September 2010

So great are the powers of nefarious, progress-blocking Republicans that even in the vast congressional minority they can hold hostage bills that do not even exist:

So great are the powers of nefarious, progress-blocking Republicans that even in the vast Congressional majority, they can hold hostage bills that do not even exist:

In addition to pushing back this morning against the Wall Street Journal's story, which reported that McDonald's is potentially dropping its health care plan, HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius dismissed a report that an insurance provider in New England will cancel its Medicare Advantage plans for…

As noted here the other day, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee slashed by 50 percent its weekly ad buy in Pennsylvania. Now comes this report from the Hotline:

Jon Stewart has fun with Obama Democrats: "We came. We saw. We sucked."

J Street founder Jeremy Ben-Ami admitted this week that he had lied about the funding of his organization for years – but only after the lies had become so obvious, and the criticism so pervasive, that he had no other choice. Contrary to Ben-Ami’s claims, the group had taken a large amount of money…

Last week, the Kremlin announced that Russian president Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree banning delivery of its advanced S-300 air defense system to Iran. For years, Iran watchers have followed Russia’s 2007 contract to deliver the system to Iran closely, given the S-300’s potential to upend the…

Lee Smith writes in Tablet:

Earlier this week, Rolling Stone published an extensive interview with President Obama in which the commander in chief went after his Republican opponents with notable venom. The interview sadly confirms what many of us have long known: President Obama's transformation from post-partisan healer to…

The computer worm Stuxnet broke out of the tech underworld and into the mass media this week. It’s an amazing story: Stuxnet has infected roughly 45,000 computers. Sixty percent of these machines happen to be in Iran. Which is odd. What is odder still is that Stuxnet is designed specifically to…

Sometime in the mid-1980s a pop cultural landmark was reached when Baby Boomer journalists started writing columns complaining about the current state of rock music. This process might have been jump-started by the affront of Madonna to such people as Ellen Goodman of the Boston Globe or Robert…

J Street has revealed itself to be about as honest as it is pro-Israel. And another day brings about another report of the lobbying group's anti-Israel actions -- and its dishonesty. Today, Eli Lake and Ben Birnbaum report in the Washington Times that J Street facilitated Richard Goldstone's recent…

The rumor is he'll be campaigning for mayor of Chicago by Monday:

Congress's Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade held a hearing yesterday to discuss the U.S. strategy, or lack thereof, for dealing with the proliferation of jihadist web sites. In addition to dozens of sites that are explicitly dedicated to spreading jihadist ideology, al Qaeda…

Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius says a report in the Wall Street Journal that McDonald's may drop its limited benefits health insurance plans for 30,000 workers is "flat out wrong." The Journal reported this morning:

First J Street denied receiving money from George Soros—then they had to admit he is a major donor. First J Street claimed it was overwhelmingly supported by domestic donors—then it turned out they had received more than $800,000 from a mysterious woman from Hong Kong. First J Street claimed it had…

Berlin

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The 2010 federal fiscal year ended unceremoniously this week – a political and substantive fiasco for the Democrats. It included a cascade of miscalculations that could haunt the party in the November elections.  But that pales in comparison to the serious harm they’ve inflicted on the American…

1. CNN/Time Oversamples Democrats in California?  Yesterday evening, the CNN/Time poll of the California Senate race found Barbara Boxer up nine points among likely voters over Carly Fiorina. 

A statement from Delaware's Mike Castle:

Mark Dubowitz and Benjamin Weinthal write in the Wall Street Journal: 

Obama, to Rolling Stone, in an interview released yesterday:

CNN asks likely voters in Alaska:

Pennsylvania Senate candidate Joe Sestak has come under fire for his record on Israel. So now he's trying to embellish his record. Ben Smith reports:

What makes retired Army colonel and Iraq war veteran Patrick Murray believe he can win over the voters of Virginia’s Eighth Congressional District? After all, these are the same voters who have sent incumbent Democrat Jim Moran to Congress ten times before.

The Hill has the details on which Democrats were spared from casting another tough vote:

A mere two days after May’s deadly flotilla raid off the coast of Gaza, the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), in a special “emergency session,” passed a resolution by a 32 to 3 count that “condemn[ed] in the strongest terms the outrageous attack by the Israeli forces against the…

This week's Fareed Zakaria quotation comes courtesy of Cindy Adams, who interviewed the great man in her New York Post column (Sept. 27) about how he manages to find the time to do the innumerable extraordinary things he does. Answer: He doesn't have the time.

In our current issue, John Podhoretz discusses the chore of watching serial dramas—sort of like homework for the viewer—and expresses relief about not having to follow one program in particular:

President Obama was asked recently about "Waiting for 'Superman,'" the Davis Guggenheim documentary about public education which depicts a handful of qualified inner-city students competing for a limited number of spaces in charter schools.

Bill Clinton channels Friedrich Hayek.

It turns out smearing your mainstream Republican, Baptist opponent as Talibanesque by altering video of him doesn't play that well in a moderate House district or among Independents.

Well, Meek doesn't actually say those words, he just lets Crist do all the talking:

The new issue of National Affairs is out, which means it's time to read CCNY professor Daniel DiSalvo's piece on public sector unionism. DiSalvo explains the history of public sector unions, and the damage they've done to state finances. My favorite part:

1. Does Linda McMahon Stand a Chance in Connecticut?  Rasmussen and Quinnipiac both find the Republican nominee for Senate in Connecticut, Linda McMahon, well within striking distance of Democrat Richard Blumenthal.  Can she pull this off, or is this a dead cat bounce?

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained excerpts from the prepared text of Sen. Joe Lieberman’s speech, “The Future of American Power in the Middle East,” to be delivered Wednesday at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. It should cause quite a stir.

Unmanned U.S. Predator drones and the newer model Reapers have been real busy in Pakistan over the past month. The United States has launched 21 Predators strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas since Sept. 1, and with two days to go in September, is close to doubling the next most active month (the…

In an interview with Joe Klein, rich lawyer pines for the days when the top income tax rate was 70%.

President Obama will hold a rally in deep-blue Madison, Wisconsin today in an attempt to rally one of his most enthusiastic voting blocs from 2008. But as the president tries to fire up young voters, recent polling shows they're increasingly cool on the president's policies.

We at THE WEEKLY STANDARD are interested in learning more about a previously unknown (at least to us!) Hong Kong resident who generously donated $811,967 to the liberal lobbying group J Street.  Here's what we know about her: The woman's name is Consolacion Esdicul, but she goes by the diminutive…

Illinois Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias doesn’t have many accomplishments he can run on. His family bank, where he worked as a vice president and a senior loan officer, was taken over by the FDIC in April, costing the government $394.3 million. The Bright Start College Savings…

It really isn't news that President Obama thinks his daughters will get a better education at the Sidwell Friends private school than at a local public institution. But when he talks about the "heartbreaking" scenes of parents with children who don't get admitted to charter schools in Waiting for…

At Commentary's blog, Jennifer Rubin has been chronicling the fall-out from lobbying group J Street's lying about it's funding from George Soros.

