Storming the Castle

The Republican Party is seeing exactly the same thing in its primaries this year that the Democratic Party saw in its presidential primaries in 2008.   An inexperienced, untested and nearly unknown upstart challenges a pillar of the party’s political establishment. Propelled by the enthusiasm of inspired new voters, the upstart upends the odds-on favorite in…

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September Surprises

The 9/11 rallies and replays this weekend were a reminder of how X Factors can scramble our lives – and politics.   Nine years and three days ago, George Bush was working hard to be the No Child Left Behind president.   After 9/11, he became obsessed with his oedipal need to both avenge and…

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It’s the Obama, Stupid

For a long time, I thought the main driver in this election was the rotten economy.   But the 2010 election instead may be all about the colossus who stands astride American politics today – for better and for worse: Barack Obama.   That thought occurred to me when I read this from Tom Jensen…

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Hard to Believe

Here’re two peculiar examples of modern economic theory as practiced by the Obama Administration. Both have to do with the President spending ‘Stimulus Funds.’   Alcoa Corporation has a net worth of $12 billion. The Obama Administration gave it $13 million in stimulus funds to pay for renovations at its Cheoah dam on the Little…

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Storm Warnings

Democrats remind me of my friends on the Outer Banks last week: battening down, nervously watching the approaching storm and hoping it turns out to be a Category 1 that spares the house – and the Senate.   There are dire warnings of losing the state Senate and possibly even the House – or a…

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A Tough Speech

When President Obama stared into the cameras Tuesday night he must have felt more than a tremor of foreboding. Nonetheless, he folded his hands in front of him and marched resolutely into the first minefield and announced we’re pulling out (except for 50,000 men) of a war we didn’t win.   There hardly seems any…

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The Inmates Are Loose

One thing is clear from Tuesday’s primaries: the lunatics are running the Republican asylum.   Rick Scott, a key figure in the biggest health-care fraud scandal ever, won the Republican nomination for governor of Florida. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski trails a Sarah Palin-endorsed Tea Partier. And John McCain, who gave America Sarah Palin, survived in…

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Hallowed Ground

Now, Gary, about that mosque in Manhattan you disagree with me about:  It is fine and noble to talk about “freedom” and “tolerance” and “openness” but Charles Krauthamner asked a pretty fair question of his own about this mosque in the newspaper last week:  ‘What makes a place sacred?’   He gave three examples of…

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Obama-care and Perdue-care

Seven hundred fire breathing Democrats gathered in Fayetteville for their convention and just about came to blows over reading the riot act to three Democratic Congressmen who had the sheer audacity to vote against Obama-care.   What saved the poor Congressmen from humiliation (or perhaps mutilation) was one of their more adroit supporters standing up…

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The Will of the People

Some people must have superpowers.   How else can they divine “the will of the people” all by themselves?   Frequently, people comment here that Obama and the Democrats are defying “the will of the people” or “the majority.”   I hate to break it to you, but under our beloved Constitution the only way…

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