tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-308563252024-03-14T10:55:04.993-07:00Red State ImpressionsI'm married with two daughters and have been teaching political science in a red state for 19 years. My blogging covers a lot of issues but I'm a progressive kind of guy who tends to focus on political process, conservatism, and religiosity. Living in the Bible Belt gives me a little different though not necessarily more friendly perspective on conservatism. I also get in the occasional sports post.Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.comBlogger2120125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-60225427369756405052011-09-07T15:24:00.000-07:002011-09-07T15:27:58.420-07:00The Karl Rove Pot and the Rick Perry KettleRepublicans must really hate each other. Today, Karl Rove called Rick Perry's position on social security "toxic." What's next? Is Dick Cheney going to call Michele Bachmann "evil?"<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-59892203675440471802011-09-02T04:51:00.000-07:002011-09-02T05:03:38.401-07:00Michele Bachmann Loses Political VirginityI guess Michele Bachmann is losing her "Minnesota Nice." Having released her first <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/perry-slams-blatantly-false-attack-ad-from-pro-bachmann-pac.php?ref=fpa">nastily dishonest attack ad</a> on Rick Perry yesterday, Bachmann joins <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2011/0901/Condi-Rice-fires-back-at-Dick-Cheney">Dick Cheney </a>in demonstrating that Barack Obama isn't the only target of Republican viciousness.
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<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-40533386897216002592011-08-27T21:25:00.000-07:002011-08-27T21:57:44.195-07:00Dick Cheney and American Average-ismDick Cheney is out with another "exciting" leak from his book. Actually, it's a leak squared because Cheney is l<a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62185.html">eaking</a> that President Bush ordered a leak to David Ignatius about the situation in Iraq in 2007.
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<br /><blockquote>“On Tuesday morning, May 22 [2007]," Cheney writes, "a David Ignatius column appeared in the Washington Post titled ‘After the Surge: The Administration Floats Ideas for a New Approach in Iraq.’ It quoted administration officials on the need to revamp policy in order to attract bipartisan support and to take into account the fact that the surge might not have the stabilizing effect we had hoped.</blockquote>
<br />In the final analysis, what Dick Cheney has to say in his book isn't very significant. It's what Cheney did as Vice-President that counts and Cheney ultimately made the U. S. much more of an average authoritarian country. Promoting the illegal invasion of Iraq, introducing torture into American treatment of terror suspects, the emergency rendition of terror suspects to countries where they would be tortured, maintaining a set of secret CIA prisons, and perverting the whole legal structure of American government in defense of torture all made our country much more like Castro's Cuba, Mubarak's Egypt, Gaddafi's Libya, and Assad's Syria than we had been.
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<br />Of course, the extension of the Arab Spring into the Libyan Summer and the Syrian Fall means that the U. S. is losing a number of our more brutal fellow-travelers. In a rapidly changing world, it's hard to stay average for very long.
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<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-47813906126387861152011-08-27T11:30:00.000-07:002011-08-27T11:38:20.001-07:00What Was I Doing for Those Two Years?Given that much as American conservatism is about the denial of reality, it's always interesting to follow the new twists in reality denial. Here, conservative Mission America commentator Linda Harvey denies that there's any such thing as gay, lesbian, bi-sexuals, or transgendered (LGBT) people.
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<br /><blockquote>There’s one big fact that’s not backed up. There is no proof that there’s ever anything like a gay, lesbian or bisexual or transgendered child, or teen or human. One of the other things you’re gonna see as I mentioned is a big campaign GLSEN’s gonna roll out this year calling for 'respect,' respect! Not just for people, but for homosexual lifestyle. The PR campaign to hold up gay as a good thing: the lifestyle, not the person, because there are no such humans. </blockquote>
<br />During the 1980's, I worked as a cook and busboy at a gay bar in Philadelphia. Now I guess I have to wonder what I was "really" doing those two years.
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<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-13701034899945946072011-08-25T08:54:00.000-07:002011-08-25T09:01:53.395-07:00Today's Supposedly Big Dick Cheney RevelationDick Cheney's been saying that his soon-to-be-published memoir is going to make "<a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-cheney-book-20110825,0,7292925.story">heads explode</a>."
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<br /><blockquote><a class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PEPLT007400" title="Dick Cheney" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics/government/executive-branch/dick-cheney-PEPLT007400.topic">Dick Cheney</a><a class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PEPLT007400" title="Dick Cheney" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics/government/executive-branch/dick-cheney-PEPLT007400.topic"> is already promising there will be “heads exploding all over Washington” when his new book hits stores Tuesday. The 46th vice president made that declaration in an interview with </a><a class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORCRP004494" title="NBC (tv network)" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/economy-business-finance/media-industry/television-industry/nbc-%28tv-network%29-ORCRP004494.topic">NBC</a><a class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PEPLT007400" title="Dick Cheney" href="http://www.latimes.com/topic/politics/government/executive-branch/dick-cheney-PEPLT007400.topic"> -- portions of which were aired on the Today Show Wednesday morning -- as he embarked on a media blitz to promote the book, “In My Time: A Personal and Political Memoir.”
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<br />I'm not sure why though. The big revelation being leaked today is that <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/25/us/politics/25cheney.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss">Cheney advocated</a> the bombing of Syria. I wouldn't have been surprised if Cheney had wanted to bomb Paris and Bonn . . . or LA and New York for that matter. The fact that he wanted to bomb Syria is hardly news.
