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SUBSCRIPTION DRIVE - WHOOPS

DAY 12

After a strong week, we stumbled a bit yesterday.   We hope it was only a one-day pause.  We'll look for better results today.

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SEPTEMBER 16,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:44 P.M. ET:

GOOD-TIME CHARLIE – Mayor Bloomberg of New York is predicting riots in the streets of America if the jobs picture does not improve.  He could, of course, be right.  There is economic tension in America, and it could boil over, as it did in industrial strikes of the 1930s.  However, Mayor Goofball has it a bit off when he warns about college graduates rioting because they don't have jobs.  It's not the prissies from Princeton that I'm worried about.  He also compares our situation with Cairo and Madrid.  I don't think so.  The mayor's warning is appropriate.  Some of his analysis reflects his flight from reality.

COMPETING WITH THE WORLD – It's good to know that some educators understand how serious is the need for educated citizens in a competitive world economy.  So, to meet the challenge, Nashville schools will soon begin teaching songwriting, rock band, and hip-hop performance, as well as the economy-changing disciplines of recording and disc jockey remixing.  (I am not making this up.  The story is here.)  We have no doubt that Nashville graduates will now go to the top of the list of those ready to compete in a world of computers, energy development, advanced medicine and wireless communications.  Federal aid, no doubt, will be available.

FEINSTEIN SLIPS IN CALIFORNIA – Democratic stalwart Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, historically one of the most popular politicians in the state, is watching her approval rating take a nose dive.  It's down to 41% in the Field poll, the lowest of her Senate career, which spans three terms.  The GOP does not yet have a clear candidate to run against her next year, but there is talk that Michael Reagan might jump in.  Even with Feinstein's new vulnerability, running against her will be an uphill struggle in a state that has become reliably Democratic.  Michael Reagan is not his father, and I'm not sure the family name means all that much in California these days.

NEW POLL RESULTS – A new CBS News/New York Times poll, out tonight, shows Rick Perry and Mitt Romney pulling away from the GOP presidential field.  President Obama scored a 43% approval rating, the lowest he's had in this poll's history.  Polls are always snapshots in time, but these results make us wonder whether Sarah Palin, who's had a very good week, will think the numbers provide her with an opening to shake up the race.

September 16, 2011       Permalink

END OF AN ERA – AT 10:58 A.M. ET:  Certain products have become iconic.  When they go, a piece of our era goes with them.  From the Chicago Tribune:

The last Ford Crown Victoria rolled off a Canadian assembly line Thursday, marking the end of the big, heavy Ford cars that have been popular with taxi fleets and police departments for decades.

Since 1979, almost 10 million Crown Victoria, Mercury Grand Marquis and Lincoln Town Cars -- so-called Panther Platform vehicles -- have been sold.

Demand for better fuel economy and performance has choked off sales over the years. The Crown Victoria and Town Car get just 24 miles per gallon on the highway, a figure matched by some large three-row SUVs today.

"Production levels at the [ Ontario, Canada ] plant have declined by 60 percent in the last decade as customer preferences shifted to smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles," Ford said in its announcement.

With the last car rolling of the line Thursday, all production will stop.

Ford is offering $100,000 cash payments or relocation offers, among other programs, for the workers at the plant, the automaker said. A closure agreement between Ford of Canada and the Canadian Auto Workers union was reached in 2009, Ford said.

For the last several years the Grand Marquis and the Town Car have only been offered to fleet buyers, not individual retail customers. Mercury, which sold the Grand Marquis, was shut down altogether as a car brand last year.

COMMENT:  I recall the days when we'd gather around a TV set on Sunday nights and watch Ed Sullivan, who was sponsored by Lincoln-Mercury.  Mercury is gone.  Lincoln, as a car, is a name that seems distant and fading.  Ford remains. 

Today's cars are vastly safer and more fuel efficient.  But there was something about those big old clunkers that had a romance to it, even though the got 20 yards to the gallon.  We, and the police, will miss the famous old Crown.

September 16, 2011        Permalink

SNIPPET OF THE DAY – AT 10:10 A.M. ET: 

From Fox:   Two Colorado men stand accused of multiple offenses after driving their dead friend's corpse to a pair of Denver nightspots and using his ATM card to buy themselves drinks, the Denver Post reported Thursday.  Prosecutors have charged Robert Jeffrey Young, 43, and Mark Rubinson, 25, with abusing a corpse, identity theft and criminal impersonation.  The men found their friend Jeffrey Jarrett unresponsive at his house late on Aug. 27, before loading him into Rubinson's car and taking him to a local bar and grill, where they drank on his tab.

