Contentions

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Does Obama Really Need a Super PAC?

Bethany Mandel | @bethanyshondark

02.08.2012 - 1:00 PM

Yesterday, there was news the Obama campaign would be starting a Super PAC before the 2012 election. Alana posted about it, stating: “After blasting Super PACs as the source of everything evil in politics for the past two years, the Obama campaign has suddenly done an about face and openly started working with one. But, as Jim Messina stressed on the campaign blog last night, it’s not because Obama wants to. No, it’s because he needs to, in order to win the election. And as we all know, winning is more important anything, especially principles and personal integrity.”

Today, on the Politico website, a poll asked visitors: “What do you think of President Obama’s decision to throw his support behind a Super PAC?” Of the respondents to this incredibly unscientific poll, 59 percent of people thought: “It’s necessary. He can’t win with one arm tied behind his back.”

2

Leave a comment

Don’t Trust “Pro-Contraceptive” Poll

Alana Goodman | @alanagoodman

02.08.2012 - 12:30 PM

A new poll by the Public Religion Research Institute, which found the majority of Catholics support the Obama administration’s mandate for employers to provide health care plans covering free contraceptives, has been getting a ton of media attention the past two days.

But don’t buy into it so fast. A peek into the poll’s methodology raises enough red flags to invite serious questions about its conclusion. The leadership board of the organization that conducted the poll also includes several of President Obama’s current and former religious advisers (Rabbi David Saperstein sits on his religious advisory board, and Lisa Sowle Cahill advised his campaign in 2008).

6

Leave a comment

Union Boss Tells Poor: “Life’s Not Fair”

Jonathan S. Tobin | @tobincommentary

02.08.2012 - 12:04 PM

The hypocrisy of opponents of school choice schemes has never been a big secret. But rarely has that quality been so brazenly exhibited as by Vincent Giordano, the head of the New Jersey Education Association, in a recent interview on New Jersey public television. When asked why he opposes giving poor parents the same opportunity to take their kids out of failing public schools and into successful private or religious institutions the wealthy have, the teachers union boss, who makes more than half a million in salary and other compensation, replied: “Life’s not always fair.”

Giordano, who has been a major antagonist of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, has been doing his best to obstruct education reform in the Garden State. And, like all teachers union officials, he is ready to fight to the death to prevent school choice plans that would allow parents to use the money the state allocates to educate their kids to purchase better education than is often provided in failing public schools. But perhaps it is unfair to single out Giordano as he is no more of a hypocrite on this matter than President Obama.

12

Leave a comment

Russia’s Diplomacy Embarrasses the World

Seth Mandel | @SethAMandel

02.08.2012 - 11:37 AM

Perhaps the only optimistic note we can take out of Russia’s “diplomatic initiative” in Syria is that everyone outside those two countries sees it for the cynical opportunism and obnoxious grandstanding that it is.

As I wrote yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit with Bashar al-Assad was not only dismissive of the ongoing slaughter of the Syrian people but a transparent attempt to buy time for Vladimir Putin. Today, the New York Times reports that when asked about the Russian farce, world leaders tried their best not to laugh in reporters’ faces:

In Paris, the French foreign minster, Alain Juppé, called the Syrian promises of talks “manipulation,” while in London, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said he had “very little confidence” in Russia’s initiative.

Adding to the turmoil, Turkey, a major regional player neighboring Syria, was said to be weighing its own initiative toward securing a broad consensus on ending the violence. A day after the Syria-Russia talks, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey was planning to discuss the crisis by phone with President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia, according to the Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu.

Read More

3

Leave a comment

Michigan Will Be Do or Die for Romney

Jonathan S. Tobin | @tobincommentary

02.08.2012 - 10:40 AM

In the wake of Rick Santorum’s big night yesterday, Mitt Romney might be inclined to tell himself that the Pennsylvanian can’t duplicate those victories elsewhere and that his advantage in money and organization will ultimately enable him to prevail in most states in a race that now looks to be long and hard but still in his pocket. But he should put all such consoling thoughts out of his head. Though Santorum is still weak where Romney is strong, all that could change later this month if he wins in another state where everyone is assuming Romney can’t lose.