The Boston Globe reports:

Since 1963 Theodore C. Sorensen has been subsisting on his eight-year career as a ghostwriter for John F. Kennedy, and faithful readers of the New York Times have come to rely on his periodic contributions to the editorial pages during the past 47 years. Here Sorensen has repeated, with emphasis,…

According to a source in Pennsylvania who tracks television advertising by political campaigns, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee bought only $260,000 in TV ads this week in Pennsylvania--about a 50 percent drop from the $500,000 or more the DSCC has been spending on TV ads each week for…

The liberal lobbying group J Street, which has operated under the pretense of being pro-Israel, has really taken a hit in the last week. Eli Lake of the Washington Times uncovered that, despite J Street’s longstanding insistence to the contrary, the group has received significant funding from…

It's about as predictable as Alan Grayson airing a hateful, dishonest ad caricaturing conservatives, but alas, it's news because the president said it. The headline at CNN gets right down to the nub of Obama's criticism in a way that's a bit more explicit and creepy than coverage of his past…

Via TPM, a Fox News poll shows Republican Ron Johnson leading Democratic senator Russ Feingold by 8 points in the Wisconsin Senate race. Johnson leads Feingold by 8.4% in the RCP average of polls; Johnson has been ahead of Feingold in every poll since July 13. As Jay Cost noted yesterday, Feingold…

Rachida Dati, the former French minister of justice, suffered a slip of the tongue during a televised discussion when she made mention not of inflation but rather fellatio. (The two words in French are quite similar.) According to the BBC:

This is a tale in which we learn that becoming a folk hero for the online left, under the guidance of former MyDD scribe Matt Stoller, does not necessarily endear one to a center-right district that went Democrat for the first time in 25 years in 2008.

This morning a new Rasmussen poll shows Republican John Raese leading Democrat Joe Manchin 48% to 46% in the West Virginia Senate race.

Likely independent voters favor repeal by a 27-point margin -- 60 to 33 percent -- according to the latest Rasmussen poll. Republicans, especially those running against one of the 34 Democrats who in March voted against Obamacare but who, six months later, now support "fixing" rather than repealing…

Via Jim Geraghty, a new Quinnipiac poll shows Republican Linda McMahon by just three points behind Democrat Dick Blumenthal:

1. How To Read The Polls, Part 2 of a Series. Here’s another tip for consuming the polls: From this point forward, likely voter polls are really a requirement. 

Two recent polls show Democrat Andrew Cuomo leading Republican Carl Paladino by less than 10 points. But while several other recent polls in the race for New York's governor show a wider spread (the RealClearPolitics average is 16.6 percent, with Cuomo taking the lead in every single one), what was…

DSCC spends another $165,000 against…O’Donnell?

According to a Republican source who tracks television ad buys in Pennsylvania, the Democratic Senatorical Campaign Committee is retreating--at least temporarily--from Joe Sestak's campaign against Pat Toomey.

In this past weekend's Wall Street Journal, Patrick Cooke has a fascinating review of Chrysler's Turbine Car. Yes, the automotive giant once managed to install a jet engine under a vehicle's hood. The performance results were off the charts:

The Washington Examiner this week is running a special on "Big Green." Here's part of the first installment:

North Dakota Democrat Earl Pomeroy, who was trailing his GOP opponent 45 percent to 48 percent in the most recent Rasmussen poll, has a new ad in which he touts his support for George W. Bush and the Medicare prescription drug plan.

In a recent series of conversations with Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg, Fidel Castro made several eyebrow-raising comments. The one that received the most attention was Castro’s assertion that the Cuban economic model no longer works. (He later tried, disingenuously, to backtrack on this…

Rasmussen reports:

Kiev 

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has chronicled the Department of Justice’s voting rights scandal with the New Black Panther Party from the very beginning. (See Jennifer Rubin’s pieces here, here, here, and here.) Finally, it seems, the mainstream press is catching on, as the Washington Post ran a front-page…

The San Francisco Chronicle doesn't endorse Boxer.

The Obama administration is spending still more of your tax dollars to have Andy Griffith tout Obamacare. Politico writes:

CNN released a new survey on Friday that found President Obama’s approval rating hit a new all time low. The network points to the listless economy and ongoing wars as the principal reasons for the public’s dissatisfaction with the White House:

1. Obama's Falling Numbers.  Barack Obama’s job approval numbers reached a new low over the weekend in the RealClearPolitics average.  Generally, I’ve seen two types of explanations for the president's decline.  One is a structural account that asserts that the president is largely a prisoner of…

The Relentless

With the midterm elections less than two months away, the prospects for a Republican takeover of the House of Representatives are very good. But could they be better? Shouldn’t the party put forward a positive agenda, akin to 1994’s Contract with America, if it wants to repeat the sweeping…

In a campaign speech on July 14, 2007, Senator Barack Obama railed against the Iraq war and President Bush’s obstinate refusal to end it. “We cannot win a war against the terrorists if we’re on the wrong battlefield,” Obama said. In another speech a few weeks later, he said, “The president would…

For the last several months, Chinese officials have been floating the idea of relaxing the country’s famed “One-Child” policy. One-Child has long been admired in the West by environmentalists, anti-population doomsayers, and some of our sillier professional wise men. In Hot, Flat, and Crowded…

With the ignominious collapse of cap and trade legislation in the Senate, the climate campaign is licking its wounds and wondering where it went wrong. Greens are pointing fingers at the bad economy, the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, and those dastardly Earth-hating Republicans. But they ought to…

Langhorne, Pennsylvania 

Muriel Spark

Yehuda Halevi

Camas, Washington

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Admiral Michael Mullen, famously said in 2007 that “in Afghanistan, we do what we can. In Iraq, we do what we must.” That strategic view was supposed to change when Barack Obama was elected president. It was candidate Obama, after all, who argued that the war in…

It is about to get harder for both the Obama administration and the mainstream media to downplay the New Black Panther party scandal. 

The past week was an important one for HBO, the cable channel that singlehandedly transformed American television 15 years or so ago when its bosses saw an opening and decided to create programs that would surpass the quality of what was available on broadcast. 

In this recession, with university endowments taking a hit nationwide, some schools are spending that extra dollar on rebranding efforts to attract ever more students—students (or their parents) who will be forking over hundreds of thousands of dollars. The latest example is American University,…

Thomas Joscelyn writes at Long War Journal:

It’s the policies, stupid. That should be the guiding light for everyone trying to figure out the course of the U.S. economy for the rest of the year. As things now stand, in the absence of any dramatic policy shift, the economy should continue on its present path—slow growth, a bit of job creation…

Pelosi thinks Colbert's testimony today was "great."

The GOP "Pledge to America" includes a pledge to "ensure access for patients with pre-existing conditions." Andrew Roth of the Club for Growth didn't take too kindly to this section. He wrote:

Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking Republican of the Finance Committee, has requested a formal investigation of the Obama administration over a senior administration official's comments on the tax status of Koch Industries--a private company targeted by Democrats, including President Obama himself,…

CNN reports:

The self-described “pro-Israel, pro-peace” J Street has always insisted that its funding comes entirely from Americans, and largely from American Jews. The group has also made a point of knocking down speculation that it takes money from liberal financier George Soros, who has never been…

When it comes to federal lobbyists, Illinois Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias says that “he won’t take their money and he won’t vote their way.”

At a policy luncheon last week hosted by the Hoover Institution, professors David Brady and Douglas Rivers presented their findings on the mood of the electorate and, in particular, the mood of independents going into the midterm election. The way they see it, the results in November will not be…

Ramesh Ponnuru on the Democrats' decision to punt on tax cuts:

Here is video of comedian Stephen Colbert testifying before the House Judiciary subcommittee at the request of Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, on the subject of illegal migrant workers. The pretense for his being an expert witness was Colbert's one day laboring with migrant workers in New York.

Fred Barnes in today's Wall Street Journal:  

1. Goodbye To The Clinton Majority?  Recently, Franklin & Marshall College put out a poll of Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District, in the Philadelphia suburbs, that shows incumbent Democrat Patrick Murphy down an eye-popping 14 points to his Republican challenger, former Republican…

On September 12, Turkey’s voters approved a package of 26 amendments to the country’s long-established secularist constitution. The amendments presented to the voters comprised of reforms to the Constitutional Court, strengthening of labor rights, and enhancement of women’s status, among other…

U.S. delegates walk out of Ahmadinejad's U.N. speech.

