Winning and Losing

Which is the more difficult case for you to make?  The one against abortion/for life or the one against gay/for traditional marriage?  If it's the latter, you're not alone. Have we won the abortion debate and lost the one over gay marriage?  Sure feels like it, doesn't it?

Over at NRO, David French then Jonah Goldberg have a few thoughts about why this is so.

The Liberal Mind at Work

Economist Paul Krugman is certainly a representative liberal and just the title of his latest New York Times column says it all:  "Things to Tax"

The Kennedy Obsession

I usually put New York Times columnist Ross Douthat in the same pigeon hole I keep his Times colleague David Brooks.  That is, as conservative commentators, they're unreliable.

But, to be fair, I should be more specific and say that as nominally conservative observers of contemporary politics, they're unreliable.   But, as reviewers of books and film, and as observers of broad cultural trends, they're much, much better.

For a particularly good example, consider Douthat's latest piece on "The Enduring Cult of Kennedy."

So why does this enduring JFK cult matter?:

...because its myths still shape how we interpret politics today. We confuse charisma with competence, rhetoric with results, celebrity with genuine achievement. We find convenient scapegoats for national tragedies, and let our personal icons escape the blame. And we imagine that the worst evils can be blamed exclusively on subterranean demons, rather than on the follies that often flow from fine words and high ideals.       

Fwank Won't Wun, cont.

Weetiwing?  Is that the weal weason, owr was it weedistwicting?

Fwank Won't Wun

Who?

Wepweesentative Bawney Fwank.

Wealwy?  Why?

Weetiwing.

Wonderful!

Pity the Poor Politicians

General Colin Powell blames the current impasse and inability to compromise among the nation's political class on the media and the Tea Party.  To be fair, the latter target came to him with a little help from interviewer Christiane Amanpour.

Anyway, that he would blame the media is actually quite surprising, that he would blame the Tea Party no surprise at all.

Meanwhile, innocent politicians stand idly on the sidelines, shrugging their shoulders, wondering why we all just can't get along.

Good grief General.

Do-Nothing Democrats

In that same piece, Krauthammer makes yet another important point:

Has the president ever publicly proposed a single significant structural change in any entitlement? After Simpson-Bowles reported? No. In his February budget? No. In his April 13 budget “framework”? No. During the debt-ceiling crisis? No. During or after the supercommittee deliberations? No. 

As regarding the supercommittee, Obama was AWOL — then immediately pounced on its failure by going on  TV to repeat his incessantly repeated campaign theme of the do-nothing (Republican) Congress. 

A swell slogan that fits nicely with the Norquist myth. Except for another inconvenient fact: It is the Republicans who passed — through the House, the only branch of government they control — a real budget that cut $5.8 trillion of spending over the next ten years. Obama’s February budget, which would have increased spending, was laughed out of  the Senate, voted down 97– 0. As for the Democratic Senate, it has submitted no budget at all for two and a half years.

Starting now, no GOP presidential candidate, no Republican congressman or senator, should let more than two sentences pass in any print or electronic media interview without saying these words: "The Do-Nothing Democrats"

We absolutely must fight back.

Besides, the alliteration is nice.