Obamology
I was watching on television last week both Barack Obama and his wife Michelle speak about the supposedly depression-like conditions in the US, and a people strapped by students loans, near hungry, and without hope of betterment. Neither said anything of substance, though both were engaging, effective speakers. Still, never has so much talent been invested in saying so little.
If you were to believe them, we are in a sort of “It’s A Wonderful Life,” Frank Capra-era housing depression, not a boom-and-bust cycle where for the last five years, rival television shows proliferate on “flipping” houses (in which strapped investors and rookies borrow against rising equity to put in granite counters and stainless steel appliances for quick flip sales).
I have developed a bad habit up in the Sierra (Huntington Lake is hardly Tahoe) of asking strangers about their playthings—big boats, jet-skis, jacked-up four wheel-drive trucks with chrome struts that require a ladder to enter, all-terrain vehicles, recreation vehicles, racing-type snow-mobiles, etc. Most of these toys cost several thousand dollars. I am struck by the background of most that I meet who are driving them: the owners are electricians, cops, plumbers, teachers, government inspectors, etc. So far very few lawyers, doctors, and investors.
In other words, the middle class that Obama assures us is bankrupt seems to have been able to afford optional consumer goods as never before. Don’t buy a snow mobile and you can put a kid at a public college for a year. Don’t buy a racing boat, and you can put one there for four years. There seems to be plenty enough disposable income, it’s just that it is going to video games, big-screen TVs, and gas-powered toys.
Likewise I try to go a Wal-Mart or mall once a week just to survey crowds. Yesterday I saw a nasty fight between two 40-something obese people over the last mechanized cart available. By rough calculus, I would wager that 40% of the shoppers were clearly overweight. Vegetables and fruit are still cheap by world standards, and the notion of widespread hunger is simply not true. The plague that is killing the lower middle-class is obesity. In the Dr.’s office two weeks ago, every single male patient (I went to the urologist for kidney stones) was 40 lbs. overweight—or more.
Then we get to student loans. The Obamas were assuring us that they only recently paid off their student loans! But they live well, and their dual income was nearly a million dollars last year. And who ever promised that Princeton and Harvard, much less two additional law degrees from Harvard Law School, were either to be cheap or a government entitlement?
The shocking thing is not that the Obamas were still paying off student loans, but why in the world is the government subsidizing Ivy-League education for elites, especially when these universities’ billions in tax-exempt endowment income are not going to full tuition waivers, which in the case of Harvard it could easily do? Why should the government offer subsidized loans to the Obamas to go to Harvard Law School; but, more importantly, why are we to hear anger from two Harvard Law School lawyers that the loans have to be paid off rather than gratitude for their availability?
I could go on, but will save it for this week’s column.
Mail:
Some answers:
1. Relationship with McCain: No, I don’t work for the McCain campaign; don’t know a single person there; and haven’t had a single communication from anyone involved. I have heard, but never met McCain; don’t want a federal job, wouldn’t leave California under any circumstances, etc, but mightily fear the Clinton or Obama alternative (see below).
I like McCain’s chances against Billary or Obama, and admire his heroism. I learned one thing in farming—waiting for the perfect harvest (we did this in 1976 when we waited until mid-SEptember for 21 brix sugar in the grapes before laying them down to dry as raisins and then watched them float down the rows due to unseasonable rains) usually means you will lose it. If conservatives are angry that there is a watered down McCain candidacy, it is a little late. All Republican candidates since Jerry Ford have compromised—even and especially Reagan, who raised payroll taxes, upped gasoline taxes, appointed O’Connor and Kennedy to the Supreme Court, created a new cabinet of veteran affairs, did not eliminate as promised Energy and Education, put in and pulled out troops in Beirut, (no need to mention Iran-Contra), and advocated global nuclear disarmament. I could make a longer list for Bush I (cf. tax cuts and the Souter appointment to start), and likewise with Bush II on spending, illegal immigration, etc. The idea that McCain is no different from the Democratic alternative is, well…again see below.
2. Makers of Ancient Strategy should be out a year from November. The contributors are, I hope, just starting their essays. I should finish No Man a Slave in 6 weeks It’s at 300,000 words, so it’s a long novel, and has derailed me from a new book on history since the 2005-6 Peloponnesian War volume. Hope to begin one however this summer, now that No Man a Slave is nearly done.
3. There are 7 rooms left on the May battlefield tour. We hope to have a NATO tour of their headquarters in Brussels, and a good speaker there, and a French jurist as well at a garden party in Versailles. The Trianon Hotel at Versailles is worth the trip itself. No finer mind on the current war than Bruce Thornton and Tom Connor knows more about the European battlefields than any historian I know. So I am very excited about it.
