GEORGIA RESULTS POINT OUT STRATEGY FOR FUTURE
We have written before that the message of the November election results for us is simple: Conservatism and the free enterprise system are too important to leave their protection to the morons who run the Republican Party! So when even the ability to filibuster seemed on the verge of being taken from the forces of conservative government, we decided to act directly by helping to raise funds for independent expenditure groups who willing to run the kind of ads and do the sort of cyber-roots campaigning that it seemed to us was essential to stop the slide in conservative fortunes and to guarantee that the Democrats would not get the elusive but crucial 60th vote in the Senate. The challenge presented itself on Election Day when Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss failed to win the 50% of the vote necessary to avoid a runoff. In the runoff, won by Chambliss this past Tuesday, the Democrats had their final shot at getting the 60 votes they will need in the Senate to cut off debate and jam through any legislation they wish.
OBAMA-HILLARY COALITION
Published on TheHill.com on December 3, 2008
To understand the central dynamic behind Obama’s unorthodox selection of Hillary Clinton as his secretary of State, one must look abroad to parliamentary political systems where the most powerful opposition figure routinely becomes prime minister when his party wins a majority, while the second most potent politician is usually named the foreign minister.
That’s the model. Obama’s selection of Hillary is by no means the act of a president tapping his favorite to hold the top portfolio in his administration. Instead, it is the appointment by the leader of the majority party – trying to hold it together behind his leadership -offering due deference to the woman he narrowly defeated.
OBAMA’S MYTHS: YOUNG VOTERS AND SMALL DONORS
Myths in politics take on a life of their own and the Obama campaign has been quick to cloak its incredible electoral success with a new coat of mythology. Two fantasies, in particular, pervade the amazing triumph of the Obama candidacy: That young people propelled him to victory by finally voting in large numbers and that small donors financed his campaign.
THE FREE MARKET CONSENSUS 1989-2008: RIP
The subprime mortgage crisis is only the Sarajevo which caused the financial collapse. The real reason is the massive explosion of debt at all levels and in all forms that has engulfed the world. Since 1992, the total of debt in the world has gone from a level equal to global GDP to a level that is now 3.7 times as much as global GDP. This debt explosion, explained in Charles Morris’ book (no relation) The Trillion Dollar Meltdown, consists not only of mortgages, but bonds for corporations that can’t repay them, credit cards for consumers who are neck deep in debt, car loans for drivers who can’t meet the payments, student loans that are swamping young couples, and default insurance sold by companies that can’t make good on their commitments. This massive debt has to be sweated out of our global economic system like a heroin addiction.
NO WAR ON TERROR UNDER OBAMA
Lost in the dramatic disaster unfolding on Wall Street and the brazen hypocrisy of the Hillary Clinton nomination is President-elect Obama’s double signal that the war on terror is now over. His appointment of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security signals that the Department will once again focus on southern border immigration issues rather than on fighting terrorism.
HILLARY NOMINATION WOULD BE AN OBAMA-NATION
Published in the New York Post on November 23, 2008
It is still hard to believe but, if Hillary Clinton’s “confidantes” are to be trusted, Barack Obama is about to appoint her secretary of state and she is about to accept. This appointment represents the capstone of betrayal of Obama’s promise to be the “change we can believe in.”
Having upended the Democratic Party, largely over his different views on foreign policy and the war in Iraq, he now turns to the leader of the ancient regime he ousted, derided, mocked and criticized to take over the top international-affairs position in his administration.
DEMS CLOSE IN ON SIXTY
Rasmussen reports that Saxby Chambliss is clinging to a narrow lead of only four points in the Georgia runoff election scheduled for December 2nd. With Ted Stevens defeated for the Senate from Alaska and Al Franken within two hundred votes of overtaking Norm Coleman with the Minnesota recount yet to even begin, the Chambliss seat is all that stands between the Democrats and 60 votes in the Senate.
DECIPHERING HILLARY
What is happening behind the scenes in the pas de deux between Obama and Hillary on her possible appointment as Secretary of State? It’s hard to tell, but the smoke signals suggest a pattern.
Move One: Obama Makes An Offer
At their meeting last week, Obama seems to have discussed the possibility of appointing Hillary to State. He may not have overtly offered the job and may have done so out of politeness, but he must have raised the prospect and discussed it with her.
BUSH’S LEGACY: EUROPEAN SOCIALISM
Published on TheHill.com on November 18, 2008.
The results of the G-20 economic summit amount to nothing less than the seamless integration of the United States into the European economy. In one month of legislation and one diplomatic meeting, the United States has unilaterally abdicated all the gains for the concept of free markets won by the Reagan administration and surrendered, in toto, to the Western European model of socialism, stagnation and excessive government regulation. Sovereignty is out the window. Without a vote, we are suddenly members of the European Union. Given the dismal record of those nations at creating jobs and sustaining growth, merger with the Europeans is like a partnership with death.
HILLARY APPOINTMENT: THE AUDACITY OF BROKEN PROMISES
If Barack Obama appoints Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State, it will send a cynical message to his supporters: that change is something they can still only hope for. Because if Obama relies on this unqualified Washington insider to fill one of the most important positions in his ‘outsider’ administration, it will represent neither change nor hope, just more of the same.
Instead of “Yes, We Can,” Obama will be touting loud and clear: “No, we won’t.”
A Clinton appointment would replace the audacity of hope with the audacity to shamelessly break campaign promises.
