Republican Party’s Future

My Palin Derangement Syndrome post got a number of thoughtful responses, especially for a weekend post. My fellow Jacksonville State alumnus Stacy McCain, a Palin fan, thinks the internal debate on her role in last week's defeat and her future as a Republican Party standard bearer is one we should have.  He objects strenuously, though, to the tone of some of ...

Americans Are Liberal!

Matt Yglesias offers these Pew poll results as a rejoinder to those of us who think a win for Obama isn't a mandate for his policies. Says Matt, "The voters felt they had a choice between a liberal and a conservative, and felt they preferred the liberal and his policy agenda." Well . . . no. For one thing, most of the choices ...

McCain More Trusted on Economy, Losing

A new Rasmussen poll finds that voters trust John McCain more than Barack Obama on taxes (47%to 45%) and on "economic issues" more generally (48% to 47%).  These numbers are, of course, within the margin of error.  They do, however, represent a reversal of a trend and may indicate that the "Joe the Plumber" and "spreading the wealth around" message ...

McCain: Obama’s Tax Plan Redistributionist

It appears that John McCain's latest attack against Barack Obama is that Obama's tax plan is redistributionist. That is Obama's plan takes money from one group of people and gives it to another group. McCain is right, but my bigger issue is why now Senator? You've been in the Senate for a very long time and this ...

2008 Presidential Candidates’ Tax Plans

The Tax Policy Center, a joint effort by the Brookings Institute and the Urban Institute, has looked at both candidates tax proposals and...well it isn't pretty. Basically both candidates do not believe in fiscal responsibility, both are pandering, and neither of them are willing to make the hard decisions. Which is somewhat to be expected given that the ...

McCain ‘Broken’ ‘Family’

The McCain campaign has launched two new ad videos in consecutive days under the titles "Broken" and "Family." I find the juxtaposition amusing.  The spots themselves strike me as weak but, as I keep reminding myself, I'm not the target audience. "Broken" Washington's broken. John McCain knows it. We're worse off than we were four years ago. Only McCain has taken on big ...

Judge Judy Republicans

Andrew Sullivan, who successfully coined the term "South Park Republicans," is trying out a new one: "Judge Judy Republicans."  He does so in a persuasive response to a new book by his Atlantic colleagues Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam. I think that moniker is a little more fitting - if a little less marketable - for Ross' and Reihan's hoped-for constituency ...

Huzzah for Provincialism!

Today's Outrage of the Day on the right side of the blogosphere regards this latest bit from Barack Obama, regarding the need for our educational system to get better at teaching other languages. Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But understand this. Instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English ...

Obama’s Spending Wish List

This just in: Politicians promise lots of things they won't be able to deliver if they get elected. Yesterday, we had the hilarity of John McCain's promise to balance the budget in four years without raising taxes or cutting anything but "wasteful" spending. Today, we've got an analysis from the Los Angeles Times showing that Barack Obama is ...

Why Rush Limbaugh is So Popular

Ezra Klein believes a recent NYT Magazine profile of Rush Limbaugh is a "puff piece." He lists, for example, Rush's "presidential platform" as published: 1. Open the continental shelf to drilling. Ditto the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 2. Establish a 17 percent flat tax. 3. Privatize Social Security. 4. Give parents school vouchers to break the monopoly of public education. 5. Revoke Jimmy Carter’s ...