Swerving Into a Winning Strategy

The Republicans are starting to get a clue, and grow a pair. I give credit to the TEA party.

Seven Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have asked the administration what the cost would be to deport every illegal alien with which government at all levels comes into contact?

The Republicans may just have swerved into a winning strategy – find and exploit wedge issues where th administration is in direct conflict with the desires of the electorate.

I would argue that the Republican successes so far in exploiting cases where the administration is in conflict with the electorate – healthcare, TARP, Cap and Trade – have been purely accidental.

Sort of a “Golly, what have we here” moment.

This one looks planned. Even the somnambulant and dense Republican leadership knows that the electorate supports the Arizona Law, 1070.

This looks like the starting pistol of the 2012 election cycle, and takes further advantage of the reigning president’s tendency – I would say, desire – to stick his thumb in the citizen’s collective eyes.

It is what community Organizers do, but cumulatively it comes at an increasing cost!

 

They Do Not Understand

There is obvious disarray in Democratic ranks, with someone trying to maneuver a Crist win in Florida – either Clinton or Crist (or both?), take your pick.

What we know is that the winner, before the kerfuffle and certainly afterward, is Marco Rubio.

What we do know is that Clinton talked with Meek about quitting – the wording is unclear – and the effort was to help Crist beat Rubio. So, a powerful White guy asked a Black guy to quit in order to hurt the political chances of a Latino guy.

Too funny!

The Democrats are trying to save the Senate, and admit they have lost the House. The president’s remaining agenda is in shambles, and the liberal pain is obvious on these pages as they thrash about to salvage something. Anything.

Their problem is so simple that they will not admit it, but they KNOW it: Their agenda was in direct opposition to the wishes of the electorate. The electorate OPPOSED Cap and Trade, but the House passed it anyway. The electorate OPPOSED the healthcare bill, but the House, Senate and President crammed it through anyway. The electorate OPPOSED TARP, but the Congress and President instituted it anyway. The electorate OPPOSED the GM/Teamsters bailout – but the president did it without even asking Congress. The electorate OPPOSED the various stimulus plans, but the Congress and the president did it against the will of the people. The electorate OPPOSED the bribery the president used (Louisiana Purchase, the Union “deal,” the Cornhusker Kickback) but it continued apace even when it was public.

The electorate TRIED to send a message to the administration in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts elections that they were restless – but the administration plowed right ahead…secure in its ability to determine what is best for America, even if the Rubes did not realize what was best for them.

(Just as I put the period on the last sentence, an e-mail from Speaker Pelosi arrived with the following words: “We must stand united in these final critical hours if we don’t want to see what we have worked so hard for come undone.”

Still no recognition of the problem. No apology. Not even “mistakes were made.”

Panic time, but it need not have been so. Politics is a continuum, and politicians cannot kick the electorate in the shins month after month after month – then come hat in hand asking for votes.

I guess that is wrong…they can do so, and are actually doing so. What they cannot rationally do is to expect to be received with a welcoming hand.

What kind of insanity does it take to expect anything except their fate on Tuesday?

Press “Reset”

We can easily recall the beginning of the Obama presidency, and how he was enamored with Europe, their trade unionism and their Social Democracy – he traveled there so often that there were complaints that he was the President of Europe. They returned his attention, and he radiated.

Of course, subsequent events have shown that trade unionism and Social Democracy may not be quite a perfected system!

There is an interesting side note in a New York Times article today. It seems that in Japan, men remain in the workforce (ages 60-64) at a 75% rate, and in the U.S. at a 61% rate. In Germany the rate is just over 50%, and in Italy it is 30%.

In France it is at a 20% rate!

P. J. O’Rourk recently had a piece in the Weekly Standard in which he opined that in the US if a bunch of men got together they would build something, but the French sit in outdoor restaurants just being Frenchmen. That is apparently true.

At any rate, the European love affair with President Obama may not have diminished, but President Obama no longer lauds Europe as any paragon of virtuous politics, and their riots are not something that the United States wishes to emulate. Greece, France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Britain – all running out of money quickly.

President Obama loves the European model, and has copied it a bit too closely for the American voter.

Proof, Positive…

Remember what Jonathan Last wrote in Weekly Standard wrote — that when losing, Republicans blame other Republicans while Democrats blame America?

On another blog, yesterday:

Witch said on: October 28, 2010, 4:30 pm

Fear, hate and racism ARE the true face of America.

Republicans know that. That’s why they win elections.

