Patterico's Pontifications » 2012 Election

Guest post by Charles C. Johnson Mayor Cory Booker’s claim that he lives on Hawthorne Avenue has been refuted by bankruptcy documents obtained by me and by the colleague of the landlord who say...

https://patterico.com/2013/10/16/whistleblower-confirms-booker-paid-rent-but-didnt-live-in-newark/

James Rainey says we should be thanking the L.A. Times for withholding the Khalidi tape — because if they hadn’t promised to do so, we never would have heard about it in the first place: The ...

https://patterico.com/2012/09/25/james-rainey-you-should-thank-the-l-a-times-for-withholding-the-khalidi-tape/

For Mitt Romney? No, for Allen West: God forbid Romney should hit hard like this. (See what I did there?)

https://patterico.com/2012/09/10/democrats-on-god-and-israel-in-a-political-ad/

Which is true, if you think about it: The Clinton speech at the Democratic National Convention was “eerily anti-Obama, if you just listen to the subtext,” the former House speaker said on CNN...

https://patterico.com/2012/09/09/newt-clinton-speech-made-obama-look-bad/

It ain’t like the old days: CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The last time Democrats assembled for their national convention, the proceedings were awash in a mix of giddy exuberance and teary emotion as del...

https://patterico.com/2012/09/04/open-thread-democrat-convention/

Michael Hiltzik of the L.A. Times says we should remember the value of unions. Wilma Liebman, writing in the L.A. Times, takes a slightly different perspective, and says we should remember the va...

https://patterico.com/2012/09/03/what-should-we-think-about-on-labor-day/

It’s good to have friends with access to cops: Only days after Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel asked for federal agents and U.S. Marshals to help combat the city’s wave of violence, about 50 Chica...

https://patterico.com/2012/09/03/rahm-sends-chicago-cops-to-democrat-convention-in-the-middle-of-a-chicago-crime-wave/

In the wake of Clint Eastwood’s discussion with an empty chair (representing Barack Obama) at the GOP convention, Barack Obama tweeted this: Oh, man, the fun we’re having with this. This seat...

https://patterico.com/2012/09/01/this-seats-taken/

Is it racist to run against or oppose a black candidate for office? To rational people, posing the question answers itself: of course not. But the candidacy of Barack Obama reminds us that there ...

https://patterico.com/2012/08/26/how-the-1983-race-for-chicago-mayor-and-the-coverage-of-that-racially-charged-campaign-relates-to-the-2012-presidential-race-and-next-weeks-gop-convention/

Failing to deport illegal criminals costs lives. Again: The Obama administration released illegal immigrants who went on to commit more crimes, including charges of 19 murders, 3 attempted murder...

https://patterico.com/2012/08/01/obama-deport-the-criminals-last/

When the L.A. Times can’t spin it for you, man, it’s time to hang it up: U.S. economic growth slowed further in the second quarter as consumers cut back on spending and businesses curbed thei...

https://patterico.com/2012/07/27/breaking-obamas-economy-still-sucks/

Because if he went to high school, Obama says let him go: In a startling allegation, the president of the union representing Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers claimed illegal immigrant...

https://patterico.com/2012/07/26/obama-deports-the-criminals-first-unless-the-illegal-says-he-went-to-high-school/

Having just pointed out that Obama didn’t seem to propose new gun control legislation after Aurora, it’s incumbent on me to point that, well, he’s still not. But he’s trying to sound like...

https://patterico.com/2012/07/26/obama-proposes-no-new-gun-control-but-pretends-to/

It can be revealed this morning that, in a startling experiment that will be debated for years to come, the editors of the Los Angeles Times have temporarily ceded control of their web site and f...

https://patterico.com/2012/07/18/exclusive-l-a-times-turns-editorial-control-of-its-news-pages-over-to-obama-campaign-staffers/

So says Romney partisan Jennifer Rubin: Why has the Obama team been publicly wailing about losing out to Mitt Romney in the money race? Why would the president accuse his opponent of not merely b...