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<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-14818776860507655992011-08-21T19:23:00.000-07:002011-08-21T19:33:33.486-07:00Libya: Obama Handled It Right<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv1xZkHPQ3gP82BS-NWvq9-qGT2OV4yz_fg6XHr0GSzcz505aCq-iJ-rVgr99p0of885HqG_9XBFj8gviEGAHn3gEhNNpIs6VdYujXIk_X35jcmei1S4WAWz2IYm8HzQqPR2PSGQ/s1600/Tripoli.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5643500588383496802" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 217px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 112px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv1xZkHPQ3gP82BS-NWvq9-qGT2OV4yz_fg6XHr0GSzcz505aCq-iJ-rVgr99p0of885HqG_9XBFj8gviEGAHn3gEhNNpIs6VdYujXIk_X35jcmei1S4WAWz2IYm8HzQqPR2PSGQ/s200/Tripoli.jpg" border="0" /></a>
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<br /><div>Libyan Revolutionaries have taken over <a href="http://www.juancole.com/2011/08/the-great-tripoli-uprising.html">large areas of Tripoli </a>and are reported to have <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2011/08/rebels_enter_heart_of_tripoli_crowds_celebrate.php?ref=fpa">captured two of Qaddafi's sons</a>. They deserve a great deal of credit for founding a new nation on the wreckage of the dictatorship.</div>
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<br /><div>Also deserving credit is Barack Obama. Much as the killing of bin Laden was a validation of Obama's Afghanistan policy, the triumph of the Libyan Revolution has validated Obama's approach to the Arab spring in general and Libya in particular. Obama provided the Libyan movement with moral and military support. But the United States refused to invade Libya, overthrow Qaddafi, and win the revolution for the protesters. By limiting American support, the Obama administration forced the Libyans to win their revolution themselves and the positive effects frofm that will be felt for decades to come. </div>
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<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-84343147192345556702011-08-20T11:10:00.000-07:002011-08-20T11:27:02.789-07:00Why Sarah Palin's Going to RunRachel Maddow caught a <a href="http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/653468/sarah_palin%27s_husband_admits_on_video_that_his_wife_quit_being_governor_so_she_could_make_more_money/#paragraph2">video </a>in which husband Todd admitted that Sarah Palin quit her job as governor of Alaska so she could make money--thousands of dollars a day.
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<br />In my opinion, this is why Sarah Palin will ultimately run for president as well. Sarah Palin doesn't particularly want to run for president and I doubt that she wants to be president either. If Palin wanted to run and be president, she would have already jumped into the campaign. Still, Palin is constrained to run for president because she can't maintain her current standard of living unless she runs. Much as Newt Gingrich's little "American Solutions" empire depended on the "Newt for President" tease, Palin's much bigger empire of her Fox gig, television show, book deals, and speaking tours all depend on the idea that Palin could run for president as the chosen representative of right-wing America. It's not like Palin would dry up and blow away if she doesn't run, but her speaker's fees, ratings, advances on her books, and general marketability are all going to decline substantially if she doesn't answer the call of the popular white right and run for the presidency.
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<br />Todd Palin's comments are an indication that Team Palin has some sense of the connection between Sarah's income and her politics.
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<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-31981162283168686462011-08-15T06:24:00.000-07:002011-08-15T06:41:40.788-07:00Bring on Rick PerryThe Obama administration thinks that Mitt Romney is going to win the Republican nomination, but I bet they're hoping that the GOP chooses Rick Perry instead.
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<br />Obama surrogate Paul Begala is certainly chomping at the bit:
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<br /><blockquote>Does Michele Bachmann make conservative crowds swoon by saying the Lord told her to study tax law? Meh. Perry gathers 30,000 people to a controversial Christian
<br />prayer rally. In Houston. In August. One veteran Texas politico told me, “The guy is Elmer Gantry. He could take over a conservative megachurch tomorrow and outpreach the pastor . . .
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<br />Perry <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/12/rick-perry-newsweek-interview-transcript.html" target="_blank">told The Daily Beast's Andrew Romano</a> that Social Security is “a Ponzi scheme,” and that both it and Medicare are unconstitutional. Never mind that the Supreme Court recently ruled that Social Security is perfectly constitutional . . .
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<br />Perry has already flirted with secession. Secession? Even <a href="http://www.civilwarhome.com/jdavisbio.htm" target="_blank">Jefferson Davis opposed secession</a> when he was a senator from Mississippi. When you’re more open to secession than Jefferson Davis was a century and a half ago, well, you've gone pretty far . . .</blockquote>Begala is so pumped about running against Rick Perry that he was almost ready to run himself.
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<br />Candidates on the far right like Perry, Sarah Palin, and Michele Bachmann are always claiming that Barack Obama or "the left" is afraid of them. But the opposite is the case. Rick Perry represents everything that is ignorant, bigoted, wrong-headed, and immoral about the conservative movement in this country. Begala's phrase for all of that is "bat shit crazy" and he's itching to oppose him.
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<br />So am I.
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<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-38626740110776360342011-08-10T18:53:00.000-07:002011-08-10T19:21:44.014-07:00Slouching Toward a Hee Haw Economy?Now that the Stock Market has <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44086993/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/">lost 500 points</a> three times in the last two weeks, the economy is beginning to race a number of big questions.
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<br />Probably the most immediate question is whether the U. S. is going to move from the economic pessimism of the last two years to a long-term state of gloom and despair. One of my favorite songs from the 70's was the old Hee-Haw <a href="http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/g/gloomdespairandagonyonme.shtml">anthem</a> "Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me:"
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<br /><em>Gloom, despair, and agony on me</em>
<br /><em>Deep, dark depression, excessive misery</em>
<br /><em>If it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all</em>
<br /><em>Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me.</em>
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<br />There's reason to think the panic might be temporary. The main reason that the panic might abate is that American companies are <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/16744122">tremendously profitable</a> and sitting on mountains of cash.
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<br /><blockquote>Corporate America has bounced back impressively. The quarterly results season that is now nearly over has revealed that profits are back within a whisker of the all-time highs achieved before the downturn in late 2008. By some calculations, the rate of recovery of profits from their trough is the strongest since the end of the Great Depression. </blockquote>
<br />But if the whole country decides on gloom, we're going to have a Hee Haw economy.
