Quote of the Day
I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Grandpa, Tell Me 'Bout the Good Old Days....
Don't Tell Me Words Don't Matter (Barack Obama)
From 1/16/08 newspaper interview: "Domestic side: What are decisive differences. Rough ideological agreement in Dem party. Clinton, Edwards & I agree on health care. Philosophical difference on mandates. I opposed, wanted to emphasize cost savings." Maybe we should call it ObamaDoesn'tCare...
Progressive Hypocrite of the Day: David Axelrod
"Well, first of all, let me say there’s been a coarsening of our political culture. I don’t think that language is appropriate, no matter who uses it. And I think whoever you are in politics, you ought to be willing to say so. I was disappointed that Governor Romney didn’t stand up more forcefully when Rush Limbaugh said what he said." - David Axelrod, Obama Reelection Communications Director
"The Mittzkrieg in Illinois isn't terribly inspiring." - David Axelrod, Obama Campaign Civility ConsultantThe following photo is NOT a genuine picture of Axelrod as he sent out his Romney tweet, but as a supporter of the massive 2009 stimulus package, he no doubt believes in the broken window fallacy:
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| Allegedly Photoshopped David Axelrod Tip of the Hat to Tim Cavanaugh |
With 99% of the vote in, Romney won 47%-35%. The Huffington Post estimates (at least) 41 delegates to Romney and 10 to Santorum. Based on the WSJ delegate count, this leaves Romney with 561 votes, just under a dozen shy of passing the halfway point to the nomination. There's no way Santorum can put lipstick on a pig here: Gingrich pulled in just under 8% of the vote, showing another example on Romney beating both Santorum and Gingrich combined, almost winning a clear majority in a multi-candidate field.
The anti-Romney faction has been irrationally speaking of a brokered convention. It's not going to happen. Let's just say, for the sake of argument, that Romney ends up with 1000 delegates, 144 shy of the nomination. Given the fact that Romney has consistently polled better than any of his 3 competitors against Obama, and he has won over 40% of the cumulative vote to date, it is difficult to believe that the GOP would turn to an untested candidate.
But, in fact, Santorum failed to follow up after his hat trick in early February and he failed to make any headway out of Alabama and Mississippi; in fact, Romney was leading by about half of his current margin at the time. Today's Gallup daily tracking poll showed Santorum closing to within 4, and the latest poll (I'm not sure I believe it) has Santorum winning by double digits in Louisiana and Romney tied with Gingrich. It will be tough for Romney to pick up Louisiana, but Santorum could have a bad month in April with only Wisconsin and Pennsylvania probably on his side, and Romney could blunt incidental wins with a strong second padding his delegate lead, already better than 2-1 over Santorum, a distant second.
Obama Opens Reelection Bid
With Major Fiscal Accomplishments
- first-time downgrade of US debt
- second time (WWII first) US Debt > GDP
- "The National Debt ($15.566 trillion).has now increased more during President Obama's three years and two months in office ($4.939 trillion) than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency ( $4.899 trillion )." - CBS News (my edits)
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| Courtesy of usgovernmentdebt.us |
For Those Who Don't Understand
The Need for National Austerity Now
We have already seen cites and states having to deal with zero-sum between operational expenses (say, police, teachers, etc.) and unsustainable, grossly underfunded pension obligations.The same thing holds true with interest expenses on the massive debt. What's particularly alarming here is that we have interest rates at historically low rates.Sooner or later, we are going to revert to historical averages, which will explode interest payments and cannibalize off funds for government services.
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| Courtesy of usgovernmentdebt.us |
Newt's Desperate Populist Last Gasp: $2.50/Gallon Gas
Ronald Bailey/Reason, "Newt's Despicable Gasoline Price Promise": Thumbs UP!
It would be harder to imagine a better example of a pandering pseudo-conservative than the raising of unrealistic expectations of a government's ability to manipulate the law of supply and demand. The price of gas is correlated to the price of oil, and the US is finding itself in a bidding war with rapidly developing nations like China and India for available oil exports. The only things that might drop oil prices (off the top of my head) are (1) significant stabilization in the volatile Middle East, Africa and other oil-exporting regions, (2) a global recession, or (3) materially significant new finds or new technology-enabled recoverable oil supplies.
A President can provide positive leadership on energy price stabilization in at least 3 important ways: (1) general economic policy, (2) a constructive, noninterventionist foreign policy and (3) supply-side reforms.
General economic policy would guided by two importing overriding principles: (1) a robust free market philosophy that explicit disavows government intervention (subsidies, tariffs, and other protectionist policies) and (2) shoring up a fiat currency by scaling back (or better yet, eliminating) megalomaniac central banks and currency manipulation (e.g., printing money, anti-cash or hard currency (gold, silver) policies, etc.) and government competition for economic resources (among other things, government living within its means and limiting its spending and revenues as a percentage of the economy, limited deployment of personnel, etc.).
Supply-side reforms include, but are not restricted to: (1) lowering or eliminating barriers to production, e.g., obstructionist environmental regulations, inefficient permit or patent/trademark approval processes, restrictions on access to federal properties likely to contain large supplies of oil and gas (e.g., Alaska, offshore/continental shelf, oil shale properties in the Western US, etc.), (2) scaling back discriminatory, crony or dysfunctional tax/regulatory policies (e.g., "windfall profits", percentage depletion (after cost recovery), etc.), and (3) eliminating any relevant crony barriers of entry for smaller operators or substitute fuels
Political Humor
Just in time for the Illinois Democratic Primary: no doubt David Axelrod went about canvassing reliable Chicago Democratic precincts....
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| Courtesy of patriotpost.us |
"Santorum said when he's in the White House he'll tell his attorney general to prosecute people who distribute any content that is deemed obscene. Will he appoint a team to watch porn all day? If so, he could solve the unemployment crisis." - Jimmy Kimmel
[Santorum is currently looking at TSA staffers...]
Musical Interlude: My Favorite Groups
The Cars, "Who's Gonna Drive You Home". This concludes my Cars series. Tomorrow I'll start my Little River Band series.