4. I like Rush Limbaugh a great deal. My mention of his ads, as one reader noted, was a reference to the unfair criticism of them from elite snobbery, not a suggestion there is anything inherently wrong with commercials.
The Republican Blood Feud
The present Republican infighting is as if Sherman marched on Grant while Lee headed toward Washington.
I wrote this recently for NRO, since I think nothing is scarier than 8 more years of the Clintons.
Thoughts on the Current Mess
There were four developments that got conservatives into this mess—the inexcusable increase of federal spending from 2001-05 (that gave mendacious Democrats room to fabricate that the tax cuts had caused the red ink), the sordid scandals of 2005-7, the tentativeness in the war (cf. the 1st pull-back from Fallujah, the reprieve to Sadr, the retreat to compounds in 2006, etc), and the complete unwillingness to close the border. McCain was involved with only one of these.
On these four critical issues would McCain be far better than Clinton or Obama. He is good on earmarks and pork barrel spending, and hates deficits; he is without scandal and, while terribly wrong on McCain-Feingold, is a corruption fighter; and he is aggressive on the war and wants to win. The problem with his prior support of immigration “reform” was not just that it would lead to ever more illegals and make a mockery out of past federal law, but that he either ignored criticism or impugned the motives of those who were genuinely worried about open borders and the travesty of the law, but themselves were neither racists nor without compassion.
So on 3 of 4 critical issues, McCain in strong, and on the 4th he is now on record in speeches and ads that he would close the borders first. His views on religion, abortion, gay marriage, guns, etc. please mainstream conservatives, on global warming, Guantanamo, campaign financing, etc. hardly.
How then to recapture the base? I don’t think the attitude “they have nowhere else to go” or “we don’t want to lose moderates by moving right” will work, especially if Obama is the nominee.
It would be better to get a base conservative on the ticket. And when you look around at the necessary requisites: youth to balance McCain’s age; strong base support; energetic; an experienced campaigner; not afraid to mix it up; geographical balance; economic experience and Wall Street fides; you inevitably keep coming back to Romney.
He would unite the party, not just by gaining the VP spot, but by acknowledgment that he would then be best positioned to assume the top spot after McCain. It would reassure conservatives on immigration, tax cuts, etc. And Romney’s last two weeks of speeches revealed a charismatic figure unlike that seen most of the campaign. Their animus is no greater than between Bush I (”voodoo economics”) and Reagan in 1980, but would be a genuine gesture on the part of McCain, to think of the base and swallow his seeming anger at Romney.
The alternative is a Republican loss, and likely increased Democratic control of the Congress and soon a trifecta with the Supreme Court. We would witness a new generation of European-like tax increases, unnecessary new programs, negotiated or unilateral surrender in Iraq, loss of what has been achieved in preventing another 9/11 (a return to the Sandy Berger/Albright response to terrorists in the late 1990s when our embassies were leveled and Pakistan got the bomb), 2-3 far Left Supreme Court justices, and the race/class/gender industry given official sanction.
The idea that feuding conservatives would each not make some sort of concessions to prevent all that is lunatic.
–
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41 Comments
1. richard everett:Professor:
Feb 8, 2008 - 2:30 pm 2. Mike Manges:Today, McCain said he didn’t see any need to “balance” the ticket. Therein lies one of the problems; his whole life is based on “my way or the highway.” You ask conservatives to compromise with him in order to win, when he gives lip service, if at all, to giving any ground to meet conservatives even part way. What exactly do you expect conservative to do, bend over backwards? I still think he is a Demo in Rino clothing; if anything, he is a Harry Truman or Scoop Jackson Democrat. Joe Lieberman is tough on national defense, and a liberal on everything else, but he considers himself a Democrat. Why should conservatives support someone with the same views, yet calls himself a Republican? Joe Lieberman isn’t running, so what is the choice, a real Democrat or a faux Republican? You tell me.
A minor quibble, if I may. Someone, whom I do not remember, once gave Reagan a break for not responding to the Beirut attack by saying Reagan chose to fight one war -the Cold War- at a time.
Feb 8, 2008 - 3:11 pm 3. GGA - Dublin, Ohio:Dr. Hanson -
This is an excellent post, as usual. Your thoughts in your 2-7-08 NRO column on a Modest Middle East Peace Proposal were equally delicious.
The fact that the elites at the UN (and other places) would never, ever entertain such practicalities underscores the absurdity of their positions with regard to Israel and the broader ME. To me, it is another example of totally dysfunctional government institutionally resistant to ideas and changes needed to bring about real solutions to real problems.
