Joe Sestak is getting into the U.S. Senate race: “It would take an act of God for me to not get in now.” Unlike Evan Thomas, he doesn’t mean Obama.
Is Terry McAuliffe heading for a drubbing in the Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary tomorrow? Looks like it.
Obama has been telling us that covering millions of more previously uninsured Americans actually will wind up “saving” money because we’ll use the magic of technology and fiddle with reimbursement formulas. The Wall Street Journal editors wonder: “What if this particular theory turns out to be a political illusion? What if the speculative cost savings never report for duty, while the federal balance sheet is still swamped with new social obligations that will be impossible to repeal? The only possible outcome will be the nationalization of U.S. health markets, which will mean that almost all care will be rationed by politics.” Sort of the way it’s worked out in every other industrialized country with nationalized health care, huh?
Gordon Brown and Labour are in trouble. A sagging economy and an ethics scandal and poof — the era of “permanent” Labour government may come to an end. Funny how easily the aura of invincibility can disappear.
Meanwhile: “Conservatives raced toward victory in some of Europe’s largest economies Sunday as initial results and exit polls showed voters punishing left-leaning parties in European parliament elections in France, Germany and elsewhere. Some right-leaning parties said the results vindicated their reluctance to spend more on company bailouts and fiscal stimulus amid the global economic crisis.” Maybe we should be more like Europe.
Josh Patashink can’t figure out why affirmative action can’t be left up to the states. Well, there is this document — it’s old, I know — called the Constitution. It has a 14th Amendment. It has an Equal Protection clause. It guarantees Frank Ricci and every American citizen “the equal protection of the laws.” It’s the same thing that keeps Georgia — or any state — from discriminating against African Americans. Connecticut can no more “experiment” with discriminating against Ricci than any state can “experiment” with discriminating against those labeled as a member of a disadvantaged minority. Looks like the Sotomayor nomination will provide some much needed constitutional education for the public and media.
Card check impacts the Virginia gubernatorial campaign. The Democrats are ducking; the Republican is making an issue of his opposition. So you can figure out pretty much where the electorate is.
Obama’s attempt to ignore and distort history on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict doesn’t go unnoticed by Charles Krauthammer. Conservatives, if nothing else, should on this and other matters of national security call out Obama when he misrepresents history. To paraphrase Pat Moynihan, everyone is entitled to their own policy, but not their own history.
Reps. John Boehner and Eric Cantor sent the president a letter with 20 pages worth of suggested cuts totally $375B in savings. The media and the president are mum.
Ron Kampeas seems confused that Republicans — “trashers of Kyoto and the ABM treaty” he calls them — could be concerned about the U.S. written commitments with regard to settlements. Hmm. The vote on Kyoto headed off by a 95-0 vote on the Byrd-Hagel Amendment. That would be Democratic Senator Harry Byrd. Democratic President Bill Clinton never formally submitted the Kyoto Treaty to the Senate because there was clearly no support for it. George W. Bush withdrew from the ABM Treaty (under the terms of Article XV of the Treaty) and never denied it existed. As for the Obama administration, Kampeas gets one thing right: Hillary Clinton is tap dancing because the facts are not on her side. But she could clear it up — release all the documents in question. It would be the transparent thing to do.
