National Republicans
This Is It?
Jilted by Chris Christie, the Republican search for Ronald Reagan Redux goes on. You know things are bad when Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich are rising in the polls. Already, Michelle Bachman and Rick Perry have soared – and then plummeted. But they distinguished themselves by performing a feat no one thought possible:…
Read MoreRepublican Retreads Roll
If history is any guide, Mitt Romney will win the Republican presidential nomination. For some reason, Republicans nominate presidential candidates who ran unsuccessfully before – like Romney this year. See Ronald Reagan (the GOP gold standard) in 1980, George H.W. Bush in 1988, Bob Dole in 1996 and John McCain in 2008. The exception,…
Read MoreBBQ Politics
Something about the combination of barbeque and politics makes political reporters salivate over writing a down-home story about how we’uns in Nawth Ca’lina don’t cotton to outsiders insulting our proud pork product. There has been a run of these stories since news broke that Rick Perry once dismissed North Carolina barbeque as tasting like…
Read MoreRetroactive
The other day at lunch a Democratic friend of old Will Patton’s was giving Mr. Patton down the river about Thom Tillis and Phil Berger cutting all the Democratic ‘Sacred Cows’ like ‘More at 4’ and ‘Smart Start’ and laying off teachers and when he’d heard enough Mr. Patton shot back, Well, one thing’s for…
Read MorePolicies and Personas
In the 1980s, Democrats were in disarray and Ronald Reagan stood astride the political world like a colossus. Then, as today, Democrats comforted themselves by saying: “Polls show the American people agree with us, not him, on the issues.” Yep, they did. Go through a list of issues, just like today, and the…
Read MoreCarville: Panic!
James Carville has a way of cutting to the chase. A TAPster sent along what he said on CNN this week: “People often ask me what advice I would give the White House about various things. Today I was mulling over election results from New York and Nevada while thinking about that very question.…
Read MoreWho Runs the GOP?
After the Tea Party debate this week, a Florida Tea Party leader put it bluntly: “The Republican Party isn’t going to pick the presidential nominee. We’re going to pick the presidential nominee.” The candidates then fell all over each other to show their fealty to the crowd. A crowd that, when a moderator asked…
Read MoreOutsmarting Themselves?
Democrats are high-fiving President Obama’s “American Jobs Act.” Progressive pundits and editorial/op-ed writers are applauding because he took their advice. He’s taking the fight to the Republicans, they all say: bearding the elephant in its own den. For months, the pundits have been preaching that Americans don’t care about arcane things like deficits and…
Read MoreEchoes of the 80s
The Republican presidential candidates today remind me of Democrats in the 1980s: so in thrall to interest-groups within their own party they’re forced to undermine their chances to win a general election. In 1984 and 1988, Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis were crippled by their kowtowing to labor, liberals and Jesse Jackson. By the…
Read MoreA Sign
This is the perfect opening for Michelle Bachmann. In tonight’s debate, she should say that the Texas wildfires are God’s judgment on Rick Perry for stealing her momentum. That way, she can put all her opponents – and potential opponents – on notice.
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