Breitbart has far too much fun with this medium, sometimes. “Retracto, the Correction Alpaca” is apparently going to be Big Journalism‘s go-to camelid for issues involving media oopsies. Currently Retracto is calling for corrections in the O’Keefe affair…
I’m sorry. “Retracto, the Correction Alpaca.” If you don’t find that funny – not even a little – not only are you at the wrong site, but there might not actually be hope for you.
Via @tommyxtopher, who isn’t happy that he has to agree with this:
I don’t watch Beck, myself – I got nothing against him, particularly, but I don’t need him as an information source – but the above is an excellent point. It’s not particularly the GOP’s problem that the Democrats disliked actually having a super-majority, particularly since it meant that fourteen years’ worth of wild-eyed promises to the Left suddenly came due. It’s also not particularly our problem that the progressives are increasingly unable to pretend that their party top leadership cares for them for longer than it takes the check to clear. We will, however, be happy to solve their problems for them, in our own little way.
Because that’s just how we roll.
Moe Lane
Full disclosure: this is all going to be as-I-think-of-it-opinion, I have no interest in interrupting the narrative flow by looking for links, and so I freely admit that it would be fair to discount or dismiss the results accordingly.
The Democrats are in for a bad election cycle, to the point where people are actually talking about the Democrats losing the House – and starting to hint that maybe, just maybe, it’s not entirely bizarre to suggest that the Senate might be technically in a position where the Republicans could take control of it. Long since past time that this happened to this party, to be sure: but why?
I think that it’s for a pretty simple reason: the American people subscribe to a pretty simple political mathematics. They divide our political class into Those Idiots Running Things and Those Idiots Out Of Power. Then they modify it with (I Hate Those Guys). Typically speaking, election cycles depend on which party gets the modifier. For example:
Continue reading ‘Bullets won’t kill it!’ – Democrats and their upcoming Bad Time.
Again?
(H/T: @BillSTL) Nice to know that I’m not the only one who noticed this:
This is about the time Barack Obama becomes bored with his job.
He’s in his second year as president, and he’s discovered that even with all the powers of office, he can’t do everything he wants to do, like remake America. Doing stuff is hard. In the past, prosaic work has held little appeal for Obama, and it’s prompted him to think about moving on.
Quick timeline to illustrate his problem (and it is one, for him):
Twelve years from state legislator to President may indeed be ‘meteoric;’ it is also ‘impatient,’ which is an assessment that the President himself might sign off on. More from York’s article:
At a Jan. 17 Martin Luther King Day event at Washington’s Vermont Avenue Baptist Church, Obama brought up the fact that many people see him as almost preternaturally calm. “I have a confession to make,” Obama said. “There are times I’m not so calm … when progress seems too slow … when it feels like all these efforts are for naught, and change is so painfully slow in coming, and I have to confront my own doubts.”
Obama said it to be inspirational, but the fact is, in the past, that’s when he looked for a new job.
The good news is that the President’s interest in his job might rekindle if he’s given more of a challenge (if only for the novelty value). Having to face a Republican House and Senate next year would give him all the mental stimulation and focus that a person could want; and far be it from the GOP to deny the President what he truly, truly needs.
Because we’re givers that way.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Ladies and gentlemen: this is what ‘edgy’ looked like in 1986.
(You Gotta ) Fight For Your Right (To Party)
Note that they felt the need to be grammatically precise in the title.
The Internet meme that refuses to die, thank God:
Keep your stimulus packages and job-creating proposals.
Budget shortfalls, be warned, New Hampshire has a new weapon in its economic arsenal: Three Wolf Moon.
The shirt that sparked an Internet sensation has been named the state’s official T-shirt of economic development.
As you can see, I have added the Three Wolf Moon
[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.
I mean, I get the central message: “Fine. You want me to cut spending? I’ll cut spending! I’ll show you! I’LL SHOW YOU ALL!”
The Obama administration stunned New York’s delegation Thursday, dropping the bombshell news that it does not support funding the 9/11 health bill.
The state’s two senators and 14 House members met with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius just hours before President Obama implored in his speech to the nation for Congress to come together and deliver a government that delivers on its promises to the American people.