On the domestic side, I think it would be fascinating if you could expand your thoughts on the gap between the rhetoric about the “bankrupt middle class” (as you say) and the actual state of the middle class out in the real world. (For example, what are now “necessities” frequently were considered luxuries in the past. Having traveled through Mexico earlier this year, I witnessed first hand what real poverty looks like. I am sure you could bring the subject into even better focus.)
The reason it would be interesting is that it highlights a problem that many average Americans understand: politicians simply will not tackle real problems and bring about real, fundamental change; they would rather play on our emotions and win power in the next election.
Real change requires real change, not just talking about change. And, making real change happen will require hard work to fight against the entrenched system that exists in the real world and the interests that profit and benefit from it.
I think most Americans are proud of our country, weary of the bogus political rhetoric, and are truly interested in fixing our utterly dysfunctional governments (federal, state, and local) that have been in thrall to the entrenched bureaucracies, special interests, and political class for decades. Most Americans are fed up with attack ads, manufactured controversies, and being manipulated by politicians and elite media types.
Fortunately, with greater access to information (and each other) through better information technology and new media outlets, more regular folks are realizing it is not only time to change this broken system, but that they have the power to do it. I am not a history buff, but I am fairly certain that President Lincoln at Gettysburg did not refer to government “of the bureaucrats, by the political class, and for the special interests…”
We, the people, appreciate wisdom, and your voice calmly cuts through the echo chamber. It helps provide the motivation to ignore the nonsense and focus on the bright American future that can be won for ourselves and our children if we have the courage to pursue real change.
So, please keep giving us all steady doses of history and perspective. It provides a much needed counterweight to the tedious and breathless “news” that has largely replaced the reporting of facts and sober discussion of issues. I, for one, really appreciate it.
Keep up your great work!
Best regards,
Feb 8, 2008 - 4:14 pm 4. savvygoper:GGA – Dublin, Ohio
Would it not be a brilliant strategy for McCain to slide from his current “enforcement first” position to an “enforcement only” position during his first term as president? In that way he could assure conservatives that he would not sign an amnesty bill, while at the same time paying lip service to the other side that he agreed with them, that it was a good idea, but that its time had not yet come. If he made a no amnesty pledge I would then vote for him. Not with a smile on my face of course. More like with the look of someone who dutifully puts down a dog with rabies.
Feb 8, 2008 - 7:54 pm 5. vb:I agree about having Romney on the ticket. In addition to the reasons you gave, he can possibly provide some outsider thinking on various issues.
Feb 8, 2008 - 8:33 pm 6. Danny Vice:He seems to have an understanding of the wider struggle against the jihadis. Perhaps he could direct campaign attention to the fact that Iraq is only part of this. In the public opinion, McCain is tied to the military effort. Romney could add a public diplmacy aspect.
I would also like his input on trade agreements and energy policy. I am very wary of European-style top-down climate change policies (are people aware that Putin is preparing to sell carbon credits?). Romney could probably spot the downsides of grand schemes and defend his own suggestions with conviction.
Finally, I think he could talk about family and societal values without going into a hellfire-and-brimstone mode.
Conservatives are beginning to amaze me in their inability to see what’s really at stake here.
This election is about more than McCain and his inability to follow conservative principals – although he has earned the angst of true conservatives.
But how is handing all three branches of our government over to far right liberals a suitable alternative to McCain?
There is a serious difference between McCain and a pure bread liberal who is bent on destroying ALL conservative values permanantly as well as our country with them.
Anti McCain commentators such as Rush Limbaugh have ventured the idea that perhaps we should sit this election out and let the Dems have a term in office, claiming it might pave the way for a future shot at a candidate he and others will like in four years.
Imagine the damage our country will endure if Democrats control all three branches of government for 4 to 8 years.
This would give liberals what they will regard as a clear sign from America that is it ready to move sharply to the left. Not slightly to the left. It will be a flamingly liberal mandate we can’t play games with.
My daughters will come of age in the next 4 to 8 years, and I’d rather have 50% of McCains ear than 0% of a destruction bent liberal’s ear.
Cherry picking our candidate is exactly what got us INTO this mess, and if conservatives aren’t careful, they may throw the entire country into a liberal spin that can take a decade(s) to pull back out of.
There is no such thing as a quick recovery from 4 years of liberalism unchecked. We may be facing what will take years and years of damage to undo. What’s more, there’s no guarantee that it WILL be undone. Have conservatives completely forgotten Roe v. Wade and other extremely important issues? We need some sort of conservative edge on every core issue we can get.
Questioning McCain was right and highly useful for a time and a season. Many of us wish we had acted sooner to support Romney or Huck….