I noted below that Chris Christie vetoed a bill to provide $7.5 million in funding for Planned Parenthood. But J.P. Freire writes at the Washington Examiner: "the governor’s office has confirmed to The Examiner that state-funded abortions will continue to be provided, contrary to claims by Planned…

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee blasts Carly Fiorina today for taking Koch money (emphasis added): 

Sterling, Va.

(1) Loudmouths:

Two item-addenda: First, regarding Martena Clinton, whose car was towed during a gala for security reasons and was told by D.C. police they could not relocate it. (Clinton's friend eventually found it the next day—around the corner.) As one reader points out, a detail that was reported by Shankar…

Motor Trend magazine's blog reported this week that Cadillac, the flagship luxury brand of our very own Government Motors, has engaged in a sponsorship deal with a state-owned Chinese propaganda film company to link its cars with a new film on the glorious history of the Chinese Communist…

The NRSC is highlighting West Virginia governor Joe Manchin's recent claim to West Virginia Gazette reporter Alison Knezevich that he wouldn't have voted for Obamacare:

Recently, I strongly criticized the Obama administration for considering a political ad campaign against the Tea Partiers, suggesting that it was demagogic.  They didn’t like that over at the New Republic!  Jonathan Chait agreed with my basic take on the midterm dynamic, but said my…

A statement from Marjorie Dannenfelser of the pro-life Susan B. Anthony List:

The GOP will officially release its modern Contract With America today at an event in Sterling, Va., but the commentary on the 21-page document is already plentiful.

Everyone’s talking about the competitive governor’s and senate races in New York, with Carl Paladino surging against Andrew Cuomo and Joe DioGuardi pulling close to Kirsten Gillibrand. Given the nature of this year’s political environment, and Cuomo’s and Gillibrand’s weaknesses (see Hot Air’s…

Renee Ellmers, the long shot Republican candidate for Congress in North Carolina's Second Congressional District, is out with her first television ad:

"Just eight months after taking office, Mr. Christie is in demand by Republican candidates across the country, political consultants say, receiving many more invitations than he can accept. His appearances with Ms. Whitman are the first of many he has scheduled over the coming weeks, including…

Did Harry Reid curse Kirsten Gillibrand?

Well, here we go. The head of the Justice Department's New Black Panther Party's trial team, Chris Coates, is breaking his silence and coming forward to tell his side of the story on Friday to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. The Obama Justice Department's stonewall, we suspect, will be in…

1. A Pledge To America.  That’s the title of a leaked draft of the Republican congressional agenda. As it currently is outlined, "A Pledge To America" contains four main sections: a plan to jumpstart the economy, cut spending, repeal Obamacare, and reform Congress.  It does a very good job of…

Voter interest in the November elections continues its staggered crescendo. For candidates and consultants the long opus nears its denouement. But non-politicos – who react to different rhythms – are just now beginning to stir.

National Review: GOP pledge bolder than '94 Contract with America.

Jay Cost argues in this week's issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD that the "real worth" of the Republicans' 1994 Contract with America "was in governing, not electioneering." The same could be said of the House Republicans new governing agenda, a copy of which is now making the rounds.

If Bob Woodward’s newest book, Obama’s Wars, is anything like his prior inside accounts of previous administrations, there will be plenty of quotations without sources, lengthy accounts of private conversations that seem too detailed to be believed as totally accurate, and an untold number of…

The leading liberal from Wisconsin, Sen. Russ Feingold, can't seem to accept the reality that the political climate continues to change in Wisconsin.

Why are we not surprised—but nevertheless outraged—to hear the story of Martena Clinton, who attended a presidential gala over the weekend, parked her car in a spot a police officer told her was legit, later discovered it had been moved for security purposes, and was ultimately told by D.C. police…

The 26-year-old Iranian human rights campaigner Shiva Nazar Ahari was sentenced last Saturday by Iran’s Revolutionary Court to six years in prison after being convicted on all charges made against her by the state, including that of moharebeh (“rebellion against God”), conspiracy to commit a crime…

According to the Washington Post, Barack Obama is quoted by Bob Woodward as saying, "We can absorb a terrorist attack." Keep America Safe's Liz Cheney responds to the president's remark with this statement:

In February, Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin wrote a paper for the Heritage Foundation titled "The Cause of Life Can’t be Severed from the Cause of Freedom," and in July, he took issue with Mitch Daniels' call for a "truce" on social issues.

The Wall Street Journal today reports that General Motors has "begun to once again contribute to political campaigns, lifting a self-imposed ban on political spending put in place during the auto maker's U.S.-financed bankruptcy restructuring last year." That means, the automaker that Americans…

Nate Silver wrote an interesting column this week, arguing that the generic ballot might be underestimating the Democratic position right now. Silver writes:

Maggie Haberman has the story:

Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), had some troubling things to say on Capitol Hill this morning: 

This morning, West Virginia’s Republican senatorial candidate John Raese spoke with bloggers in a conference call about his recent polling numbers and his campaign’s plans for the last few weeks before the November election.

This morning, West Virginia’s Republican senatorial candidate John Raese spoke with bloggers in a conference call about his recent polling numbers and his campaign’s plans for the last few weeks before November.

Mark Holden, a lawyer for Koch Industries, tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD that Austan Goolsbee is the "senior administration official" who discussed the private company's tax status during an August 27 press briefing. As THE WEEKLY STANDARD reported on Monday, at the briefing, a senior Obama…

Many will weigh in, surely, and determine whether Bob Woodward's latest book is full of great scoops, or whether it's a dud. The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Drudge Report all seem to believe it contains great revelations. Having not seen the book -- it's not yet in bookstores --…

What’s the one issue that independent voters most strongly demand that a candidate get right?  According to a survey of 1,000 independents (and likely voters) recently conducted by Democratic pollster Douglas Schoen and commissioned by Independent Women’s Voice, the answer isn’t “national…

1. Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia!  The blogosphere was abuzz with talk of the PPP poll showing Republican candidate John Raese ahead of Democrat Joe Manchin, 46-43, in the Senate battle in West Virginia, the Mountain State. 

Jonah Goldberg: There's no true power struggle within the Republican Party over 'tea party' candidates.

Have you ever wondered if you were being had when it comes to drinking wines by the glass? First, the obvious: If you are, say, drinking alone and have no intention of downing an entire bottle of Cabernet, wouldn't it make sense to purchase that $15 glass as opposed to wasting $50 worth? You're…

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has launched a write-in bid for reelection after being beaten by Tea Party favorite Joe Miller in the Alaska Republican primary, will lose her committee position tomorrow, according to Senate Republicans:

Obamacare is clearly one of the most important political issues among independents this election season. But what do independent voters consider the second most important issue? According to one metric, it's the Ground Zero mosque. Pollster Doug Schoen has the results, from his latest work: 

Other than among associates of Feisal Abdul Rauf, one could well believe that 9/11 “trutherism” is largely a thing of the past. The main target of the “9/11 truth movement” was always, after all, the supposedly nefarious cabal otherwise known as the Bush administration. With the end of President…

Moments ago, the cloture vote on the Defense Authorization bill, which included a repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy on gays in the military and the DREAM Act, failed on what was almost a straight party-line vote. Forty Republican senators, including moderates Olympia Snowe and Susan…

According to Reuters, the Obama administration plans to tackle the growing deficit ... but not yet. That will come after the 2010 midterm election in November, according to White House spokesman Robert Gibbs:

A savvy political veteran emails:

Like many representatives in 2010, Bob Etheridge is an erstwhile safe Democrat who hasn’t faced serious competition in the past. A seven-term congressman from Raleigh’s southern and eastern suburbs and farm country, Etheridge is a former tobacco farmer and state legislator with moderate social…

Another interesting new Senate poll out today: PPP shows that Republican John Raese is leading Democratic governor Joe Manchin 46 percent to 43 percent.

