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The political world is abuzz with stories of Republican ascendancy. Scott Brown’s come-from-behind victory in Massachusetts gives these stories considerable weight. Forgotten, it seems, is the Democratic victory in historically-Red up-state New York. And perhaps it should be. Both of these elections are single data-points (and small ones at that) along a trendline spanning decades in which the switching of a single seat by itself is almost meaningless.
The Scott Brown Problem
Yes, the Democratic Party no longer has a nominal super-majority in the Senate, but, let’s be frank, the party wasn’t doing anything with it anyway. Red-state senators like Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and Blanche Lincoln, and bat-shit crazy senators like Joe Lieberman made sure that the Democratic Party could never capitalize on it’s numbers. The recent election in Massachusetts has only functioned to quell unrealistic expectations. Continue reading…
 A party without a vision and carrying out a stupid strategy. I wish I could be in the room for some of the GOP leadership’s strategy sessions these days, because, in all honesty, I haven’t got a clue what they think is going on.
The latest economic numbers have unemployment down slightly for the first time since April of ‘08, GDP fell less than expected, the stock market has climbed to levels we haven’t seen since last November and the dollar rose against both the Yen and the Euro. Sure, there’s a lot more to these numbers the further into them you delve, but, as has become abundantly clear over the course of this recession, emotional responses matter just as much as salient details. The Republicans, fresh off their effort to sell this as Obama’s economy, now face the problem of convincing the public of the exact opposite, that improvements in a number of indicators have, in fact, nothing to do with the President’s efforts. No one saw that possibility coming? Is their ideology so blinding that they never even considered that the stimulus could, in fact, have a beneficial effect on the economy? And here I was thinking the planning sessions for the Iraq War were a fluke. Continue reading…
Freedom from religion is not the same as freedom of religion. It is a specific instance of freedom of religion. Consider the freedom of speech. This freedom necessarily entails the freedom to refrain from speaking if one so chooses. How about freedom of assembly? Does this mean that we can assemble with whomever we choose, but we must always be in some way assembled? Not at all. [...]
 Mitt Romney: next in line for the GOP nomination? Mitt Romney is widely considered to be the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, largely because he has yet to publicly implode, in contrast to too many of his competitors. As Chris Hayes, of The Nation, pointed out on The Rachel Maddow Show last week, Republicans have a tradition of nominating the “next in line.” Conventional wisdom says that Romney is this next in line. At this point in 2005, speculation was flying over who would be in the running for the Democratic nomination in 2008. Possible contenders? Russ Feingold and Evan Bayh. Really. Bill Richardson was in the mix, too, but the person considered far and away to be the frontrunner was Hillary Clinton.
I’m not sure this is a comparison that Mitt Romney should welcome. Like Hillary, Romney has the money right now. Romney has the deference of much of the Party leadership, again, like Hillary. But in the end, Hillary lost. To the guy who had gotten people excited. As long as we’re looking for parallels, it should be pointed out that the most excitement from the Republican Party post-2008, is coming from Ron Paul supporters, who’ve lifted his book, The Revolution: A Manifesto, to #350 on the Amazon sales rankings. (For contrast, Obama’s The Audacity of Hope is ranked at #368.) Continue reading…
Wow. I mean, I know it’s not on a Sanford level, but her as the “point guard” in the face of Obama’s full court press? Really? And her Lt. Governor is the one capable of winning the game? That shows so much confidence in her own abilities. I do agree with her on [...]
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