But staying home on election day allows liberals a pass to capture all THREE branches of Government. Do you want your kids growing up in “Slick Willie” on steroids environment?
I’m not asking anyone to sacrifice their own belief or convictions, but we have a serious problem here, that we can’t afford to fall asleep on.
Give it some thought, friends.
Danny Vice
Feb 8, 2008 - 9:42 pm 7. James Dorritie:http://weeklyvice.blogspot.com
http://thalunatic.blogspot.com
What are your thoughts, If any, about Ann Coulter saying she would support Hillary over McCain. I think’s she’s going to lose whatever fans she had left.
Feb 8, 2008 - 10:34 pm 8. Ivanhoe:The phenomenon Dr. Hanson highlights in the first few paragraphs is easily observable in the Midwest as well, although I’m not sure how he stands to frequently observe it; it makes me too sad.
Feb 9, 2008 - 6:13 am 9. Mark William Paules:Goods and services appear to be cheaper than ever before, at least in my 53-year old memory of the middle and lower-middle class blue-collar and farming families in this area. My acquaintances, family and friends certainly have much more in the way of material goods than their forbearers. Married couples consisting of schoolteachers, factory workers, construction workers and plumbers are living in spacious new houses, with new or nearly new vehicles, appliances, and “toys” in abundance. Vacations abroad every few years is very common; things their parents and certainly grandparents could only dream of.
Another key indicator of abundance to my mind, at least in the Midwest, is the explosion of gambling outlets and casinos, populated mostly by middle and lower-middle class working folks and retirees, happily spending away in smoke-filled halls that have all the redeeming qualities of the average strip club, except with a much better buffet!
There is no shortage of money, or at least credit, in our nation; what is in short supply is any sense of restraint, discipline, sacrifice, or responsibility to future generations. The evidence is clear, from the halls of Congress and the White House who will not discipline themselves in any way fiscally, down to the pathetic retired farmer stuffing his social security check into a slot machine in rural Iowa, that we have become a truly bipartisan nation in the sense that we all want “something for nothing”.
Obama/Clinton certainly will not reverse that notion; indeed they and the Democratic Party depend it becoming even more deeply ingrained as their very political survival depends on it. If the Republican Party doesn’t return to its conservative roots there truly won’t be “ a dimes worth of difference” between the two parties. Not sure if John McCain, a creature of the federal government from birth to present, can reverse the cancer of “something for nothing”, but he certainly holds more promise than the alternatives. In the end though, with all the blather about “change” and “values”, this is one change that truly must come from all of us.
Re: The Middle Class
I’m frequently amazed when I cruise middle class neighborhoods to see garages so thoroughly packed that there’s no room for a vehicle. A quick survey of my students reveals that a third of households rent a storage locker in addition. Yet I continue to hear from these same people how the middle class is being squeezed.
I can only conlude that the whole notion is contrived. It’s really just an appeal to class envy. The danger is that when the middle class buys into the idea, the door is opened for more government entitlements. Obama is pandering to the mentality that asks, “What can government do for me?” Apparently the American middle class now feels itself entitled.
Look next to the children of the middle class and you see disturbing trends that bode ill for the future. In this demographic group demands and expectations are stratospheric, but the a corresponing work ethic to attain such is nearly nonexistent. Good grades at school are an entitlement for the price of showing up. We have created a generation of the spoiled, the dependent, and the entitled for life. The nation cannot survive them. Jacques Barzun is correct; our society has reached a point of absolute decadence.
Feb 9, 2008 - 7:17 am 10. Trudy B. Taylor:Sen. Mc Cain is nothing if not a pragmatist. Perhaps he did mutter something to the effect of not seeing the need to balance the ticket (the old warhorse), but one-man-a-campaign-does-not-make. There are others on his team who might yet bring him around to the logic of this option.
Feb 9, 2008 - 12:10 pm 11. Ken Crosbie:yah well, clint eastwood suggested coulter grow up didn’t he? she’s fast becoming the britney speers of conservatives. she always gets her panties in a big snicker.
hey vic, you’re right to support mccain. as the saying goes to the whiners, “if you want to suffer some more (more years of the Clintons in the White House), its your God-given right to enjoy it!”
but one miscalculation – in newfoundland, where i was born, we had an eye for the ’slick.’ and Romney was a ’slick’ if there ever was one. and the guy on the street knows it.
last i heard, patrick j. fitzgerald’s investigating the scandal of his business. also the mormon thing – it’ll never work. Like shania twain sang, “Naw!”
when everyone is waxing, as you say, for someone else – i think we have a hero with who we got.
as for VP, i think General Powell would be good, don’t you? Or Petraeus. Petraeus has a doctorate in International Relations. Because if we get hot with Iran and Pakistan, we want someone who can sit with the Joint Chiefs on Day One and get down to brass tacks – not someone (Romney) who is gonna read a fuckin’ poll…
Feb 10, 2008 - 1:04 am 12. Tom Grey:Sorry Professor, the real anti-Elite is Huckabee (OK, also Ron Paul), who is gonna get well over 3 million Rep votes in the primaries who think he’s the BEST choice for Pres.
