 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Sorry for the light posting today. I seem to have caught the same bug that has been going around this week, and I have been feeling completely wiped out all day long. Until I can get back to regular posting, here is a post I have up elsewhere.
No Comments »
Filed under: personal
A year ago, or even six months ago, I would never have thought that the more antiwar Democratic candidate would have a harder time shoring up the party base than one who voted for the war, but that is what the latest Pew survey shows happening with Obama. Not only do Democratic defections nearly double […]
38 Comments »
Filed under: politics, foreign policy
Watch as Michael Goldfarb makes at least three statements either appalling or ignorant in the space of a few minutes. In the span of about eight minutes, he cheered the idea of sending ground forces into Pakistan, identified China as a fascist state and (only half-jokingly) assented to the invasion of Liechtenstein. The man is a walking […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics, foreign policy
Everyone else has already said the appropriate things that should be said to mark the passing of William F. Buckley, Jr., but I will offer a few modest remarks. First, I’d like to associate myself with Ross’ statement:
There probably would have been some sort of successful right-of-center movement in late-twentieth century America without Buckley, but […]
3 Comments »
Filed under: miscellaneous
Rod says:
Many white voters are drawn to Obama in part because they think he can do something about healing the racial divide in this country. That, to me, is one of the best reasons to vote for him.
This has always struck me as one of the more curious pro-Obama arguments. I understand why people make […]
11 Comments »
Filed under: politics
John Hagee, who described the bombardment of Lebanon in the summer of 2006 as a “miracle from God,” has endorsed John McCain. Long-time readers will remember that he and Huckabee were consorting together not too long ago, which may be part of the reason for Huckabee’s weakness in capturing much of the Catholic vote in […]
1 Comment »
Filed under: politics, foreign policy
I can’t wait for the moment that the right finally understands it needs positive arguments to defeat Obama, not smears. ~Andrew Sullivan
Because the lesson of the Bush Era is that only positive argument shifts public opinion and smears have no power? That must be why reckless fearmongering over Iraq did not sway the public, why opponents […]
10 Comments »
Filed under: politics
Ross keeps asking how the Republicans are going to attack Obama. Well, they will do something rather like this (dated 2/25). Of course, flinging the charge of anti-Semitism or of being in league with anti-Semites is the last resort of the unimaginative and intellectually bankrupt. That doesn’t mean it won’t have its intended effect.
6 Comments »
Filed under: politics
Speaking of Halperin’s list, Ross notes that many of the tactics recommended to McCain were tried and did not succeed. This is basically true, but it is unclear whether the same attacks will have such limited impact in the general electorate, especially among voters who are relatively ill-informed and the late-deciding voters who remain “undecided” for an […]
4 Comments »
Filed under: politics
Ross points to Halperin’s list of “things McCain can do” to derail Obama that Clinton could not do, or at least not do successfully, which includes this amusing one:
Link biography (experience/courage) and leadership (straight talk) to a vision animated by detail – accentuating Obama’s relative lack of specificity.
When giving advice, it’s a good idea to […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Last night Obama said that Russian support of Serbia to block Kosovo independence would be “unacceptable,” which means that he finds the illegal partition of Serbia to be acceptable–see how that plays in Cleveland. That means that he supports our government’s violation of international law in recognising Kosovo, and then went on to suggest that the countries that […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics, foreign policy
Instead of being brought down by all this Farrakhan talk, we should have some choreography by Farah Khan instead.
P.S. Yes, it’s been a long day.
No Comments »
Filed under: miscellaneous, music, Bollywood
Obama On The Lookout
If they try to pigeonhole him [Obama] as a liberal, he will refuse to perch in such a hole. He is a golden falcon, not a fat pigeon. ~Tony Blankley
No Comments »
Filed under: politics, miscellaneous
So I was listening to the debate tonight as I was working on something else, and I heard Clinton flub Medvedev’s name. Like Philip Klein, I thought it was a blunder on her part. I didn’t pay much attention to this, since I was recovering from my horror after listening to Obama’s answer on Kosovo, which was far […]
7 Comments »
Filed under: politics, foreign policy
Where did the day go? I have been running around all day for one thing or another, and I am worn out. In coming days, I hope to have some new Bolingbroke material to blog about. The old line from The Craftsman may not adorn Eunomia now, but the spirit of my favourite reactionary radical […]
No Comments »
Filed under: miscellaneous
I said, ‘That’s a very un-American thing to say.’ I mean, this is a country that based on religious freedom. ~Josh Romney
Obviously, Mormons are free to take offense at evangelical and other Christian opposition to their religion, and I would be surprised if they didn’t, but could we please be spared this “un-American” argument? First […]
7 Comments »
Filed under: politics, religion
I’m not picking on him, I hope, but the reason that Biggio struggled in clutch situations and against good pitchers couldn’t be more obvious. He was an overachiever, and he knew what he was doing. Against a weak pitcher, a pitcher not really in command of his material, Biggio could take control of the at […]
2 Comments »
Filed under: sport
In the next issue of TAC (2/25), Brendan O’Neill provides an excellent summary of the case against Obama, focusing on his hyper-ambitious interventionism. Here’s a short excerpt:
Obama’s stress on how everything is interconnected not only sets up the United States to intervene everywhere, but it makes any coherent strategy impossible. If every problem is an American […]
19 Comments »
Filed under: politics, foreign policy, hegemonism
Granted, in-laws don’t always get along very well, but this is ridiculous (via Shawn Macomber). There is something disturbingly fitting that the one wielding the knife was the Clinton supporter. Apparently disagreement about health care mandates is more powerful than I had thought.
No Comments »
Filed under: politics
Eight months late, Clinton has started hitting Obama hard on foreign policy, making arguments that sound strangely like one of my old columns. It’s an interesting last-minute gambit, but one that makes little sense at this stage of the contest. It isn’t as if she’s going to rack up even larger super-majorities in Laredo because Obama is “impulsive” […]
No Comments »
Filed under: politics, foreign policy
As one of those “Copperhead isolationists” she presumably loathes, I can’t say that I have a lot of sympathy for Samantha Power’s view of things. Of course people at Commentary are misrepresenting her position and, by extension, Obama’s–misrepresenting actual views and insinuating hateful views are what they do over there. But once you get past the […]
3 Comments »
Filed under: politics, foreign policy
Yglesias notes that objections to McCain and the “Gang of 14″ are among the weakest raised by conservatives against the nominee, and this is right. We have to remember that the “principle” at stake in this particular controversy was the ludicrous idea that filibustering judicial nominees was unconstitutional. Since the filibuster is a creation of Senate rules, its […]
1 Comment »
Filed under: politics
Jonathan Martin discusses the difficulty of deploying smear tactics against Obama, but I think he underestimates the degree to which anonymous chain e-mails and third-party (i.e., independent organisations, not political parties) advertising will be able to operate unchecked under the national media’s radar. To a large degree, the rumours swirling on the Internet are already doing […]
12 Comments »
Filed under: politics
Huckabee has a revelation.
2 Comments »
Filed under: politics
Another eight months of soaring but empty rhetoric about bringing people together and bringing about change will leave most of America brain-dead. ~Stuart Rothenburg
The cynical and hostile observer might note that the success of such a campaign thus far indicates some significant and widespread neurological damage in the voting population, but when all is said and done it […]
2 Comments »
Filed under: politics