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<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-8224172887135236542011-08-04T05:21:00.000-07:002011-08-04T05:29:37.691-07:00What is Fox News?According to the impartial observers at Fox Business News, David Brock at <em>Media Matters for America</em> claimed earlier this year that Fox News is the "<a href="http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/08/03/media-matters-puts-tax-exempt-status-in-jeopardy/">de facto head of the GOP</a>." In fact, that was true in 2009-2010 when Fox fanned the flames of the Tea Party Movement and led the charge against Obama's health reform legislation. But I'm not so sure that Fox is still the only organizing force in the GOP at this point.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-38005286030127500512011-08-03T13:21:00.000-07:002011-08-03T13:51:49.539-07:00Lady Gaga to Speak at Rick Perry's "Day of Prayer?"Before Texas governor Rick Perry became this week's Great White Hope for the Republican presidential nomination, he organized a National Day of Prayer for this Saturday. <br /><br />There are a lot of questions associated with the event. Should Perry be inviting gay-baiting hate groups like the American Family Association? That question can also be asked about flame-throwing religious figures like John Hagee of "the Holocaust was a good thing because it brings us closer to the Apocalypse" fame. <br /><br />Likewise, wouldn't identifying with the religious right undermine Perry with independents and moderates if he won the GOP nomination? According to Alex Castellanos:<br /><br /><div><br /><blockquote>One thing Republicans are going to demand this election is a candidate who can beat Barack Obama . . . The election is all about him. A candidate who establishes his identity on the fringe, talking about social and religious issues, when the economy is going over a cliff, risks marginalizing himself, becoming unacceptable to independents and unelectable. That would be the kiss of death.</blockquote></div><br />And Alex Castellanos knows extremism, having made his career by doing racist ads for Jesse Helms during Helms' last Senate campaign.<br /><br />Another problem is that Perry booked 65,000 seat Reliant stadium but only has 8,000 reservations. As Bobby Jindal could tell him, epic fails are real buzz-killers.<br /><br />But the biggest question hanging over Rick Perry's Day of Prayer is whether Lady Gaga is going to make an appearance.<br /><br />It certainly seems like Perry is teasing a Gaga performance. <br /><br />"There will be folks who think it's [politics], that there are other motivations. But it's not about me," Perry said. "It's about Him," the exact same divinity Lady Gaga references in "Born This Way." <br /><br />"It doesn't matter if you love him/or capital H-I-M."<br /><br />Perhaps Perry had an inspiration while singing along with Gaga's lyrics (what rising politician doesn't think "you're on the right track baby, you were born this way?) and decided to put out an invitation to the hottest singer on the planet.<br /><br />Now THAT would be a sensational way to launch a presidential campaign.<br /><br />Clever of Perry to keep it a secret so long.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-21370138648059259822011-08-02T21:33:00.000-07:002011-08-02T21:34:56.979-07:00Nancy Pelosi CounterfactualIt looks like Nancy Pelosi came close to voting "no" on the debt limit proposal. If Pelosi had voted "no," i beliee she would have been obligated to run against Obama in the 2012 primaries.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-86833901375691900362011-08-02T04:33:00.000-07:002011-08-02T04:50:47.274-07:00Huntsman and the Prom QueenA pretty dumb moment from Jon Huntsman. Yesterday, Huntsman claimed that the media only paid attention to Michele Bachmann because she was pretty.<br /><br /><blockquote>In a long story running in <a href="http://nymag.com/print/?/news/politics/jon-huntsman-mitt-romney-2011-8/index5.html">this week's New York</a>, Huntsman -- who recently abandoned his lackluster <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jon-huntsman-nice-guy-finish/story?id=13893840">Mr. Nice Guy campaign</a> in favor of taking <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/jon-huntsman-replaces-his-campaign-manager.php">direct swipes</a> at his opponents -- suggested Bachmann, the only woman officially running for president, gets the attention she gets in part because she's good-looking. "She makes for good copy--and good photography," Huntsman told New York's John Heilemann. The quote came in the context of talk about Bachmann being "more an object of media fascination than a plausible nominee," as Heilemann put it.</blockquote><br />Actually, I follow commentary on Bachmann's campaign fairly closely and there's none of the "librarian porn" fascination surrounding Bachmann that was the case with Sarah Palin. Actually, this is the first discussion I've seen of her standard-issue, politician look. I remember somebody commenting that politicians all look like class presidents or prom queens and Bachmann looks like she could have been queen at a home schooling prom.<br /><br />But who besides Jon Huntsman, who really cares?<br /><br />The main things about Bachmann's candidacy is that she has a constituency in the religious right and Tea Party factions, works very hard, has a potential path to the Republican nomination, and would lose the general election to Obama by about 25 points. <br /><br />But why exactly is Jon Huntsman running? <br /><br />About all I can see is that he has a career-killing resume as a moderate Republican, good hair, and an interesting story about growing up as a rock n' roll Mormon. <br /><br />Not exactly presidential material there.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-24886467140207900032011-07-29T18:20:00.000-07:002011-07-29T18:24:34.434-07:00Eleven Theses on the Debt Limit ShowdownGiven the problems of the American economy and political institutions, it's a good time to give a nod to Karl Marx. Here's some quick ideas on the state of play in the Debt Limit Showdown modeled after Marx's "Theses on Feuerbach."<br /><br />I. Are We Exceptional? You betcha. American exceptionalism now means that the U. S. has an extraordinarily large economy and an equally dysfunctional political sector. Having both the best and the worst of the bad is very American. For more than eighty years after the Revolution, we had both the best state of freedom and the worst kind of slavery. <br />II. The Way of the Whigs. The Debt Limit Showdown is the end of the Republican Party as we know it. The GOP used to be an alliance where global business interests were the senior partners and small business, Southern/Western regionalisms, and ultra-conservative factions provided a populist edge. The religious right, libertarians, and Confederate and frontier nostalgia buffs now dominate to such an extent that they can tell big business to take their global economy and shove it. <br /><br />III. A Seat at the Table? The United States is the only advanced industrial country where large-scale business interests don't have a political home. The Democrats have a global business perspective but want more government regulation than big business can tolerate. The new Republican Party wants to end the role of government in the national economy and is willing to sacrifice the macro-economic interests of big business to do so. Big business carries a lot of weight, but can no longer advance its fundamental interests.