good news from Venezuela

Mark Falcoff is resident scholar emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute. Mark last reported for us on Code Pink’s helping hand to Hugo Chavez. Today he writes: The long term prospects of Chavez’s “revolutionary” state in Venezuela are not good. A long report in the Spanish edition of today’s Miami Herald lays it out. Since the same story does not appear in the English edition I thought I’d offer at »

John McCain’s litmus test

John Fund reports on John McCain’s opportunity to make peace with conservatives and wonders whether McCain will take advantage of it. Fund’s column includes this tidbit: Mr. McCain has told conservatives he would be happy to appoint the likes of Chief Justice John Roberts to the Supreme Court. But he indicated he might draw the line on a Samuel Alito, because “he wore his conservatism on his sleeve.” No one »

A Run on the Bank

Every indication is that Rudy Giuliani is sinking like a stone in Florida. Barring a miracle, he’ll finish either a bit above or a bit below Mike Huckabee. Once Florida Republicans saw that Rudy was dropping in the polls, I think a lot of them jumped ship, thinking they’d rather make a choice between McCain and Romney than use their vote on a candidate who isn’t going to win. Hence, »

Five theses on Bill Clinton in South Carolina

Victor Davis Hanson nails five theses to the wall regarding Bill Clinton’s stump speech for Ms. Hillary in South Carolina. He writes somewhat more bluntly than regular practitioners in the mainstream media. Here is thesis 5: It would be cruel, but understandable to ask amid these long encomia on Hillary »

State of the Union

President Bush gives his seventh and perhaps final State of the Union address tonight. The New York Times and the Washington Post provide unfriendly previews that note the challenging circumstances under which it is to be given. Fox News highlights the speech’s expected themes. Last night Fox ran Bret Baier’s interview/special “Fighting to the finish.” The special showed speechwriters Bill McGurn, Marc Thiessen and Chris Michel at work on the »

A clarifying moment

The death of terror master George Habash is worthy of note. Habash was the founder of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist/terrorist group devoted to the destruction of Israel. After its founding in 1969, it helped pioneer the use of airplane hijackings as an instrument of terrorist propaganda. The PFLP joined the PLO and became its second largest faction after Fatah. Habash’s life and beliefs are »