January 07, 2008
Jack KempÂ’s endorsement of Sen. John McCain for president is both interesting and significant. Kemp was one of the founders of the Reagan supply-side tax-cutting movement. And of course, heÂ’s been a prominent free-market advocate for economic-growth policies for several decades.
Mr. Kudlow takes six paragraphs, more or less, to talk about how great this is. Mark Levin, on the other hand, takes a pair of sentences to shoot it down.
Ha ha. Either of Secretary Kemp's Levin-specified positions are sufficient to turn my opinion against him, but oh well.
The one thing I've never really sat down and analyzed about the former Secretary is his apparently legendarily bad performance against Vice President Gore in 1996. I remember watching it, but I can't concur off-hand in the judgment of, well, everyone else. It has been twelve years, after all.
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January 02, 2008
Both are anti-business, anti-Wall Street, and anti-CEO. They would employ government regulation, and perhaps taxes, to work against free-market forces.Both are anti-trade. Both are tax-and-spend. (Governor Huckabee has tried to inoculate himself against the tax charge with his Fair Tax national sales tax idea that would go nowhere in Washington.)
Oh darn. I am instantly reminded of what Ross Douthat said earlier in the week:
...many social conservatives don't give a tinker's dam what the Club for Growth thinks about Mike Huckabee's record.
Indeed. Why the animosity, you ask? Ross Douthat said it earlier in the piece:
[T]hat many tax-cutters and foreign-policy hawks, for instance, would happily screw over their Christian-Right allies to nominate Rudy Giuliani
I can't remember the last time I considered a CFG and/or Kudlow endorsement as a positive factor where any policy or candidate was concerned. They could largely care less about my particular issues, and the favor is returned.
---
N.B. I may yet be proven wrong about Huckabee. I am not, however, particularly expecting it.
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September 14, 2007
Rudy especially seems ready and willing to mix it up with the Dems, particularly Hillary. That is something I do really like about Rudy. I want a nominee who can go toe to toe with the "always at war" Dems. Rudy has a bit of that "junkyard dog" thing that is refreshing after almost 7 years of Bush (whom I like) being Mr. Nice guy.
I wouldn't exactly bet the farm about Giuliani being ready and willing to mix it up with Democrats. The last time he was in the field against nationally-known Democrats, he sat the bench. I'm not really interested in placing all our hopes on a guy who has a history of bailing out against Hillary Clinton, prostate cancer or no.
I doubt Jack sees it that way, but go figure.
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September 12, 2007
That's right, kids! That nuisance PAC we all know and loathe, the Club for Growth has decided that Mike Huckabee is guilty of---wait for it---speaking to unions. Their bill of indictment reads thusly:
Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has taken to calling himself a “fiscal conservative,” but who ever heard of a fiscal conservative who raised taxes and spending through the roof while governor of Arkansas? Mike Huckabee is also calling himself “a different kind of Republican,” but that’s just a codeword for a big-government Republican who wants to cover up his tax-and-spend record with folksy talking points and one-liners. Sorry Tax Hike Mike. No dice.
Their full website on the issue is located at Tax Hike Mike!.
Enh, whatever. The CfG usually seems to get involved when a candidate fails or has failed to genuflect towards its hat-on-the-pole of GROWTH and whatnot. I don't have time for Huckabee---one President from Arkansas is enough, thank you---so it's not really my concern, but it's nice to see that the CfG can get back to its usual fratricide now that the FEC's suit against it may be over soon.
Tip of the Wisconsin hat to David Freddoso over at the NROC.
And yes, the layout is still very strange-looking. I'm trying to figure out the system I've implemented.
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September 08, 2007
Mr. Brookhiser's snide analysis of the top tier (Giuliani, McCain, Romney, Thompson) says of the ex-NYC mayor, "Strongest is Giuliani who, alone of all the candidates in both parties, has done something. Two things—saved New York City; and led America for two days six years ago."
Blah blah, saved New York City. To someone outside of the Five Boroughs (and therefore the irredeemable hinterland), saving that cesspool is of dubious value. Sure, hizzoner may have cleaned out the Augean Stables, but they're still the Augean Stables at the end of the day.
Furthermore, what's this "led America for two days" stuff? I don't remember the Mayor of the City of New York being in the line of Constitutional succession to the Presidency under the 25th Amendment (or any other law, for that matter). From what I understand, the National Command Authority was never really out of position and since all Cabinet officers and members of Congress and various others in the coordinate branches of government survived, there isn't any cognizable claim to a city mayor in New York State being the "leader".