Via Allahpundit, a new Fox News poll of 1,000 likely voters, conducted September 18, shows Christine O'Donnell trailing Chris Coons 39 percent to 54 percent in the Delaware Senate race. Voters express support for smaller government, and they also want to repeal Obamacare--50 percent to 43…

In its first poll since Lisa Murkowski announced her write-in campaign Friday, Rasmussen reports that Joe Miller gets 42 percent of the vote in the Alaska Senate race, with Murkowski at 27 percent and Democrat Scott McAdams at 25 percent.

Hey, how come no one's talking about what's happening to Molly Norris?

Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, spoke at three Washington, D.C. synagogues on Yom Kippur—at Adas Israel at Kol Nidrei services last Friday night, then at Washington Hebrew Congregation Saturday morning and at Kesher Israel in the afternoon. Conservative, Reform and Orthodox…

1. A Note on the Latest Generic Ballot Numbers. Gallup just released its latest generic ballot number, still of registered voters, and finds the Democrats up one over the Republicans.  Generally speaking, the RealClearPolitics generic ballot average has shown some tightening in the last week.  Is…

A recent New York Times/CBS News poll shows, among other things, that more than twice as many Americans “strongly disapprove” of Obamacare (34 percent) as “strongly approve” of it (15 percent).  Moreover, the poll shows that the vast majority — 82 percent — of those who disapprove of Obamacare…

At Monday's town hall in Washington, President Obama was asked whether his top economic adviser, Larry Summers, and his Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner, would be staying through the end of this term. Obama's answer makes one think the answer is no:

Sign of desperation? Barney Frank brings in Bill Clinton to campaign.

Why would a Democrat in Illinois running for the Senate seat that Rod Blagojevich tried to sell want a top Blago adviser speaking for his campaign?

NBC reported early this afternoon:

Berlin

Jennifer Rubin follows up on several recent stories she's written for THE WEEKLY STANDARD (see here, here, and here) with this email:

Lately, the White House and its allies have been drawing attention to the political activities of libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. In an August 9 speech, President Obama singled out Americans for Prosperity, a free-market political group founded by David Koch in 2004. In the wake of…

When is Congress going to extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts? President Obama wants to extend those cuts only for households making less than $250,000. Republicans want to extend all of the tax cuts, at least temporarily, so that the country doesn't raise taxes in the middle of a terribly weak…

The White House and its allies have been drawing attention to libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch for their political activities. "Using a great deal" of research by the Center for American Progres, the New Yorker's Jane Mayer reported on August 30 that the Kochs are waging a "waging a…

The Florida Democratic Party sent out a mailer this week that disclosed the Social Security number of a Tea Party favorite in Florida's 22nd District race.

Late last month, EU Home Affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmström announced the resumption of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP), under which American counterterror investigators have consulted and analyzed selected data on international bank transactions originating in Europe. (Note that…

Ben Smith reports that Sarah Palin gave the boss a shout-out in her Friday speech in Iowa:

Because demonizing the populist movement has been so successful thus far, Obama aides may be thinking about a national TV ad campaign to rally the base with the idea of zombie Christine O'Donnells...or something.

Lefty activist: Chris Coons harrassed me for my political activism

In mid-August, as the controversy over the Ground Zero mosque began to gain international attention, a leading Saudi journalist wrote two opinion articles opposing the project. Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, then manager of the Saudi-owned, Dubai-based Al-Arabiyya satellite television network, first…

1. Desperately Seeking Strawmen.  One of President Obama’s chief rhetorical tricks since he was inaugurated has been to attack strawmen, tendentiously drawn caricatures against whom Obama can contrast himself.  Usually, the president does this to create the false impression that he is a centrist –…

What will historians 50 years from now see as the most important development in American politics of the past 40 years​—the period roughly encompassing the years 1970 to 2010? I believe it is the rise of two movements that between them are likely to alter the balance of political power in this…

It has been more than 30 years since the United States last conferred its highest military honor on a living soldier. But we have the privilege this week of commending U.S. Army Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta, the first living Congressional Medal of Honor recipient of the Afghanistan and Iraq…

Living in the Eighties

Yalta 1945

The Servile Mind

Democrats in Washington, confronting a mammoth tidal wave of angry voters as November approaches, are desperate to change the subject. They know there is little they can say about themselves or their record of governing over the past two years that would not worsen their prospects, so they…

President Obama has fallen into the John Boehner trap. By attacking Boehner last week—emphatically, repeatedly, and by name—the president made himself look desperate. And by treating Boehner as practically an equal, Obama elevated him. Boehner was delighted. Obama had helped him fill the leadership…

Say it’s a Saturday night this fall, and your average movie-goer has a choice of staying home and trying to whittle away at the 18 episodes of Breaking Bad he has on his DVR but has never actually watched, or going out to the movies—which will cost him and his beloved at least $70 between tickets…

This year’s election looks to be a repeat of 1994. The GOP is likely once again to win 50-plus House seats and thereby take control of that chamber. Republicans are on track to pick up something like the 8 Senate seats they won in 1994—if they fail to win control of the Senate, it will only be…

Ithaca, N.Y.

The outlook for Republicans in November is very good—at least as favorable as in 1994, and possibly more so than at any point since 1928. Several factors account for the positive environment.

Congress returns to Washington this week, just in time for a fight over the future of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts. Those cuts are scheduled to expire on January 1, leading to increased taxes on estates, dividends, capital gains, and incomes. President Obama wants to maintain current tax rates for…

Jim DeMint vividly recalls his first meeting with Marco Rubio two years ago when the youthful speaker of the Florida House came seeking his support for the U.S. Senate. Rubio told how his Cuban refugee parents had worked hotel service jobs all their lives so he and his siblings could have a better…

President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton assure us that they are champions of human rights. However, their focus, more often than not, is on America’s shortcomings. 

I bought an accordion coupon organizer last week. It’s a wallet-sized device that straps to the cart as you’re grocery shopping. It comes with 24 durable tab dividers, to prevent the coupons for meat, dairy, and Hannah Montana paper dishware from commingling.

Philadelphia

When the eminent English critic Frank Kermode died last month, the Washington Post duly noted his passing and added prosaically that “no cause of death was reported.” But as Kermode took his leave at the age of 90, you would think curiosity on that score would be less than ravenous: He’d had a long…

The most famous words in the Declaration of Independence — and almost surely the most famous words ever written by an American — read, “We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these…

Editor’s note: Jonas Dovydenas first photographed Afghan fighters in the 1980s, during the resistance to the Soviet invasion. Since 9/11, he has made eight more trips to Afghanistan. This spring, he spent two months there, in Kabul and in Logar province, Pul-e-Alam district, where he was embedded…

Chinese citizens can’t vote in national elections. Not at home. And, of course, not in America. American citizens can. That combination of circumstances is likely to have an effect on U.S. trade policy as Congress settles in for the final weeks before the November 2 elections. President Obama and…

Murkowski to launch write-in bid in Alaska.

Fox News reports:

Christopher Caldwell's latest Financial Times column:

Jeri Thompson, a political commentator I admire and wife of former Sen. Fred Thompson, wrote a column for "The American Spectator" this week suggesting anyone skeptical of Christine O'Donnell is skeptical because they're sexist, boys-club types afraid of strong, anti-establishment women.

