Category Archives: Elections

The Money Market’s Mortician

America, Debt, Economy, Elections, Europe, Federal Reserve Bank, Inflation

When Standard & Poor’s cut the American credit outlook to negative, one Canadian wag mocked the credit ratings agency’s “special talent for arriving at the morgue and predicting the demise of the deceased.”

Now the money market’s mortician has made it official:

Via the WSJ: “Standard & Poor’s said U.S. Treasury debt no longer deserved to be considered among the safest investments in the world. S&P removed for the first time the triple-A rating the U.S. has held for 70 years, saying the budget deal recently brokered in Washington didn’t do enough to address the gloomy long-term picture for America’s finances.”

Ask Vladimir Putin, who knows a lot more about inflation that does “Zero,” and he’ll tell you that downgrading obligations such as have been incurred by the USA to an AA+ score is still too optimistic.

The mighty USA’s finances “rank below Liechtenstein and on par with Belgium and New Zealand.”

Lovely Lack of Legislative Accomplishment

Elections, Federalism, Law, Regulation, Republicans, Ron Paul

Lack of legislative accomplishment, according to former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, makes his fellow GOP 2012 candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann “unfit to be President.”

On NBC’s Meet the Press today, Pawlenty went after Bachmann, who holds significant leads in the polls, saying “Her record of accomplishment in Congress is nonexistent — it’s nonexistent.”

Pawlenty should look for another angle to bolster his lackluster presidential campaign. Unless they are passing legislation to repeal other legislation, the less legislating the clowns in Congress do, the better—for every one of us. An example of a good legislative record is that of “Dr. No,” aka Ron Paul.

Naturally, it’s hard to find information about how voluminous the United States Code is, but it’s safe to presume that it has its own dedicated building.

UPDATE III: Unflapable, But No ‘Flake’ (‘Winning’)

Elections, Etiquette, Human Accomplishment, Intelligence, John McCain, Media, Politics, Ron Paul, Sarah Palin

At last, presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann (R-Minn) is deploying a tactic touted by this column in hammering home her own intellectual heft (relative to a politician, that is). She has to. Fox News’ Chris Wallace apparently thinks that asking Bachmann (as opposed to John McCain and progeny) whether she is a flake amounts to hard-hitting journalism.

Then and there, the “seldom fazed” representative replied (paraphrased):

Well, I think that would be insulting, to say something like that, because I’m a serious person. I’m a 55-year-old woman. I’ve been married for 33 years, and I have a post-doctorate [I think she meant post-graduate] degree in federal tax law. I have five children, and have raised 23 foster children and opened a charter school for at-risk youth.

[Note how the Fox News article is written in the passive voice, so as to avoid implicating its hired hand, Wallace.]

As I’ve written repeatedly, Bachmann is nothing like Sarah Palin. Palin is Bush in a bra (with all the implications about brain power that implies).

Rep. Bachmann, on the other hand, as was contended back in September of 2009, is very clever.

Back then , this column had already picked the GOP’s winning ticket: Ron Paul for commander-in-chief; Michele Bachmann as second-in-command.

Bachmann is eloquent and is seldom fazed. As attractive as Sarah, she is also cerebral, a quality poor Palin is without. Bachmann is not yet a libertarian, but neither is she wedded to the warfare state, and is wise enough to recognize the political value of denouncing America’s forays abroad in order to bring moderates and independents into the fold. Given guidance (and a good kick), she is not beyond apologizing for her unforgivable vote for the Patriot Act.
Conversely … Paul has gone from immigration hawk to toying with amnesty (with an asterisk or two). Bachmann will bring Paul back from the brink. Americans inhabit a world of reality TV and other frivolity. To win the GOP nomination in this parallel universe, Ron Paul needs political bling—he will want the punch, pizazz and money bombs a Bachmann can provide.

“Bundle Rand (Paul) and Bachmann—and the opposition, both Republican and Democratic, will be vanquished. But that’s for another day.”

UPDATE I: A Facebook friend wants an analysis of Sarah palin’s unraveling. Okay, here.

UPDATE II: Bill, as I wrote in “Bachmann: Bling For Ron Paul?”, Paul would not take MB on unless it was under his tutelage, after she was, “Given guidance (and a good kick),” and made to “apologize for her unforgivable vote for the Patriot Act.”

Alone, how is Paul to win? We’re in this to win, right?

UPDATE III: (June 29): WINNING. Myron, what is wrong with wanting Paul to win? He can win the nomination if he and MB combine forces. Alone he is unlikely to get anywhere. Defeatism is a luxury only well-funded, spoilt brats (like these) can afford.

Bachmann “has jumped into second place in the New Hampshire Republican primary. … While Bachmann remains well behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has 36 percent support, the other sixteen Republicans included in the survey all had levels of support in the single digits.”

The results of the Gallup poll released on Tuesday showed that Bachmann’s name recognition is up to 69 percent from 52 percent in a poll conducted in late February/early March. With the increase, Bachmann is behind only Romney, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, and Congressman Ron Paul, R-Texas, in terms of name recognition, Gallup also noted that Bachmann has a positive intensity score of 24, which ties with pizza magnate Herman Cain’s as the highest such score of any candidate

Christie & The Coquettish Coulter

Ann Coulter, Celebrity, Conservatism, Elections

Why I always hold my tongue when speaking about this supercilious woman, I don’t know. Here the coquettish Ann Coulter simpers sexually about Chris Christie, her choice for president. Christie is not even running, but “Annie” wants to have her way with him.

The rest of her analysis is utterly vapid.

Perhaps E! Online! can run a reality show/competition. The challenge? Motivate Christie to make a run for president—and you get a night out with “Annie.”

I certainly like that Christie is capable of telling a whiny woman to get her nose out of his business. We need more boundaries between the private and public spheres, not fewer—and Christie put it magnificently. But where is he on any issue? Nowhere.

William N. Grigg is far less charitable about Coulter. But he gets the Mercer Wordsmith Award for coining a “slatternly succubus.”