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Republicans Need to Find the Right Adversaries
Tweet Share on Facebook November 30, 2010 Comment (3)To: House Republican leaders
Subject: Bringing down the House (if you will)
From: SG
First, a word about climate: There is blood in the water, and there are sharks about. The media is going to search high and low for any hint of GOP infighting—that much you know. A corollary problem is that, unlike in ’94, when the media wasn’t so tyrannically constant, every little outburst of nuttiness from an overly ebullient Republican backbencher is going to be magnified, if only briefly, by a factor of 10.
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Obama's Big Opportunity: Entitlement Reform
Tweet Share on Facebook November 24, 2010 Comment (1)Note: Today's unsolicited advice will go to the president. Next week I'll do the same for House Republicans. Happy Thanksgiving.
To: POTUS
Subject: How to reclaim mojo
From: SG
First, the bad news: There is no good news.
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The Tea Party's Big Government Misconception
Tweet Share on Facebook November 19, 2010 Comment (4)Responding to my last post, a couple of regular commenters say they have no problem with—I'm paraphrasing here—a federal government that is strong enough to carry out its constitutionally-sanctioned duty of protecting the physical welfare of citizens.
What they don't like is intrusive government.
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Strong Federal Government Is Not the Root of All Evil
Tweet Share on Facebook November 17, 2010 Comment (2)Over at the American Conservative, Paul Gottfried has a highly useful piece debunking the increasingly popular, Glenn Beck-driven narrative that posits Progressivism as the beginning of Big Government, if not indeed the monolithic source of all evil.
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Public Takes the Deficit Seriously? That's the Wehner Delusion
Tweet Share on Facebook November 15, 2010 Comment (3)The New Republic’s Jonathan Chait cheekily coined the term “Wehner Fallacy” (in honor of former Bush administration official and current Commentary blogger Peter Wehner) to describe a “genre of propaganda” that ignores economic suffering and, instead, ascribes Democrats’ political troubles in toto to “public revulsion at the liberal agenda.”
It’s time to introduce something new--the Wehner Delusion. Or, to be more precise, the Puncturing of the Wehner Delusion. It’s sort of the equivalent for conservative activists and pundits of Battered Woman Syndrome: the quixotic belief that, this time--really, no foolin’--the people and their representatives have gotten serious about cutting spending.
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Big Tax Cuts Will Lead to More Big Deficits
Tweet Share on Facebook November 9, 2010 Comment (8)Human nature being what it is, the best chance for a significant compromise between President Obama and congressional Republicans this year is over tax cuts: When asked to choose between higher taxes or fewer services and lower taxes/same services, the latter is going to win every time.
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Senior Citizens vs. the Tea Party Will Be a GOP Problem
Tweet Share on Facebook November 2, 2010 Comment (4)According to CNN exit-polling data, senior citizens broke big for Republicans this year.
This is the snake lurking in the grass of the GOP's new majority: If their electoral triumph was predicated on seniors' disgruntlement with Obamacare--which takes money out of their Medicare dollars out of their pocket and gives it to other, younger voters--that's hugely problematic for any hope of entitlement reform. -
Rubio Is Right--Republicans Can't Misinterpret the 2010 Election
Tweet Share on Facebook November 2, 2010 Comment (1)In his victory speech, ongoing as I write, Sen.-elect Marco Rubio said it would be a "grave mistake" for Republicans to conclude that voters have embraced them. Rather, Rubio said, it's a "second chance--a second chance for Republicans to be what they said they were going to be."
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Linda McMahon Loses, Signaling a Bad Night for CEOs
Tweet Share on Facebook November 2, 2010 Comment (3)In Connecticut, Linda McMahon, the former World Wrestling Entertainment honcho, has been projected to lose her bid for a U.S. Senate seat.
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2010 Elections Stuck in the Myths of U.S. Politics
Tweet Share on Facebook November 1, 2010 Comment (6)Could someone push the fast-forward button on this thing? On the eve of an election in which my wife insists I participate, if only to set an example of decent citizenship for our children, I’m heartened by the good sense of the eminent historian Walter Russell Mead:
