Monthly Archives: October 2012
October 22, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
According to the Washington Post, the Romney campaign has learned from focus groups in Ohio that voters, especially female voters, think that President Obama is hiding something when it comes to Libya. I don’t know how they could have gotten that idea. The public’s realization that Obama isn’t leveling on Libya probably helps explain why the president has lost most, if not all, of the advanatage he once held with
»
October 22, 2012 — Steven Hayward
As we await the third and final debate tonight, let’s look back on the last week or so as it has unfolded in pictures and meme-generated art: Questions that answer themselves: Is Joe Biden truly the biggest idiot in American politics? This 45 second video (hat tip to Ed Driscoll for dredging it up) makes a powerful case that he is: [jwplayer file=”http://youtu.be/8TTfCE1QfYg”] I’m going to try to show up
»
October 22, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Obamacare is a monumental house of horrors. Open a door and find another monster. Robert Samuelson opens the door on the law’s distinction between full-time and part-time workers. You think Obamacare might have something to do with suppressing the growth of full-time employment? Consider Samuelson’s observations. And for the most part the law hasn’t even kicked in yet. The Democrats thoughtfully scheduled full implementation of the law to come, of
»
October 22, 2012 — Scott Johnson
That was the headline over the Reno Gazette Journal story reporting the appearance of Obamacare “preventive services” celebrity Sandra Fluke in a Reno Sak ‘n Save parking lot. Ten Nevadans showed up for Fluke’s inspirational pitch. Mark Steyn wonders: “Ten people? Does that include the reporter? How small a crowd do you have to draw not to get covered by The Reno Gazette-Journal?” I’d like to think the event is
»
October 21, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
The Benghazi fiasco has led to many questions, all of which cast the Obama administration in a bad light. For example: why was the U.S. consulate in Benghazi still open, given how dangerous the place had become; why, given that the consulate was still open, wasn’t there more protection; why, after the attack, was the White House so dishonest about what had transpired; and what is the U.S. going to
»
October 21, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
The 10 most recent Gallup poll results: Time period: Obama Romney Oct. 5-11: 47, 49 Oct. 6-12: 47, 49 Oct. 7-13: 47, 49 Oct. 8-14: 47, 49 Oct. 9-15: 46, 50 Oct. 10-16: 45, 51 Oct. 11-17: 45, 52 Oct. 12-18: 45, 51 Oct. 13-19: 45, 51 Oct. 14-20: 45, 52 Note that presidential debates occurred on Oct. 3 and 16 and the vice presidential debate occurred on Oct. 11.
»
October 21, 2012 — John Hinderaker
I wrote yesterday about liberal attacks on employers who communicate with their employees about politics and about how particular policies would impact their businesses. I noted that in this respect, the Citizens United decision has been interpreted as leveling the playing field between companies and unions, which have been telling their members–both willing and unwilling members–how to vote for many years. I argued that most workers identify their own economic
»
October 21, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Congressman Chip Cravaack of Minnesota’s 8th District is one of Power Line’s “Pick Six” candidates. Cravaack won perhaps the biggest upset of the 2010 cycle when he defeated Jim Oberstar in a district the Democrats had held for longer than anyone can remember. Cravaack is one of a handful of Republican House members whose races are drawing massive infusions of cash from the national Democrats. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee
»
October 21, 2012 — John Hinderaker
From Israel National News comes this highly entertaining report on Iranian coverage of the presidential election: Iran’s government mouthpiece Press TV is panicking over the prospect of a defeat for President Barack Obama and warns that Mitt Romney will steal the election through “black-box” voting machines that “manufacture election outcomes.” It also charged that the polls – virtually all of which now show Romney in the lead or at least
»
October 21, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Everyone who knew George McGovern will tell you—I heard this first from George Will many years ago—that McGovern was one of the most gentle, decent persons you’d ever encounter in American politics. “He comes on like Muzak,” James Jackson Kilpatrick wrote of him, “which descendeth like the gentle dew.” But McGovern’s name will always be associated, rightly, with the extreme leftward lurch of the Democratic Party. He said some truly
»
October 21, 2012 — Scott Johnson
A reader points out that this South Park clip (warning: it may be prefaced by an Obama ad) bears an uncanny resemblance to the Obama administration’s response to the Benghazi attack: “It’s as if this was written as a guideline for the Obama administration.” And over at InstaPundit, Glenn Reynolds reminds us: “Anti-Muslim filmmaker detained for almost a month…next court date three days after election.” I’m afraid reality has gone
»
October 21, 2012 — Steven Hayward
The second half of my recent conversation with Reason magazine science and technology writer Ron Bailey concerns the epidemic of fraud and false results in scientific studies. Scientific fraud, Nature magazine reported recently, has increased tenfold over the last decade. There’s even a Retraction Watch blog that tracks the problem. The problem, as Ron explains in this three-minute video with me, is even worse than just chasing after grant money.
»
October 21, 2012 — Scott Johnson
I first wrote about Barack Obama’s “Dubious donations” for the New York Post just before the 2008 election. We returned to the subject earlier this month in a series of posts upon the publication of the Government Accountability Institute report documenting this fact: Same as it ever was. Today the New York Post arrives on the scene at just about the same point in the campaign that I did four
»
October 21, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Several readers commented in response to my note on “The 72% fallacy” that Governor Romney could not challenge the premise of the woman who asked him what he would do “to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn.” The proposition that the statistical disparity in pay between men and women results from employment discrimination, I observed, has been
»
October 20, 2012 — John Hinderaker
The “Arab Spring” continues apace. Last night Sonia Dridi, a reporter on French television, was broadcasting live from Cairo, in or near Tahrir Square, when the surrounding crowd decided to assault her, just for fun. In the end, she wasn’t harmed as badly as Lara Logan, but the incident was broadly similar. You can see it in the video below, which is puzzling in some respects. I can’t explain why
»
October 20, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Vice President Joe Biden is the most weirdly inappropriate figure in modern political history. We can’t even imagine what a figure of fun he would be if he were a Republican. Fresh off his disastrous “debate” with Paul Ryan, about which hardly anyone remembers anything except that Biden made a fool of himself, he appeared onstage with Florida Senator Bill Nelson. A woman was warming up the crowd, talking about
»
October 20, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Last June, Mitt Romney conducted a conference call with a group of small business owners, in the course of which he urged his listeners to talk to their employees about how political decisions can affect their companies: I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections. And
»