<br /><br />IV. All the Pretty Revolutions. Since the 1950's, the U. S. has been a caultron of reform movements for civil rights, women's equality, sexual freedom, gay rights, and language diversity. If Lincoln was right to characterize the Civil War a "new birth of freedom," we can legitimately view the last 60 years as "the Age of New Freedoms." Taken as a whole, these movements have changed the nature of everybody's life for the better in the United States.<br /><br />V. A Critical Mass of Globalism. For all of their problems and limitations, America's urban belts, major cities, and university centers are characterized by a dove-tailing of multi-cultural diversity, global outreach, and high concentrations of financial and cultural capital. Seattle, the Bay Area, LA, Miami, the Bos-Wash corridor and other centers of commerce and technology have become global cities almost as much as they are American cities. <br /><br />VI. Tea Party Agonistes. What the Tea Party represents is a pointed reaction against the social and cultural changes of the last 60 years. Both rejecting American society and feeling rejected and victimized, the Tea Party and its ultra-conservative allies would want to escape from America like the Boer trekkers or the original Mormon migrants, but can't because the authoritarian traditions they crave have died out in the West. As a result, the Tea Party is stuck with playing out the tragic farce of seeking to dominate American society without being contaminated by modern American life. <br /><br />VII. A Specter is Haunting Barack Obama. When Barack Obama was elected president, both sides viewed him as the representative figure for the new multi-cultural America that had elected him. As a result, both sides have been disappointed with Obama's presidency. Progressives, African-Americans, hispanics, gay people, Jews, Asian Americans, and young people were all expecting Obama to embody their nascent vision of American society and saw it in his convention address and campaign speeches. Instead, they got a technical manager and moderate. Constituencies on the right were expecting and perhaps yearning for the anti-Christ and got somebody who was more worried about their happiness than anything else. Obama may win re-election but the stigma of disappointment will haunt him like it haunts Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.<br /><br />VIII. Like the Union Army. The American left is much like the Union Army before Grant--large, loosely organized, well-armed, well-fed, and led so poorly that it's painful. Weaknesses are legion, but the left is closely connected with the progressive development of American society over the last 60 years and has a diffuse structure of small groups and publications that allow it to survive defeat and disappointment. Two generations of national leadership have come and gone since the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 and people on the left still deserve better. Perhaps there's a left-wing version of Grant out there waiting to find his niche and his voice.<br /><br />IX. Like the Confederate Army. The Republicans and the Tea Party right has many of the virtues of the Army of Northern Virginia--audacity, organization, and effective leadership. Hell, I wish there was somebody on the left who was half as smart as Mitch McConnell. But they're fighting a losing battle for the horrible cause of yanking American society back into the 19th century.<br /><br />Given the problems of the American economy and political institutions, it's a good time to give a nod to Karl Marx. Here's some quick ideas on the state of play in the Debt Limit Showdown modeled after Marx's "Theses on Feuerbach."<br /><br /><strong>I. Are We Exceptional?</strong> American exceptionalism now means that the U. S. has an extraordinarily large economy and an equally dysfunctional political sector. Having both the best and the worst of the bad is very American. For more than eighty years after the Revolution, we had both the best state of freedom and the worst kind of slavery. <br /><br /><strong>II. The Way of the Whigs.</strong> The Debt Limit Showdown is the end of the Republican Party as we know it. The GOP used to be an alliance where global business interests were the senior partners and small business, Southern/Western regionalisms, and ultra-conservative factions provided a populist edge. The religious right, libertarians, and Confederate and frontier nostalgia buffs now dominate to such an extent that they can tell big business to take their global economy and shove it.<br /><br /><strong>III. A Seat at the Table?</strong> The United States is the only advanced industrial country where large-scale business interests don't have a political home. The Democrats have a global business perspective but want more government regulation than big business can tolerate. The new Republican Party wants to end the role of government in the national economy and is willing to sacrifice the macro-economic interests of big business to do so. Big business carries a lot of weight, but can no longer advance its fundamental interests.<br /><br /><strong>IV. All the Pretty Revolutions.</strong> Since the 1950's, the U. S. has been a caultron of reform movements for civil rights, women's equality, sexual freedom, gay rights, and language diversity. If Lincoln was right to characterize the Civil War a "new birth of freedom," we can legitimately view the last 60 years as "the Age of New Freedoms." Taken as a whole, these movements have changed the nature of everybody's life for the better in the United States. <br /><br /><strong>V. A Critical Mass of Globalism.</strong> For all of their problems and limitations, America's urban belts, major cities, and university centers are characterized by a dove-tailing of multi-cultural diversity, global outreach, and high concentrations of financial and cultural capital. Seattle, the Bay Area, LA, Miami, the Bos-Wash corridor and other centers of commerce and technology have become global cities almost as much as they are American cities. <br /><br /><strong>VI. Tea Party Agonistes.</strong> What the Tea Party represents is a pointed reaction against the social and cultural changes of the last 60 years. Both rejecting American society and feeling rejected and victimized, the Tea Party and its ultra-conservative allies would want to escape from America like the Boer trekkers or the original Mormon migrants, but can't because the authoritarian traditions they crave have died out in the West. As a result, the Tea Party is stuck with playing out the tragic farce of seeking to dominate American society without being contaminated by modern American life. <br /><br /><strong>VII. A Specter is Haunting Barack Obama.