Now you know how machine politics works.  If this had been Chicago, not only would the loved one's ATM card be used, but the loved one would have been invited to vote in three presidential elections before being properly deposited in a cemetery, subject to political recall every few years.

VINDICATION FOR SARAH? – AT 9:24 A.M. ET:  No political figure has been more maligned in our time than Sarah Palin.  She has been subjected to attacks that, had they been made on a liberal, would be labeled McCarthyism.  Now, though, some in the lamestream media are coming to her defense.  The reason?  Some recent attacks are beyond the pale, and even liberals realize the wrongness.  From The Politico:

They kicked her around, victimized her, tried to destroy her. But all of a sudden, the lamestream media is coming to Sarah Palin’s defense.

Faced with a barrage of negative portrayals — a much-hyped investigative book, a Levi Johnston memoir and a new movie — Palin is finding support in the unlikeliest of places.

Film reviewers have slammed the British documentary “Sarah Palin: You Betcha!” Newspapers have refused to run comic-strip excerpts of Joe McGinniss’s rumor-mongering tome “The Rogue.” Johnston’s accusations have been consigned to the gossip pages. And none other than The New York Times has angrily taken Palin’s side in a brutal takedown of the McGinniss book.

Reviewer Janet Maslin called “The Rogue” a work of “caustic, unsubstantiated gossip,” accusing its author, who rented a house next door to the Palins for a time, of sloppiness, attention seeking and a lack of neighborliness.

“‘The Rogue’ is too busy being nasty to be lucid,” Maslin concludes, describing its many accusations as “indefensibly reckless.”

In a statement issued through a PR representative, Todd Palin trumpeted the Times review, pointing to it as proof that the book was so reprehensible that “even The New York Times” disdained it.

But it wasn’t the first time in recent weeks the Palins have found the Times — the print voice of East Coast intellectualism — in their corner. The Gray Lady also recently published an op-ed praising Palin as a person of ideas and calling for her to be taken seriously.

COMMENT:  That Times op-ed lauding Palin has gotten a great deal of publicity across the internet.  We have to wonder whether all this sudden sympathy will influence Palin's decision on whether to enter the GOP race, or whether she will rebuild her reputation for a future run. 

Her resignation as governor of Alaska still hangs over Palin as a serious, perhaps fatal political blunder.  It robbed her of her credibility as an ongoing officeholder of high rank.  It made her appear a quitter, or someone seeking fortune and celebrity.  And it deprived her of the ability to demonstrate her capability at governing.  Can this major mistake be overcome?  Maybe it can, but Palin would have to be very persuasive.  She made a move in that direction with a fine, serious speech in Iowa last week.

Now we await her decision on running.  Whichever way she goes, the camera will always be on her.

September 16, 2011       Permalink

THE STUFF SCANDALS ARE MADE OF – This is a startling story that may only hint at the level of corruption that we're beginning to see in the Obama administration.  When you ask a sworn witness to change testimony, that is extraordinarily serious.  When it's a military officer, it becomes more serious because human lives might be involved.  When it's done to protect a donor, that is revolting.  From Fox:

Gen. William Shelton, head of the Air Force Space Command, told House members in a classified briefing earlier this month that he was pressured to change prepared congressional testimony in a way that would favor a large company funded by Philip Falcone, a major Democratic donor, congressional sources told Fox News.

Republicans have raised questions about whether the project pursued by the company, LightSquared, is being unduly expedited by the Obama administration, which has pushed for national wireless network upgrades.

The Virginia-based satellite and broadband communications company has plans to build a nationwide, next-generation, 4G phone network that many, including Shelton, think would seriously hinder the effectiveness of high-precision GPS receiver systems, a product used most commonly by the United States military.

A source familiar with the technology told Fox News that the LightSquared spectrum would be 5 billion times stronger than the military's GPS system, rendering the military's system almost useless.

"Imagine trying to have a telephone conversation while your neighbors are hosting a rock concert," the source told Fox News. "That’s the situation the military is facing."

Shelton, in testimony Thursday before a House Armed Services subcommittee, refused to suggest that interference problems could be mitigated, as he allegedly was being pressured to say.

