Tag: gop

#rsrh Video of the day, Fred Thompson edition.

I had completely forgotten about this one until Jim Geraghty reminded me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUn8GSbUl_4&feature=player_embedded

I’ve come to the conclusion that – nothing against CNN – but we need actual conservatives to moderate Republican debates.  Even when they mean well (and I think that more of ’em mean well then we generally give ’em credit for) liberal media folks simply don’t know how to ask the right questions that will demonstrate the difference between various Republican candidates.  From what I managed to see last night, they were trying to determine said differences… and failing.

Just saying, that’s all.

Wisconsin Republicans spoil Democrats’ recall fun.

There is an interesting thing about the Wisconsin recall process.  Essentially, if you read the document regulating it you will discover that the designation of a particular date for a recall election assumes that there was no primary; if there is a primary, it occurs on that date, with the general election taking place a month afterward.  Also of note… political parties do not have veto power over who can participate in a recall primary.  The restrictions are that the candidate be a non-felon voter and resident of Wisconsin who presents a valid petition with at least 400 signatures; said signatures have to be themselves registered voters of the district in which the candidate is running.  The kicker?  None of these people have to belong to the political party in question.

I hope that you can see where this is going. Continue reading Wisconsin Republicans spoil Democrats’ recall fun.

#rsrh #weinergate Harden your hearts.

Never forget: if you are a Republican, than this man hates you…

…he routinely lies about you and your motivations; and he wishes you to die in a fire.  Obviously, you don’t have to respond in kind; in fact, I would recommend that you purge yourself of any hate that you might still harbor towards Anthony Weiner.  You can even feel pity.

But he chose his path.

#rsrh Jay Cost: Be afraid, Democrats.

Be… pretty afraid.  I’m going to summarize/translates Jay’s four reasons why the Democrats should be worried about the 2012 Republican candidate:

  1. We’ve got some serious fellas running.  Romney and Pawlenty; probably Daniels, at this point; and Jay considers Huntsman serious, though I don’t know if I do.  Yes, hold that objection for after the fold.
  2. We’re not going to see a proxy class warfare battle in ’12 like we did in Obama/Clinton in ’08. The aforementioned candidates are all pretty much variations on a theme: white governors with crossover appeal who are moderately conservative.
  3. Donald Trump isn’t going to be the nominee, and neither will any other fringe candidate. Behold the awesome moderating power of using primaries as opposed to caucuses!  Using ’08 again: it’s no coincidence that Obama won more caucuses, while Clinton won more primaries.
  4. There  will be no enthusiasm gap.  More on this after the fold.

Continue reading #rsrh Jay Cost: Be afraid, Democrats.

Pew Research: 53% of Americans don’t know GOP candidates.

This is, of course, highly unsurprising: it is April of 2011.  While the true start of election cycles have been notoriously creeping further and further back for some time now, the major reason why anybody’s talking seriously about the 2012 election at this point is because President Obama rather desperately announced exceptionally early so that he could officially fund-raise*.  This means that those parts of the media that are actually covering the election are more or less stuck pretending that it’s September of 2011 (which is still a little early, but such is the custom of the country); after all, the President thinks that it’s election time, so shouldn’t everybody else?

…Apparently not.  Pew reports that currently 20% of the population is following the GOP Presidential nomination process closely, and that 4% consider it to be the top story.  For comparison: both numbers are ranked sixth; the top stories continue to be the Japan earthquake (38% following closely, 26% consider top story) and oil/gas prices (53%/22%).  Combine that with the surprising detail that the media isn’t actually covering the election that much (2% of the media coverage focuses on the GOP primaries; the top media coverage is easily the deficit/national debt at 31%), and you end up with what is a spectacularly… no, not “uninformed.”  What we have is a spectacularly uninterested electorate when it comes to the 2012 elections.

Which means?  First, it means that people should not be surprised when various polling reveals that the Republican front-runners are all folks that voters have already heard of. Second, it means that anybody who wants to tell you that the current state of the race is an indicator of anything, including the current state of the race, is almost certainly operating with an agenda.  Which certainly includes me; only my agenda is to get people to stop talking about the GOP nomination (which is what the Democrats want us to be focusing on) and get back to talking about jobs, the deficit, and the economy (which is what the Democrats don’t want us to focus on)…

Moe Lane (crosspost)

(Via Drudge)

*Which is, by the way, what he’s doing today instead of visiting areas of the country that are: devastated by tornadoes; and increasingly unlikely to vote for him in 2012.

Democrats may get around to alternative budget proposal.

Democrats taking this budget as seriously as 2010’s!

Emphasis on ‘may:’ they’re considering coming up with an alternative to the GOP budget plan that was released today.  If the Democrats feel like it.  And if Ranking Budget Member Chris Van Hollen can get his head around the big numbers involved.  That’s not guaranteed, given that Van Hollen’s past experience with big, scary numbers shows that he has a bad tendency to go full-bore delusional when he’s in trouble; besides, it would also probably require Van Hollen to be able to take off his shoes by himself, and, well, some things are harder than they look.

Yes, that was snide.  What makes you think I care?  I’m too busy being annoyed that the only grown-ups in Washington DC right now all have Rs after their names; it gets tiring to have to do all the intellectual heavy lifting on an issue.

Besides, the only people that will get huffy are Democrats, and they should be doing something more useful with their lives anyway.  Getting mad at the way that their elected officials are all off in the Magical Kingdom of Self-Abuse over budget policy would be an excellent start; you’d think that the drool and the vacant expressions and the general looks of genial idiocy that their legislators are displaying right now would bother Democrats, but apparently not…

(H/T: Hot Air Headlines)

Moe Lane (crosspost)

Why the White House needs to worry about Proposition C.

Read up on reports of the results of Tuesday’s vote on Missouri’s Proposition C* and you’re going to notice what James Taranto did: there’s an urge to declare the vote ‘largely symbolic‘ (amusingly, this includes Taranto’s own Wall Street Journal, or at least the portions of it that aren’t part of the opinion section).  This is generally political-speak for ‘the voting public just kicked our rears on a policy issue:’  ‘largely symbolic’ votes where you agree with the results are instead ‘stunning reproofs’ or something else equally evocative of the Will of the People. Continue reading Why the White House needs to worry about Proposition C.

Minorities and the GOP: not yet DOOM?

Sean Trende over at RCP finds something interesting going on with minority polling.  The basic numbers at the heart of what may or may not be an important trend are these: the exit poll numbers for 2004/2008.

2004 2008
Voters GOP Dem GOP Dem
African American 10 89 5 93
Hispanic 44 55 29 68

As Sean notes, how these numbers shake out in future elections determines how much of the white vote each party generally needs to win.  Using 2008 numbers, the GOP’s target number for white voters is apparently 60%, which is a number that gives Democrats some comfort. Continue reading Minorities and the GOP: not yet DOOM?

#rsrh Gallup does not bring the DOOM.

DOOM implies a lack of giggling.

An average of 59% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have said they are more enthusiastic than usual about voting this year compared with past elections, the highest average Gallup has found in a midterm election year for either party since the question was first asked in 1994.

Via Jim Geraghty.  Just try not to giggle at that article.

Try.

Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh Gallup does not bring the DOOM.