Monthly Archives: August 2011
August 24, 2011 — Steven Hayward
John and I have both noted Obama’s steadily weakening poll numbers, and the new polls showing Obama essentially tied with Romney or Perry, and leading Ron Paul by only 2 points—Ron Paul!!—should be setting off alarm bells in the White House situation room campaign office. [UPDATE: Rasmussen this afternoon has Obama ahead by only one point over Ron Paul. That calls for three exclamation points!!!] At this point in 1979, even with
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August 24, 2011 — Scott Johnson
With Left Turn: How Liberal Media Bias Distorts the American Mind, Tim Groseclose has written an important book. Indeed, it may be the book of the year. Professor Groseclose measures media bias with social-scientific methods and concludes that: (i) all mainstream media outlets have a liberal bias, and (ii) while some supposedly conservative outlets—such as the Washington Times or Fox News Special Report—do lean right, their conservative bias is less
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August 23, 2011 — John Hinderaker
If we have any geniuses in American public life these days, they are Mark Steyn and Michael Ramirez. The earthquake along the east coast had barely subsided when Ramirez drew this cartoon: A much more devastating earthquake is on its way, and we must dismantle the government’s fiscal house of cards before it arrives.
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August 23, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Joe Biden is in Mongolia, where officials took him out for a little archery practice (that’s the Prime Minister to his right in the photo). Joe Biden, a bow and an arrow, and that familiar gleam in his eye: what could possibly go wrong? We can only hope there are no Tea Partiers within range!
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August 23, 2011 — John Hinderaker
One thing about Twitter is that it lends itself to quantitative analysis. Over a short time, it can convey a snapshot of how a thin but important slice of the public is reacting to events. It seems especially noteworthy that Barack Obama, who famously marshaled social media in support of his 2008 campaign, has now become something of a laughingstock on Twitter. The Hill does the math with respect to
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August 23, 2011 — Scott Johnson
When I wrote “Rule by decree,” about the Obama administration’s discretionary suspension of deportation proceedings involving illegal aliens deemed not to present public safety of national security risks, I intended to highlight the matter as representative of Obama’s misguided treatment of public policy issues. I forgot to include the discretionary aspect of the relief from otherwise applicable legal requirements that has come to play such a prominent role in the
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August 23, 2011 — John Hinderaker
We taped Episode 15 of the Hinderaker-Ward Experience last night. The podcast features a very fun interview with author C.J. Box (“Chuck” to his friends). We talked about his Joe Pickett books and his latest bestseller, Back of Beyond. We also discussed how one gets to be a successful author, and learned that Box is a long-time Power Line fan. I really do recommend Back of Beyond. It is a
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August 23, 2011 — John Hinderaker
I wrote here about a New York Times hit piece on Darrell Issa, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, that contained so many errors that if you subtract them all, there is not much left of the story. The article was by Times reporter Eric Lichtblau. The paper has so far issued a single correction, but Issa’s office has itemized numerous additional errors that go to the
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August 23, 2011 — John Hinderaker
President Obama dived to a -26 this morning on Scott Rasmussen’s Approval Index, the worst showing of his presidency so far. Only 19% of likely voters strongly approve of Obama’s performance, while 45% strongly disapprove. This chart shows Obama’s decline graphically: Overall, 44% of likely voters approve of Obama’s performance, while 56% disapprove.
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August 23, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Nick Ashford died yesterday at the age of 70. I am shocked and saddened to learn of his death, both because he appeared to be much younger and because when we saw him perform with his wife and creative partner, Valerie Simpson, only a couple of years ago, he looked great. Here is what I wrote at the time: Nicholas Ashford and Valerie Simpson are the gifted husband and wife
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August 23, 2011 — Steven Hayward
So what going on this morning? Lots of things. I mentioned Saturday Michael Kazin’s new book, American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation, which comes out today. My Kindle copy downloaded at 12:01 am, so I’ve already got my first yucks in from the opening pages. Whaddyaknow: Kazin wrote the book partly with the support of a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Your tax dollars at
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August 22, 2011 — John Hinderaker
The philosophy of the Tea Party movement can be summed up in the proposition that the federal government should stop racking up massive debt, and should do so by cutting spending. This view is routinely denounced by Democratic Party politicians and journalists as extreme; outrageous; radical. They trot out various “experts” to support this view. In fact, however, the Tea Party’s perspective is precisely the one that is supported by
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August 22, 2011 — John Hinderaker
On Friday, I noted Charles Koch’s simple but powerful response to Warren Buffett’s “tax the rich even more” op-ed: Much of what the government spends money on does more harm than good; this is particularly true over the past several years with the massive uncontrolled increase in government spending. I believe my business and non-profit investments are much more beneficial to societal well-being than sending more money to Washington. Koch
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August 22, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Kevin Mooney tabulates the damage that the Obama administration is doing to the Gulf economy, and to the energy industry generally: Ten oil rigs have left the Gulf of Mexico since the Obama Administration imposed a moratorium on deepwater oil and gas drilling in May 2010 and others could follow soon…. The rigs have left the Gulf for locations in Egypt, Congo, French Guiana, Liberia, Nigeria and Brazil. It gets
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August 22, 2011 — John Hinderaker
A long-time reader writes: The MSM has been hard at work portraying Rick Perry as a wild man. And the Texas Governor provided an assist with his comment suggesting that Ben Bernanke was “almost treasonous” for adopting quantitative easing policy. But some in the MSM, and a few long-time observers of Texas politics, have suggested that Perry is crazy like a fox. In their view, his “Red Meat” remarks, though
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August 22, 2011 — John Hinderaker
The race to succeed Anthony Weiner in New York’s heavily Democratic Ninth Congressional District is proving competitive, and the New York Times is surprised: [T]he race has become something far more unsettling to Democrats: a referendum on the president and his party that is highlighting the surprisingly raw emotions of the electorate. National Democrats, alarmed by a poll that showed the contest far closer than anticipated, are privately fretting that
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August 22, 2011 — Steven Hayward
John’s post yesterday about the mysteries of bank bailouts prompts me to put down in pixels my political field theory of the cycle of political inflection points between 2008 and today. Like John I don’t claim to understand the ins-and-out of the global financial system, and don’t know whether the government had to backstop the banking system to the huge extent it did in the panic of September 2008. It
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