https://patterico.com/2012/07/16/obama-panicking/

William Galston of Brookings recently published “Six Months to Go: Where the Presidential Contest Stands as the General Election Begins,” which compiles a wealth of polling to paint a fairly...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/16/does-04-08-12/

At the NYT, Richard W. Stevenson claims that it is: he months between the end of the primary season and the formal start of the general election at the conventions are an especially perilous per...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/14/is-the-2012-campaign-at-a-quiet-turning-point/

The idea pops up in Jonah Goldberg’s new book, The Tyranny of Clichés: Goldberg *** explained that there “is a certain Marxist sting” to the cliché of being “on the right side of histo...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/12/making-the-right-side-of-history/

You see, the Washington Examiner columnist had the gall to not only suggest that Americans care more about the economy than whether Mitt Romney gave someone a haircut 47 years ago, but also to s...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/11/msnbcs-tamron-hall-goes-nuts-on-tim-carney-over-the-mitt-bully-story/

As usual, you are positively encouraged to engage in sockpuppetry in this thread. The usual rules apply. Please, be sure to switch back to your regular handle when commenting on other threads. I...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/11/sockpuppet-friday-doma-arigato-president-obama-edition/

There is a puff piece in today’s L.A. Times titled: President Obama’s influence on gay marriage will be tested. His change, we are told, is historic and valuable: David Mixner, a longtime Dem...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/11/l-a-times-swoons-over-obama-evolution-without-mentioning-prior-devolution/

The WaPo’s lengthy hit piece on Mitt Romney, leading with a 1965 incident in which Romney and high school pals gave John Lauber (a fellow student) a forced haircut, was definitely distraction ...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/10/wapos-mitt-the-bully-piece-runs-into-problems/

Jim Geraghty notes publicly what everyone is thinking privately: It’s entirely possible that it’s a coincidence that the Washington Post has a long story on a teenage Mitt Romney bullying an...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/10/mitt-meets-the-media/

Earlier today, I wrote that Team Obama had been AWOL on gay rights issues for campaign reasons.  This afternoon, Pres. Obama officially “evolved” into a supporter of same-sex marriage durin...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/09/obamas-flip-flop-on-same-sex-marriage-still-driven-by-the-campaign/

The right has had a lot of fun watching Pres. Obama, his administration, and his campaign contorting over the issue of same sex marriage.  But there is a serious message beneath the laughter. ...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/09/why-team-obama-dodges-gay-rights-issues/

With the GOP presidential nomination a near-certainty for Mitt Romney, today’s big elections concern the fates of US Sen. Dick Lugar in Indiana and same-sex marriage in North Carolina. Taking ...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/08/todays-main-electoral-events-in-nc/

The L.A. Times reports a Very Important Story that just happens to play into Obama talking points: Romney stands silent as Obama is accused of treason. Mitt Romney drew criticism Monday after he ...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/08/l-a-times-romney-must-correct-the-trolls/

The bloggy thing to do this morning would be to link the results of the new Quinnipiac University Swing State Poll of FL, OH and PA, toss in today’s media focus on VA from ABC News and others...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/03/you-dont-need-to-pay-much-attention-to-the-electoral-college-right-now/

Given the number of stories I expect to see making these errors, I almost hate to single out the WaPo’s Chris Cillizza. But here he is, predicting that Pres. Obama will go even more negative i...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/02/zombie-journalism-rerunning-the-2004-campaign/

It would take a lot of effort to turn the killing of Osama bin Laden into a political liability.  But Team Obama is working on it: Serving and former US Navy SEALs have slammed President Barack...

https://patterico.com/2012/05/01/smartest-president-ever-diminishing-his-one-bipartisan-success/

Everybody at the water cooler at the L.A. Times knows that so-called “wedge issues” are bad things — and that, as such, they have traditionally been used only by Republicans. Today, they ar...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/29/l-a-times-obama-using-tactic-formerly-thought-by-liberal-newspaper-editors-to-be-the-exclusive-province-of-the-gop-the-dreaded-wedge-issue/

