Monthly Archives: October 2012
October 20, 2012 — Scott Johnson
I’m trying to keep up with the stories that add to the analysis of what transpired in Benghazi on September 11 and thereafter in the Obama administration. Here is today’s round-up. Sharyl Atkisson of CBS News examines our military’s ability lend assistance during the attack (video below). Her story is “Could U.S. military have helped during attack.” The New York Post has a related report. Hannah Allam and Jonathan Landay
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October 20, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Barack Obama’s sinking campaign continues to flail. Now it’s “binders” and “Romnesia.” Whatever. Obama has two fundamental problems: 1) his record is terrible, and 2) as more and more voters have figured out, he has no positive agenda for a second term. So in the last days of the campaign, Mitt Romney has unleashed a series of great ads that pound away on the fundamentals. This one is called “The
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October 20, 2012 — Steven Hayward
There is a surfeit of Churchillisms that can be brought to bear on Obama’s claim that he supports free enterprise—so much so that he just had to bail out the auto companies and throw billions at unprofitable green energy startups. As Milton Friedman liked to say, the capitalist system is a profit and loss system. The losses are just as important as the profits, as they discipline resource allocation. Bailing out
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October 20, 2012 — Steven Hayward
I’m not always a fan of the Libertarian Party, but this poster nails it about the frivolousness of the populist, Occupy Wall Street Left: Which brings me to today’s tales of regulatory stupidity and perverse results. Liberals everywhere love regulation to protect consumers from harm, right? But slow-learning liberals (with a few notable exceptions) never seem to notice how regulations often become anti-competitive barriers to new competition, protecting lazy incumbent
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October 20, 2012 — Scott Johnson
In the presidential candidates debate at Hofstra this past Tuesday, Obama took advantage of his opportunity to get in the final words to unveil this whopper: I believe that the free enterprise system is the greatest engine of prosperity the world’s ever known. I believe in self-reliance and individual initiative and risk takers being rewarded. Cue the Danny Thomas double take and spew your coffee (or beer or vodka) all
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October 20, 2012 — Scott Johnson
It is a very strange fact: the signal accomplishment of Barack Obama’s past four years in office is Obamacare, yet it remains unpopular and mostly out of sight in the campaign. Candy Crowley did not seen fit to call on any undecided Democratic voter at the Hofstra University debate who wanted to raise Obamacare as an issue. Nevertheless, President Obama injected it in response to the question posed by Katherine
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October 20, 2012 — Scott Johnson
At the Hofstra University presidential debate this past Tuesday (I’m working from the WaPo transcript here), Candy Crowley called on Katherine Fenton to ask this groaner of a question: “In what new ways to you intend to rectify the inequalities in the workplace, specifically regarding females making only 72 percent of what their male counterparts earn?” This is such an old canard I thought that Governor Romney might challenge the
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October 19, 2012 — John Hinderaker
That is what the Obama administration told us for a couple of weeks; we can speculate about why they thought this falsehood would help Barack’s re-election campaign. Michael Ramirez reviews the history, and Candy Crowley plays an unwitting part at the end:
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October 19, 2012 — John Hinderaker
We haven’t done one of these for a while, so here goes: A 12-year-old girl who used her mother’s handgun to shoot an intruder in their home said she is “holding up pretty good” after the confrontation. … Kendra [St. Clair] is a sixth-grader at Calera Elementary, which is on fall break. She was home alone Wednesday when someone banged on the front door. … About 9:30 a.m., Kendra called
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October 19, 2012 — Steven Hayward
The fine folks at The Onion, who I sometimes think are closet conservatives because they skewer liberal icons so often (yes, I know the same thing happens on The Simpsons, and why this happens), have produced the following video sendup of a TED talk about compost-powered cars (3:30 long): [jwplayer file=”http://youtu.be/DkGMY63FF3Q”] Trouble is, how can you tell the difference between this sendup and what liberals actually believe about energy, as
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October 19, 2012 — John Hinderaker
Steve wondered yesterday whether Minnesota might be in play in the presidential race. I was skeptical, and Scott was even more so, pointing out that Obama’s ad buy in Minnesota is aimed at western Wisconsin, which is covered by the Twin Cities media market. One could add that Jill Biden’s visit here is to raise money, not campaign, and hence not a sign of desperation. Still, for what it’s worth,
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October 19, 2012 — John Hinderaker
I sometimes wonder, not just why so many people will vote for Barack Obama, but why anyone would vote for him, considering his record. There are multiple answers to that question, but one of them is: many of those who will vote for Obama have no idea what his record is. Take the case of the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, one of the major news stories
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October 19, 2012 — Scott Johnson
Every once in a while Thomas Sowell compiles his random thoughts — usually in the form of aphorisms related to current events — into a column. I believe he used to call these columns “Random thoughts on the passing scene.” Today’s column collects his random thoughts. I thought several of his thoughts from today’s column might qualify as the quote of the day (and all of them are worth reading).
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October 19, 2012 — Steven Hayward
Obama may yet squeak to re-election, but it is clear the magic is gone. As I predicted last week, the media are starting to turn on him. Right now it is mostly showing up on the editorial pages in the ranks of unsigned endorsement editorials. Papers that endorsed Obama enthusiastically in 2008, like the Orlando Sentinel, are coming out for Romney. As usual, the foreign press speaks more candidly. The
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October 19, 2012 — John Hinderaker
This is brutal: in an interview with the Daily Mail, Pat Smith, the mother of Sean Smith, the diplomat who was murdered by terrorists in Benghazi along with Chris Stevens and two former SEALS, blasted President Obama for his “not optimal” response on a cable TV comedy show: Pat Smith, whose son Sean died in the raid, said: “It was a disrespectful thing to say and I don’t think it’s
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October 19, 2012 — Steven Hayward
We take time out from our election coverage to note the 25th anniversary of the stock market crash of 1987. I have a long account of the myriad causes and aftermath of the 508 point crash (22 percent of the Dow at the time) in The Age of Reagan, including thefnitwit comment of Al Gore that “The voodoo chickens of Reaganomics have come home to roost.” Here’s a few excerpts:
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October 19, 2012 — John Hinderaker
There has been a lot of talk lately about Barack Obama abandoning states like Florida, Virginia and North Carolina and trying to erect a “firewall” that includes Ohio. There is much to be said about that; for the moment, let’s just note that some key swing states are indeed swinging against the president. Today’s Rasmussen Reports finds Romney leading Obama 50%-47% in Virginia and a whopping (by swing state standards)
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