Romney needs to approach the next two primaries in Michigan and Arizona as if his hopes for the presidency depend on them, because they do. If Santorum comes out of nowhere to steal either, but especially Michigan from Romney, then not only will there be no more talk of the former Massachusetts governor’s inevitability, but it would be the end of his frontrunner status. Losing his home state would prove that all of Romney’s advantages are worthless and that Santorum’s working class appeal is real. Romney must go to Michigan and fight hard there these next three weeks because if he loses it, he may lose the nomination.

7

Leave a comment

Where’s the Syria Flotilla?

Michael Rubin | @mrubin1971

02.08.2012 - 10:20 AM

In May 2010, a Turkish Islamist charity with close ties to Turkey’s ruling party sponsored a flotilla which it claimed was to relieve suffering in the Gaza Strip, never mind that the standard of living in Gaza surpasses that in Turkey, according to several different measures. Many self-described human rights activists and pacifist groups joined the “Save Gaza” chorus and donated their time and money to sponsoring flotillas which, in effect, would support and supply Hamas but contribute little to humanitarian causes. Here, for example, is a press release from the American Friends Service Committee, the Quakers’ non-governmental organization:

7

Leave a comment

Romney’s Excuse

Alana Goodman | @alanagoodman

02.08.2012 - 10:00 AM

Mike Allen reports on the message coming out of the Romney campaign after his three losses – and one third place showing in Minnesota, behind Ron Paul – last night:

“It’s about delegates. We could have made the decision to spend money, resources [in Colo. and Minn.], but we had to be pretty tough-minded about it — just to be focused on the delegates, and on Super Tuesday [March 6]. We could have run television, run radio, or spent more time. You can’t do everything. You gotta run your race. We’ll wake up tomorrow, focused on winning Arizona, Michigan, Ohio, Super Tuesday. Hats off to Santorum: It’s a really good night for Santorum. It’s a really BAD night for Newt.”

Read More

Leave a comment

It’s Time to Scrap the Fly America Act

Michael Rubin | @mrubin1971

02.08.2012 - 9:40 AM

It’s no secret the private sector creates wealth and government squanders it. There was, of course, the proposed Bridge to Nowhere, Nancy Pelosi’s decision to spend millions in taxpayer money to assist the harvest mouse, or any number of projects highlighted on a regular basis by Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Government waste is not just about pork, however, but regulation. Take the Fly America Act, a law which dates back to the Ford administration. In short, the Fly America Act requires anyone traveling on U.S. government business or on projects funded by the U.S. government to buy tickets on American carriers rather than non-U.S. flag carriers. This can add thousands of dollars per ticket and affects not only diplomats or federal government officials, but also state government bureaucrats, public university employees, and scientists and professors at private universities which receive government grants.

Leave a comment

Use Syria to Delegitimize Iran

Michael Rubin | @mrubin1971

02.08.2012 - 9:19 AM

Strategists teach that a coherent strategy should always have diplomatic, informational, military, and economic components. When grouped together, each component can amplify the effectiveness of the others. The reason why American strategy across administrations is often so incoherent and ineffective is that Americans either handle these components separately, or they sequence strategies rather than take a broader approach.

Take Iran: The Obama administration initially sought diplomacy, and only after the Iranians spurned Obama’s outreach did his administration—prodded by Congress—impose sanctions. Many politicians say military strategies are a last resort, even though military strategies encompass not only bombing, but also containment and deterrence. Informational strategies are the most ignored. The Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, coordinate no clear strategy. Voice of America’s Persian Service is as likely to castigate American policy as criticize the Iranian regime.

Leave a comment

Has Romney Snatched Defeat From the Jaws of Victory?

