qotd – Page 8 – Moe Lane

#rsrh QuestionotD, We Were Wondering That Ourselves Edition.

Steve Sugarman, while writing on how Hollywood got stop-thrusted on SOPA/PIPA, noted the same thing that the rest of us did: while both the Online Right and the Online Left generally came down hard against the two bills, when Democrats had to choose between their online allies and Hollywood they went with Hollywood. Republicans, on the other hand…

They began to ask why they should risk the ire of their Internet supporters to rescue an industry that was happily advertising how much it hated them.

Why, indeed. I certainly hope that entertainment executives are taking one particular lesson to heart: to wit, get your danged stables of talent under better control. Allowing them to say any fool thing that comes into their largely vacant heads has put the studios and entertainment conglomerates into a rather sticky situation with regard to Hollywod’s influence with the government; worse, the politicians all know it…

#rsrh QotD, Also: Take A Look At The Map edition.

Ace of Ace of Spades HQ, noting something that I wholeheartedly agree with:

I don’t know what kind of President [Mitt Romney would] make (or that any of them would make).

But there is something to be said just for driving President The Constitution Acted Stupidly out of office, and giving the People’s House back to the people. The real people, not Obama’s coalitions of red diaper babies, crytposocialists, black-bandannaed anarchists, academic parasites, union goons, and welfare state clients.

There is a lot to be said about it, in fact. I had no patience for teach-the-GOP-a-lesson even back in 2006 or 2008: and now that I’ve seen what the Democrats will do when they control the legislature and executive branches of government, I have even less. It’s a great theoretical argument, but as a practical matter it puts the government in the hands of people who think that it’s constitutional to make you buy health insurance. So until it doesn’t…

Moe Lane

PS: Third parties also put the government in the hands of people who think that it’s constitutional to make you buy health insurance.

PPS: Yes, well, if it was an easy problem to solve then we would have fixed it by now, actually.

#rsrh QotD, Nice Of Them To Notice edition.

And, hey, they even linked to RedState!

The Tea Party movement scared Republican members of Congress in 2010 when they mounted primary challenges to several Republican incumbents. The defeat of incumbents like Bob Bennett lent credibility to [RedState’s Erick] Erickson’s threat to recruit primary challengers for Republicans who supported SOPA.

…(Via Instapundit) Admittedly, they don’t mention the site by name, but at least they linked, right?

Moe Lane Continue reading #rsrh QotD, Nice Of Them To Notice edition.

#rsrh QotD, SSH! You’re Giving Away The Game, Walter Edition.

Walter Russell Mead, killjoy:

Unless you are a political operative or somebody angling to get an appointment in the next Republican administration, you could safely ignore every word written about the GOP contest up until this point without being any less well informed about the important things going on in the country and the world.

I say that without heat, by the way: speaking as a political operative – actually, I am offended by that term. I am a partisan hack, damn your eyes* – I’ll be one of the first to admit that the primary season goes on for far, far, far too long. But it’s how we set things up, and people seem to be happy to keep doing it this way… while all the time complaining bitterly about having to keep doing it this way. Whaddya going to do, cry in your beer?

Moe Lane

*You’d be amazed how empowering it is to be free to say that. I know far too many people in this business who simply can’t admit that, even to themselves. And it keeps them down.

#rsrh QotD, Sean Trende brings the DOOM edition.

Sean Trende, in the process of noting that, really, Obama’s numbers are grotesquely bad right now, mentioned independent voters:

Given the enthusiasm gap between the parties, the 2012 electorate will probably be roughly split between Republicans and Democrats. Independent voters will therefore hold the key to the election.

Consider these three 2010 Senate challengers frequently cited as examples of candidates who are too extreme to win. It’s a little-known fact that Ken Buck won independents by 16 points in Colorado. In Nevada, Sharron Angle won them by four points. Even Christine O’Donnell, who is something of the ultimate warning sign against Tea Party excess, lost independents only by three points. They all lost their races in large part because they faced Democrat-heavy electorates. Had the electorates been evenly split between the parties, all three would have run very close races.

Whatever their faults, Romney, Gingrich, and Perry are not Christine O’Donnell-style candidates.

Continue reading #rsrh QotD, Sean Trende brings the DOOM edition.

#rsrh QotD, I Frankly Deserve Better Than Mitt Romney edition.

And so do you, and so does Ed Morrissey:

The one argument for Romney that actually works with conservatives is that he’d be a better President than our current incumbent by a country mile. That’s also true of most of the rest of the field, though. If the nomination went to Romney, I’d have no trouble pulling the lever for Mitt in November 2012, and I’d be ruddy pleased to do so. But while the primaries are still in front of us, perhaps we can be spared the rationalizations aimed at getting conservatives to back Romney rather than test the rest of the field for a more principled conservative who could win a general election and properly lead this country in the right direction.

I expect that, should Romney get the nomination, the Online Right will suddenly find Senate and House races of particular interest. Particularly the primaries – especially if the nomination gets resolved early…

#RSRH QotD, I Wish I Had Said That… Hold On, I Did edition.

Senator Jeff Sessions, on why we’re Taxed Enough Already, thanks:

“Washington asking for more tax revenue is like an alcoholic asking for more cash before a trip to the liquor store.”

Continue reading #RSRH QotD, I Wish I Had Said That… Hold On, I *Did* edition.

#QotD, Life Is Not Fair For College Graduates, Either edition.

Charles Cooke (the NRO guy, not the pollster), on the effects of treating a college degree as a magical spell component*:

On Thursday, I met a guy down in Zuccotti Park. He speaks six languages, but he has nothing useful to say in any of them. He is the movement’s perfect spokesman.

Indeed.

Moe Lane

*The idea being, a college degree will magically get you a job. Which would be great, IF MAGIC WORKED. Hmm. Somebody should do a survey of the current unemployment rates among ceremonial magicians…

#rsrh Duelling QotD, John Yoo edition. #p2 #ows

(Via Instapundit) Mr. Yoo is cruel, yet accurate, in his assessment of the almost-competent GWOT strategy of Barack Obama.

Let’s give partial credit where it is due. Apparently the Obama administration argues that al-Awlaki was a legitimate target because he is a member of an enemy engaged in hostile conduct against the United States. At least Obama has figured out that the war on terrorism is in fact a war, and that it is not limited just to Afghanistan. We should be thankful that Obama officials have quietly put aside the arguments they made during the Bush years that any terrorist outside the Afghani battlefield was a criminal suspect who deserved his day in federal court. By my lights, I would rather the Obama folks be hypocrites in favor of protecting the national security than principled fools (which they are free to be in the faculty lounges both before and after their time in government).

Continue reading #rsrh Duelling QotD, John Yoo edition. #p2 #ows

#rsrh QotD, Wow. Vicious. edition.

This is a couple of days old, but it is still just a downright rude thing to say about Megan McArdle:

It is nearly a cardinal rule of American politics that if Megan McArdle likes your policy plan, it will go down in the Senate 95-0, and end with a fumbling recantation on Meet the Press.

…even if it was actually said by, well, Megan McArdle.

Read the whole thing, by the way.