Category Archives: Elections

Palin's Polite Politics

Elections, John McCain, Political Philosophy, Sarah Palin

What is National Rifle Association Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre doing with the Senator from Nevada, Harry Reid? More importantly, what is Sarah Palin doing campaigning for Sen. John McCain? How like a people-pleasing woman! Isn’t it time Palin stuck to a principled set of political prescriptions, and got over her gratitude to McCain for supposedly turning her into a supernova?

Palin rushed to McMussolini’s rescue in Tuscon, Arizona, mouthing the offal she repeated on their first campaign trail: “‘Before there were protests on Main Street and marches on Capitol Hill, there was the maverick of the Senate, fighting for us.'”

On the other hand, McCain’s primary challenger, J.D. Hayworth, is a run-of-the-mill Republican, only slightly better than McCain is some respects, and worse in others.

Perhaps because there is not much of a philosophical divide between the man she supposedly owes and his challenger that Palin is doing the friendly thing for a friend. Still, the effect of endorsing Rand Paul this year, Doug Hoffman last year, and now McCain again—makes Palin seem a little flaky.

The media loves McCain (and his mindless daughter) too much to fault Palin for stumping for him.

Meathead America Warming To BOCare

Barack Obama, Democracy, Democrats, Elections, Healthcare, IMMIGRATION

A GALLUP poll, taken one day after the H.R.4872 Reconciliation Act of 2010 received a majority of votes in the U.S. House of Representatives, shows that “Americans’ emotional responses to the bill’s passage are more positive than negative — with 50% enthusiastic or pleased versus 42% angry or disappointed.”

Bottom Line, conclude the authors, “Passage of healthcare reform was a clear political victory for President Obama and his allies in Congress. While it also pleases most of his Democratic base nationwide, it is met with greater ambivalence among independents and with considerable antipathy among Republicans.”

IF INDEED A MAJORITY OF Americans are beginning to thaw on Obamacare, what does it say about the changing face of this country? I do not believe that tea partiers will embrace this massive intervention into the economy anytime soon. What I do believe is that freedom-loving, small “r” republicans are in a shrinking minority. Mass immigration and the corrupting values of mass society—namely rampant democracy where property and liberty are forfeit—have rendered patriots aliens in their own country.

Republicans Just Jealous

Democrats, Elections, Healthcare, Political Economy, Regulation, Republicans

I’m always appalled by individuals, even on this site, who keep faith with the two-party system—and especially, the Republican Party—which, they insist, can be reformed. They’ve been watching the worms wriggle longer than I; but from where I’m perched, it is plain that had Republicans not made such a nuisance of themselves for so long, they’d be standing where BO is standing, heralding the near completion of the work of FDR.

That ObamaCare is awfully similar to (Mitt) RomneyCare is also plain to policy wonks who’re in the know. David Frum is an example. Admonishing the GOP for losing it by ostensibly tacking right—engaging in “overheated talk” and refusing “to deal”—David Frum points out that,

The Obama plan has a broad family resemblance to Mitt Romney’s Massachusetts plan. It builds on ideas developed at the Heritage Foundation in the early 1990s that formed the basis for Republican counter-proposals to Clintoncare in 1993-1994.

The FrumForum has more on the statist points of intersection between Romney- and ObamaCare:

Romneycare … did not create a federal bureaucracy; it created a state bureaucracy. It did not raise taxes; but instead was based on $300 million in free federal money. But in the main outlines, the two programs are identical.

My colleague Vox Day writes the following:

“…it is completely shameless for Republicans to complain that nationalizing health care is an unconstitutional expansion of federal power.”

“It wasn’t all that long ago that Republicans held the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. With the exception of an 18-month senatorial interregnum from May 2001 to November 2002, the Republican Party held unilateral control of all three branches of the federal government for six years. And what did it do with it?”

“Republicans wasted their electoral popularity on two unnecessary and unpopular military occupations. They foolishly transformed what had briefly been a bipartisan budget surplus into what were then thought to be nearly unprecedented deficits. They stupidly created a new federal entitlement program that has turned out to cost far more than was originally estimated. And, to top it all off, they arrogantly ignored the clearly expressed wishes of the American public and handed over $700 billion to a collection of corrupt and insolvent bankers.”

Devastating New Poll For Swing-State Dems About Obamacare

Democracy, Democrats, Elections, Government, Healthcare

Writes Robert Bidinotto:

This critical Wall Street Journal article may turn the tide on the ObamaCare vote:

The central argument used by Team Obama to line up wavering congressional Dem support for ObamaCare is: ‘You’ll pay a heavier price in November if we fail to pass ObamaCare, than if you vote for it.'”

This poll proves that this claim is a big lie. It’s the first survey to demonstrate conclusively that swing-district Democrats will pay a heavier price at the polls in November if they vote YES for ObamaCare, than if they vote NO. In fact, if they vote against it, voters are significantly more likely to cut them slack in the next election.

From the poll:

“Sixty percent of the voters surveyed will vote for a candidate who opposes the current [health-care] legislation and wants to start over.” But “the survey does provide a little good news for wavering Democrats. A congressman can buy himself a little grace if he had previously voted for health-care reform but now votes against it. Forty-nine percent of voters will feel more supportive of that member if he does so, 40% less supportive. More dramatically, 58% of voters say they will be more supportive of their congressman’s re-election if he votes against the bill a second time. However, for those members who voted against it in November and vote yes this time, 61% of voters say they will be less likely to support their re-election. Over a third of respondents say they will actively work against a candidate who votes the wrong way or for the candidate who votes the right way.”

[SNIP]

Bidinotto thinks “that it is critical that this survey receive the widest possible attention, especially among swing-district congressmen.” He has a request: “Please link to it on your websites and forward this message to others, including your representative. It may just tip the balance in the vote this week.”

I hope so.