Monthly Archives: September 2012

The Obama Administration: Complete Disaster, or Total Catastrophe?

Featured image How about an impromptu Power Line Video Contest for the election home stretch?  No cash prizes this time—just some good conversation here on the site.  I’m inspired by our faithful reader and frequent commenter Steve Litvintchouk, who reminded us about the famous collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940.  Legend has it that one of the engineers who helped design the bridge offered the explanation, “Musta put the decimal »

Can Romney Win the Economy and Lose the Election?

Featured image There is no question that the economy is issue #1 in this year’s presidential election; it is probably #2 and #3 as well. So if Mitt Romney can convince voters that he has a better shot at improving the economy than Obama, doesn’t that mean he will win? I would think so. Yet, to the long list of polling data that make no sense this year, add this one: Scott »

“C’mon Honey, Bring Your Mortars, We’re Going To A Spontaneous Demonstration”

Featured image As noted in the post just below, U.S. officials now acknowledge that U.S. intelligence knew within 24 hours of the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that it was a terrorist attack, and not a spontaneous demonstration, as the Obama administration claimed. As John McCain explains, it didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure this out. »

Obama administration knew right away that Libya attack was terrorism

Featured image Fox News confirms that, as Eli Lake first reported, U.S. intelligence officials knew within 24 hours of the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Libya that it was a terrorist attack and suspected Al Qaeda-tied elements were involved. In fact, two senior U.S. officials told Fox that the Obama administration internally designated the attack terrorism from the first, and that officials were looking for one specific suspect. As Fox News »

Meanwhile, back in the real world

Featured image . . .a recession may well be looming. GDP growth for the second quarter of this year has been revised down to 1.25 percent. That’s the slowest pace since the third quarter of 2011. According to Reuters, output was revised down to reflect weaker rates of consumer and business spending than previously estimated. Outlays on residential construction export growth were also not as robust as had been previously estimated. Nor »

Keep Calm and Carry On

Featured image As Paul noted last night, the Gallup Poll currently has Barack Obama leading Mitt Romney by six points, 50-44. Paul expressed skepticism about that finding, with which I agree. Why would Obama be enjoying a spike in support over the last week? Are voters happy to see an American ambassador murdered and the Middle East in flames, while our economy continues to stagnate? I don’t think so. Certainly the Rasmussen »

Climate Losers Getting Desperate

Featured image Did you know that climate change kills!  At least that’s the claim out in a new study yesterday, as reported in The Daily Beast, which, last I checked, relies heavily upon a hydrocarbon-intensive energy system to exist.  Anyway, according to the latest CO2-breathless story, climate change kills 400,000 people a year, and costs the global economy $1.2 trillion.  Jeepers: Maybe the climate—or Mother Nature Herself—should come with a warning label »

Forward, Thelma and Louise style

Featured image As election day approaches, I want to revisit a question that I examined a few months ago. What is the thesis of Obama’s campaign for reelection? What are his big plans for a second term? It seems surpassing strange, given the public’s general unhappiness about the present state of affairs, that Obama’s promise remains essentially more of the same. His campaign slogan is “Forward,” which is perfect in a sense. »

Oh, Whoa, Ohio!

Featured image The media line right now is that Obama is pulling away from Romney in the all-important state of Ohio, which, as all political junkies know, is not just a swing state—it is the swing state, as no Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio.    (The Wall Street Journal‘s lead story today is “Electoral Drama Shifts to Ohio.”)  I spent Monday and Tuesday in Ohio, and most »

Latest Gallup poll has Obama leading by 6 points

Featured image A new Gallup poll, covering the period September 19-25, shows President Obama ahead of Mitt Romney by 50 percent to 44 percent. As is its practice, Gallup polled registered, rather than only likely, voters. This lead is comparable to what Gallup showed following the Democratic convention. But that lead had disappeared, with Gallup showing Obama leading by a statistically insignificant 47-46 margin last week. Has the race changed this much »

A Washington Post cheap shot that even the replacement refs would spot

Featured image It was only a matter of time until leftists attempted to obtain political mileage from the unhappiness of football fans over the lockout of NFL referees. Today, Brad Plumer of the Washington Post set out to accomplish this. In an article called (in the print edition) “Wisconsin governor fumbles on Twitter,” Plumer criticized Scott Walker for calling for the return of the “real referees.” Walker is a Green Bay Packer »

The Democrats Are Too Desperate For Satire

Featured image Politico, like almost all media outlets, is trying its best to drag Barack Obama’s sorry carcass across the finish line. One of the leaders of that effort is the site’s chief political columnist, Roger Simon (no relation to our friend Roger L. Simon of PJ Media). Media liberals are desperately trying to push two themes on the American public: 1) Barack Obama is winning the presidential race, and 2) Mitt »

Chronicles of Ineptitude, Chapter 5

Featured image Continuing our occasional series of roundups of notable ineptitude in our world, how about the news that Pearl Jam front man Eddie Vedder is “very upset” by Mitt Romney’s comments about the 47 percent.  Now, my first mentor in Washington, the great M. Stanton Evans, explained to me when I was 22 years old that when there is a hot political controversy, the first thing to do is to find »

Romney’s Clinton Global Initiative Speech

Featured image Yesterday I noted that both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney had given foreign policy speeches in New York, which offered an opportunity for contrast. In yesterday’s post, I dissected Obama’s speech to the United Nations. Today it is Romney’s turn. First, I should note that Paul criticized Romney for participating in an event with Bill Clinton, which Paul called a “lovefest.” While experience has taught me rarely to disagree with »

Bumps In the Road

Featured image Of all of President Obama’s recent verbal blunders, his assertion that anti-American riots, attacks on American embassies and consulates, the tearing down of American flags and the murder of an American ambassador and others are “bumps on the road” to a glorious Arab spring ranks second only to “you didn’t build that.” The incomparable Michael Ramirez renders Obama’s tin-eared pronouncement in visual form. Note the empty chair, among other symbols »

Eugene Genovese, RIP

Featured image The news is out the afternoon of the passing of another giant of the intellectual world: Eugene Genovese, at the age of 82.  In one of those coincidences that may not be entirely coincidental in this mystical world of ours, on Sunday and Monday my mind turned to thoughts of Genovese, the great scholar of the South and slavery in America (especially his classic Roll, Jordan, Roll).  I was doing »

Support Mia Love For Congress [UPDATED: Mia Takes the Lead]

Featured image Mia Love is running for Congress in Utah’s 4th District. She was one of the stars of the GOP convention and is one of Power Line’s Pick Six candidates. Love is a solid conservative and a dynamic leader who can help get things done in D.C. and represent the GOP to a new generation of voters. Last week I caught up with Mia on the campaign trail and taped this »