Jonathan S. Tobin | @tobincommentary

02.08.2012 - 6:19 AM

Rick Santorum’s stunning sweep of the Tuesday primary/caucus schedule has altered a race many of us thought had finally and irrevocably swung the way of Mitt Romney after his big wins in Florida and Nevada. Romney’s camp will try to spin his defeats in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado as just a momentary bump on the road to Tampa, and there are good reasons to believe he will still eventually win. But Santorum’s hat trick comes at a moment when even conservatives were starting to buy into the idea that the former Massachusetts governor was the inevitable nominee. Moreover, the reason why Romney lost undermines the basic rationale of his candidacy.

While Romney’s comment on CNN last week about not wanting to help the poor was taken out of context, it still betrayed the candidate’s inability to connect with ordinary voters. He not only doesn’t talk like a conservative. He comes across as out of touch with their concerns and those of everyday citizens. Romney’s technocratic approach to problem solving may seem to be ideal to help fix an economic downturn, but a man who makes such gaffes cannot be said to be a lock to beat a Democratic incumbent who will ruthlessly demagogue the Republicans via class warfare tactics. Because Romney’s number one asset is his electability, the remark about the poor, which came at a moment when the national economic statistics seemed to brighten, made him look like the wrong man at the wrong moment. Yesterday’s results must leave Republicans wondering whether Santorum has the ability to take advantage of his wins and if Romney’s strengths are sufficient to overcome this setback.

12

Leave a comment

Going Negative on Santorum Would Be a Mistake for Romney

Jonathan S. Tobin | @tobincommentary

02.07.2012 - 10:48 PM

The final results from Tuesday’s voting are not in yet, but it’s already clear it’s been a great night for Rick Santorum. The former Pennsylvania senator has won the “beauty contest” in Missouri as well as the Minnesota caucus. Even if that turns out to be balanced by a win for Mitt Romney in the Colorado caucus, the day will still be judged a big win for Santorum. This will give him a big leg up over Newt Gingrich in the competition to be the leading “non Romney” in the GOP race. But if this means the beginning of the end for Gingrich, it may also concentrate the frontrunner’s attention on his surging conservative rival. If so, that may lead to a new round of ads and statements from the Romney campaign blasting Santorum.

But the assumption that a Romney “carpet bombing” of Santorum would achieve the same result as the attacks on Gingrich that have helped derail the former speaker’s presidential hopes is mistaken. Going negative on Gingrich merely reinforced the public’s doubts of the speaker’s character and record. To try and do the same thing against a candidate who has come across as the nicest guy left in the race might boomerang on Romney.

3

Leave a comment

Is Gingrich Another Reagan?

Jonathan S. Tobin | @tobincommentary

02.07.2012 - 9:01 PM

Once again, Newt Gingrich vowed tonight on CNN to take the Republican presidential race to the convention in Tampa. To back up his vow, he compared this contest to the GOP race in 1976 when the Ronald Reagan insurgency against incumbent President Gerald Ford took the fight to that convention and came close to winning. But Gingrich’s comparison is ridiculous for a number of reasons.

First of all, that battle was a two-man race between Reagan and Ford. The current GOP race involves four candidates. But, of course, the conceit of Gingrich’s comparison is that of the candidates. He’s casting Mitt Romney in the role of Ford and himself as the new Gipper. Romney may deserve the Ford comparison, as he is a relative moderate and the choice of most of the party establishment to the extent that one actually exists. But the big difference is Gingrich is no Ronald Reagan.

Leave a comment

More Komen-Planned Parenthood Fallout

Bethany Mandel | @bethanyshondark

02.07.2012 - 8:08 PM

Last week the Susan G. Komen Foundation announced that it was ending funding to Planned Parenthood after the remainder of its current grants had been paid out. After an explosion of outrage from the left, Komen days later announced it would continue to fund Planned Parenthood in an effort to appease the powerful pro-abortion lobby. Many credited the initial decision to their new Senior Vice President for Policy Karen Handel, a pro-life Republican who had just been defeated in her bid for Governor of Georgia. With Handel’s resignation today, it has become clear that the cancer organization will continue to provide funding to the largest abortion provider in the United States.