A review of Reagan as Gov. and Huck as Gov. show Huck as quite similar.
Despite my preference for Romney’s policies; I don’t like him.
The anti-Christians don’t want more “God in the Constitution”. They should be thinking about who, according to the US Declaration of Independence, endowed humans with human rights in the first place.
It wasn’t the UN.
McCain-Huckabee 2008.
Feb 10, 2008 - 8:34 am 13. MFB, Spring, TX:or McCain-whoever; better than the Dems.
If McCain continues the war on terror and closes the borders, my vote will have counted.
This country, however, can survive a Republican loss. See Jimmy Carter.
Feb 10, 2008 - 10:08 am 14. Brian Akira:Al-Qaeda in Iraq: “Help Me! Mommy!”
McCain & Petraeus in 2008!
* * * * *
From a a 39-page letter seized during a US raid on an al-Qaeda base near Samarra in November:
Abu-Tariq, al-Qaeda leader (who has a poor understanding of geometry):
“There were almost 600 fighters in our sector before the tribes changed course 360 degrees . . . Many of our fighters quit and some of them joined the deserters . . . As a result of that the number of fighters dropped down to 20 or less.”
“We were mistreated, cheated and betrayed by some of our brothers who used to be part of the Jihadi movement, therefore we must not have mercy on those traitors until they come back to the right side or get eliminated completely.”
From a bitter 16-page testament written last October by a local al-Qaeda leader near Balad, north of Baghdad, seized in another November raid:
Unnamed emir, Anbar province:
“The Islamic State of Iraq [al-Qaeda] is faced with an extraordinary crisis, especially in al-Anbar province. Al-Qaeda’s expulsion from Anbar created weakness and psychological defeat. This also created panic, fear and the unwillingness to fight.
“The morale of the fighters went down and they wanted to be transferred to administrative positions rather than be fighters. There was a total collapse in the security structure of the organisation.”
* * * * *
From Tim Hames, The Times Online:
America has a long tradition of looking to military leaders in times of turmoil. This has stretched through Washington to Grant to Eisenhower and might have placed Colin Powell in the Oval Office in 1996 if he had been prepared to stand. General Petraeus, who holds a doctorate from Princeton University, is the greatest military thinker of his generation. He has managed to take a vast army that was effective at conventional fighting but close to useless when confronted with a guerrilla enemy and turn it into an organisation that can today do counter-insurgency superbly. This is an achievement that makes turning a supertanker around on the high seas during inclement weather look as easy as clicking one’s fingers. General Petraeus is a genius.
http://brianakira.wordpress.com/2008/02/11/al-qaeda-in-iraq-help-me-mommy/
Feb 10, 2008 - 9:07 pm 15. Jenn M.:I like Romney, but the idea of an election is to get more votes. With Romney on-board, we’d have an Episcopalian and a Mormon and all the southern Baptists will stay home.
And yes, I agree there are too many fat people at Wal-Mart. The customers are somewhat more attractive at Target.
Feb 11, 2008 - 2:34 am 16. jacksmith:Bottom Line:
It looks like you got some vote fraud hankypanky, and selling of votes going on in the democratic caucuses. Obama seems to be doing disproportionately well in the caucuses where it is easier to commit vote fraud, and sell votes. Obama has not been doing as well in the non caucus primary’s where you can’t cheat the vote as easily.
I smell a pole cat. I smell the Karl Rove vote fraud machine at work. This looks like past presidential elections where most voters leaving the poles said they voted for the other guy. But Bush still won. No wonder Obama thinks the republicans have some good ideas. Apparently a lot of republicans are voting for Obama in the democratic caucuses.
The insurance companies, and medical industry that have been ripping you off, and killing you are determined to keep you, the American people from having good universal health care. So it seems they are supporting Obama. Along with the republican vote fraud machine.
This looks like a great story for a team of aggressive investigative reporters. Or maybe some good documentary film makers like Michael Moore, or Oliver Stone.
If I were the Clinton’s, I would focus like a laser bean on what has been going on in the democratic caucuses. No wonder the Republicans like Obama so much. Looks like he’s their man in the democratic caucuses.