QED

They Just Don’t Like America!

There is a great analysis in the most recent Weekly Standard by Jonathan Last, in which he demonstrates through quotes his thesis: When Republicans lose they blame other types of Republicans; when Democrats lose they blame America.

That is demonsratably so. Republicans blame the Tea party know-nothings, or the RINO moderate wing, or …, but Democrats blame gullible, stupid Americans who are not smart enough to know what is best for them, and who are easily conned by FOX News.

“What’s particularly striking about the 2010 version of this ritual exorcism is that just 24 months ago, many of these same scolds were telling us how America had (finally) become a pretty enlightened country.

Take the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson. He’s exasperated by the American people these days. “According to polls,” he writes, “Americans are in a mood to hold their breath until they turn blue.” The fact that Americans aren’t going to vote for his preferred political party means that, in Robinson’s view, “The American people are acting like a bunch of spoiled brats.”’

http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/paradise-lost_511744.html

And that ties right in with a great article in the WSJ today by Shelby Steele:

“But there is a limit to bad faith as power, and Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party may have now reached that limit. The great weakness of bad faith is that it disallows American exceptionalism as a rationale for power. It puts Mr. Obama and the Democrats in the position of forever redeeming a fallen nation, rather than leading a great nation. They bet on America’s characterological evil and not on her sense of fairness, generosity or ingenuity.

When bad faith is your framework (Michelle Obama never being proud of her country until it supported her husband), then you become more a national scold than a real leader. You lead out of a feeling that your opposition is really only the latest incarnation of that old characterological evil that you always knew was there. Thus the tea party—despite all the evidence to the contrary—is seen as racist and bigoted.

But isn’t the tea party, on some level, a reaction to a president who seems not to fully trust the fundamental decency of the American people?”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304173704575578363243019000.html

I don’t believe for a second that all, or even most Democrats don’t like America, but certainly there are a BUNCH of them.

I meet them daily on-line.

A Slight Coating of Bitterness…

Now I know that few readers give a damn about Navy football, but once again this is about the Notre Dame Alumni columnist, who is SERIOUSLY annoyed that an undersized football team of zero scholarships whups up regularly on his vaunted football powerhouse:

“Could we perhaps not just pour a whooooole lot more funding into the air force, and just do away with the Navy all-together?  I mean, are we really fighting any engagements on the ocean waves anymore these days?  I know what you’re thinking, what about our own waters, close to our own coasts?  Two words: Coast Guard.  What’s that?  We can’t just shut down the Navy because they keep on CONTINUALLY KICKING OUR COLLECTIVE ASSES?!?!?!?  NO!?!?  Some people are really whiny and defensive about the Navy, it’s football team, and students at their academy?  Oh.  Great.  Well, I guess we’ll have to look forward to a few more years of watching my team fall flat against an opponent that clearly wants it about a bajillion times as much as they do.

Read more: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/on-down-the-line-notre-dame-football/#ixzz13gPM9Apa

I would like to believe that the guy is simply working for humor, rather than being whiney…still.

But let me tell him something he may not know: Notre Dame has, or at least had a great ROTC when I was at Annapolis. On Midshipman Cruise to Europe you could LOOK at the ROTC and instantly distinguish them from Annapolis men, EXCEPT for the Notre Dame Midshipmen. They really distinguished themselves – smart, squared-away sailors.

My admiration for Notre Dame probably exceeds his feelings for the Academy – unless his work is humor. I actually expect it is – but there is a small coating of bitterness. That happens in football rivalries.

One thing for certain: When you play Notre Dame, bring your “A” game. There is not a man playing for Navy who was even considered as a potential recruit for Notre Dame.

Homeless Remarks Extended…

The British once had a concept of the “deserving poor” and that presumes there are undeserving poor but in our effort to homogenize the homeless population we now treat them all the same. Father Joe does give families a hand up and longer stay only if they show progress, but others do not so “discriminate.”

My objection is simply to government taking over a societal dynamic where there is a perfectly good volunteer effort that the “Founder” of the whole huge system ordered HIS followers to provide.

If they did their job, no government assistance would be necessary, but churches have found it easier to let someone else do their job.

 

When I first published this concept in column form, the largest church in Rancho Bernardo threatened to withdraw its advertising from the newspaper in which it advertised, and a subsequent Letter to the Editor said my suggestion was impractical because the homeless had lice, and there were also insurance problems.