COMMENT:  This should be pursued, and pursued relentlessly.  There could be criminality here, if a witness was tampered with.  Let's see if the Republicans have the talent and will to make this into a major story, which it certainly is.

September 16, 2011        Permalink

IS IT POSSIBLE? – AT 8:39 A.M. ET:  Silvio Canto Jr. alerts us to a radio appearance by Wall Street Journal writer John Fund, one of the best political reporters around.  Fund suggests – and we humbly note that we've made this point here – that Mr. Obama might be prevailed upon not to seek reelection if conditions in the country continue. 

That is the Lyndon Johnson scenario.  After winning a landslide victory in 1964, with Hubert Humphrey of Minnesota as his running mate, Johnson became increasingly unpopular, especially within his own party, over the Vietnam War.  Much of the unpopularity was undeserved (not the case with Obama), with some of it ginned up by the Kennedy family.  Johnson decided in 1968 not to run for reelection.  In a national convention in Chicago, Humphrey won the Democratic nomination and came within a hair of victory, losing to Richard Nixon in November because so many Democrats stayed home. 

Could this happen again?  Could Obama be prevailed upon to withdraw, or withdraw on his own, clearing the way for Hillary Clinton?  My guess is that it's highly unlikely.  Obama is a supreme egotist.  He has bought into the line that he has been sent by some higher political power to save us, and that only he can.  But if he were wise, he'd pull out.  Either he'll lose next November, or win only a symbolic victory.  Presidents' second terms are usually less successful than their first, as they lose political clout, even within their own parties.  Obama is unsuccessful enough already.

Oh, by the way, has anyone seen Hillary?  I think I saw her on a milk carton.  She seems to be lying low, maybe praying for bad jobs figures.  She's already indicated that she'll leave the administration after the first term anyway, so we know she won't be holding her current post very long.  Her husband remains a Democratic power.  Is something brewing?  Well, that's delicious speculation.  I'm assuming, though, that the ticket will be Obama/Biden, unless the economy becomes so bad that even Dems start calling the president Herbert Hoover Obama.

Stay tuned.

September 16, 2011     Permalink

SEPTEMBER 15,  2011

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 10:46 P.M. ET:

THE OBAMA BLUES CONTINUE – The bad polling results keep coming in for President Obama.  Now Gallup tells us his approval rating is back down in the 30s, at 39% to be exact.  Disapproval is at 53%.  There doesn't appear to be anything on the horizon to improve these numbers.  We await tomorrow's jobs report.

DENMARK UPDATE – We reported this morning that staunch American ally Denmark was holding an election day, likely to result in the ouster of the pro-American center-right coalition, and its replacement by the "red bloc," left-leaning parties who can move the country to port.  That has now happened.   Although the margin is narrow, the "red bloc" has won, and is pledging, Obama style, to fundamentally remake Denmark.  As several readers pointed out in e-mails today, we give the Danish people 18 months to start feeling buyer's remorse.

WILL HE BE BURNED AT THE STAKE? – And will Al Gore light the match?  In a stunning defeat for the Church of the Global Warming, American physicist Ivar Giaever, winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize in physics, has resigned in disgust from the American Physical Society, the premier physics group in the U.S., because the group stated that the arguments for global warming were "incontrovertible."  That word is rarely used in science because the purpose of science is to question, and to demand proof and observation.  Somehow, a number of members of the Church of the Global Warning have forgotten those standards.  Dr. Giaver will undoubtedly now be subjected to the usual Soviet-style claim of the warmists that he is insane or corrupt.

THE KID THREAT – In Britain, teachers are branding thousands of children either racist or homophobic as a result of playground disputes.  More than 20,000 children under the age of 11 were put on record last year for hate crimes.  These records are passed up the educational line and can affect a child's college education or even future employment.  Those school officers who do not report hate crimes are often placed into the files themselves for "underreporting."  The Britain that defeated the Nazi Luftwaffe is now at war with its own children. 

September 15, 2011     Permalink

PARADE OF GRIMNESS – AT 9:04 A.M. ET:  New unemployment claim figures are just out.  They are not good.  And that ain't all.  From CNBC:

Applications for unemployment benefits continued to rise in the past week, while inflation pushed higher and a key manufacturing index weakened.