By Mr. Brookhiser's logic, I could perhaps argue that the Chairman of the County Board for Arlington, Virginia "led the nation", because last time I checked, the 11 September attacks hit other targets than Manhattan. Oh, wait, it's the City Desk guy for National Review; only New York matters to them.
Bah. I don't want that Yankee as our nominee.
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July 15, 2007
Meanwhile, the interesting part is what some Iowan named Mary Lou Harper chose to say about all of us Virginians:
This 37-year-old wretch---apparently a Kossack type, from her posting history---dumped a heaping helping of her Midwestern bile on us, uninvited.
I generally ignore people like that; if they're that stupid, then more power to them. Hopefully they'll contribute to natural selection.
We Virginians are many things (intelligent, essential to the national economy, the national defense, the national government, et cetera) but "gender confused"? Please. Governor Gilmore is and was many things, but "gender confused" wasn't one of them. Luckily, Miss Harper has a wee little "Report Abuse" link beside her remarks, and I was sorely tempted to report it as hate speech.
Then we get the usual offended poster---not me; I was too busy eating and wondering if I should buy a PS2 golf game---who defends the Commonwealth too little by half:
Well, some of us aren't bothered by the lack of "cultural diversity" as seen by this ex-son of the Commonwealth. Having spent some time in the environs around the capital, the cultural diversity is there; it's just not African tribal dances, Mayan pan flute artists, Caribbean steel drums, and whatever else a Bennetton ad man might come up with.
Furthermore, some of us weren't exactly happy when Allen '06 tanked courtesy of the Washington Post; I was counting on him to defeat all comers and enhance our reputation as Mother of Presidents. But anyway, this guy's words don't matter; he surrendered his birthright when he went to school in Atlanta.
Miss Harper writes, "I do hold strong opinions that ordinarily run against every strain of popular thinking." Sweetheart, what you hold is a pair of jokers.
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June 19, 2007
Your correspondent is intrigued.
Given that I can look up on a bookshelf and see three or four hardcover books written by Baroness Thatcher---and two of which have been read---I would consider myself at least favorably inclined to the old Iron Lady. Although she and I would probably differ on the nitty gritty of economic theories, I think that we would get along, and therefore anything favorable that she has to say about F.D. Thompson would be well received.
Since your correspondent remains a quasi-nostalgic Atlanticist, he considers cooperation between ourselves and the United Kingdom as a good thing. l'd like to read a transcript of the speech, but this thing may be a not-for-attribution event. A buddy of mine in law school said those things are not uncommon in politics, so go figure. If I do manage to run across a transcript, I'll provide it, along with miscellaneous commentary from me. In the interim, don't bother with the comments posted at the end of that Politico article. Between the Pauloids and the random unassociated ramblings of other commenters, it's a good way to induce either a frenzy of self-mutilation or catatonia, the latter not being the late Welsh band with Cerys Matthews.
The only thing F.D. Thompson needs to do now is figure out how to throw the Bush family and its hangers-on away, and I'd like him a lot more. It says something about the state of my dissatisfaction with our leading candidates that even with Thompson's close ties to the Bush effort, I'm still more in favor of him than I am the so-called 'Rudy McRomney'.
Meanwhile, I appear to have scooped the Llama Butchers. Your orgle is right here, son.
---
1 Admittedly, that sort of language on Wikipedia could mean that their policies put them slightly to the right of Pol Pot or Mao Tse-tung, but it seems to be accurate.
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June 06, 2007
By now, you've probably heard of the shot the MSNBC columnist took at former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson's wife, Jeri. If you haven't, see here from America's litter box liner of record. If you want to see it, you know the drill:
A reporter from WFAN in NYC was on just before that and mentioned that she used a pole of some sort as a means of training. Mr. Scarborough then wondered aloud if Mrs. Thompson "works the pole", potentially a reference to er, exotic dancing. On the one hand, yeah, that's a potentially valid reference, to the prior segment, but given Joe's wiseacre attitude and the context of the conversation, I'd suggest a less favorable interpretation just out of pure spite for Scarborough. Perhaps if I liked him more---or if the Red Sox had beaten Oakland last night---I'd be more charitable, but I don't, they didn't, and so I'm not.
Meh, it's not like I watch Scarborough anyways. MSNBC has been dead to me for years anways, and their canning of Imus torched the corpse. To quote a movie, "You dirtbags have been in third place for five years." (Note: I have no idea of what the actual ratings are, nor do I care.)
Anyways, if Fred runs and wins, we'll be guaranteed a good-looking First Lady. Of course, that's not the only reason to support Senator Thompson's candidacy. He does seem, on the basis of what I've read, to have some sense about him when it comes to illegal aliens. Furthermore, he may see clearly on the question of the future course of our strategic policy vis a vis the Islamists, and he doesn't have any of the negatives (to my mind) that Giuliani, McCain, and Romney bring to the table.
