Monthly Archives: August 2012

An “optimal” speech, and then some

Featured image When Mitt Romney chose Paul Ryan as his running mate, my initial take viewed Ryan as a “sub-optimal” choice. Time will tell whether this assessment proves correct. Thankfully, events to date suggest that I was wrong. The most notable such event, of course, was tonight’s brilliant speech to the convention, one of the best I can recall. I’ve long believed that the most persuasive arguments — be it in a »

A Fantastic Night For the Cause of Freedom

Featured image It was a great night for the Republican Party and the cause of freedom. All the speakers were good: Tim Pawlenty, Susana Martinez, John Thune and others. But the headliners, of course, were Condoleezza Rice and Paul Ryan. They were both sensational. Condoleezza Rice is a cerebral woman and a life-long Republican, but conservatives have sometimes wondered whether she is really one of us. She eliminated that doubt tonight. Her »

Susana Martinez’s speech

Featured image I confess to wondering about the decision to give the New Mexico governor a plum speaking time on a big convention night, just in front of Paul Ryan. But then I had never really seen Susana Martinez in action. Now that I have, I wonder no more. The sky could be the limit for this rising star. »

Condi Rice’s speech

Featured image The stated question raised by former Secretary of State Rice’s speech tonight was: Where does America stand? But the real question was: Why should a moderate, including a moderate African-American, vote for the Romney-Ryan ticket? Rice answered the question thoughtfully, in the understated manner that we have come to expect from her. By the end, I believe she had knocked it out of the park. »

Mike Huckabee’s speech

Featured image Mike Huckabee is a political natural. I first became aware of this when my daughter, no social conservative, told me that of all the candidates who visited Dartmouth during the 2008 New Hampshire primary season, she was most impressed by Huckabee (no, she didn’t vote for him). Tonight, Huckabee got off to a weak start when he explained his support for his 2008 rival, Mitt Romney, by referring to their »

Rob Portman’s speech

Featured image Rob Portman reportedly was near the top of the VP short list. But for his important involvement in the Bush administration, he might have received the nod. Portman is known as a cerebral guy. But tonight he is demonstrating strong qualities on the stump as well. Portman has hammered home perhaps the single most telling indictment of President Obama — the fact that his budget failed to gain a single »

Ryan Fires Up the Wisconsin Crowd

Featured image While you are waiting for Paul Ryan’s speech tonight, here is a little temporary fix: earlier today, he and Mrs. Ryan met with the Wisconsin delegation and Paul got them fired up. He offers a clue as to why the Democrats fear the Romney/Ryan ticket–he explains what you do after you get elected, following in the footsteps of Scott Walker: »

John McCain’s speech

Featured image He’s hammering Barack Obama on foreign policy. It may not advance the political ball, but needs to be done anyway. Plus McCain still appeals to some independents who may not be fans of Mitt Romney. McCain savaged Romney in 2008, so it’s helpful for him to stress, as he is doing repeatedly, that he trusts Romney to lead on foreign policy, an area in which the candidate has virtually no »

Paul Ryan’s speech

Featured image Paul Ryan will address the Republican Convention and the nation tonight. Here are excerpts from his prepared remarks: I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old – and I know that we are ready. Our nominee is sure ready. His whole life has prepared him for this moment – to »

The Democrats’ Koch Obsession Hits A New Low

Featured image I have been marveling at the level of hysteria, loathing and fear manifested in the Democratic Party’s fundraising emails, of which I get several every day. (I can only imagine how many actual Democrats receive.) To say that their tone is both low-class and panic-stricken would be an understatement. This one, received today from Adam Broder, Research Director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is a classic: John — The »

Join Us Tonight On Power Line Live

Featured image If you want to chat with fellow conservatives and share your observations while you watch the GOP convention tonight, log on to Power Line Live. You can either follow this link or click the “Live” button on the masthead. Sign in on the lower right-hand corner, using either Facebook or Twitter. Last night a good time was had by all; tonight should be the same, or even more so with »

A Further Word on Political Rhetoric

Featured image A very thoughtful Power Line reader, Marco V. Fabbri, writes from Rome with this reaction to my post this morning on political rhetoric at the GOP convention: I am an Italian reader of PowerLine blog, which I appreciate very much. I am a conservative and a Roman Catholic, and I am very interested in US politics. I wish to share some thoughts with Steven Hayward, so that you can freely use »

An Omen for November, or Just Karma?

Featured image I think it was the 1984 American Political Science Association (APSA) annual convention (Woodstock for political science geeks, one of whom I am which) where a straw poll found that of the attending academic political scientists, over 90 percent were going to vote for Walter Mondale. Most of the remaining 10 percent were going to vote for someone further left; Reagan was only drawing about 2 percent. This comes to »

Yahoo news fires lefty Washington Bureau chief over deplorable anti-Republican remark

Featured image Yesterday, David Chalian, then the Washington bureau chief of Yahoo News, stated of the Republicans, “They’re not concerned at all [about Hurricane Issac]; they’re happy to have a party with black people drowning.” Such statements by leftists, including some in the MSM, aren’t rare. Living in the Washington D.C. area, I’ve heard them made by people answering to these descriptions. In fact, I heard them following Hurricane Katrina. Nor should »

The Freeh report challenged

Featured image Twenty-nine former chairs of the Penn State faculty Senate have blasted Louis Freeh and the NCAA in connection with their actions in response to the Jerry Sandusky child sex scandal. As to Freeh’s report, they state: “On a foundation of scant evidence, the report adds layers of conjecture and supposition to create a portrait of fault, complicity, and malfeasance that could well be at odds with the truth.” That’s an »

A Note on Political Rhetoric

Featured image Last night Paul logged his approval of Rick Santorum’s speech, while I appended John Podhoretz’s dissent. I’m closer to JPod on this for general reasons—I’m not a big Santorum fan—though he did have some good lines in the speech, especially the line about how his immigrant grandparents got only one thing from the government: freedom.  It is not remarked upon often enough that liberals seldom talk about freedom or liberty »

Why 2012 isn’t 1980

Featured image James Pethokoukas has written a characteristically insightful piece about the differences between this year’s presidential election and that of 1980. Like this year, the 1980 election occurred in a very poor economy presided over by a Democratic president. And it produced a Republican landslide. Thus, some pundits, especially on the Republican side, expected a comfortable victory for Mitt Romney. But the polls show that, if anything, Romney is slightly behind »