There has been a wavelet of stories from outlets like The Atlantic, The Hill and Yahoo! suggesting Pres. Obama could be in trouble with the youth vote.  The Atlantic’s Molly Ball notes: Less...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/26/is-obama-really-in-trouble-with-young-voters/

Or perhaps it is how I learned to start being concerned about “manufactured” outrage.  It depends on how you look at it, I suppose. After all, when I read generally conservative columnists ...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/25/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-about-manufactured-outrage/

Ed Morrissey is entirely correct about the anticlimactic nature of these contests.  Indeed, it is doubly so when you consider that Pennsylvania is the only state in this group the GOP has a rea...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/24/ny-ct-ri-pa-de-primary-thread/

The L.A. Times tells us Romneycare is “similar” to Obamacare (only much, much scarier!): Romney’s plan follows a lead set by President George W. Bush, who unsuccessfully pushed for a health...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/23/l-a-times-romneys-constitutional-health-care-plan-is-just-like-obamas-unconstitutional-plan/

To quote CBS News political director John Dickerson, right now there are more polls than in a Warsaw bar.  For political news junkies, Nate Silver offers helpful advice on poll-watching.  I do...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/22/the-poll-to-watch-right-now/

PolitiFact, supposedly devoted to helping you find the truth in politics, addressed the story about Barack Obama eating a dog, quoting from his book, Dreams from My Father: With Lolo, I learned ...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/21/politifact-goes-to-the-dogs/

This week’s screwy CNN poll was at least useful in encapsulating the establishment media’s conventional wisdom about the 2012 campaign: the gender gap and likeability are the keys to Pres. O...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/18/the-emperors-old-clothes/

Ross Douthat recently opined on the two faces of liberalism — the optimistic central planner and the demagogue who responds whenever the issue of the collective cost of the plans becomes an is...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/17/mediscare-and-the-liberalism-of-fear/

Liberals are getting increasingly touchy about the looming prospect of voters judging Pres. Obama’s term of office.  They are almost as touchy about those noting that Obama wants to focus his...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/14/yes-2012-will-be-mostly-a-referendum-on-obama/

As usual, you are positively encouraged to engage in sockpuppetry in this thread. The usual rules apply. Please, be sure to switch back to your regular handle when commenting on other threads. I...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/13/sockpuppet-friday-pres-obama-is-a-chevy-volt/

Rick Santorum’s departure from the race not only virtually assures Mitt Romney of the GOP presidential nomination, but also provides a milestone from which to assess the state of Pres. Obama...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/11/is-obama-running-the-right-campaign/

The American Crossroads SuperPAC is planning an anti-Obama ad blitz to give cover to likely GOP nominee Mitt Romney: The prolonged and hard-fought nominating contest, Mr. Romney’s advisers sai...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/09/american-crossroads-obama-start-shaping-battlegrounds/

Jay Cost has a piece up essentially agreeing with my take on Pres. Obama’s “grim warrior” campaign, but with extra twists worth exploring: If Obama is reelected with such terrible feelings...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/07/president-barack-rumson/

Having written about the subtext of Pres. Obama’s Tuesday speech to news editors, it is worth looking at the speech likely GOP nominee Mitt Romney gave in the same venue on Wednesday.  As rep...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/05/mitt-romneys-marvelous-speech/

Yesterday, President Crankypants lectured his base — news editors — on the “social Darwinism” of the House GOP budget and likely GOP nominee Mitt Romney.  If you want a point-by-point r...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/04/president-obamas-marvelous-speech/

Polls close in Maryland and DC at 8 ET; Wisconsin’s polls close an hour later.  Here’s your Google Map.  In Wisconsin and Maryland, some delegates are awarded by Congressional District, bu...

https://patterico.com/2012/04/03/wisconsin-maryland-and-dc-primary-thread/

As usual, you are positively encouraged to engage in sockpuppetry in this thread. The usual rules apply. Please, be sure to switch back to your regular handle when commenting on other threads. I...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/30/sockpuppet-friday-wit-and-wisdom-of-joe-biden-edition/