Ramesh Ponnuru has some smart advice for Republicans:

In his op-ed for the Washington Post this morning, David Ignatius writes (emphasis added):

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European governments have long forgotten that their primary task is the defense of those they govern. The two most prominent European powers, France and Great Britain, spend only 2.3 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively, of their GDP on military spending – amounting to less than what Djibouti and…

"This fact marks our political age: The pendulum is swinging faster and in shorter arcs than it ever has in our lifetimes. Few foresaw the earthquake of 2008 in 2006. No board-certified political professional predicted, on Election Day 2008, what happened in 2009-10."

At this point, conventional wisdom suggests that it will be difficult for Republicans to force and win a vote before the midterm elections on extending tax cuts for all Americans. The main obstacle is the Senate, where Republicans would have to get 19 Democratic votes. There are now five Democratic…

1. Pennsylvania poised to go for the GOP?  My goodness, are the polls for Democrats in Pennsylvania just terrible, or what?  It’s as if Pennsylvania and Ohio are in a pitched battle to see which one will swing the farthest away from the Democrats this November.

Christine O'Donnell in 2007: "American scientific companies are cross-breeding humans and animals and coming up with mice with fully functioning human brains."

Cartoonist Molly Norris will no longer be publishing in the Seattle Weekly or in Seattle's City Arts magazine, according a report from the Seattle Weekly. Why? Because she's scared for her life after publishing this cartoon, as part of "Everybody Draw Mohammad Day":

Cook giveth and Cook taketh away.

John Boehner said at his press conference today:

It's becoming increasingly hard to find anyone who's willing to express support for Obamacare publicly. Politico now reports that three times more money is being spent on anti-Obamacare ads as on pro-Obamacare ads – among Democrats.  Overall, the tally is seven to one.  Moreover, the movement is…

Last month, everyone was wondering if the First Lady, whose approval numbers are higher than Obama's at 66 percent, would take to the campaign trail for Democrats. That popularity has been the work of 18 months of carefully crafted messages and feel-good issues.

The new documentary Waiting for "Superman", which premiered last night at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., follows several American students in suffering school districts and the reformers trying to fight and change the education system. But it was Michelle Rhee, the chancellor of the District of…

Rasmussen:

Greg Mankiw answers, "How much would the president actually raise the top tax rate?"

1. NRSC To Back O’Donnell?  That was the story yesterday morning. So says NRSC chairman John Cornyn:

Many factors are contributing to President Obama’s decline in popularity since his historic election less than two years ago.  A stagnant economy with stubbornly high unemployment certainly caused part of the downward trend.  But there is more.

Democrats worry that John Dingell will lose.

Well, this is odd... and quite helpful to Christine O'Donnell's message when facing Coons:

Coming off of yesterday's poll that showed Republican Marco Rubio with a commanding lead over independent Charlie Crist and Democrat Kendrick Meek in the Senate race there, new polls from Reuters/Ipsos and Rasmussen are showing comparable numbers for Rubio. Here's Rasmussen:

BBC Arabic’s Jerusalem correspondent Ahmad Budeiri claims that were it not for “hostile environment training,” he might have been beaten and kidnapped by “an angry mob” of Israelis in Ashdod in response to his reporting on the Free Gaza flotilla raid.

The country's first primary state was hardly first with its returns last night, as glacial vote-counting in New Hampshire had Republican Senate candidates Kelly Ayotte and Ovide Lamontagne unsure of the outcome of their close race until this morning.

Well, well, well, Charlie Cook. Maybe you'd like to retract some of your earlier projections for a Republican tidal wave? Because Democrats are about to design their way to victory!

Two of the Obama administration's political allies (Families USA and U.S. PIRG) have just released “The Young Person's Guide to Health Insurance,” which contains a personal message from (who else?) President Barack Obama. The guide lists Obamacare's "Coming Attractions" and provides helpful advice…

The NRSC has decided to spend money on Christine O'Donnell's campaign against Democrat Chris Coons after all. Sen. John Cornyn:

The seven-month primary season, which began on Feb. 2 in Illinois, is over. Republicans and conservatives should be pleased by the results.

Mike Castle might have been a wonderful general election candidate in the Delaware Senate race.  But he ran a terrible campaign in the Republican primary, which is why he lost to Christine O’Donnell, a Tea Party favorite.

Delaware Senate. It wasn’t even close.  Republican Christine O’Donnell jumped out to a lead against Mike Castle right away last night and did not look back.  Final result: O’Donnell 53 percent, Castle 47 percent, with a little more than 3,500 votes separating the two. Turnout was 32 percent of…

With 100 percent of precincts reporting, conservative activist Christine O'Donnell defeated moderate congressman Mike Castle 53% to 47%--or 30,561 votes to 27,021 votes. It seems reasonable to think that support from the Tea Party Express, Sarah Palin, Jim DeMint, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and…

With 49 days until the midterm elections, Wisconsin looks increasingly like it will be among the most intensely contested states – between primaries there Tuesday and the November 2 general election.

A National Republican Senatorial Committee tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD in an email it's very unlikely that national Republican party organizations will be spending money on Christine O'Donnell's Senate bid in Delaware:

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina congratulates Christine O'Donnell:

...but not for the Senate seat.  But for the House at-large district.  Establishment-backed Michele Rollins is behind insurgent Glen Urquhart by about 600 votes out of 51,000 counted so far.  Just 5 precincts left to go.  No winner called yet.  

With 75 percent of precincts reporting, Castle 46.4 and O'Donnell 53.6. The Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman tweets that O'Donnell's got this thing in the bag:

Early results in Maryland GOP governor's race shows Bob Ehrlich out to an early lead, holding 83 percent of the vote with 6/1829 precincts reporting.  

Delaware GOP results, with 14 percent of precincts in: O'Donnell is in the lead by a couple points.  Unfortunately, the Delaware secretary of state's site appears to have crashed. Interest is high!

The state of Delaware is posting election results here.

These are the times, in EST, of the polls closing tonight:

Michael Moynihan: "Delaware's O'Donnell Disaster."

In her $6.9 million gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell claimed that "ISI violated its promise to allow Miss ODonnell time to take Master's degree classes at Princeton." According to the…

As the Republican primary for the Senate seat from Delaware manages to become even more heated than it's been thus far, the newest charge of O'Donnell backers is that Rep. Mike Castle voted to impeach President George W. Bush.

For those not concerned about character, the Castle/O'Donnell issue in the Delaware Senate race comes down to a straightforward calculus of electability versus ideology.  The implicit argument from some has been that they cancel each other out in this case.  Castle is a useless RINO and O'Donnell…

Politico's David Catanese reports:

Political Wire reports that a Fox News poll shows Marco Rubio's out to a 16-point lead in Florida:

On Monday, September 13, the Associated Press and other media outlets reported that the Obama administration will ask Congress for approval to sell Saudi Arabia up to $60 billion worth of high-tech fighter aircraft and helicopters, with an option of $30 billion in naval armaments to follow. Because…

Charles Krauthammer on Special Report last night:

It’s becoming increasingly apparent that, all other things being equal, the small minority of House Democrats who voted against Obamacare are in much better electoral shape than the vast majority of those who voted for it. At least five of these 34 more independent-minded Democrats are now running…

McConnell introduces that Tax Hike Prevention Act of 2010.

Kabul  

1. Fun Facts about Delaware.  The GOP circular firing squad is finally set to begin shooting today, as Delaware will hold its primary vote to decide between moderate Republican Mike Castle and Tea Party Express-backed Christine O’Donnell.

