PROGRESS IN WINNING THE SENATE
Behind the scenes, the chances of a GOP takeover of the US Senate increased in the past two weeks with key developments in pivotal states.
Already, Republican candidates are ahead in eight states now represented by Democrats: Delaware, North Dakota, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Colorado, Arkansas and Nevada. And, in California, Senator Barbara Boxer is polling in the low 40s just barely ahead of her Republican challengers.
But nine seats won’t give us control since Biden would break the tie for the Democrats. We need ten.
GREEK DEBT CRISIS WILL WORSEN: THE CENTER WON’T HOLD
When the European Union voted to put up a $1 trillion fund to bailout indebted countries in the Eurozone, it implicitly rejected the alternative which was to purchase the Greek debt outright, making it an obligation of the EU as a whole and no longer just a Greek affair. By opting for the bailout, the European Union has taken a middle course between full debt assumption and abandonment which won’t work. The markets will keep pressing until the EU throws in the towel and buys up all the outstanding Greek debt. Shortly thereafter, it will have to do the same thing for Portugal and perhaps for Italy and Spain.
Greece owes $400 billion. Portugal owes $175 billion. And, over the horizon likes Italy which owes $2 trillion and Spain is on the hook for $819 billion. Against these numbers, a $1 trillion fund doesn’t inspire a whole lot of confidence.
PREZ SLINGING MUD TO STOKE HIS BASE
Published in the New York Post on May 10, 2010
He said he had the audacity to hope that America could rise above the politics of partisan polarization and embrace the sunlight paths of compromise and cooperation. But that was then and this is now.
Faced with falling polls and the chance of wholesale obliteration of his majorities in Congress, President Obama has plainly decided to pursue the very politics of division and partisan animus he once claimed to eschew.
BREAKING THE TEACHERS UNION MONOPOLY — BIG CHANGES AHEAD
A perfect storm is brewing for the nation’s schools and the teachers’ unions that have them in a stranglehold. Voter anger at the socialist, big government solutions of the Obama Administration and its Democratic lookalikes in state capitals throughout the country is about to combine with massive education funding shortfalls brought on by the unions’ waste of taxpayer money.
HISTORY THROUGH THEODORE ROOSEVELT’S EYES
In political campaigns, we consultants are always seeking opportunities for our candidate to speak for himself without passing through the prism of editorial and journalistic opinion. We buy ads, we schedule debates, we set up town hall meetings, all to reach and communicate directly with the public without media intermediaries.
WHAT MOTIVATES OBAMA: LEFTIST TURNOUT
Why is Obama vilifying FOX News? Why does Harry Reid push an immigration bill he knows can’t pass? Why won’t Schumer compromise on regulatory reform and why does he try to hang Goldman Sachs around the GOP? Why did Bill Clinton blame conservatives who oppose big government for the Oklahoma City bombing?
GOP: DRY UP WILL TO CROSS BORDER
Published on TheHill.com on May 4, 2010
In their desperation, President Barack Obama and senators with large Latino populations in their states (like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.) are seeking to polarize Hispanic and Anglo sentiment over the issue of illegal immigration. In his frequent messages calling for higher Latino and black turnout and his condemnation of the Arizona immigration law, Obama is trying to recapture over immigration the voter approval he lost over healthcare.
REGULATORY REFORM: THE ANTI ANTI TRUST LAW
From Kevin Hassett, writing for Bloomberg News, comes the metaphor that aptly explains the consequences of Obama’s proposed regulatory reform law. The law would turn “Goldman Sachs Group and a few other financial giants into organizations that resemble AT&T in the 1950s,” he writes.
In effect, firms labeled too big to fail (TBTF) would become utilities, closely regulated but ultimately guaranteed by the government. In return for what Hassett describes as “bureaucratic meddling” they can keep their profits but socialize their losses through an implicit public guarantee.
