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Byrd's KKK History Shows Partisan Double Standard
Tweet Share on Facebook June 30, 2010 Comment (24)The passing of Sen. Robert Byrd is an occasion for reflection, not just on his life but on how one particularly unsavory aspect of that life was treated whenever the subject was raised.
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Obama's Approval Rating Much Worse Than It Looks
Tweet Share on Facebook June 29, 2010 Comment (62)Proving once again that he is one of the nation’s most astute political analysts, the Washington Examiner's Michael Barone makes clear that President Barack Obama may be in more political trouble than he or many of his allies are prepared to publicly admit.
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Democrats' Liberal Lurch Could Sink Them in 2010 Elections
Tweet Share on Facebook June 25, 2010 Comment (46)The Democrats’ continued drift to the left has harmed the party’s political fortunes.
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The Democrats Were Against Petraeus Before They Were For Him
Tweet Share on Facebook June 24, 2010 Comment (27)Gen. David Petraeus is now the darling of the Democrats. Having been picked by President Barack Obama to lead U.S. efforts on the ground in Afghanistan, Petraeus, the architect of the surge in Iraq, is being praised by the Democrats from pillar to post.
It wasn’t always so.
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Obama Is Right to Fire McChrystal, But He's Still Feckless
Tweet Share on Facebook June 23, 2010 Comment (20)By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
U.S. Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal is now out of a job, thanks to some unguarded and unflattering comments made about President Barack Obama within earshot of a reporter working on a freelance piece for Rolling Stone. This is as it should be.
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Democrats' NRA Ploy May Kill Shady 'Disclose Act'
Tweet Share on Facebook June 17, 2010 Comment (26)By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the now famous Citizens United v. FEC restored the ability of corporations to exercise their rights to political speech under the First Amendment. Congressional Democrats--who didn’t very much like the decision--have responded to it with the Disclose Act, legislation that, as written, not only would overturn the court’s ruling but would greatly expand the range and scope of the prohibitions on free speech that existed before the case was decided. But political maneuvering by the Democrats intended to circumvent the opposition of the National Rifle Association (NRA) and ensure the bill's passage may end up killing it.
Leaving aside the usual liberal mantra that the decisions of the nation’s highest court regarding constitutional liberties are the last word on the matter, what the Democrats are seeking to do infringes on the rights of corporations, including but not limited to those expressly formed for the purpose of political advocacy, to make independent campaign expenditures in furtherance of their views.
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Obama's Oil Speech Strong on Rhetoric, Short on Answers
Tweet Share on Facebook June 16, 2010 Comment (29)By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
President Barack Obama’s first ever Oval Office address to the nation Tuesday probably did little to improve his sagging political fortunes.
Starting off in the stratosphere, his public approval ratings have been heading steadily downward since he came into office. The public’s perception that he has mishandled the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, while perhaps unfair, nonetheless continues to push his numbers in a downward direction.
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Do Republicans Want to Win a House Majority in 2010?
Tweet Share on Facebook June 14, 2010 Comment (5)By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Rumor has it that there is some question in GOP circles, as the Daily Caller reported Monday, as to whether or not the Republicans really want to become the majority party in Congress as a result of the 2010 election.
To some, especially those who are already growing accustomed to how easily the words “Speaker Boehner” roll off the tongue, the very idea is heresy. Others apparently are not so sure.
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Why Ranking Polls and Pollsters Is Useless
Tweet Share on Facebook June 11, 2010 Comment (5)By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Far too many people fail to understand the role that polling plays in elections.
They are a measure of public opinion among a certain segment of the population--adults, registered voters, likely voters, men, women--at a given moment in time. They are a snapshot, not a movie, and they have limited predictive value.
Blogger Nate Silver’s analysis of the performance of a cluster of polling firms in the last election, which my bloleague John Aloysius Farrell wrote about earlier today, while interesting, is of little value overall.
Ranking pollsters based on the accuracy--meaning how well their numbers in late polls matched up against the actual election returns--may satisfy our urge to see precision where none exists, but really it does not help us understand elections or the thinking that goes into how voters make their choices any better than we already do.
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Economists: Stimulus Not Working, Obama Must Rein in Spending
Tweet Share on Facebook June 10, 2010 Comment (63)By Peter Roff, Thomas Jefferson Street blog
Nearly 100 prominent U.S. economists including former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Ohio University’s Richard Vedder, and James C. Miller, III, who headed up the White House Office of Management and Budget under Ronald Reagan, are telling President Barack Obama that his economic stimulus has failed and that “immediate action is needed to rein in federal spending.”