A top GOP strategist emails THE WEEKLY STANDARD to say it's very unlikely that national Republican party organizations will be spending money on Christine O'Donnell's Senate bid in Delaware:

From Public Policy Polling:

Senate majority leader Harry Reid has decided, reportedly, to hold a vote on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' next week. Here's the Washington Post:

When we last saw seven-term Congressman Bob Etheridge of North Carolina, he was helping a young man with a video camera understand that American voters must be prepared to explain themselves to elected officials before asking questions of them in public. The fact that he helped the young man…

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell has come out against the Obama tax plan, according to a McConnell spokesman who spoke with the Associated Press:

Obamacare Watch, a project of e21, is hosting an event tomorrow at the National Press Club, titled, "ObamaCare At Six Months: What Else Have We Learned?" TWS contributor James Capretta will be speaking -- and Bill Kristol will be moderating a discussion -- at tomorrow's forum. Here's the agenda: 

Minority leader John Boehner, appearing on CBS's Face the Nation yesterday, said he would vote for a bill extending tax rates for everyone but households making more than $250,000 if it's "the only option I have." Clearly he hadn't read this week's editorial!

Talk radio host Mark Levin is not very happy with my report yesterday on Christine O'Donnell's $6.9 million gender discrimination lawsuit against her former employer, a conservative group called the Intercollegiate Studies Institute.  In the 2005 lawsuit, O'Donnell alleged that ISI caused her to…

Sen. Joe Lieberman joined former Obama budget director Peter Orszag in calling for a temporary extension of the Bush tax cuts today when he spoke at a Connecticut Chamber of Commerce meeting:

The Investigative Project discovers that Feisal Abdul Rauf, the man behind the Ground Zero mosque, has "a longtime partner" who thinks 9/11 was "an inside job":

Democratic California gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown attacks Bill Clinton at what appears to be a campaign stop in California:

Change: "Two years after arriving in Washington on a message of hope and change, Democratic candidates are not extolling their party’s accomplishments, but rather distancing themselves from their party’s agenda."

1. Delaware Primary.  The stakes are high in Delaware as First State Republicans are set to choose between moderate Republican Mike Castle and conservative, Tea Party-backed Christine O’Donnell.  PPP is now finding a statistical tie between the two, and the battle has turned conservative allies…

Wilmington, Del.

Public Policy Polling just released a poll showing conservative activist Christine O'Donnell leading moderate congressman Mike Castle 47 percent to 44 percent in the Delaware GOP Senate primary:

Court documents obtained Saturday by THE WEEKLY STANDARD reveal surprising new details about the gender discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuit filed by Christine O'Donnell in 2005 against her former employer, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, a conservative non-profit based in…

The 2010 primary season has been marked by conservative insurgents overcoming establishment Republicans in states, such as Florida, Utah, Kentucky, Nevada, and Alaska. But there are plenty of examples that have bucked this trend. More establishment-oriented candidates have won primaries against Tea…

Christine O'Donnell

In addition to the remembrance of 9/11 by Kathryn Slattery on the homepage today, you may appreciate the following articles related to 9/11 from the archives:

It was a September morning like any other.  The air was still summer warm.  The sky was a brilliant robin’s egg blue.  I stepped onto the 8:25 a.m. Metro North commuter train, headed toward my office at Guideposts magazine on 34th Street in New York City.  “Excuse me.”  I squeezed between a young…

It’s official: There are “widespread signs of a deceleration [in growth] compared with preceding periods.” So concludes the Federal Reserve Board after surveying the state of business around the country. Calm observers would note that slower growth is far from a double dip, that consumer spending…

The Hill reports that the NRA is backing Christine O'Donnell in the Delaware Senate race--not a huge surprise considering Mike Castle's "F" rating from the NRA (of course, there won't actually be any serious anti-gun legislation that comes up for a vote in the next Congress).

Ed Whelan on yesterday's court ruling striking down the law barring gays from serving openly in the military.

Today, The Hotline reported that the NRCC will buy ads in 10 districts:

Debra Burlingame, a Board Member of Keep America Safe, responds to President Obama's remarks at today's press conference on Gitmo, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and the Ground Zero mosque:

The must-read piece on terrorism this week comes from Philip Shenon, writing at The Daily Beast. Shenon writes about a cache of intelligence documents stored at the National Security Agency (NSA) that received a cursory review by the 9/11 Commission because they were only discovered shortly before…

Alas, I wish there were more press conferences for me to synopsize, but the president being who he is, we must satisfy ourselves with what we have. What we have today is an hour-and-17 minute press conference in which he took 22 questions, stuttered no fewer than five times, and laughed…

In an interview with Tom Joyner this morning, it seems the president debuted a new vaguely violent automotive metaphor for the ailing economy. Until now, the economy has been a mere car that Republicans had piloted into a ditch, and which Obama was valiantly if unsuccessfully trying to get running…

Old wounds shall be worried anew; stale arguments shall be leavened once more.

"The Republican party has been overtaken by the zealots, by the extremists, by the radicals ... and they don't seem to like Ohio very much," Ohio's Democratic governor Ted Strickland bellows in a video of a stump speech posted by the Republican Governors Assocaition. "And quite frankly they act…

Jeffrey Goldberg is back from Cuba, where he was summoned by Fidel Castro after the former Cuban president read Goldberg’s recent article on the likelihood of an Israeli attack on the Iranian nuclear program. Goldberg promises that his Havana adventure will be the subject of a forthcoming story,…

As the Giannoulias family’s Broadway Bank was seized by federal regulators, and as Broadway Bank’s associations with mobsters and criminals was placed under further scrutiny, Illinois Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias had a tiring refrain: I haven’t been at the bank in over four years. 

One of the well-known effects of alcohol is that it reduces inhibitions. China’s top-ranking UN diplomat, Sha Zukang, experimented with the substance at a banquet at a UN retreat in the Austrian ski resort of Alpbach. Addressing one of his American colleagues during a rambling toast, the truth…

1. Latest signs of the Dem-Pocalypse.  PPP polls Maine and finds both Democratic  incumbents under 50%.  In ME-1, Democrat Chellie Pingree leads Republican Dean Scontras 47-38.  In ME-02, Democrat Michael Michaud leads Republican Jason Levesque 45-38.  This is despite the fact that the Republican…

Rasmussen: Blunt 53 percent, Carnahan 43 percent.

Terry Jones may have called off his Koran burning in Florida, but Iraqpundit writes that someone still owes the preacher a debt of gratitude:

In light of Sarah Palin's endorsement of Christine O'Donnell in the Delaware Senate primary, it's worth recalling that she hasn't always endorsed winning candidates. According to the Washington Post's Palin Endorsements Tracker (TM), 20 Palin-backed candidates have won, 10 have lost, and 13 haven't…

Der Spiegel reports that the Brazilian firm Embraer, the world's third largest producer of commercial airplanes, is contemplating a future, in which only one human pilot is needed to fly a passenger jet. He or she would be assisted by either computers onboard, flight control on the ground, or…

No direct quote from Sarah Palin yet (update: audio here), but on Sean Hannity's radio show this afternoon, Palin apparently endorsed conservative activist Christine O'Donnell in her campaign against moderate Congressman Mike Castle to be the Delaware GOP Senate nominee. Sean Hannity tweets:

In the September 14 New Hampshire GOP Senate primary, pro-life groups are weighing in to defend Attorney General Kelly Ayotte's pro-life credentials. Though Ayotte is pro-life and has been endorsed by Sarah Palin, her record is being assailed by supporters of candidate Ovide LaMontagne, who styles…

Christine O'Donnell's new ad says that Mike Castle is "for" "keeping Obamacare and cuts in Medicare":

WEEKLY STANDARD contributing editor Max Boot talks Afghanistan with the Foreign Policy Initiative:

Via the St. Pete Times, the Sunshine State News reports:

In my head, when I picture the relationship between Barack Obama and Joe Biden, this is what I see.

Rasmussen reports:

You may remember that for a brief time, singer Wyclef Jean flirted with the idea of running for president of Haiti, citing as his qualifications the fact that he is Haitian, knows Shakira, and put out that awesome solo album in '98.