The Pelican State votes today, but the polls do not close until 9 ET, which may limit the media impact (which is the main impact they would have).  Here’s your Google Map.  According to the ...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/24/the-louisiana-primary/

Obamacare turns two this week.  After the March 2012 Obamacare cost estimate was released, it became apparent that some — and not all lefty pundits — are upset with those noting that the gr...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/21/obamacare-turns-two/

The Land of Lincoln votes today, although if my experience was any indication, neither early nor often.  I proudly cast my presidential vote for David Burge, with some other votes for people I ...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/20/the-illinois-primary-thread/

The WaPo reports on fat cats with short arms: President Obama is struggling to draw in big-dollar donations, with half as many people writing large checks to his campaign than at this point four...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/19/obama-coming-up-short-of-big-money/

Jonathan Bernstein (seemingly dumbing down his punditry for Greg Sargent’s audience) argues the GOP is trapped in its echo chamber, running against a fantasy Obama or two.  The first is basic...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/18/the-real-fantasy-obama/

It figures that days after considering whether there might be an anti-Mormon “Romney effect” in 2012, there would be fresh data from Michael Tesler at YouGov: Media speculation abounds that ...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/15/romney-and-evangelicals-revisited/

I really don’t mean to pick on Jonathan Chait here — he just happens to be representative of many left of center in this instance.  Last Friday, the story was all about Obama’s improved s...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/14/somethings-happening-here/

There’s more voting today, especially on the GOP side.  Here’s your Google Map for tracking results.  Most people will focus on Alabama and Mississippi, which have a quasi-proportional all...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/13/alabama-mississippi-hawaii-and-american-samoa/

RCP’s Sean Trende is not a big fan of forecasting, but today he revisits the model I mentioned in wondering whether there might be a “Romney effect” should Mitt Romney be the GOP nominee (...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/13/an-unhappy-trende-for-romney/

Reason’s Peter Suderman recently noted that GOP front-runner Mitt Romney’s most recent budgetary proposals are vaporware: Indeed, exploring his economic policy proposals is rather like touri...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/12/would-you-buy-a-budget-from-these-men/

Of course not.  However, given the NYT’s reputation, it is worth noting they had some of the most balanced coverage of Friday’s seemingly good unemployment report. Quite a bit of the establ...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/11/is-the-new-york-times-cheerleading-for-a-bad-economy/

Derrick Bell, whom President Obama lionized and embraced in a speech in law school, praised a man who had called for white genocide in South Africa. Bell argued that society should be grateful th...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/10/obama-hero-derrick-bell-we-need-to-appreciate-a-man-who-called-for-the-wholesale-slaughter-of-women-and-children-in-south-africa/

Mitt Romney romped in Guam and the Northern Marianas; the Virgin Islands also vote today.  But most of the attention is on Kansas caucuses.  Here’s your map and the rules.  As I write this,...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/10/kansas-caucus-thread/

Contrary to Supernarrative Wednesday (which spilled over to Thursday), Mitt Romney is likely not as weak as much of the media claims.  Political scientist Seth Masket notes that Romney has ab...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/10/is-there-a-romney-effect/

As usual, you are positively encouraged to engage in sockpuppetry in this thread. The usual rules apply. Please, be sure to switch back to your regular handle when commenting on other threads. I...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/09/sockpuppet-friday-obamaganda-edition/

Super Tuesday was inevitably followed by the analysis of What It All Means.  The dominant narrative is captured in the NYT headline “With No Knockout Punch, a Bruising Battle Plods On.”  O...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/08/supernarrative-wednesday/

Who could hang a name on you?  Here’s the big Google/AP Map for tracking results in the various contests tonight.  Nate Silver provides a range of possibilities for gauging the expectations ...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/06/hello-super-tuesday/

Barack Obama.  There is bipartisan doomsaying about the GOP, but he does not believe it.  No, in recent weeks Barack Obama has flip-flopped to take SuperPAC money, because GOP groups are raisi...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/06/you-know-who-doesnt-think-obama-won-the-election-already/