So the legislators were floored to learn the Democratic administration does not want to deliver for the tens of thousands of people who sacrificed after 9/11, and the untold numbers now getting sick.
…but I have to point out – like Dana Loesch – that not all programs are created equal, either. This is like something out of an 80s sitcom:
– Bringing Up Barry! (Tuesdays, 8 PM EST): When Barry gets in trouble at school for splurging the Chess Club’s entire budget on a pizza party, it’s up to John to talk to him about spending wisely. But Barry goes too far and hides with the school’s fuses to save money. Wacky hijinks ensue as Sarah tries to talk him out of the furnace room in time to save the Valentine’s Day dance!
Special Guest Star: Erik Estrada, as hip ‘rap’ DJ Ricky Mark.
Or something like that.
Moe Lane
PS: Really. This is how it’s coming across.
Crossposted to RedState.
He’s been making the tactical error of not telling Democrats what they want to hear lately*, so any excuse to discount this cold water on GOP party disunity is a good enough one, right?
In the wake of NY-23 last fall a lot of Democrats hoped that the ideological war within the Republican Party would impede GOP progress in 2010. I just don’t see it though.
Take a look at Florida- yesterday’s Quinnipiac poll showed Marco Rubio getting 82% of the GOP vote against Kendrick Meek and Charlie Crist getting 80%. The Rubio people might be disappointed if Crist still manages to win the primary, but they’d still vote for him to keep Democrats from increasing their margin in the Senate. And the Crist people might think Rubio is too far to the right, but that would probably be outweighed by a feeling that Meek is too far to the left.
Then again, they may not have much of a choice. If you look at the NJ and VA gubernatorial races, one glaring difference between the two is that in NJ hope didn’t actually die, choking, for Democrats until the actual day of the election; but in VA it was blatantly obvious that Deeds had achieved DOOM about a month previously. One major reason? In NJ, third-party candidate Daggett kept polling absurdly high – as in, double digits. That kept it from being immediately obvious that Corzine didn’t actually have a chance, which meant that by the time it was obvious the psychological impact had been lessened. Not relevant for Corzine, true… but NJ Democrats only lost one seat in their state legislature’s election, while VA ones lost a net six. Because VA Democrats despaired, and their visible despair was likely infectious.
In other words: clinging to the belief that the GOP is going to fragment any day now may not turn defeat into victory – but it could keep defeat from turning into rout, lower down on the ticket. So don’t expect this meme to go away; even if playing more or less to lose is not even remotely a viable route to victory…
Moe Lane
*Yes, I recognize that you could make the argument that he’s been telling Republicans what they want to hear.
Crossposted to RedState.
The Hill article is surprisingly garbled – I assume that they’ll clean it up this morning – but the original article (“Pryor: Health care reform may not happen this year”) is a lot clearer. The short version is that they’re back at the ‘discussion phase’ for a health care rationing bill, which is legislature-speak for “we’re going to drop the subject, and hope that you will, too.” Every day that it doesn’t get done is a day closer to the day that it won’t get done, and if it’s not done this year, it definitely won’t get done. At least, by Democrats.
And as for reconciliation…
Some have suggested the Senate could use the reconciliation process, which would require 51 votes instead of 60, to pass a bill satisfactory to both chambers.Several moderate Democrats, including Arkansas’ Blanche Lincoln, have said they oppose that idea. Lincoln said Tuesday the process should be transparent and should not involve “last-minute efforts to force changes.”
Pryor told reporters today he was not necessarily opposed to the idea, but it was not his first choice and he doubted it would happen.
“I think it’s people talking right now over on the House side trying to figure out a way forward on health care, but my sense is, in the end reconciliation will not even be attempted,” he said.
Because somebody had to say it, it seems. Pryor’s not up for re-election until 2014, so he can safely shrug off the idea of reconciliation… and, honestly? By now that actually-strictly-defined-procedure has become the equivalent of “and then a miracle happens*” for a certain segment of the Left. At some point somebody needs to explain to them why it’s not a cure-all.
Or why the current ruling party has a sudden disinclination to encourage simple-majority legislating in the Senate.
Moe Lane
*Or, possibly, “And then the NPC casts Wish.”
Crossposted to RedState.