I’m absolutely convinced now that Hillary Clinton is your best choice for good universal health care coverage. And HR 676 (Medicare For All). “Single payer, Tax Supported, Not For Profit, True Universal Health Care” free for all as a right. Like every other developed country in the world has. See: http://www.house.gov/conyers/news_hr676.htm
“HR 676:
For church goers: less money to insur. companies and more to the church- lots more.
Srs on Medicare: save way over $100/wk. Because no more medigap, long term care & dental insur. needed. No more drug bills.”
They really think you are all stupid, inattentive cash cows… It may be time to bring back Bad Bill.
Feb 11, 2008 - 3:16 am 17. connie:While i was reading all these messages, i had to ask myself a question, Am i a conservative or liberal or moderate, and the answer is all the three…
Feb 11, 2008 - 3:55 am 18. syn:When someone reads those comments about McCain being a moderate, protecting america against liberals, i had to wonder what really matters in all these? Someone told me the other day when i was suggesting that Obama has no experience, and he said: if we can accept George Bush, why not Obama! then i laughed because to me, he was also suggesting that whoever takes over for the next 4 years is not experienced enough to fix the damages besides the clintons.
Let’s face it, conservatives hates the clintons because they can do what republicans cannot do; They can fix the wars, foreign policies, taxes, economy and they let states runs their affairs.
While republicans can only think of fixing people’s religion; abortion, immigration, and waging wars for their own profit. who the hell told the republicans that they own this world?
People are tired of wars, poverty, recession and all those crisis they put us through…
Does McCain really wants to fix things in Irak or immigration, he looks like someone who’s been obsessed with being President and republicanisme, is he someone who can fix this country?
I wonder why people didn’t give a chance to Romney, because his religion is unknown???
What is conservatisme or liberalisme anyway?
I think we need a third party, the one that will truly think about fixing this broken world. Before you fight for the beleives, take a trip and travel to Asia, South America and Africa, and look what damages America is doing to each and every country of this planet…
No wonder why America is so hated by the majority of the population of Earth, because of people who brings their personal believes and interests into politics…
While we all watch what happens with these two parties, something is showing up already; Republicans are having problems, so are the Democrats; may be the World is changing after all.
So if a Mormon is VP does this mean southern Baptists are more concerned about their personal issues more than winning the war against Global Jihad?
In any case, when Bush’s tax cuts expire (the tax cuts McCain voted against) Americans will once again be reminded of what a high Misery Index feels like; so far they’ve been living in paradise while believing it’s hell.
I’ll hold my nose and pull the lever McCain but I am not voting for him, I am voting for the men and women in the US military; I owe them everything and McCain nothing.
I just hope that McCain won’t renege promises made to our military like he reneged the Republican base.
I’m not voting for McCain, I am voting for our troops! They’re the ones responsible for the surge success, no politican in COngress has the right to lay claim to that, not even McCain.
Feb 11, 2008 - 4:26 am 19. RE:I’m wondering what it says about the future of a nation or a culture when so many can line up in support of Obama’s vacuity. I sometimes feel we are very near a frightening tipping point.
Feb 11, 2008 - 4:28 am 20. Andrew:I so glad Mr. Hanson’s scientific observations of Walmart has allowed us to put the false issue of the shrinking middle class to rest. I am being sarcastic of course. He gives us no figures. Please feel free to go to your communist run local library and see the bonanza of books written by economists which point to this troubling trend. Mr. Hanson also shows his age by suggesting that college isn’t expensive enough. Maybe in the 30’s when he went it wasn’t. But it is now, and if I get a job making six-figures I shouldn’t have to go back and pay more in student loans because I am successful. Higher taxes will suffice.
Feb 11, 2008 - 7:07 am 21. dougf:You fight fire with fire when a conflagration breaks out. And you set a thief to catch a thief.
And you fight a campaign based upon populism with a campaign based upon a different more acceptable form of populism. Not with Mr. Perfect and his thousand dollar suits.
It is not Romney who actually showed any real strength in the South. It was and is Huckabee. he appeals to precisely those voters the ticket will need to prevail. Romney does not. He cannot in fact. he brings absolutely nothing to the party.
Huckabee is the perfect solution to Obama, and while he is populist he is also enough of an economic conservative to be a comfortable fit with McCain.
Romney is BORING. You might think his last speeches were great. But you would be wrong. He said what the audience wanted to hear, but he didn’t have them gyrating on the floor. Did he get the blood pumping ? I think not. He didn’t then. He won’t in the future.
Huckabee can take on Obama’s quasi-preacher speechifying and raise it to a whole different level. And in 2008 a whole different level is precisely what will be required.
It’s McCain/Huckabee or it’s a loss.
It’s that simple.
Feb 11, 2008 - 8:14 am 22. David Thomson:“…and soon a trifecta with the Supreme Court.”
John McCain should make a big deal about the Supreme Court. This is a sure winner for the Republican Party! Far too many citizens embrace the peculiar notion that the top nine judges of the land only deal with abortion and other cultural war issues. Nothing, of course, could be further from the truth. Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will likely select someone like Harold Koh who will jeopardize our nation’s safety.
Feb 11, 2008 - 8:40 am 23. Phil:McCain is “is without scandal”?! He was one of the Keating Five? Doesn’t that count as a scandal?
Feb 11, 2008 - 8:53 am 24. Mike M:McCain has a big problem. He has really only won blue states. He needs a way to balance the ticket.
The only logical suggestions for VP, are the people who have already shown they can get votes this election cycle.
Therefore, it seems clear that the order of preference should be:
Romney>Huckabee>Paul>Guiliani>Thompson
Obivously there should be some consideration of who McCain feels would be appropriate. But any choices outside the above are just guesses.
I worked with the Romney campaign, donated to Romney, i.e., I am an enthusiast.
I will not be voting for McCain unless Romney is VP. I will vote for other Rs on the ballot, but not McCain.
Feb 11, 2008 - 9:39 am 25. Dave Begley -Omaha:Flesh this idea out: Sen. Obama’s main claim for Dem voters on Iraq is that he was against the war from the beginning.
I submit that is just an incredibly stupid position. Putting aside the validity of the whole WMD intelligence issue, failure to take out Saddam and AQI would have left them free to work their harm.
Instead of being pinned down and being *killed* in Iraq, UBL and his chums could have been planting dirty nukes at the University of Chicago.
Barack and Michelle wouldn’t be so smug today if that would have happened in 2006.
I submit that the Left has a fetish about Iraq and Iraq withdrawal based solely on Vietnam. It has nothing to do with today’s reality. But then again, the Left of the 60s wasn’t ever very big on reality, dude.
Feb 11, 2008 - 10:15 am 26. tanstaafl:I agree on sparing us the élite populism.
It is such a tedious theme, already beaten to death over decades by Teddy Kennedy (and ilk).
It’s a vapid variation on John Edwards’ lame (not to mention hugely hypocritical) Two Americas.
Say something, Barack.
Feb 11, 2008 - 11:30 am 27. Tom in CT:I usually agree with a lot of your viewpoints but I don’t think Romney helps McCain all that much. I think Fred Thompson is a more natural fit. Romney couldn’t buy a state in the south and that doesn’t help McCain all that much. Huckabee is the elephant in the room, fiscal conservatives don’t care for him, the conservative pundits try to ignore him and hope he goes away, but he has some evangelical and rural support.
Feb 11, 2008 - 11:34 am 28. Ally's Granny:Michelle Obama has much more difficulty hiding her real sentiments than Barack does. You only have to view her many TV appearances on YouTube to see her anger.Tonight she will be on Larry King Live. I bet you will see a new, improved Michelle than the previous version. Here’s one from 60 minutes.
Feb 11, 2008 - 11:39 am 29. tanstaafl:Michelle Obama’s Bizarre Remarks About Barack’s Security
Say something more, Barack, than your recent post SOTU remarks.
It was George Bush’s Washington who let the banks and the financial institutions run amok…
(You sure it wasn’t the “progressives” supporting home loans to hugely unqualified borrowers ?)
You “know” the surge isn’t working ? And maybe you could offer some ideas on how the (secretive) al Maliki might “seize the moment” rather than just uttering vapidities ?
Does your “base” fall for all this verbiage ? Really ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmNCALGHOC4&eurl=http://althouse.blogspot.com/2008/01/is-this-person-you-want-to-be-listening.html
Feb 11, 2008 - 11:40 am 30. John the Dennis Miller Libertarian:Mike M said: I will not be voting for McCain unless Romney is VP. I will vote for other Rs on the ballot, but not McCain.
This is the dumbest thing I’ve heard. Are we supposed to be impressed with your purity? The mightiness of your leverage and power?
Okay, I’m swooning. Now, can we get past self-congratulating ego strokes and look at the benefit of the country? Honestly, what difference are the conservative naysayers than the hard Left that wants defeat in Iraq? Both are putting party over country. It’s small-minded and despicable.
I’m no McCain fan, either. But the Democrat alternative is catastrophic.
Feb 11, 2008 - 12:04 pm 31. dpw:Yes… the Obamma’s (and J. Edwards) seem to be trying to burrow into something I don’t really think is there to tap. we do live in strange times, do we not? never have so many complained so much over so little.