President Obama avoided being "perfectly clear" today about whether he would veto an extension of all the Bush tax cuts if it came to his desk. The president's preferred course is to raise the current tax rate for the wealthy and leave it as is for the middle class. In an inventive rhetorical…

The New York Times reports that a federal appeals court has shot down a lawsuit against Jeppesen Dataplan Inc., a Boeing subsidiary that reportedly arranged flights for the CIA as part of the Agency’s extraordinary rendition program. The suit was brought by the ACLU and five former detainees. But…

1. The limits of base politics. Yesterday, I noted the apparent decision of the Obama White House to focus aggressively on mobilizing its base in advance of the midterm.  I concluded that the pursuit of this strategy so late in the cycle suggests party leaders recognize that the House is slipping…

Earlier this week, President Obama proposed another round of stimulus spending, aiming to boost the sagging economy and—he vainly hopes—his party’s slumping political fortunes.

In the September 14 New Hampshire Senate primary, Attorney General Kelly Ayotte is being attacked for being insufficiently pro-life by supporters of Ovide LaMontagne

Lisa Murkowski may announce write-in bid tomorrow.

We are now seeing the beginning of the political equivalent of the evacuation of Dunkirk in 1940. This time, it’s not British troops escaping Nazi German forces.  It’s Democrats evacuating Obamaland, desperate to avoid identification with President Obama with their re-election (or election) on…

Ever since the September 11 attacks, some in counterterrorism and intelligence circles have tried to define al Qaeda narrowly, thereby limiting the scope of the organization’s threat. We’ve seen this in the recent debate over the number of al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan, for instance. CIA…

MEMRI just published an interesting study that's worth a look:

What keeps White House adviser David Axelrod up at night? The answer to that question is clearly suggested by the Associated Press:

Berlin

While its former “partner” and ruler from the other side of India, Pakistan, contends with--and often appears to accommodate--the aggression of the Taliban, Bangladesh (population 160 million, almost entirely Muslim), has quietly adopted a more vigorous policy of legal action to curb Islamist…

Less than a week ago, on September 2, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor had an op-ed in USA Today. It was a perfectly good statement of GOP opposition to President Obama's plan to raise taxes on upper-income Americans. Though Cantor mentioned GOP alternatives, his piece was fundamentally a statement…

Last month the TWS cruise sailed from Boston to Montreal, Canada. The entire complement enjoyed smooth waters and perfect weather as we stopped by Bar Harbor, Halifax, Sydney, Charlottetown, and Quebec City on our way to Montreal. Unfortunately, however, some cruisers, on another ship, in the…

A few months back I came across the trailer for I Want Your Money, an upcoming right-of-center documentary on the perils of big government and redistribution. Naturally, I was interested. The trailer made me laugh, which is more than I can say about most movies. Even better, according to today's…

Axe: Rahm has the skill set to be mayor of Chicago. In what one imagines would be the words of Rahm, "No &*%%^!, Sherlock."

1. C'mon, you knew this would happen, right?  Gallup finds a 10-point shift in party preferences toward the Democrats in the last week, which nobody else found: 

The editors of National Review make the case for marriage.

The AP reports that Lisa Murkowski could ruin GOP plans to hold on to her seat:

In the Delaware GOP Senate primary, moderate congressman Mike Castle takes aim at conservative activist Christine O'Donnell's financial troubles:

According to Gallup, the GOP has gone from its all-time biggest lead on the generic ballot to a tie with the Democrats in the span of one week:

October 4 marks the redemption of former New York governor Eliot Spitzer. That Monday his new show debuts on CNN, cohosted by conservative columnist Kathleen Parker—it's called Parker Spitzer, as opposed to (insert joke here).

TWS senior editor Andrew Ferguson's latest Commentary column is available online:

The New Republic's Jonathan Chait says the notion that the Democrats should have abandoned Obamacare in the wake of Scott Brown's election is "a transparently ridiculous argument," and he balks at the claim that "spending less time on health care and more on 'the economy' – where it's not clear the…

TWS senior writer Matt Labash gives advice to aspiring journalists: 

Everybody wants to know what will happen in November before November actually comes. To satisfy this demand, there is a cottage industry of statistical modeling that will predict -- with eye-poppingly high degrees of (promised) accuracy -- just what will happen. Nate Silver of the popular…

Former Enron adviser Paul Krugman's Labor Day column essentially boiled down to this argument, according to Amity Shlaes:

Rasmussen:

A Florida pastor, Terry Jones, has planned to commemorate the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by burning copies of the Koran. The commanding general of the war in Afghanistan, David Petraeus, however, has warned that Jones's actions will surely lead to incitement and the deaths of Americans…

Assuring everyone that they're unwilling to listen to economic reason, even from the man employed as their budget director a month ago, the White House spokespeople were sent forth this morning to refute the former OMB director's inaugural New York Times column.

Nearly a year ago, former-President Bill Clinton visited Capitol Hill and advised congressional Democrats that the best way to secure their political futures was to pass Obamacare. Speaking to reporters afterward, Clinton said, "I think it is good politics to pass this and to pass it as soon as…

Freshman Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska), who beat Ted Stevens in 2008, says the national party shouldn't be counting out Lisa Murkowski's seat in his home state. They just need a little faith:

How could the Obama administration have miscalculated the economic trajectory of the summer so badly as to have given them what some have called the biggest premature victory declaration since the USS Abraham Lincoln?

"They talk about me like a dog." (To be fair, Bo's gotten better press than anyone in Washington for two years, so maybe he didn't mean it in a bad way.)

A great speech about the Middle East “peace process” that cuts to the essentials:  

Fred Barnes writes in today's Wall Street Journal:

1. Latest Sign of the Dempocalypse.  CNN's generic ballot numbers are just rotten for Democrats.  The GOP leads 52-45 among registered voters.  Republicans even have a lead of 49-44 among "adults."  Unfortunately, there are no cross-tabs breaking down support by party affiliation, but you can't…

The Sunday Times (UK) reported yesterday, based on Taliban sources, that the Iranians are paying bounties to the Taliban to kill American soldiers. (The Times's account is behind a pay wall, but summaries of the story can be found elsewhere in the press.) We learn that the going rate is $1,000 per…

In its Friday afternoon news dump before Labor Day weekend, the White House announced that President Obama had invited the ten leaders of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to join him for a summit in New York on September 24.  This will be the second U.S.-ASEAN summit, and the…

Happy Labor Day!  Easily the most ironic holiday on the American calendar, today is the day we all celebrate work by ... taking off work!  

There’s a phrase that never crosses President Obama’s lips, even as he prepares to propose new tax cuts for small business.  The phrase:  permanent, across-the-board cuts in marginal tax rates for the wealthy.

Not many people can define GDP (the value of a nation’s output). But everyone can define jobs. So the fact that the U.S. economy is growing and GDP is rising—inching up might be a better description—pales into insignificance compared to the fact that the job market remains in the doldrums. No use…

TWS contributing editor Charles Krauthammer argues that Obama sees Afghanistan only as a distraction. 