The weekly jobless claims number, which is closely watched as an indicator for employment trends, unexpectedly rose 11,000 to 428,000, well ahead of estimates of 411,000.

The consumer price index, meanwhile, gained 0.4 percent when including volatile food and energy prices, after an increase of 0.5 percent in July. The so-called core CPI, though, gained 0.2 percent, which was in line with expectations.

Consumers paid more for a range of goods and services last month, pushing up inflation and squeezing Americans' purchasing power.

For the 12 months ending in August, the core index surged 2 percent, the biggest year-over-year increase in nearly three years. That's at the top end of the Federal Reserve's informal inflation target. It could limit the central bank's ability to take further steps to try to revive the economy.

Food prices rose 0.5 percent, the biggest increase since March. That was due to higher prices for cereals and dairy products. Energy costs increased 1.2 percent.

COMMENT:  My favorite dark chocolate bar (Hershey's) just went from a buck to $1.09.  I am considering an austerity program. 

These are serious figures.  I can't see how they can be turned around to any great degree within the next year.  They may even get worse. 

But remember the emerging Democratic strategy:  "We may be bad, but the alternative is worse."  And it can be effective, especially when filtered through a press that still has a powerful investment in Barack Obama.  We must fight as if we're 20 points behind.

September 15, 2011       Permalink

SHAKESPEARE SAID IT BEST – AT 8:47 A.M. ET:  "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," Will Shakespeare wrote.  I'm afraid it's true.

Denmark is a fine country.  It has been a stalwart ally of the United States, and its government, unlike the execrable regimes of Norway and Sweden, has not gone the way of bowing down before the Islamists and descending into self-righteous boasting.  But we may be on the verge of a setback in the one Scandinavian country that has continued to share our values.  From AP:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Danish voters appeared set to elect their first female prime minister Thursday and end 10 years of pro-market reforms and a hardening of immigration laws.

Nearly all polls leading up to the vote have predicted a majority in the 179-seat Parliament for the left-leaning opposition led by Social Democratic leader Helle Thorning-Schmidt.

Two surveys released Thursday also showed that her "red bloc" would unseat the minority center-right government led by Lars Loekke Rasmussen and stem the influence of its anti-immigration ally, the Danish People's Party.

Please note the term "red bloc."  They do this sort of thing in Europe. 

"Now we have the opportunity to change Denmark and get a new majority. We must grab this opportunity," Thorning-Schmidt, 44, told reporters after voting in Copenhagen.

For the past decade, the government has relied on the backing of the anti-immigrant Danish People's Party, enacting reforms to make Denmark more business friendly and less welcoming to asylum-seekers from developing countries.

In consensus-oriented Denmark, there is broad agreement on having a robust welfare system financed by high taxes, but the government and the opposition differ on the depth of austerity measures needed to keep Denmark's finances intact amid Europe's debt crisis.

Thorning-Schmidt wants to dodge some of the government's welfare cuts and raise taxes on banks and the wealthy. Loekke Rasmussen has ruled out any tax hikes.

Looks like Denmark will go the way of Greece.  Hey, failure isn't a disgrace, is it? 

"We need sound public finances without raising taxes," Loekke Rasmussen, 47, told reporters after casting his ballot in Graested, north of Copenhagen.

A Megafon poll Thursday gave the opposition 51 percent of votes and a five-seat advantage over the government in Parliament. The gap was 13 seats in a Ramboell survey.

COMMENT:  The Danes tend to be sane people, and I'm surprised at this turnabout.  I hope it doesn't take the Danish people long to realize that socialism is dead and national bankruptcy is not a noble goal.  In the meantime, I hope the new government will be sober in its foreign policy, and maintain close ties with the U.S.

September 15, 2011       Permalink

NEW GOP CAUSE? –  AT 8:29 A.M. ET:  And not a minute too soon.  The Republican Party is a free-enterprise party.  But it has often been accused of averting its eyes to the abuses within the economic system.  The accusations are correct, and now some leading Republicans are determined to correct course.  Cheer them on.  From the conservative Washington Examiner:

When Michele Bachmann attacked Rick Perry in this week's debate for helping a politically connected drug company, and Newt Gingrich attacked GE and even oil companies for benefitting from targeted tax breaks, it stirred a bit of a reaction on the Left.

"Wait, being a crony capitalist is a problem now?" journalist Dave Roberts, a liberal environmentalist, asked rhetorically.