Yesterday, Mitt Romney hosted a pancake breakfast in Georgia (a state Newt Gingrich is comfortably ahead in the polls), while Rick Santorum spoke at the capitol in Oklahoma (a state where Santor...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/05/super-tuesday-preview-the-20-percent-solution/

RCP’s Sean Trende is having none of this defeatism: Conservative opinion maker George Will compares the GOP’s presidential fate to Barry Goldwater’s flop. Many key Republicans reportedly b...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/04/no-the-gop-is-not-doomed-in-2012/

It seems like people care about this even less than Michigan and Arizona, although it’s the last stop before Super Tuesday.  RCP’s Scott Conroy notes the result is anyone’s guess.  The s...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/03/oh-yeah-washington-has-a-caucus-tonight/

It seems like most of the mediasphere cannot stop talking about Rush Limbaugh’s insult of political operative Sandra Fluke.  I cannot stop thinking of Up‘s Dug the Dog: While I like Up, I h...

https://patterico.com/2012/03/03/rush-limbaugh-and-the-year-of-the-squirrel/

The president on the campaign trail delivering a non-campaign address: In a boisterous, excited tone, President Obama continued, criticizing Republicans who said “the workers made out like band...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/29/obama-lies-about-romney-being-a-liar/

Polls close in both states at 9 pm ET tonight.  Ed Morrissey predicts  a 20-point win in Arizona for Romney, and a close two-point win for Santorum in Michigan.  My fundraiser/consultant pal...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/28/michigan-arizona-whoop/

Jonathan Chait plays the hits in a lengthy diatribe for New York magazine: The GOP has reason to be scared. Obama’s election was the vindication of a prediction made several years before by jo...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/27/its-now-or-never/

I generally enjoy Charlie Cook’s work, which made his bunkum on independent voters all the more disappointing: It’s misleading to say that the state of the economy determines whether a presi...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/26/independent-voter-bunkum/

Pres. Obama is playing defense on rising gasoline prices, but are they his real gasoline problem?  Political insiders overwhelmingly think so: “Rising gas prices will always be a reminder of ...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/25/obamas-gas-problem-may-not-be-high-prices/

As usual, you are positively encouraged to engage in sockpuppetry in this thread. The usual rules apply. Please, be sure to switch back to your regular handle when commenting on other threads. I...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/24/sockpuppet-friday-licking-their-chops-edition/

So close, Melinda Henneberger… and yet so far: The beauty of the current birth-control conversation for Democrats is that they not only have public opinion on their side but have cannily manag...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/23/it%E2%80%99s-democrats-who-are-putting-focus-on-birth-control/

At the blog for the Nevada Policy Research Institute, it is revealed today that a woman named Loretta Harper was recently chosen to be a national co-chair of Obama’s re-election campaign. Why i...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/22/obama-campaign-official-gave-schoolkids-extra-credit-for-volunteering-for-obama/

Like other candidates for the GOP presidential nomination, Rick Santorum does not have kind words for food stamps: Santorum told the group he would cut the food stamp program, describing it as ...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/22/rick-santorum-food-stamps-and-big-government-conservatism/

MoJo’s Kevin Drum acknowledges what most progressives will not: From 1964 all the way through 2000, the cost of presidential campaigns was pretty stable, ranging around $300-600 million in inf...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/21/the-allegedly-high-cost-of-campaigns/

The New York Times finally informs its readers: Rising gasoline prices, trumpeted in foot-tall numbers on street corners across the country, are causing concern among advisers to President Obama...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/19/barry-antoinette-faces-higher-gas-prices/

Allahpundit is probably not the only righty nervous over the current election polling, even though it is still too early in the cycle for deep concern.  The polling is likely the product of a m...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/16/the-gop-fields-big-weakness/

Some of the coverage of the GOP campaign would suggest that Mitt Romney must win the Michigan primary: For Romney, the contest is a chance to show that he can connect with working-class voters, ...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/15/is-michigan-a-must-win-for-mitt/