</strong> When Barack Obama was elected president, both sides viewed him as the representative figure for the new multi-cultural America that had elected him. As a result, both sides have been disappointed with Obama's presidency. Progressives, African-Americans, hispanics, gay people, Jews, Asian Americans, and young people were all expecting Obama to embody their nascent vision of American society and saw it in his convention address and campaign speeches. Instead, they got a technical manager and moderate. Constituencies on the right were expecting and perhaps yearning for the anti-Christ and got somebody who was more worried about their happiness than anything else. Obama may win re-election but the stigma of disappointment will haunt him like it haunts Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.<br /><br /><strong>VIII. Like the Union Army.</strong> The American left is much like the Union Army before Grant--large, loosely organized, well-armed, well-fed, and led so poorly that it's painful. Weaknesses are legion, but the left is closely connected with the progressive development of American society over the last 60 years and has a diffuse structure of small groups and publications that allow it to survive defeat and disappointment. Two generations of national leadership have come and gone since the election of Bill Clinton in 1992 and people on the left still deserve better. Perhaps there's a left-wing version of Grant out there waiting to find his niche and his voice.<br /><br /><strong></strong><strong>IX. Like the Confederate Army.</strong> The Republicans and the Tea Party right has many of the virtues of the Army of Northern Virginia--audacity, organization, and effective leadership. Hell, I wish there was somebody on the left who was half as smart as Mitch McConnell. But they're fighting a losing battle for the horrible cause of yanking American society back into the 19th century.<br /><br /><br /><strong>X. Tragic Victories.</strong> My guess is that the Debt Limit Showdown will result in a fairly lengthy period of debt default with unknown consequences to the American and world economy. If either side gains a clear victory, the other side is going to strengthen itself in defeat as the whole of politically active America stews in bitterness. In this light, the best outcome might be a mutually unsatisfactory compromise.<br /><br /><strong>XI. Nothing Wrong with Interpretation.</strong> Marx was right about the need to change the world rather than interpret it. But it wouldn't hurt if we had some better interpretations.My guess is that the Debt Limit Showdown will result in a fairly lengthy period of debt default with unknown consequences to the American and world economy. If either side gains a clear victory, the other side is going to strengthen itself in defeat as the whole of politically active America stews in bitterness. In this light, the best outcome might be a mutually unsatisfactory compromise.<br /><br /><strong>XI. Nothing Wrong with Interpretation</strong>. Marx was right about the need to change the world rather than interpret it. But it wouldn't hurt if we had some better interpretations.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-2978406450292238372011-07-28T15:05:00.000-07:002011-07-28T16:19:47.171-07:00Rick Perry's "Gay Marriage Reparative Therapy"Texas Governor Rick Perry hasn't announced yet, but the <em>Rick Perry For President </em>campaign has begun in earnest as Perry seeks to mend fences with the most determined haters in the social conservative movement--professional gay rights opponents. <br /><br />Perry had to mend fences because he responded to the passage of gay marriage in New York by saying something that sounded vaguely like acceptance. <br /><br /><blockquote>“Our friends in New York six weeks ago passed a statute that said that marriage can be between two people of the same sex and you know what that is New York and that is their business and that is fine with me, that is their call. If you believe in the tenth amendment, stay out of their business”.</blockquote><br />That quote was a problem for Perry because of the particular nature of his candidacy. <br /><br />Rick Perry's No. 1 strategy for the Republican primaries is to beat out Michele Bachmann for the position of social conservative/Tea Party candidate and then edge Mitt Romney over the long haul. <br /><br />And it's a viable strategy. <br /><br />Mitt Romney is a very weak frontrunner who is incredibly vulnerable to negative advertising and many social conservative groups would tend to support Perry over any woman not named Sarah Palin. As a result, Perry has a definite path to the nomination.<br /><br />But social conservatives are just as opposed to gay rights as George Wallace was opposed to civil rights for African-Americans and Rick Perry was denounced by <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/RickSantorum/status/94620537367703552">Rick Santorum</a> and others for his "appeasement."<br /><br />So it was onto the haters for a little "<a href="http://www.washingtonblade.com/2011/07/28/bachmann-refuses-to-answer-questions-about-ex-gay-therapy/">gay marriage reparative therapy</a>."<br /><br />Today, Perry stopped by the radio program of Tony Perkins, the head of <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/family-research-council-labeled-hate-group-by-splc-over-anti-gay-rhetoric.php">America's most respected hate group</a>, the Family Research Council. The Family Research Council was named a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center because they publish inflammatory material that claims that gay people belong in jail among other things. Last February for example, Peter Sprigg, the senior researcher at the Family Research Council (FRC) told MSNBC host Chris Matthews that "I think there would be a place for criminal sanctions on homosexual behavior." All in all, the FRC's statements on homosexuality reminded the Southern Poverty Law Center of the Klan's statements on race. So the FRC was named a hate group.<br /><br />Perry didn't exactly retreat from his view that New York had a right to legalize gay marriage, but he did manage to mollify Perkins by restating the blanket opposition to gay marriage in Texas and his own preference for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.<br /><br /><blockquote>Right and that is the reason that the federal marriage amendment is being offered, it’s that small group of activist judges, and frankly a small handful, if you will, of states, and liberal special interests groups that intend on a redefinition of, if you will, marriage on the nation, for all of us, which I adamantly oppose.</blockquote><br />Of course, that's never going to happen and Perry knows it. Support for gay marriage has been growing steadily over the years and just recently passed the 50%. The chances of conservatives passing an anti-gay marriage amendment to the constitution are exactly zero.<br /><br />But reality isn't that meaningful of a concept for the FRC or any conservative group. The point for Perry was to pander enough to let the Family Research Council know that he was "one of them" and he succeeded.