Monthly Archives: October 2018
October 31, 2018 — Steven Hayward
My impression is that Trump has been steadily growing stronger and more confident as president since his inauguration. He still has some very bad moments and ill-advised tweets, but it is a fantasy that he will be driven from office barring anything truly scandalous from the Mueller investigation, and I’m pretty sure we’d have had it by now if there was anything to the Russia collusion story. I’m thinking there’s
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October 31, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Jason Pye of Freedom Works has a column in the Hill defending the First Step Act. . .sort of. It’s mostly an attack on those who oppose this leniency legislation. Pye calls opponents “reactionaries” and accuses us of dishonesty and fear-mongering. But name-calling is no substitute for argument, and when Pye gets around to actually arguing, he consistently hides the ball. Pye writes: Opponents claim that violent crime is rising
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October 31, 2018 — John Hinderaker
To their everlasting shame, the Democrats are trying to blame famously pro-Semitic President Trump for the crazed, anti-Semitic murders carried out by Robert Bowers–a Trump hater–while pretending that Democrats have done nothing to debase public debate or encourage violence. This is beneath contempt, but it is hard for most of us to express the appropriate degree of indignation. Not for Steve Scalise, though. One of my daughters labeled this “the
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October 31, 2018 — John Hinderaker
I will be filling in for Laura Ingraham on her radio show tomorrow and Friday. The program runs live from 9:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. Eastern, and is heard at other times in some markets. The midterm elections will of course be topic number one. Tomorrow’s guests include Ned Ryun, founder and CEO of American Majority, and Minnesota GOP Congressional candidates Jim Hagedorn and Jason Lewis, whose races will go
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October 31, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Republicans have been hopeful about defeating Jon Tester of Montana, thereby wresting that seat from the Democrats. The polls haven’t been too encouraging, though. Tester leads his Republican opponent Matt Rosendale in the Real Clear Politics average by 4.2 points. He leads by 3 points in the only recent survey I know of ( by Gravis, of 782 voters). Until now, there has been a libertarian third candidate in the
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October 31, 2018 — John Hinderaker
It’s not too late! Tonight, starting at 7 p.m. Central time, we are doing a special Halloween VIP Live event. If you are a VIP member, you will get an email with a link to a live YouTube address where you can watch the event and submit your own comments and questions. There is, of course, much to discuss. If you are not already a VIP member, it is not
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October 31, 2018 — Steven Hayward
For a long time now it has been necessary for Democrats to conceal their real views from voters if they expect to get re-elected. Funny how this happens time and time again. It is failing more of the time in recent years: just ask former Democratic Senators Mark Pryor and Mary Landrieu. Right now the person who is trying most strenuously to seem like not-a-Democrat is Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill.
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October 31, 2018 — Steven Hayward
• By chance I happened to stumble across this brief summary judgment of Otto von Bismarck from The Spectator from some time in the 1870s: “The man’s policy is detestable, but his objects are great, his plans adequate, and his ability marvelous.” With a couple of slight modifications, this sounds close to someone on our mind constantly today, doesn’t it? • Speaking of Trump, I happened to have dinner with
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October 31, 2018 — John Hinderaker
The Democrats are hoping that the mad would-be bomber, Cesar Sayoc, and the vicious anti-Semite and Trump hater Robert Bowers will stem the rising GOP tide in the midterm elections. Toward that end, they have absurdly tried to blame President Trump for the actions of these miscreants, one verging on the comic and one horrifically murderous. To try to cast President Trump as a fomenter of anti-Semitism, when he has
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October 31, 2018 — Scott Johnson
FOX News reporter Bill La Jeunesse seemed to me to be performing public relations work on behalf of the migrant caravan in his regular live hits from Mexico. Either that or he had succumbed to a variant of Stockholm Syndrome. Has Griff Jenkins relieved him? Jenkins has actually come up with a few stories, such as the presence of bad apples among the multitude (“Jose revealed his criminal past and
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October 31, 2018 — Scott Johnson
Although the Twin Cities newspapers have taken a deep dive into GOP attorney general candidate Doug Wardlow’s early teenage years, neither the Star Tribune nor the Pioneer Press has consulted its archives to revisit stories that bear on DFL candidate Keith Ellison’s fitness for office. It is such a phenomenon that makes us detest them as partisan and dishonest rags. Take, for example, Ellison’s support for the killers of Minneapolis
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October 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, I noted that five of seven candidates for the Montgomery County, Maryland school board say the biggest problem facing the school district is lower achievement by “students of color.” I disputed the notion that this gap is the school board’s responsibility or problem, but that view seems to be an article of faith in education circles nowadays. It’s also generating a new industry — cultural and racial equity training.
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October 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
In 2007-08, Jennifer Rubin supported Rudy Giuliani, now one of President Trump’s most ardent defenders, for president. When Mitt Romney announced his bid for the presidency, Rubin denounced him for choosing the Henry Ford Museum as his venue. Romney selected this location because of his family’s connection to the automobile industry, his own theme of innovation, and his desire to win votes in Michigan where he was born and raised.
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October 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Since becoming President of Minnesota’s public policy organization, Center of the American Experiment, at the beginning of 2016, I have gotten a new perspective on media bias and ineptitude. I have always thought those problems were bad. Now I think they are worse. Take a look at the email that I received this morning from Jessica Glenza, a reporter for the Guardian US. Its subject is an “URGENT Press Inquiry.”
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October 30, 2018 — John Hinderaker
Tomorrow evening, starting at 7 p.m. Central time, we are doing a special Halloween VIP Live event. If you are a VIP member, you will get an email with a link to a live YouTube address where you can watch the event and submit your own comments and questions. There is, of course, much to discuss: the impending midterm elections, the acts of violence that have cast a shadow over
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October 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
We have been following David Steinberg’s investigative reports on Minnesota Fifth District DFL congressional candidate Ilhan Omar’s apparent marriage to her brother. The Fifth District being one-party territory, Omar will be elected to Congress on November 6. Osama bin Laden could make it there with the DFL endorsement. Digging into Omar’s curious case from out of state, Steinberg has embarrassed the Star Tribune — assuming there is a reporter or
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October 30, 2018 — Scott Johnson
I don’t recall a time when Sammy Davis, Jr. was not a celebrity along with the rest of the Rat Pack. Although I learned as a teenager that he had overcome obstacles galore on his way to the top — I read his memorable autobiography, Yes, I Can — the story stopped with his marriage to May Britt, and he left out a lot of the pre-Britt story in any
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