Ben Smith reports today that Joe Sestak is distancing himself from the J Street sponsored, "infamous" (in the words of the Orthodox Union), anti-Israel letter accusing Israel of "collective punishment" for defending itself against Hamas terrorists bent on murdering Israelis. Collective punishment…

The BBC World Service recently broadcast a two-part investigative documentary, hosted by John Sweeney, on the useful idiot, a concept that Lenin didn’t invent so much as expropriate to denote the semi-witting accomplices of Western imperialism.  Although more frequently employed in the service of…

As the Wall Street Journal's John Jurgensen wrote back in July, this summer's concert scene has been a depressing one, with more than your usual share of musical acts cancelling shows and some cancelling their tours altogether. But the administration's Recovery Summer tour, starring Barack Obama…

Jay Cost noted that Democratic senator Ron Wyden sent a letter last week to Oregon health authority director Bruce Goldberg, in which Wyden states that the federal government "has never had the flexibility" or the "will" to implement "innovative solutions" to our health care woes. Can you imagine a…

Liberal Susan Estrich makes her side's case that all is not lost for the Democrats in the lower chamber. She makes some good points, but I have to disagree with this:

In a recent interview with Human Events, Mississippi governor Haley Barbour talks about the rise of Southern Republicans, arguing that it had to do with generational and economic transformations. Liberal bloggers Steve Benen and Steve Kornacki reject this argument in separate posts, arguing instead…

Senator Scott Brown writes in today's Wall Street Journal: 

Joel Pollak has two degrees from Harvard, worked as both a freelance journalist and a political speechwriter in his native South Africa, had a brief career as an actor in European movies and TV advertisements, and published two books while still at Harvard Law. This immigrant and Orthodox Jew…

Jennifer Rubin follows up on her May cover story for THE WEEKLY STANDARD (titled, "Gen. 'Stonewall' Holder") with this email:

August 16:

Welcome! Lots of stuff to cover, so let's get to it. 

Another RINO for Castle:

John Podhoretz on Israeli/Palestinian talks: "What happened was nothing."

WEEKLY STANDARD writer Steve Hayes got plenty of attention from White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today, who used his Twitter account to carry on a long back-and-forth with Hayes over the small business bill the White House has been touting this week, but which stalled in the Senate earlier…

Mark Levin emails in response to my interview with Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell:

If there's any group you want on your side when approaching an election, it's enthusiastic independent voters. Independent voters carry elections in swing districts, and (even in a poll of likely voters) independents that feel strongly are presumably more likely to vote and less likely to waver. 

Well, this is heartening:

Fred Lucas of CNSNews.com has published an interesting story regarding the Defense Intelligence Agency’s (DIA) response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for documents pertaining to its Guantanamo recidivism studies. CNSNews.com’s reporting is worth your read, but most of the…

This week, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak brought his son Gamal to Washington to attend the kick-off of renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Back in Cairo, the unprecedented family visit will no doubt reinforce the widespread belief that Mubarak is planning a hereditary succession in the Arab…

As we reported earlier, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is downplaying his urging of DOE employees (and not just the political appointees) to take part in last Saturday's Al Sharpton counter-rally in Washington, describing it as a "back-to-school" event. And as CATO's Neal McCluskey reminds us,…

In the wake of Joe Miller's upset over Lisa Murkowski in Alaska's GOP Senate primary, there's been a lot of buzz for Delaware GOP Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, who is challenging moderate GOP congressman Mike Castle in the September 14 primary. This week, the Tea Party Express endorsed…

It's 80 miles south of Vermillion Bay in the Gulf Mexico. Early reports called it an explosion, but later reports call it a fire. Robert Gibbs announced at the White House press briefing that the Mariner Energy platform was "not in active production" and the depth of the water at the site is about…

Well that was quick. Just last week Matthew Futterman wrote in the Wall Street Journal that "as the U.S. Open begins on Monday, Andy Roddick will be celebrating his 28th birthday. He will also be facing what could be his last realistic shot at glory." Then suddenly, Roddick, ranked 9th, was ousted…

As usual, incisive explanation and analysis from the Taiwanese media outfit, NMA World Edition. This time the subject's the Ground Zero mosque controversy: 

In this episode of "Better Know Your Democratic Governor," longtime Obama ally (and speech donor) Deval Patrick seems to commit a Kinsleyan gaffe when asked about the Glenn Beck rally held on the Mall August 28.

Christina Romer's full farewell speech.

Beijing

Welcome. This is a regular feature I'll be offering every weekday, first thing in the morning. Basically, what I'll do is flag the most notable stories of the 2010 midterm campaign, and provide my two cents on what's really happening. 

Last week House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio delivered a stinging critique of the Obama administration’s economic policies. But the White House’s swift and tart reaction to Boehner was both illuminating and sadly predictable.

Ground Zero mosque organizer Feisel Abdul Rauf's thoughts on Israel and Iran.

Alaska's soon-to-be-former senator Lisa Murkowski only won election in 2004 with 49 percent of the vote. Still, given the fact that 2010 seems to be a much stronger year for Republicans than 2004, you might think Joe Miller would poll better than 50% to 44% against Democratic nominee Scott McAdams…

Just a few days ago, German defense minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg presented five different reform proposals to restructure the country’s armed forces. Declining defense budgets coupled with increasing expeditionary demands on Bundeswehr forces around the world underline the case for…

Great breaking news from Silver Spring, MD, where a several-hour stand-off with a gunman holding hostages has ended with the hostages safe and the gunman shot and in custody.

From now to September 15, and between September 26 and December 15, passengers on the Amtrak Cardinal can enjoy a 20 percent discount. And if you depart mid-September, you'll most likely arrive at your destination by mid-December. Seriously, if you leave New York's Penn Station at 6:45 am on a…

Police and media are now identifying the gunman holding hostages at the Discovery Channel corporate headquarters as James Jay Lee.

On the eve of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Hamas gunmen murdered four Israeli civilians, including a pregnant woman. Even for those who see nuance in terrorist attacks, this one didn’t leave a lot of room for argument. The PA condemned the attack and, reportedly, picked…

By way of Reuters, a troubling interview with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin:

This started popping up on Twitter a few minutes ago, and now Fox News is reporting there's a full SWAT team at the scene. The Washington Post has a short write-up with the scant details:

Another interview and another controversy for Thilo Sarrazin, the embattled board member of the German Bundesbank. Last autumn, Sarrazin found himself embroiled in controversy and accused of racism following the publication of a wide-ranging interview in which he questioned the capacity for…

A new Quinnipiac poll shows that New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand is leading her potential GOP opponents by about 20 points. New York Republicans have failed to get a big-name candidate (Giuliani, Pataki) to take on Gillibrand, and her seat is generally considered to be one of the few Democratic…

There’s a practice among many conservatives of love-bombing liberals who take a few steps in their direction. On the whole, it’s a good practice. The idea is that positive feedback will encourage liberals to move further toward embracing policies that conservatives like. And sometimes that happens.

Will the scheme to locate a multi-story megamosque near Ground Zero be doomed by disaffection between Sharif El-Gamal, the head of Soho Properties, Inc., purchaser of the land for the building, and Feisal Abdul Rauf, the “spiritual guide” of the Cordoba Initiative and American Society for Muslim…

These ideological, impractical, probably racist mobs of Tea Partiers who understand nothing of politics and long to do nothing but obstruct...

Chris Matthews comes home. "[Obama] is almost pluperfect, and they don't like him!"

Jay Cost, who joins THE WEEKLY STANDARD today, leaves RealClearPolitics with a bang. In an excellent piece, he shows that the "conventional wisdom that the decline of the Democrats has mostly to do with the economy and little - if anything - to do with health care" is wrong.

When Ghaleb Nassar al Bihani traveled to Afghanistan to fight alongside al Qaeda and the Taliban, he probably never imagined that he would be captured and his detention would be turned into a legal fight over what role, if any, international law plays in restricting the president of the United…

A statement from Alaska's GOP Senate nominee Joe Miller:

CNN reports: "Republican U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski conceded in the Alaska GOP senatorial primary which remained unresolved after last Tuesday's voting." Joe Miller will almost certainly be Alaska's next senator.

President Obama opposed the war in Iraq. He still thinks it was a mistake. It's therefore unrealistic for supporters of the war to expect the president to give the speech John McCain would have given, or to expect President Obama to put the war in the context we would put it in. He simply doesn't…