<br /><br />And the <em>Perry for President </em>campaign goes on.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-44053650966401591342011-07-27T20:03:00.000-07:002011-07-28T08:18:34.009-07:00To Be Decided By Gallup--The End Game on Debt Limits<strong>The Last Couple of Plays in Regulation. </strong>Nobody really knows what's going to happen with the Debt-Limit Showdown. <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/republicans-and-democrats-decry-each-others-nearly-identical-debt-limit-plan.php?ref=fpb">Talking Points Memo</a> and <a href="http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/27/its-all-over-but-the-face-saving/">Nate Silver</a> think it's going to be settled before Aug. 2. Andrew Leonard of <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/how_the_world_works/2011/07/27/republican_chaos_and_the_market/index.html">Salon thinks not</a>. I'm with Leonard. My best guess is that Obama, the Democrats, and Congressional Republicans will NOT hammer out a compromise by the Aug. 2 deadline and that they won't come to agreement if they have another week either.<br /><br />It looks to me like neither side can afford to compromise. There are two debt limit proposals out there now--one by Harry Reid which projects spending cuts of 2.7 trillion and the other by John Boehner which projects 1 trillion in cuts. Given that Boehner has already come to at least one agreement with Obama, it's likely that Reid and Boehner could come to some sort of compromise on spending if spending were the main issue.<br /><br />But it's not.<br /><br />The main problem is how to schedule the next debt limit vote. John Boehner is adamant about scheduling another debt limit vote in six months and making the Democrats go through the entire process again during the 2012 election campaign and Boehner is bringing up legislation to that effect today. The bill isn't all popular with Republicans because it doesn't fulfill all of the big ambitions that the GOP had for the debt limit debate. Republicans had hoped to either dramatically cut federal discretionary spending, get big cuts in Medicare and Social Security, or get a balanced budget amendment. Boehner's plan doesn't contain any of this and the only consolation that he's offering Republicans is to renew the whole depressing debate again in 2012 as a way to bog down the Obama administration and help the Republican presidential candidate.<br /><br />But Senate Democrats aren't totally stupid. They're just as adamant about not putting the debt limit albatross around Obama's neck and all 51 Senate Democrats and two independents have already signed a <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2011/07/27/All-Senate-Dems-say-no-to-Boehner-plan/UPI-81071311753600/?spt=mps&or=4">letter</a> indicating that they won't vote for the Boehner plan. Several Senate Republicans have expressed scepticism about the Boehner bill as well. So Boehner's bill isn't going anywhere in the Senate. But Harry Reid's legislation isn't going anywhere either. Reid's plan won't have the <a href="http://michellemalkin.com/2011/07/25/debt-plan-monda/">60 votes</a> needed to get through the Senate and doesn't offer anything to Republicans in the House.<br /><br />In other words, none of the proposals have a snowball's chance of getting through the hell that is now the Congress of the United States.<br /><br />And I don't think that there's going to be much room for compromise either.<br /><br />The Republicans can't give in because of Paul Ryan's Medicare proposals. Right now, the Ryan proposal to turn Medicare into a voucher system is an unpopular albatross around the neck of every Republican candidate in the country. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell initially tried to escape the Paul Ryan problem by demanding that the Democrats accept major cuts in Social Security and Medicare entitlement cuts as the price of getting any kind of debt limit agreement. But Obama trumped that when he proposed the poison pill of accepting entitlement cuts only if the GOP agreed to eliminate many of the tax loopholes for big business. Boehner found that proposal appealing, but was overruled by the Tea Party caucus.<br /><br />At this point, the proposal to revisit the debt limit debate in early 2012 is the only weapon the Republicans have to counter "The Ryan Effect" and I don't think the Republicans believe they can afford to give it up.<br /><br />That's why John Boehner will ultimately choose default over compromise on his proposals.<br /><br />And it's not like the Democrats are going to cave either. Obama and Harry Reid don't want to piss away all the advantages that the Dems have been accumulating since the 2010 election debacle. They want the election focus to be on Republican over-reaching and they can't do that if there's another Debt Limit Showdown.<br /><br />Even more important than that, the Democrats are determined not to be seen as weak. The biggest problem for Obama and the Congressional Democrats is that almost all of the important players in American politics see them as weak. Congressional Republicans, conservative activist groups, big business, and a lot of people in the Obama administration itself view the Dems as too eager to compromise. If the Democrats and Obama cave now, they'll no longer get the benefit of the doubt from their own constituencies.<br /><br />Ultimately, the last two plays in regulation will likely be votes on the Boehner Plan and the Reid Plan in the Senate.<br /><br />And both plans will fail.<br /><br /><strong>Overtime. </strong>You know, it wouldn't be a bad idea if political overtime was decided by penalty kicks just like soccer. But overtime in the Debt Limit Showdown is going to be decided by the polls instead.<br /><br />And it could be a long overtime.<br /><br />That's because there's a decent chance that the public mood has to get really ugly and angry for either side to give in.<br /><br />That's certainly the case for the Republicans. The polls already show that the public favors Obama's approach of balancing enhanced revenue with spending cuts. If the Republicans were going to respond to "public opinion" in this way, they would have already caved. Conservative Republicans are in an odd position. They see their majority in the House of Representatives and the debt limit debate as a big chance to push through a balanced budget amendment and eviscerate social security and medicare. That way, conservatives could lock in "conservative government" for generations even if conservative Republicans find it impossible to win elections in any but the reddest of red states. This is part of the reason why the Republicans are unlikely to cave unless the political environment turns against them completely.<br /><br />Of course, that can happen.<br /><br />The political environment could turn very toxic for the GOP if markets grind to a halt, federal checks stop going out, or Republican politicians and conservative talkers start committing a lot of "we don't care how much you're suffering" gaffes. The last big Republican initiated showdown was scuttled when <a href="http://www.cnn.com/US/9511/debt_limit/11-16/budget_gingrich/">Newt Gingrich</a> started whining about having to sit in the back of a plane.