I answered that Jesus ministered to those with leprosy, so lice was a fairly minor problem, and as to insurance I had never read where He directed His followers to help the poor, “unless there were insurance problems.”

One minister in RB took me to lunch just “to see where my head was…” I got the feeling that homeless were a problem for someone else but they were willing to donate money so they and their congregations didn’t have to deal with “those” people.

Priorities, Please!

The state is cutting its funding for students with learning disabilities, and another “Special Interest” will soon be in full screaming mode.

I understand the reluctance of the County to pick up an unfunded mandate, but this one is certainly a higher priority than “public art” — or funding symphonies, for example.

At the same time, this is not an education program. It is a welfare program, and the recipients are deserving of the support if anyone deserves welfare.

The highest priority of welfare should be those whose disabilities are limiting to their full participation in life of which education is certainly a component, but not to the point where the nearly entire issue is managed by an education system already so overburdened that it is not capable of performing its primary mission.

(I think there is a consensus that education is not performing its primary mission,)

This is just one non-academic program that should be cut from education, and if it is really vital these non-education programs funded on their own in a triage manner: Sports, nutrician, transportation, band, etc…

“Misleading”

One of the services provided by the excellent voiceofsandiego.org is that they FactCheck many local political statements ala Politifact on the national scene.

In support of the stupid Proposition D, a San Diego City sales tax increase so stupidly timed as to make one wonder if state Proposition  19 (the Bong Sellers Full Employment and Annuity Act) might have already passed, the president of the San diego Silly council made a ludicrous statement.

He said that the spending in the San Diego city government has not kept up with the population growth: “I’m going to make just a real general comment because I really believe this. All the years I have been involved with city government for the amount of people we have in the city and the amount of budget that we have — as our city grows, our budget has not grown proportionately,”

So argued City Council President Ben Hueso in an Oct 4 city council meeting, where he chairs a city council primarily made of Democrats, with but two Republicans.

The voiceofsandiego.org says “Misleading1” and promptly publishes a bar graph showing that the claim is false in per capita spending either in real dollars or in inflation adjusted dollars.

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/fact/article_8bfed5c6-e166-11df-a5ac-001cc4c03286.html

 

 

Best Reading I’ve Had in year! Laughed Until I Cried!

I have literally laughed until the tears ran down my face – and no, this is not nearly so much a blog about football as it is about partisan bloggers.

There was a great column by a Notre Dame Alumni who writes on his Alumni website, and you have to read it, and his subsequent column after Notre Dame played Navy.

Without going deeply into that column, which was headlined “Screw Navy” – and which was actually much more vitriolic than that – the premise was that after 43 consecutive victories over what always must, by its very nature be an undersized and outmanned Navy football team, Navy should not be allowed to play Notre Dame.

He attributes the recent Navy wins (now three of the past four years) as a result of the previous Notre Dame coach telling his team that they should respect the Annapolis bunch because they are the cream of the nation, none could get recruited by a first-class football team, and ND should not play too hard against them.

But, finally, this year, of a powerful Irish team:  “So I say again: Screw Navy.  Let’s beat them, grind them into a pulp, run up the score, then hand them their check.  Don’t let the door hit you on the way out guys.  I hope you have something entertaining picked out for the bus ride home.”

Read more: http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/on-down-the-line-notre-dame-football/2010/10/weekly-vitriol-screw-navy.html#ixzz13Qso9Msn

Then, a funny thing happened: Depending on whose newspaper you read, a small Navy team – outweighed an average of 70 pounds a man in the line – crushed Notre Dame. The local  South Bend newspaper said the worst problem Navy had in the game was to try not to run up the score!

A Notre Dame team that had limited the three previous opponents to fewer than a  TOTAL of 150 rushing yards, gave up 210 yards to the Navy backup fullback, by himself! Previous teams had been limited to 1.9 yards a rush – Navy averaged 6.1 yards.

Notre Dame had taken the initial kickoff down to the Navy two-inch line, fourth down, and could not score – the Down the Line blogger was beside himself that, as he said it, “approximately 1600 pounds” of Notre Dame line could not move the ball two lousy inches! (Navy then marched straight down the field and scored.)

The Washington Post said the game, “was much more authoritative than even that lopsided result would indicate.”

But you must read the first column referenced to get the depth of the disdain that the Notre Dame Alumni columnist held Navy.

It sort of reminds me of the liberal disdain for the Tea Party – and I strongly suspect that the Tea Party is similarly underestimated.