Hooray for Fred.
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This posting has been somewhat overtaken by events. I saw the story here and Mr. Orr has an extended statement here that explains the thing. What's 48 hours behind the rest of the news cycle? Nothing, especially if you're like me who is apparently the Frank Vitchard of the blogging world.
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June 05, 2007
Fred Thompson wasn't there, so I probably didn't miss much anyways.
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June 04, 2007
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April 03, 2007
So, a couple of weeks back, someone took her to task.
Your shameless, relentless, and entirely uncritical support of Rick Santorum was a daily bore on The Corner. Then you moved on to Mitt Romney, with the same lack of serious thinking.
The rest is here.
I'm no Giuliani fan either---the mayor of the capital of the Evil Empire has lived a sordid life---and I don't care about her supposed fixation on Roman Catholicism since I'm not a member of the Roman church, but it was still funny in a mocking sort of way.
ON DECK FOR LATER TODAY/EARLY TONIGHT: N&W History post.
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February 16, 2007
K.J. Lopez at NRO asks, "I understand he's going for the Ansel Adams look a bit. And the black is sleek (isn't it always in?). But a black American flag?"
My response is, "Sure. Why not?" You can always adapt critical design elements to a new theme. The Pennsylvania Railroad had a fair variety of logos, all incorporating an interlocking 'PRR' and a keystone somewhere nearby; I don't think it diluted the effectiveness of the logo and you certainly knew who you were dealing with. I daresay that, for a corporation as gigantic as the Pennsylvania Railroad, its logo was as important to it as the Stars and Stripes should be to us. I don't think any negative message is sent by the darkened flag; after all, we use a low-visibility version of it on patches for our troops in battle.
Methinks that she's looking for anything to stick on Senator McCain, since Governor Romney is her candidate crush.
The "Watch the Latest Video" still has McCain looking like an ornery old man, which is essentially what he is. That's good; I prefer my President to be a tough SOB with years of age, guile and experience. I'm particularly fond of that silver star with the extensions on either side. It strikes me as a stylized version of the American national insignia that's affixed to our military aircraft.
The sleekly quasi-military look may be what McCain's going for, it may not be. Either way, it's effective.
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February 13, 2007
His announcement is playing on C-SPAN at the moment, and he's talking about the transformation of Washington, et cetera. I thnk the last time we heard that word from a Republican pol, it was coming out of the former Secretary of Defense's lips. I'm not too sure that Romney's handlers would want him to be verbally linkable to Mr. Rumsfeld.
Meanwhile, I have yet to find a viable candidate for the Presidency in our party. I do, however, appear to have plenty of time. Readers out there are invited to pitch their candidates to me.
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February 10, 2007
Obama has done nothing but talk about himself and his family since his election. NO bills, legislature, or anything. my little parody of one of his speechs "My dad's from Kenya." Crowd claps wildly, screaming at the top of their lungs. "AIDS is a terrible disease and it must be dealt with." More screaming and clapping 'I am a Christian." More wild screaming and clapping "I have a wife and kids." even more wild screaming and clapping
I have no idea about the veracity of these remarks, but they're funny and they take a shot at Obama, so there you have it. They in essence sum up my opinion of him as a candidate; the man could stand up and declare that his administration would be dedicated to exterminating left-handed peoples, and he'd get wild applause.
He's like Paris Hilton or any other celebrity, applauded because of who he is, not because of what he does.
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February 07, 2007
Obama expelled to Phantom Zone
Many Bothans died to bring us this information. Meanwhile, my favorite Kryptonian is the current Kara Zor-El. Someone get her a sandwich!
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January 22, 2007
Where Governor Gilmore is concerned, there may simply be nothing to report.
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January 17, 2007
Visit Draft Gilmore for more information. Y'know, 'cause the Federal car tax is so onerous.
A bit of free advice to the proprietors of that site: Can't download blog buttons if they don't exist.
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January 09, 2007
Comes now an anonymous commenter to the Romney Cheerleader-in-Chief, Kathryn Jean Lopez:
The scariest thing about Hillary and Rudy being the presumptive nominees of their respective parties is the inescapable fact that, if the both of them actually win those nominations, then the next President of the United States will be a dress wearing liberal fron New York regardless of which one wins the general election.
Romney looks better with every passing day.
The last sentence is of course why Lopez posted it. I wonder if the Romney campaign should be billed for services rendered by NRO. I don't want HRC or Giuliani in the Oval Office. But for the interference of Northern Virginia, the Allen campaign could still very well be on track.
Bah.
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