Hillary Clinton’s aura of inevitability is colliding with the Clintons’ aura of inevitable scandal. What do we make of the email flap? We know that Hillary-haters will seize on any story to gin up controversy and “scandal.” We know that Hillary’s palace guard will blame it on a hostile media and a vast right-wing conspiracy.…
Read MoreDon’t do it, Joe. Don’t run for President. A Biden candidacy has appeal. Democrats would have a happy-warrior version of Donald Trump, an authentic character who campaigns with joy, gusto and an unfiltered mouth. A warm, genuine human being who has seen tragedy and suffering, yet soldiered on. But he will lose. He will be…
Read MoreWith the dawn of 24-hour news cycle and the instant ‘Tweet’ reporters need a new story every five minutes and, it turns out, even a Republican Primary with nineteen candidates and Donald Trump, all talking at once, can’t fill the bill. The reporters need more so they’re straining to turn Hillary versus Bernie Sanders into…
Read MoreAt this point you suspect President Obama is just messing with Republicans’ minds: “How can I drive the crazies crazier?” You can see him relaxing on the Truman Balcony one evening, nursing an extra-dry Grey Goose martini and looking forward to his Alaska trip. Suddenly it hits him: “I’ve got it! I’ll change the name…
Read MoreBack when the legislature came to town, State Senator Ralph Hise announced Medicaid spending was out of control but he had a solution – Capitation – which worked like this: He was going to hire MCOs (Medicaid HMOs) to run Medicaid then he was going to tell them: This is all you get to spend.…
Read MoreA handful of Senate leaders sit down in backrooms and make plans then come out of the rooms and a bill pops into a committee then they march over to the Senate Chamber and pass it in the blink of an eye. The same Senate powers-that-be made a plan to ‘transfer’ millions of dollars in…
Read MoreEver since FDR gave his fireside chats on radio, successful Presidents have mastered the dominant new media of their time. Donald Trump masters today’s media by providing what the media wants above all: constant controversy. JFK won on TV in 1960 and kept winning with live televised news conferences. Roger Ailes orchestrated Nixon’s win in…
Read MoreLong ago, in the land we live in today, when enemies threatened, men named Douglas MacArthur, George Patton and John Wayne killed them – whether the enemy was named Hirohito, Hitler or Liberty Valance. Times changed. Small towns with old-fashioned values vanished, devoured by booming secular cities. Newspapers were replaced by Facebook, Twitter, and Internet…
Read MoreDo we want political consultants running our government? We got one: Rep. Nelson Dollar, the chief House budget writer. The N&O reported: “Dollar, 54, is a longtime political and public relations consultant who helps coordinate campaigns for fellow House Republicans and other GOP candidates. His firm, J. N. Dollar & Associates, booked nearly $150,000 of…
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