Republicans
May 7, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
West Virginia holds its primary tomorrow. Republicans will select a candidate to run against the very vulnerable Sen. Joe Manchin. I wrote about the race and the debate among the three major candidates here. I favor Patrick Morrisey, the state’s Attorney General. He’s the most reliably conservative of the three main candidates, in my view. That’s not why I’m writing this post, though. I’m writing to encourage our West Virginia
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May 2, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
West Virginia has quickly become Bright Red. President Trump may be more popular there than in any other state. West Virginia still has one Democratic Senator, Joe Manchin. However, he is up for reelection this year and considered quite vulnerable. Three main Republicans are vying for the right to take on Manchin. They are Rep. Evan Jenkins, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, and former coal executive Don Blankenship. Each has at
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April 30, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
“Drain The Swamp” was an important rallying cry of the Trump campaign. But does it still resonate a year-and-a-half after the 2016 election? It does. So finds a poll commissioned by Ear to the Ground and conducted by McLaughlin & Associates. The poll (of 1,000 likely voters) found that 55 percent of Americans are “concerned” or “very concerned” about “the Swamp,” with 36 percent very concerned. 59 percent of those
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April 26, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Bret Stephens, a Never Trumper, compares Donald Trump and George H.W. Bush. Guess who comes out the winner. There’s no doubt that Bush is a better man than Trump, by far. Whether he was better president than Trump will turn out to be? It’s too early to say with confidence. In terms of domestic policy, my guess is that Trump will prove easily superior. Indeed, it can be argued that,
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April 11, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Speaker Paul Ryan will be stepping down. He will not seek re-election to the House. I like and admire Ryan, but believe he’s been a disappointment as Speaker. His signature issue was always entitlement reform/fiscal responsibility. Ryan was never likely to get entitlement reform. However, he might at least have avoided the gross fiscal irresponsibility of the omnibus bill that Congress recently passed and the president signed. Alternatively, and preferably,
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April 5, 2018 — Scott Johnson
All signs point to a gathering storm that will wipe out Republicans in the midterm elections. If there are any countervailing signs other than the friendly map for Senate elections, I don’t know what they are. The Wall Street Journal puts it this way in its editorial today: “If Mr. Trump is the main issue on Election Day in November, all the evidence now points to an electoral wipeout like
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February 14, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
There’s more good polling news for Republicans today — the best yet in this cycle. A Politico/Morning Consult poll finds that the GOP has pulled, in effect, level with the Dems in the generic congressional poll. 39 percent of registered voters say they would support the GOP candidate for Congress in their district, while 38 percent would back the Democratic candidate. President Trump’s numbers have also improved dramatically, according to
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January 22, 2018 — John Hinderaker
As they gear up for November’s Congressional election, the Democrats are peddling a fantasy view of events in America: Trump the racist, Trump the trampler on the First Amendment, Trump the warmonger (or something), Trump-Russia collusion, the Republicans as servants of the rich. To an even greater degree than usual, this election will feature a head-on collision between such fantasies and reality. The reality is that the Trump administration’s policies
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December 13, 2017 — John Hinderaker
After yesterday’s disaster in Alabama, we can all use a little black humor. Michael Ramirez supplies it. Let’s hope he is only kidding! Click to enlarge:
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December 7, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Senate Republicans will have decisions to make. First, they must decide what to say. Members who believe the most serious allegations against Moore and don’t think the passage of nearly 40 years matters should feel free to say Moore is unfit for the Senate and thus should resign. Once they say so, they will have done as much as Democrats did to John Conyers and Al Franken. And much more
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November 19, 2017 — John Hinderaker
Michael Ramirez anticipates Thanksgiving, only this time the turkeys are on offense, shooting down the Trump administration’s effort to make America’s economy more competitive and to stimulate growth that will benefit American workers. Click to enlarge: I can’t disagree. And yet, Republicans have the votes to reform our tax code without any Democrat support. Unfortunately, it appears they may be too disorganized to get the job done. It is no
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November 18, 2017 — John Hinderaker
The traditional criticism of Democrats is that they have no solution to any problem except money. Taxing and spending is their sole policy. That critique is valid. The corresponding stereotype of Republicans is that they can’t govern. Based on the experience of the last 10 months, that criticism is also valid. President Trump has done a very good job, but the Republican Congress has been a disaster, unable to deliver
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November 16, 2017 — Scott Johnson
For several days our friend Hugh Hewitt has promoted a scenario premised on the resignation of appointed Alabama Senator Luther Strange. In Hugh’s scenario, Strange would then be replaced by a new appointee selected by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey. On Hugh’s reading of Alabama law, Ivey’s selection of a successor to Strange would begin the process all over again. Now Alex Isenstadt and Eliana Johnson (my daughter) report for Politico
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November 14, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
Last month, President Trump and Senate Majority Leader McConnell got together at the White House. According to reports, they discussed, among other things, Steve Bannon’s threat to back insurgent candidates in an effort to defeat numerous GOP Senators in primaries. I thought that, from McConnell’s perspective, convincing Trump not to support this effort was the primary purpose of the lunch. McConnell reminded Trump about past insurgent primary winners who went
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November 10, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
As Scott wrote this morning, the proposition that a man is presumed innocent until proven guilty is to be applied by a jury sitting in a criminal case. The proposition need not be applied in an election campaign and, if one chooses to apply it, one should not demand proof beyond a reasonable doubt. But in the case of Roy Moore, as a friend emailed me to say, “the Left
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November 8, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
If the only information we had heading into yesterday’s election in Virginia was (1) that Hillary Clinton carried the state by five points and (2) that President Trump’s approval rating in Virginia was 40 percent (compared to 57 percent disapproval), it would have been fairly easy to predict that Republican Ed Gillespie would lose by around 9 points. If, in addition, we recalled that four presidents in a row had
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November 7, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
It’s no surprise that Ralph Northam defeated Ed Gillespie. I was surprised, though, that the race wasn’t close, and I think most analysts were surprised that Northam won so comfortably (by at least 8 points, it looks like). With hindsight we can say that this was a race between two uninspiring candidates who needed, somehow, to inspire support. Northam inspired support because of raw hatred for President Trump. Gillespie tried
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