Rich Santorum surges to a 38-23% national lead over Mitt Romney in the latest PPP poll.  Indeed, “Santorum gets to 50% in the Newt free field to 28% for Romney and 15% for Paul.” (Of cour...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/11/rick-santorum-and-the-two-playbooks/

My general impulse is throw cold water on momentary buzz, so this bit of hype from Camp Santorum reported by Byron York after sweeping Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado caught my attention: Aft...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/08/mitt-clinton-rick-obama/

Jay Cost did a little mythbusting Monday regarding conservative support for Mitt Romney: The conventional wisdom is that conservatives are dissatisfied with Romney, whose electoral coalition is ...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/08/romney-conservatives-and-conservatives/

“No delegates, just expectations and momentum, the intangibles open to interpretation.” OK, here’s a little more. Interpret. (And here are your results links for CO, MN and MO.) –Karl

https://patterico.com/2012/02/07/colorado-minnesota-and-missouri-oh-mzzzzz/

Calling SuperPACs a “threat to democracy” is sooo two days ago: On a conference call with members of President Obama’s 2012 reelection committee Monday evening, campaign manager Jim Messin...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/07/barack-obama-super-hypocrite-on-superpacs/

A new friend and I were discussing the sad state of the Republican field on Saturday. We agreed that the current crop of candidates is wholly uninspiring. We also agreed that a Romney ticket, whi...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/07/tell-romney-if-he-wants-your-money-its-rubio/

That’s the verdict from the normally easygoing Ed Morrissey.  While I agree with his biggest criticism of the poll, it is still possible to get something out of it. I agree with Ed that the r...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/06/is-the-wapoabc-news-poll-worthless/

Anyone who thought Newt Gingrich might go gently into that good night after an apparent shellacking by Mitt Romney in Nevada was mistaken, to put it mildly: He said he expects to be at parity wi...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/05/does-mitt-need-newt/

Only the naive thought stories like this were going away: Political hacktivist group Anonymous claims to have found emails linking Texas Rep. Ron Paul to an American white supremacist group, a c...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/04/ron-paul-campaign-denies-white-supremacist-ties/

Newt Gingrich is easily branded as a loose cannon.  Indeed, I’ve done it, because it’s true.  However, frontrunner Mitt Romney is far from immune from self-destructive gaffes: Obsessive at...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/02/mitt-romney-loose-cannon/

Jim Geraghty (among others) , relying on Gallup, notes Pres. Obama’s job approval rating for 2011 is anemic in most swing states. Just as notable are Obama’s disapproval numbers in swing sta...

https://patterico.com/2012/02/01/states-of-disapproval/

Polls don’t close for a while — and afafik, full exit polls won’t be available until then.  But Drudge leaked an early exit poll topline, which may or may not be reliable, as anyone who s...

https://patterico.com/2012/01/31/florida-primary-thread/

Today is the Florida primary, which most expect to be won by Mitt Romney.  While we await those results this evening, it is worth reflecting on the other primary Romney essentially sews up toda...

https://patterico.com/2012/01/31/the-invisible-primary/

On the eve of the Florida primary, RCP’s Scott Conroy reports on increased support for Mitt Romney among the Sunshine State’s Hispanic community.  Conroy’s story is corroborated by the...

https://patterico.com/2012/01/30/florida-the-more-things-change/

Media outlets from Salon to the Wall Street Journal have hyped the uptick in optimism about the economy and Pres. Obama’s job approval number in the latest NBC/WSJ poll, emphasizing the danger...

https://patterico.com/2012/01/29/fundamentals-are-fundamental/

The kerfuffle over Newt Gingrich’s status as a Reagan Republican will be a footnote to the 2012 campaign at most. But that does not mean we cannot learn from it. On the surface, this is a sill...

https://patterico.com/2012/01/28/youre-no-ronald-reagan/

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED!? In the current wave of generally conservative punditry on Newt Gingrich’s candidacy, a common subtext (and occasional text) is criticism not of Newt, but of his sup...

https://patterico.com/2012/01/26/gladiator-republicans/