Monthly Archives: July 2012
July 24, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Barack Obama began his presidency expecting to be the next Abraham Lincoln. Now, he hopes he can be George W. Bush. This is evident from his campaign strategy. Team Obama understands that it can’t campaign on its man’s record. However, it views Obama’s opponent as John Kerry redux — a rich, out of touch Massachusetts man who is easily ridiculed and plausibly demonized. Thus, Obama and his advisers hope to
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July 24, 2012 — John Hinderaker
This time it’s manufacturing: U.S. manufacturing expanded in July at the slowest rate in 19 months. This is consistent with slowing GDP growth, which is expected to decline from an unacceptable 1.9% rate in the first quarter to an even worse 1.5% rate in the second. There is no sugarcoating the bad news. The administration had hoped that improving economic numbers might fuel an Obama resurgence in the summer and
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July 24, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
We’ve been keeping an eye on the Nevada Senate race between Republican Sen. Dean Heller and his Democratic opponent, Rep. Shelley Berkley. Berkley is now laboring under the cloud of a House ethics investigation. Nonetheless, she seems to be “hanging around.” The only poll taken since news of the investigation broke, a survey by AFP/Madgelan taken about a week later, showed Heller ahead by only 3 points. Despite the thin
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July 24, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, I referred to a poll in which a plurality of respondents assigned primary blame for our weak economy to President Obama. He was followed by Congress, Wall Street, and former President Bush in that order. As these were the only choices offered to the respondents, I would have answered “none of the above,” at least insofar as the current economic turn for the worse is concerned. For me, the
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July 24, 2012 — Scott Johnson
I wrote about President Obama’s campaign speech in Roanoke here, taking issue with it and noting its derivative nature in the rhetoric of Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren. I took another look at the speech here. The video below mashes up Obama’s speech with Warren’s and adds a nice musical soundtrack to suggest that Warren’s rant is itself a derivative product. Originality is not necessarily a virtue in politics. The
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July 23, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that attacks are on the rise in Iraq and that al Qaeda is increasingly behind them. On Monday, more than 100 people were killed in attacks across Iraq. According to the Post, “the attacks, spread across 13 cities and more than 40 locations, targeted mostly Shiite neighborhoods and appeared to be the work of al-Qaeda in Iraq.” The Obama administration claims that al Qaeda poses no
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July 23, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Many conservatives didn’t think Mitt Romney was a good spokesman for our movement, but the fact is that right now, he, more than anyone else, is lifting high the banner of free enterprise and American tradition. Democrats have tried to defend “you didn’t build it” by suggesting that Obama’s pronouncement was taken out of context. But on Larry Kudlow’s TV show, Romney made the same point we have made here:
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July 23, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Enjoyed a rip-roaring three hours behind the microphone this morning subbing for Bill Bennett on his “Morning in America” radio show, with wide-ranging and provocative conversations with James Bowman, Michael Anton, and Arthur Brooks. We beat down pretty hard on Brain Ross, Obama’s “you didn’t build that” comment, and Hollywood. I know–low-hanging fruit. I’m back behind the microphone tomorrow morning from 6 to 9 am, with guests James Pethokoukis, my
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July 23, 2012 — John Hinderaker
This morning David Gelernter wrote a thought-provoking post titled, “What Keeps This Failed President Above Water?” How can a president with a record as terrible as Barack Obama’s be running essentially even in the polls? I have some thoughts on that question from a perspective that is slightly different from Gelernter’s. First of all, it is questionable whether Obama is, in reality, above water. He can’t get his approval rating
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July 23, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Elizabeth Warren is widely credited as the inspiration for President Obama’s “you didn’t build it” riff. She anticipated the theme in her Massachusetts Senate race. So it is fitting that Scott Brown has made the theme central to his campaign. Check out this excellent Brown ad, titled “Let America Be America Again.”
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July 23, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
The NCAA, that most sanctimonious of powerful bureaucracies, has punished Penn State because its top officials failed to take action after receiving credible evidence Jerry Sandusky, an assistant football coach, had engaged in child molestation. The penalties include a $60 million fine, a four-year ban on bowl appearances, and the forfeiture of all football victories since 1998. I have no sympathy for Penn State and no serious beef with the
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July 23, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Given the depth of his leftism, President Obama manages to avoid striking many egregiously false notes in his public utterances. But a new Rasmussen poll demonstrates just how false a note Obama struck when he insisted that small businessmen don’t build their businesses. According to the poll, 72 percent of likely voters believe that people who start small businesses are primarily responsible for their success or failure. Only 13 percent
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July 23, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
President Obama has spent much of his first term blaming former President Bush for the poor state of the economy. But as Obama himself predicted, this was never a narrative he could peddle indefinitely. Rather, the president gave it an estimated shelf life of three years. A new poll conducted for The Hill demonstrates that Obama estimated correctly. According to the poll, which sampled 1,000 likely voters, 34 percent say
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July 23, 2012 — Scott Johnson
David Gelernter is professor of computer science at Yale and the author, most recently, of America-Lite: How Imperial Academia Dismantled Our Culture (and Ushered in the Obamacrats), just published by Encounter Books. Earlier this month he wrote “Why do we live in America-Lite?” for us, briefly summarizing the themes of his new book. We invited him to return with something that expands on the themes of the book. He has
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July 22, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
The New York Times is receiving pushback from its constituents for having the audacity to explain that changes in marriage patterns are playing a huge role in the growth of income inequality. I wrote about the Times’ excellent story here. Katie Roiphe pushes back in a piece for Slate. She characterizes the piece as “another puritanical and alarmist rumination on the decline of the American family disguised as a straight-news
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July 22, 2012 — Steven Hayward
So we’ve heard a lot since Occupy Wall Street started blighting our public spaces about the 1 percent, and the 99 percent. Me, I’m a proud 4-percenter! What’s that? It derives from the title of the book recently produced by the George W. Bush Institute, The 4% Solution: Unleashing the Economic Growth America Needs, edited by Brendan Miniter. The thesis of the book is simple: if we’re going to revive
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July 22, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
I wrote here about the refusal of the International Olympic Committee to set aside one minute of silence at the opening ceremony at this year’s games to commemorate the Israeli athletes who were murdered 40 years ago at the Munich games. Since then, the IOC has held fast to this position despite mounting pressure. Deborah Lipstadt at Tablet has no difficulty demolishing the pretexts, and identifying the true reason, for
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