<br /><br />But I still think that House Republicans will be very reluctant to back down and might decide to defy public opinion even if it turns very strongly against them.<br /><br />For the Democrats, backing down is still "weakness" and patience with Obama administration weakness is beginning to run out among the Democrats. The Obama administration is much more sensitive to public opinion than the Republicans, but it would take a big shift for the Obama administration and Congressional Democrats to cave.<br /><br />Overtime for the Debt Limit Showdown could last awhile.<br /><br />Maybe they should just do penalty kicks.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-2564524022342665502011-07-19T16:09:00.000-07:002011-07-19T17:36:06.697-07:00Mitt Romney is Doomed! Doomed!There never was much reason to think that Mitt Romney had a fighting chance of winning the Republican nomination in 2012. Sure, Romney has all the right stuff on paper. He's a former Wall Street honcho and he saved the LA Olympics, served two terms as governor of Massachusetts, and looks great in a suit. Romney also projects oodles of alpha male leadership qualities and is going to win all of the fundraising battles because of his own personal fortune and his access to big business and Mormon cash.<br /><br />But none of that means much in the Republican primaries.<br /><br />Romney is what's going to be known as the classic "Mike Castle" candidate. The now former senator from Delaware, Mike Castle was experienced, popular, had lots of money and would have won a general election against a Democrat hands-down. <br /><br />And I'm sure that Castle was supremely confident of election in 2010.<br /><br />Nevertheless, Castle's re-election campaign <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/09/14/mike-castle-loses-christine-odonnell-leads-tea-party-charge.html">folded up</a> like origami paper after a few well-placed Tea Party attack ads on his moderation and Castle ended up with the most humiliating loss possible. He was beaten by the unemployed, dysfunctional neophyte Christine O'Donnell who promptly became a national embarrassment.<br /><br />In the same way, Mitt Romney has little chance of winning the GOP presidential nomination even though he's leading in the polls. As soon as aggressive conservatives like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachman, or Rick Perry begin running attack ads, Romney's numbers are going to sink and his campaign's going to run aground.<br /><br />And if the other GOP candidates aren't going to go after Romney, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/24/romney-freedomworks-tea-party_n_866503.html">Tea Party </a>organizations were determined to see that he didn't win.<br /><br />But it turned out that none of that was necessary.<br /><br />Even without a barrage of attack ads, the current polling indicates that Romney is a long-shot. A <a href="http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/07/poll-romney-trails-bachmann-nationally-for-gop-primaries.php">PPP poll</a> released today has Romney 20%, Bachmann 16%, Palin 12%, Perry 11%, and the GOP riff raff corralling another 32% among them. Romney's ahead, but these are disastrous numbers for him because Bachmann, Palin, and Perry are the same woman or "guy." They're Tea Party affiliated, aggressive, religious, suspicious of government, and alienated from the multi-cultural America that's going to line up behind Obama's re-election. Bachmann, Palin, and Perry get 39% of the vote between them and that's the case even though neither Palin nor Perry have started campaigning yet. Bachman was around 5% before she announced. One positive debate performance and some hard campaigning later, Bachmann's nipping at Romney's heels in a field of ten. When Perry and Palin announce (and I'm convinced Palin will run), their numbers can be expected to go up as well.<br /><br />Bachmann's actually slipping ahead of Romney on other measures, edging Romney by 1 point (21-20) with Sarah Palin not being considered and edging Romney again (44-41) in a head to head measure. Bachmann's even or slightly ahead despite not having Romney's name recognition, not having Romney's money, and not running any RINO crushing attack ads. Right now, Romney's a second choice for almost as many Palin, Cain, Gingrich, Perry, Ron Paul, Pawlenty, and Huntsman supporters as Bachmann. <br /><br />Romney also seems to be the second choice of that guy in Idaho who supports Rick Santorum. <br /><br />But support will eventually drift away from Romney as the super-charged emotions of the Republican primaries start building in earnest and the number of candidates drops down from the current 10 after the South Carolina caucuses. <br /><br />Who becomes Romney's strongest opponent is anybody's guess. Right now, I would give slightly better odds to Michele Bachmann because she's proven to be more energetic, more determined, and more systematic than either Sarah Palin or Rick Perry. <br /><br />But that could change.<br /><br />Given all her charisma, Sarah Palin still has an opportunity to reignite among conservatives. Likewise, it could be the case that Perry has untapped national appeal.<br /><br />Who knows?<br /><br />But the battle to win the Republican nomination is likely to be determined by who's the strongest between Bachman, Palin, and Perry.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-29710692654763201152011-07-19T15:24:00.000-07:002011-07-19T15:29:12.771-07:00Sarah Palin's AppealA well-stated formulation of Sarah Palin's core appeal by Jonathan Kay writing for <em>Salon</em>:<br /><br /><blockquote>Sarah Palin isn’t like other politicians. I know this from personal experience, having watched her speak to a massive Tea Party event that I covered while researching my newly published book about conspiracy theories, "Among the Truthers." She is not so much listened to as worshiped. Her stock right-wing policy formulations and anti-Obama barbs are not really the source of her appeal. Rather, Palin is loved for the personal qualities she embodies: Her large family, her decision to give birth to a child she knew had Down syndrome, her son who served in Iraq, her small-town clapboard roots. There is a rapturous quality that comes over right-wing audiences when she speaks, as if they were in the presence of a Madonna figure come to deliver America from its travails.</blockquote><br />Of course, the America that Palin's audiences view her as delivering is "white America."<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-39746471650104430712011-07-14T05:34:00.000-07:002011-07-14T05:37:47.521-07:00The Republican Plot to Re-Elect ObamaThat's pretty much what the <a href="http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/171403-obama-warns-cantor-dont-call-my-bluff-in-debt-talks">debt limit talks</a> look like right now. Boehner, McConnell, and Eric Cantor are doing their level best to turn Obama into a "strong leader who stood up to the reckless bullying of the Republicans."