It's actually an important question.

Although the Republicans' professed belief in free markets would imply a rejection of corporate welfare, GOP cries of "crony capitalism" and critiques of subsidy sucklers and regulatory robber barons usually come only from the party's back bench. It's striking, then, to hear this talk from prominent Republicans on center stage at a presidential debate.

It's part of a small but growing trend toward free-market populism in Republican rhetoric, if not action.

When Gingrich called out General Electric by name for profiting from special tax breaks and green subsidies, he was expressing a growing conservative distaste for GE, which has visibly embraced President Obama's subsidize-and-regulate economic policy. On everything from climate change and windmills to health care and embryonic stem cells, CEO Jeffrey Immelt has positioned GE to profit from big government, often lending the company's unmatched lobbying clout to the administration's efforts.

Obama's pick of Immelt as jobs czar was a fitting symbol of the symbiotic relationship between the industrial giant and Obama's agenda.

Bachmann, meanwhile, steered the discussion of Perry's 2007 unilateral mandate of an HPV vaccine to the question of cronyism, benefitting drugmaker Merck. "We cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order there is a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate."

And let us not forget that Sarah Palin is one of the pioneers in the Republican Party in taking on crony capitalists.  her speech in Iowa last week, now widely circulated, focused in part on that issue.

Churchill said that democracy was the worst system in the world, except for all the others.  The same can be said of capitalism.  It has produced more prosperity for more people than any economic system in history.  But it is plagued with problems and corruption.  I'm glad to see that it's the GOP that's starting to address the problems in a thoughtful way.  The idea is to preserve the good in the system, while rooting out the bad.  It would be great if conservatives led the way.  If so-called "liberals" do it, true free enterprise will be crippled.

September 15, 2011      Permalink

THE OBAMA BLUES – AT 8:15 A.M. ET:  We vote by state in presidential elections, and the bad news keeps pouring in for President Obama.

Obama carried North Carolina by 14,000 votes in 2008.  As the L.A. Times points out, things are different now:

Obama prevailed, winning by fewer than 14,000 votes to become the first Democrat to carry North Carolina since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Obama's campaign rode several advantages to break through: money, momentum and a compelling message.

Now he is an incumbent president saddled with a struggling economy. Unemployment here is 10.1%, a full point higher than the national average. A new poll showed Obama's approval rating in North Carolina at 43%.

"He won it by 14,000 votes, so any decline in the president's fortunes is going to put North Carolina in jeopardy.… His approval ratings are down in the state to the lowest levels in his tenure, and that will make it quite difficult for him to hold onto the state next year," said Andrew Taylor, a political science professor at North Carolina State University.

Obama isn't giving up on North Carolina. If he rebounds here, at the minimum he'll force his Republican opponent to commit resources in a state the GOP has identified as a top target. Republicans see the economy as a major vulnerability for Obama in a state that has lost 142,000 jobs since he took office.

Democrats want to show they can preserve their foothold in the Republicans' Southern base. Troubling as it is for Obama to see his approval rating slip, he stacks up well against the competition. A survey this month by Public Policy Polling, a North Carolina-based Democratic polling company, showed him tied in North Carolina with Texas Gov. Rick Perry and leading former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney by one point.

And in Virginia, via The Politico:

Both Mitt Romney and Rick Perry would have a good shot at beating President Barack Obama in Virginia if the 2012 election were held today, according to a Quinnipiac University poll.

Obama's approval rating is just 40 percent among Virginia voters and 54 percent disapprove of his job performance. Independents disapprove of the president, 62 percent to 29 percent.

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The president currently trails Romney by 2 points in Virginia, 42 percent to 44 percent, and leads Perry by the same slim margin.

COMMENT:  Please note that Mr. Obama doesn't do badly in head-to-head matchups against specific Republican candidates.  That is his ace in the hole.  He remains personally popular, whereas Jimmy Carter wasn't personally popular when he ran against Reagan in 1980. 

Republicans plainly have the advantage in an election season in which the national administration is failing.  But they will need more than negative images of Obama failures.  They will need a candidate who can generate political warmth, not just tolerance, and who has a coherent program Americans can embrace.  That is not an easy order given the current state of the Republican Party.

I want to win next year, not just make ideological points.  But I wouldn't be measuring the drapes in the Oval Office just yet.

September 15, 2011     Permalink