October 3, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Republicans Gaining With Voters

Featured image This Morning Consult poll is a week old, but still worth noting. It finds that Democrats’ standing with voters has declined significantly since 2020, while Republicans have gained. Of course, this is what one would expect with the disastrous Biden administration, but it is good to see it reflected here: I suppose Matt Gaetz is undermining the Republicans’ edge on the “capable of governing” metric. This is the key chart. »
October 3, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley

It Has To Be Su

Featured imageJulie Su, Joe Biden’s pick for Labor Secretary, can avoid Senate confirmation and keep running the Labor Department. This is due to a September 21 ruling by Edda Emmanuelli Perez, general counsel of the General Accountability Office (GAO). “As the Deputy Secretary of Labor, Ms. Su may serve as Acting Secretary under section 552 until a successor is appointed,” Emmanuelli Perez ruled. “The Vacancies Act’s time limitations do not apply »
October 3, 2023 — John Hinderaker

America’s Worst Prosecutor

Featured imageIt’s a stiff competition. Democratic Party prosecutors who have brought frivolous charges against Donald Trump are certainly in the mix. Nevertheless, I would award that title to Mary Moriarty, the County Attorney for Hennepin County, Minnesota. Hennepin is the state’s most populous county, and it includes Minneapolis along with a number of other high-crime towns. Nevertheless, Moriarty ran for office on a platform of not prosecuting criminals, and she is »
October 3, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Kevin Roche: A model proposal

Featured imageOur friend Kevin Roche is the former general counsel of UnitedHealth, former chief executive officer of United Health’s Ingenix (now Optum Insight) data analysis division, and the proprietor of Heathy Skeptic. When authorities announced that Minnesota would be using a $17 million federal grant to learn from its mistakes in Covid-19 forecasting and improve its forecasts the next time around, we thought that Kevin had an important contribution to make. »
October 3, 2023 — Steven Hayward

The Daily Chart: Ukraine Stalemate

Featured imageAs I wrote in the New York Post several months back, the Biden’s Administration’s Ukraine objectives remain unclear, and their policy with regard to arming the Ukrainians is halting and appears to be an attempt to finely calibrate our support such that Ukraine does not lose, but does not decisively win either. The war seems to have settled into a stalemate, approaching World War I style trench warfare making it »
October 3, 2023 — Scott Johnson

The compleat Democrat

Featured imageYou can see why California Governor Gavin Newsom had to go beyond California to find a fitting replacement for the late Dianne Feinstein in the United States Senate. He put a lot of thought into it. He conducted an extensive search. Before Feinstein’s body was cold, Newsom was ready with his announcement. He had found the compleat Democrat: Laphonza Butler of Silver Spring, Maryland. It’s almost funny. But consider, to »
October 2, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Rep. Bowman Explains [Updated]

Featured imageCongressman Jamaal Bowman bizarrely pulled a fire alarm in the Cannon Office Building, apparently to disrupt the vote that was about to take place on the stopgap continuing resolution that Republican leaders had agreed to. Cannon claimed that he was just trying to open a door, an excuse that has prompted hilarity and lots of memes. Now Bowman’s office has produced talking points for use by his Democratic colleagues. Here »
October 2, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Trump Goes to Trial

Featured imageDonald Trump appeared this morning for a trial in New York City on the civil fraud charges that were brought against him by Democratic Party activist Letitia James. Politico has an account of this morning’s activities. This is an Alice In Wonderland trial, as judge Arthur Engoron issued an order last week finding Trump and others liable in fraud for providing documents to banks and insurance companies that inflated the »
October 1, 2023 — John Hinderaker

The GOP Debate, Illegal Immigration and Biden 2024

Featured imageI appeared on the excellent Outsiders show on Sky News Australia last night. There were significant technical hurdles. First, the signal coming from Australia was shaky. Then my four-year-old laptop’s battery, which has been on life support for a while, suddenly gave out. They bumped my appearance back to the end of the show, and we filmed it using my iPhone, which actually worked pretty well. It was a relatively »
October 1, 2023 — Lloyd Billingsley

The Pangloss-Pétain Presidency

Featured imageThe argument whether Joe Biden is the worst-ever president could be settled by ranking him with the worst people in American history. If that seems too glib or partisan, people might try an historical and literary approach. For example, Voltaire’s eponymous Candide finds chaos and catastrophe on every hand but his mentor Dr. Pangloss sees it as the best of all possible worlds. According to the good doctor, “It is »
October 1, 2023 — Steven Hayward

The Daily Chart: Depressing Stats

Featured imageThere’s a lot to be depressed about in the United States these days, especially when you look at the decrepit occupant of the White House every day. Still, I wonder if Americans might be overdoing this: Like the rest of our medical advice these days, perhaps some skepticism is in order. »
October 3, 2023 — Scott Johnson

The lonesome death of Tyesha Edwards

Featured imageIn the early days of Power Line John and I wrote several columns for the local newspapers decrying the murder of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards. Tyesha was doing her homework at the dining room table in November 2002 when she was caught in the crossfire of Minneapolis gangbangers. Myon Burrell was convicted twice of Tyesha’s murder and sentenced to life in prison. In our columns we made three basic points: 1) »
October 2, 2023 — John Hinderaker

French Want to Ban Tourism?

Featured imageGlobal warming hysteria may have given rise to more craziness than anything in the last several centuries. And as bad as it is here in the U.S., it is even worse in Europe. Thus, this astonishing finding from France: On May 30, engineer Jean-Marc Jancovici, an expert on climate change, once again called for drastically limiting plane travel, and declared the need to establish a quota of 4 flights per »
October 2, 2023 — Scott Johnson

Newsom jumps the shark

Featured imageCalifornia Governor Gavin Newsom promised to appoint a black woman to replace the late Dianne Feinstein in the Senate, so you know this is a man who has his priorities in order. Politico reveals that Newsom will appoint Laphonza Butler to fill Feinstein’s seat. Butler apparently does not reside in California — Politico reports that she is registered to vote in Maryland. However, Butler owns a home in California. When »
October 1, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Who’s Your MAGA?

Featured imageDonald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” was a slogan of genius. While his supporters (and most Americans) instantly knew what it meant, Democrats hated it. They didn’t know whether to respond, “America is still great,” or “America was never great,” which is what most of them believe. It was a painful dilemma. But times have changed. Now Democrats embrace Trump’s slogan, or at least its acronym. They constantly refer derisively »
October 1, 2023 — Scott Johnson

My friend Scottie

Featured imageThis is an entirely personal note about my first friend in life — Scott Sansby. We have been friends since my family moved from Moorhead to St. Paul in 1958. Let me put it this way. We have been friends since the Eisenhower administration. We became friends that summer and then went to grade school together for the following five years. Scottie has a wide world of friends, but we »
September 30, 2023 — John Hinderaker

Dem Congressman Obstructs an Official Proceeding

Featured imageThe House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly today for a continuing resolution that will fund the federal government for 45 days. The “clean” CR does not include any of the conservative terms the Republicans have been trying to get, but it does include billions in disaster relief. Personally, I would just as soon have seen a government “shutdown,” i.e., a temporary furlough of nonessential government workers. The fact that Democrats voted »