<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-52902964044264669782011-07-11T07:06:00.000-07:002011-07-11T07:27:36.591-07:00Will Sarah Palin Ever Hire a Republican?Golly! That liberal media is tough. <em>Newsweek </em><a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2011/07/10/palin-plots-her-next-move.html">puffs </a>Sarah Palin to the hilt. They even have a couple of cheesecake wilderness shots. <br /><br />The hard-bitten journalism crew at <em>Newsweek</em> also makes it sound like Palin's a lock to run for president but hasn't decided how she's going to run a presidential campaign without actually doing any campaigning. Is Palin doing to run a stealth campaign where she swoops into a town or state without notifying anybody? Or is it going to be a Zen campaign where she sits on her porch in Wasilla (or is it Phoenix?) and focuses on her breathing. <br /><br />"Sarah Palin is now breathing."<br /><br />These are all questions that I'd like to see answered but that Newsweek was too breathless to address. Maybe they were just too excited by their exclusive access to ask any questions.<br /><br />My own biggest question is whether Palin is going to bite the bullet and hire a living, breathing Republican to work for her campaign. Palin seems to have developed a phobia for all the consultants, campaign operatives, opposition researchers, and local officials associated with the Republican Party. She avoided them like the plague on her swing through the Eastern historical sites and didn't contact anybody in the Republican Party about her trip to Pella, Iowa ("an old Dutch town with the country’s largest working windmill") to see her campaign video "Undefeated."<br /><br />To be honest, I can't blame Palin. Like a lot of Americans, I'm not particularly fond of the Republican political apparatus either. They're the kind of people who give dishonesty and corruption a bad name. But I really think that Sarah Palin has to hire at least one Republican if she's going to run for the Republican nomination.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-90372556971806650452011-07-06T12:39:00.000-07:002011-07-06T12:49:57.786-07:00Some JusticeToday, it was announced that CNN has <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/onmedia/0711/CNN_cancels_Eliot_Spitzers_show.html">canceled</a> "In the Arena," the newstalk show hosted by that former patron of prostitution and Governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer. Spitzer shouldn't have been given such a "rehabilitation" vehicle by CNN in the first place. <br /><br />If this was a just world, Spitzer would have been forced to retire and live out his days as an embarrassment to his family, friends, and neighbors.<br /><br />Sort of like Larry Craig of "wide stance" fame.<br /><br />Still, it looks like Spitzer is losing his program and probably his toehold in the media universe. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-9968267758565124722011-07-05T04:52:00.000-07:002011-07-05T04:57:05.850-07:00Begging Brooks<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/opinion/05brooks.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss">David Brooks</a> begs Republicans to be reasonable. Not being optimistic about that, he begs "responsible" Republican elites to ignore the "fanatics" and be reasonable.<br /><br />But that ship has already sailed. <br /><br />Mitch McConnell and the other people in charge of the Republican Party have decided that fanaticism is their best bet.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-25968527358951881342011-06-30T06:29:00.000-07:002011-06-30T06:49:06.995-07:00Obama Must Be Doing Something RightInteresting! Mark Halperin called a "<a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/58098.html">dick</a>" for the Wednesday conference. Given that Halperin's one of the biggest creeps in American public life, it's evident that Obama must have been doing something right.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-43538339237052766722011-06-23T21:19:00.000-07:002011-06-23T21:22:21.859-07:00In War Criminal News . . .John Yoo <a href="http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/06/john_yoo_on_libya_obama_reached_right_end_through_wrong_means.php?ref=fpb">criticizes </a>the Obama administration for not going through proper process in deciding on the legality of their actions in Libya. Of course, Obama, who taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago, is more qualified than most presidents to make up his mind on these issues.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30856325.post-17165091734474936812011-06-21T11:48:00.000-07:002011-06-21T12:05:10.874-07:00More Rats Fleeing from the SS NewtIn today's Newt News, his two top campaign fundraisers resigned today. That makes 18 senior staff people who have <a href="http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/apnewsbreak-gingrich-campaign-fundraisers-983277.html">resigned</a> from Gingrich's floundering campaign over the last three weeks.<br /><br /><blockquote>The departures of fundraising director Jody Thomas and fundraising consultant Mary Heitman were the latest blow for the former House speaker who watched 16 top advisers abandon his campaign en masse earlier this month, partly because of what people familiar with the campaign spending described as a dire financial situation.</blockquote><br />People don't realize it yet, but this presidential campaign is the end of Newt Gingrich as we know him. Newt's whole America Solutions empire is premised on the idea that Newt Gingrich is a creative guy who has real influence in the Republican Party and the American government as a whole. But now that Gingrich is embarrassing himself so thoroughly on the campaign trail, it's gradually coming out that Newt doesn't have any influence and hasn't had any influence since he resigned as speaker in 1998. It turned out that Newt Gingrich was exactly what his worst critics said along--a megalomaniac blowhard who couldn't be trusted with anything.<br /><br />Sooner or later, Newt's going to get hit with a new reality. After his presidential campaign ends sometime after he gets 5% in the New Hampshire primaries, people are going to stop buying Newt's movies, videos, books and pamphlets, they're no longer going to participate in his projects, and are going to stop coming to his web sites. Sooner or later, America Solutions is going to either be dramatically downsized or go bankrupt.<br /><br />My bet's on the latter.<br /><br />That doesn't mean that Newt's going to starve or Callista won't be able to afford more platinum hair die. There's always room for a megalomaniac blowhard to hustle for a hard-earned buck on the right. <br /><br />It's just that most of us aren't going to hear about it.<div class="blogger-post-footer">AdSense
<script src="http://digg.com/tools/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script></div>Ric Carichttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12715258697811131789noreply@blogger.com0