Entries for December 2006

I can remember reading a couple of years ago an argument that the reason George W. Bush followed the recommendations of the so-called neoconservatives–in Afghanistan as well as Iraq–is that the neoconservatives had an analysis of and a plan of action for dealing with Islamofascist terrorists and their state sponsors and aiders and abettors; and that no one else did.

The Census Bureau has issued its population estimates for the states for July 1, 2006, and they make for interesting reading. Over the decade, 2000-06, growth has been much higher in the West (9.7 percent) and the South (8.8 percent) than in the Midwest (2.8 percent) and the East (2.1 percent). In 2000 there were more people in the Midwest than in the West; in 2006 it was the other way around. And in 2006 there were more than twice as many people in the South as in the East. The regional breakdown looks like this, with populations rounded off to the nearest thousand, and with tenths of a percentage indicated:

The invaluable Daniel Pipes is suspending his column for three months while he teaches at Pepperdine University in Malibu, but his final column of the year, "The West Could Lose," is very much worth reading. I wish I had paid more attention to Daniel, and also to Steven Emerson, before September 11, for they were two prophets whose words went unheeded. I'm temperamentally an optimist; Daniel is temperamentally a pessimist, and as a scholar fluent in Arabic and with a deep knowledge of Islam, he finds plenty to be pessimistic about.

Gerald Ford, 38th president of the United States, has died at age 93. He lived longer than any other American president, just a few months longer than Ronald Reagan. The longest-living previous presidents were John Adams and Herbert Hoover, who both died at 90. Hoover lived for 31 years after leaving office, Ford for 29 years. Hoover and Ford were both defeated by Democrats, but they responded very differently. Hoover bitterly opposed Franklin Roosevelt; Ford became friends with Jimmy Carter. Ford served longer in Congress than any other president: 25 years (it would be 26 years if you counted his year's service as vice president, in which capacity he was president of the Senate, but by the same token that would mean that Lyndon Johnson served 27 years). He was House minority leader from 1965 until he was confirmed as vice president in 1973.

You should check out Michael Ledeen's new blog Faster, Please! on Pajamas Media. And here's his latest on National Review Online.

Pollster.com has an interesting summary of the poll standings for the Republican nomination in 2008. It makes the point, largely overlooked by political writers of all stripes, that Rudy Giuliani has been leading John McCain in the large majority of polls, albeit usually by narrow margins. Political writers seem to be assuming that Giuliani can't win the Republican nomination because of his liberal stands on cultural issues. I have disagreed for some time. Yes, Giuliani's stands on these issues are a liability in Republican primaries. But they could be trumped by the very strong positive feelings people have had about his performance on and after September 11.

The Democrats' victory in the November 7 elections, the resignation the next day of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and the unveiling of the Iraq Study Group report December 6 all have led le tout Washington to suppose that we would be withdrawing soon from Iraq. And not illogically. But it's looking increasingly likely that George W. Bush will decide to increase our troop presence there. It's pretty clear that he has rejected the advice of James Baker and Lee Hamilton to negotiate with the leaders of Iran and Syria and to pressure Israel to give up the Golan Heights and allow Palestinians "the right of return" to Israel–the latter being a Palestinian demand that no American administration has ever backed. Instead, he seems to be looking more favorably on the proposals by military historian Frederick Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute and retired Army Gen. Jack Keane to create a surge of large numbers (PDF) of additional U.S. troops to secure Baghdad and Anbar province. Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard writes that Bush looks very favorably on the Kagan-Keane plan.