2012 Presidential Election
November 6, 2012 — Scott Johnson
The Cretan philosopher Epimenides famously propounded the parodoxical assertion that all Cretans are liars. The cretin president Bill Clinton propounded his own version of the paradox yesterday in his capacity as Barack Obama’s foremost campaign surrogate. Campaigning for Obama in Philadelphia on Monday afternoon, Clinton regaled the crowd with his critique of the Romney campaign. “You’re laughing, but who wants a president who will knowingly, repeatedly tell you something he
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November 6, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Hmmm. The stock market is having a pretty good rally today. I heard John Steele Gordon predict months ago that if Romney won, the market would boom starting the next day. But markets anticipate: the rally would have started several weeks ago if Romney had a big lead. Maybe it starts today instead? I notice that defense stocks and some medical device stocks (both hurt by a second Obama term)
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November 6, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
I have been reluctant to predict the outcome of the presidential election because I believe the race is too close to call with any confidence. That, in any event, is what the national polls say. However, last night, during his Ricochet podcast, John asked me for a prediction. As a guest, I could hardly refuse. I picked Romney to win narrowly, both in the popular and the electoral vote. Why?
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November 6, 2012 — Steven Hayward
It’s not often that I take on board the views of the execrable Katrina vanden Heuvel, the plutocratic heiress (natch) who screeches from the pages of The Nation, but sometimes she inadvertently puts things in a highly useful perspective. Today she screeches in the Washington Post about how the election will determine whether FDR’s “freedoms” will be preserved. Just so! Hurricane Katrina directs our attention to FDR’s “four freedoms” speech
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November 6, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Win or lose today, Mitt Romney did something in the late innings of this campaign that I didn’t expect or think possible: he became a good candidate, one that, judging from the huge and enthusiastic crowds he drew late in the race, many people decided they wanted to vote for, rather than just use as a vote against Obama (though that is a fully sufficient reason). This in the end
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November 6, 2012 — Steven Hayward
One lefty that I follow on Twitter taunted that he doubted you’d ever see lines of white people lined up to vote. Guess what? There’s lots of long lines everywhere so far this morning, like this line in northern Virginia that someone sent to Glenn Reynolds: Keep your eye on the ball. Meanwhile:
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November 6, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Over at the Breitbart portal, Joel Pollak writes about footage from the 9/12 60 Minutes interview with Barack Obama that CBS left on the cutting room floor until this week. Like so much of the media formerly known as mainstream, CBS News is a hotbed of rabid leftists carefully reporting all the news that fits. At 60 Minutes, the situation is reductio ad absurdum. As Sarah Hoyt observes: “Whether we
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November 5, 2012 — Steven Hayward
I’ve still got lots of thoughts on the race, but if you’re like me, you’re all “thought-ed out” by this time on election eve. I’ll have very final thoughts in the morning. So let’s send off the night before with some of the last images that come to hand: (Look up “Bastiat, Broken Window Fallacy” if you don’t get it right away.)
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November 5, 2012 — John Hinderaker
The Democrats like to think that their “ground game” is the tie-breaker that will give them the edge in a tight election, but this year there is reason to believe that the Democrats’ efforts will be equaled, if not exceeded, by those of the Romney campaign. The Romney campaign is not only well-funded, but is run by one of the best organizers and managers of his generation, the candidate himself.
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November 5, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Ohio Rasmussen: Obama 49, Romney 49 U. of Cin: Obama 50, Romney 48.5 (with leaners included) Florida Jax Times-Union/Insider Advantage: Obama 47, Romney 52 Iowa ARG: Obama 48, Romney 49 Virginia Rasmussen: Obama 48, Romney 50
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November 5, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
I should have written much earlier about an interesting congressional race in my district, Maryland’s Eighth. It pits incumbent Democrat Chris Van Hollen against Republican challenger Ken Timmerman. What makes the race stand out is not its competitiveness; Van Hollen is very likely to win. Rather, the race stands out because of the sharp contrast between the two candidates on foreign policy, an issue seldom seen in the 2012 election.
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November 5, 2012 — Steven Hayward
From a 1949 Churchill speech that applies perfectly to tomorrow’s choice: The choice is between two ways of life: between individual liberty and State domination; between concentration of ownership in the hands of the State and the extension of ownership over the widest number of individuals; between the dead hand of monopoly and the stimulus of competition; between a policy of increasing restraint and a policy of liberating energy and
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November 5, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Occasional contributor Mark Falcoff is resident scholar emeritus at AEI. He is the author of books including Modern Chile, 1970-1989: A Critical History and Cuba the Morning After: Confronting Castro’s Legacy. Dr. Falcoff writes to comment on the German perspective on tomorrow’s election: At this writing it is not clear who will win tomorrow’s presidential election in the United States. But if, as some surveys suggest, Mitt Romney is the
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November 5, 2012 — John Hinderaker
One of my daughters sent me a link to this video last night. Called “Conservatism Is Calling,” it is reminiscent of America Rising, a video that was prepared in anticipation of the 2010 election and has been viewed 3.9 million times here on Power Line, making it the most-read or viewed post ever on this site. “Conservatism Is Calling” is different in that it is seven minutes long, but the
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November 5, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Reader Martin Karo writes from Yardley, Pennsylvania: I wasn’t expecting much from Romney’s Yardley rally; Bucks County was very hard hit by Hurricane Sandy, a large number of locals still lack electric power (including me), and the weather took a nasty cold snap. The cloud ceiling was rain-threateningly low, the air damp with a brisk wind. Anyone with any sense (and no power) would have been elsewhere, and without electricity
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November 4, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
As discussed in the post below, the auto industry bailout is a classic case of crony capitalism, and one which has not accomplished its stated goal of putting General Motors on a sound footing. Nonetheless, the Obama campaign has made the bailout the centerpiece of its efforts to hold the electoral votes of the crucial states of Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin. The web ad below, by American Future Fund, counters
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November 4, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Mary Katharine Ham finds that in the waning days of this election, Mitt Romney has closed the “likeability gap,” formerly thought to be President Obama’s greatest asset, in three national polls. The polls in question are Washington Post/ABC News (Obama viewed favorably by 54 percent, Romney by 53 percent); Politico/GW (Obama 51 percent; Romney 50 percent); and Fox News (Obama 52; Romney 51). It’s not difficult to believe that Romney
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