Feb 11, 2008 - 12:52 pm 32. Bowden Russell:After calming down from my anger with McCain, I now wish to express my support for Sen. McCain for President. Mea culpa.
Its about the Supreme Court and nothing else.
Sen. McCain maybe a son of a bitch, but he’s our son of a bitch, to quote FDR.
Feb 11, 2008 - 2:19 pm 33. frieda:I agree with you about Obama/Michelle,
As an American by choice (born in Iran in an Armenian family and grew up in kuwait), I don’t recognize the America Obama keeps preaching. His America is so dark and depressing and he wants to change it to ever a darker. I have become very successful here because no other country offers as much opportunities that America does.
Obama is promoting a lazy America, an America where government will provide, Obama’s slogan should be changed from “yes we can” to “yes, we will provide”, there is not inspiration in that.
There is no inspiration in wanting a defeat in Iraq, there is no inspiration wanting to meet with Mullahs in Iran and spit on the brave university student who are trying to change the government. There is no inspiration in wanting to meet with dictators around the world just so the world will love us more.
No, we can’t afford Obama
Feb 11, 2008 - 4:43 pm 34. Don Schuster:McCain sans scandal? – for 25 pts……. What is The Keating Five? …… What is Cindy?
Romney as VP? In what universe would that work? He hasn’t an ember in his entire body……
Feb 12, 2008 - 5:00 am 35. gs:Of course Obama and Clinton worry me seriously but…
VDH writes:
There were four developments that got conservatives into this mess…
…
How then to recapture the base? I don’t think the attitude “they have nowhere else to go” or “we don’t want to lose moderates by moving right” will work, especially if Obama is the nominee.
I’m an independent who until recently has routinely voted with conservatives and Republicans. (Bush got my vote in 2000 and the Swift Vets got my donation in 2004.) If VDH’s four developments had been handled competently, I would have forgotten that my anger with the GOP goes back to the Clinton impeachment and, before that, to the Read-My-Lips pledge. I’ve watched the condescension (or sometimes viciousness) with which this administration’s partisans treated those who expressed concerns. I saw the GOP respond to the 2006 loss of Congress by restoring Trent Lott to the Senate leadership.
IMO the Republican establishment has concluded that the pickings are richer as a minority big-government party than as a majority limited-government party.
This is the twentieth anniversary of the Read-My-Lips race. If the GOP tries to win by presenting itself as the lesser evil, it deserves to be blown out.
Feb 12, 2008 - 3:13 pm 36. Anonymous:Too bad you don’t want a federal position, I was thinking of Ag Secretary. I’m reading field w/o dreams at the moment. I was hoping you might write about the current grain situation. I’ve heard about a shortage of wheat and that we are actually buying back wheat that was sold to other countries by us. I know grain prices are going through the roof–good for farmers I hope –except the ones like like me growing livestock on purchased grain—but I’m not sure about the effects on the rest of the economy. Can you shed any light on that?
Feb 12, 2008 - 4:55 pm 37. linda skountzos:Sorry, I just submitted a comment w/o identifynig myself –the one making you ag secretary. hope it went through.
Feb 12, 2008 - 4:58 pm 38. David Farkas:A friend sent me this article, knowing I am one of those wavering on whether to hold my nose and vote for McCain, or send the party a message by not voting at all. Your article does much to pull me in the former direction, but two things still bother me:
1) How does the word “repeal” continue to be absent in articles of this sort? Your article seems to reinforce the immature idea that the litmus test for conservatisim is guns and abortion – why not start talking about REPEAL? People say it’s impossible to repeal such monstrosities as the ADEA, FMLA, and all the other social legislation pieces. Yes, it is impossible, if even conservatives like you refuse to begin talking about it.
2) Romney was too cowardly to refuse to enforce his own split supreme court’s order to force homsosexual marriage on his state. To me, that showed real weakness. How do you consider him a conservative that would balance the ticket, if he failed to do this?
Feb 13, 2008 - 11:38 am 39. Brian H:The one allegation that I’ve heard about McCain that truly scares me is that he’s in Soros’ pocket, partly through the agency of the Research Institute. This would amount to Soros hedging his bets, since the Dem candidates are already bought and paid for.
Do your have any thoughts or information about this?
Feb 13, 2008 - 7:54 pm 40. Brian H:John & Joe.
Feb 13, 2008 - 7:59 pm 41. Trudy B. Taylor:Say what you will regarding a McCain-Soros connection, but it is comparatively easy to follow the path of commonality between those two. And that is, I think, the crux of most issues for McCain–transparency. It is fairly easy to identify what connections there are (apparently) between the two. It looks to me like that is a prime factor in calming ourselves down about the dreaded Soros.
Feb 14, 2008 - 7:10 am