Monthly Archives: February 2004

February 18, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

Haiti ten years on

Ten years ago, the U.S. invaded Haiti and installed a priest named Jean-Bertrand Aristide in power. Our press has paid very little attention to subsequent events in Haiti. Not that it should report developments on this irrelevant island the way it covers, say, post-war Afghanistan. But I don’t recall seeing even the equivalent of the “problems in Panama” stories that appeared periodically in the years following the first President Bush’s »
February 18, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

From California

my friend Craig Harrison reports that “former SF Mayor Willy Brown, a true ‘slick willy,’ was on local news last night ostensibly to talk about the Wisconsin returns. Sua sponte, he opined that the rash of gay marriages that are taking place in SF under the brand new mayor will be a real problem to Barbara Boxer and will be an issue in the Senate race. Boxer will have a »
February 18, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

A chance to hear Clifford May speak

Power Line readers know of our high regard for Clifford May, president of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and frequent contributor to National Review Online. Folks in the Washington, D.C. area will have the opportunity to hear May speak on Sunday, May 23 at a luncheon at the River Creek Club in Leesburg, Virginia. His topic, than which there is none more important, will be “The Roots of »
February 17, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

An economic interpretation of the 2004 race

Although Rocket Man has properly noted the pseudo-scientific nature of Marxism, economists persist in trying to develop models into which they can plug economic data and thereby succesfully predict the outcome of elections. They do this, of course, by “predicting” the outcome of past elections and then using the most successful formula to predict the next race. It is my understanding that economists have had some success at this (that »
February 17, 2004 — John Hinderaker

Kerry Squeaks Through, But Is He Fading?

Results of the Wisconsin primary are disappointing for John Kerry, as the projected finish is Kerry 39%, Edwards 34%, Dean 18%. Worse, the “late deciders” broke decisively against Kerry, with over 50% going for Edwards, and only 20%-25% for Kerry. Why did Kerry perform below expectations? I assume because some people are starting to learn about Kerry’s anti-American past. It is important to recall that just a few weeks ago, »
February 17, 2004 — John Hinderaker

President Bush Hangs On

The latest poll data, collected as always by the invaluable Real Clear Politics, show President Bush to be battered, but still hanging on after a dismal month. Polls conducted between Feb. 9 and Feb. 15 show, on the average, 50% approval and 45% disapproval. It’s time to start the campaign. »
February 17, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

Meanwhile, at Duke

the Duke Conservative Union has placed an ad in the student newspaper complaining that the faculty lacks intellectual diversity. The conservative students cited, for example, statistics showing that, in eight of the university’s humanities departments, “142 of the faculty members and deans included in the survey are registered Democrats, 28 are unaffiliated and 8 are registered Republicans.” However, as the student newspaper reports, the notion that the faculty may be »
February 17, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

Meanwhile, at Yale

it was Sex Week. Meghan Clyne, for National Review Online, reports that this event was run by Students for a Sexually Aware Campus, an officially registered and university-approved “student organization,” and itself was approved by the appropriate Assistant Dean. Sex Week was touted as “the only event of its kind on any college campus.” However, after reading Clyne’s description, I can’t help thinking that Sex Week may soon be coming »
February 17, 2004 — John Hinderaker

L.A. Times Tries to Re-Position Kerry

Yesterday, Hugh Hewitt absolutely demolished the Los Angeles Times, which has tried to help John Kerry with successive articles titled “Political Battle Over Vietnam-Era Credentials Has No Winners” and “Kerry’s Got Kennedy’s Nod, if Not His Politics.” In the former piece, columnist Ron Brownstein tries to call a truce now that the Democrats’ attack on President Bush’s National Guard service has backfired. Hugh writes: This is a deeply dishonest column »
February 17, 2004 — John Hinderaker

Krugman Turns to Comedy

Al Franken has put together a “comedy” tour called Rolling Thunder which is about to start touring cities on the East Coast. Rolling Thunder is described as “a combination of political satire, political commentary, music and comedy that trashes the Bush administration on everything from foreign to domestic policy.” Joining Franken on the tour will be Kevin Phillips and former economist Paul Krugman. Now, we knew that economics didn’t pan »
February 17, 2004 — Paul Mirengoff

I’m back

from Boston, where I took our high school debate team for a long-weekend at the Harvard Invitational. Our student congress team finished in third place, and my daughter made the semi-final round. I experienced a total news black-out, but could not escape from the rabidly anti-Bush sentiment on my daughter’s team and among the debaters in general. Even worse, I had to bite my tongue when several team members became »
February 17, 2004 — John Hinderaker

The Left’s Most Intractable Problem

The Washington Times reports on an ABC poll that was released on Sunday: God’s creation of the Earth, Noah and the flood, Moses at the Red Sea: These pivotal stories from the Old Testament still resonate deeply with most Americans, who take the accounts literally rather than as a symbolic lesson. An ABC News poll released Sunday found that 61 percent of Americans believe the account of creation in the »
February 17, 2004 — John Hinderaker

Is It Her?

A reader emailed us last night and pointed out what he thought was a striking similarity between Alex Polier and a young woman in a photograph of interns from John Kerry’s web site. Here they are, with Polier on the left and the intern group on the right. Our reader thinks the girl in white on the left may be Polier: There is certainly a resemblance; whether it’s the same »
February 16, 2004 — Scott Johnson

Kerry speaks: Kill your engines

John Kerry appears unable to formulate a demagogic attack on President Bush that has any bite. He has no shortage of demagogic attacks, but from his lips they seem to me incredibly lame. His most recent shot across Bush’s bow is his criticism of the president’s attendance at the Daytona 500 yesterday: “We don’t need a president who just says, ‘Gentlemen start your engines.’ We need a president who says, »
February 16, 2004 — John Hinderaker

How Important is the Blogosphere?

This is a question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and will have more to say about from time to time. For the moment, here is the European Bureau Chief for the Fox News Channel, Scott Novell, via Tm Blair: I think blogging is one of the best things to happen to journalism in decades. It has spawned a whole new range of new and different voices. Despite all »
February 16, 2004 — John Hinderaker

Keep This Guy Under Wraps

No, that’s not a representative of a homeless group cheering on John Kerry, it’s Ted Kennedy. Looking quite a bit the worse for wear, as Kerry’s expression suggests. My guess is we won’t see much of Ted once the primaries are over. Of course, looking at it positively, at least he hasn’t been getting Botox injections. »
February 16, 2004 — John Hinderaker

Kerry Backs Off National Guard Attack

Last night, John Kerry urged Terry McAuliffe and other Democrats to stop alleging that President Bush was “AWOL” from the National Guard: “I don’t plan to do that, and I’ve asked them not to,” he said, referring to the attacks. Now, it certainly could be that Kerry is cynically pretending to take the high road, while letting hacks like McAuliffe and the national press do his dirty work for him. »