With this controversy Planned Parenthood has sent a clear signal: Reevaluate our funding at your peril. It doesn’t matter why you put a stop to your support, we have millions of pro-abortion supporters in the public and media ready to unleash a campaign of vitriol against your organization if you cross us.

3

Leave a comment

Get Used to it Washington, Netanyahu’s Not Going Anywhere

Jonathan S. Tobin | @tobincommentary

02.07.2012 - 5:50 PM

Dislike of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been a constant theme of the Obama administration. While President Obama has cuddled up to an Islamist troublemaker and human rights violator like Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, he has made no secret of his abhorrence of Netanyahu. Obama has tried to humiliate Netanyahu and has abused him in public (via an open microphone while chatting with French President Sarkozy). Indeed, American policy toward Israel in 2009 seemed aimed at forcing the newly elected Netanyahu from office. Those maneuvers failed and the U.S. foreign policy establishment as well as its European counterparts settled down to wait for Netanyahu to be beaten at the next election.

It’ll be a long wait for Netanyahu’s critics as his government, which Obama thought was so unstable that it might be supplanted with a more pliant one led by Kadima’s Tzipi Livni, seems likely to last until the prime minister is ready to ask the Israeli electorate for another term. But whether he chooses to go for an early election sometime this year or wait out the full four years that would leave him in office until 2013, right now it appears as if he is certain to win the next election. That’s the verdict of Shmuel Rosner, who writes in the International Herald Tribune (read here on the New York Times website) that not only is Netanyahu favored to win the next Israeli election, party realignment there means he is pretty much the only person who has any chance to lead the government.

8

Leave a comment

Are the Chinese Helping Obama or Iran?

Jonathan S. Tobin | @tobincommentary

02.07.2012 - 5:14 PM

Yesterday’s executive order signed by President Obama enforcing a total ban on transactions with any entity doing business with Iran’s Central Bank is the lever by which an international oil embargo of the Islamic state can be put in place. In order to prepare for this eventuality, American diplomats have in recent weeks been urging Saudi Arabia to step up oil production in order to meet the shortfall that will exist once Iran’s exports are shut down. But as this report from Reuters shows, its not entirely clear whether the uptick in Saudi oil supply will be used by China to supplant Iran’s petroleum or if it is just looking for leverage in order to get a better deal in future contracts with Tehran.

According to Reuters, China has been taking seriously the possibility of a cutoff in Iranian oil and has been looking to pick up any supplies it can get elsewhere. That’s the good news. But the bad news is that oil traders in China believe that Unipec, an entity that represents the country’s top refiner in such deals, is buying up Saudi oil specifically in order to bolster its position in future deals with Iran. That means the American belief that it can orchestrate the financial isolation of the Iranians may be a trifle optimistic.

Leave a comment

More Turkish Free Speech Hypocrisy

Michael Rubin | @mrubin1971

02.07.2012 - 4:35 PM

The Swiss government has started an inquiry into a statement by Egemen Bağış, Turkey’s minister for European Union affairs, in which Bağış stated that the Armenians suffered no genocide. According to a report in the Turkish press, Bağış said, “There is no Armenian genocide. Let them arrest me.” Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ commented on the incident, “Can’t a minister of a country express his views speaking in another country? It’s ridiculous.”

While I’m not in favor of laws restricting the speech, no matter how wrong the speaker, Bağış and Bozdağ’s stand is rich considering that Bağış – with the apparent blessing of Namik Tan, the Turkish ambassador in Washington – tried to sue me into silence after I wrote a series of articles criticizing Turkish government policies. Turkish officials believe in free speech for themselves, but seek to censor when speech is used to challenge their ideas.

Leave a comment

Santorum’s Advantages

Seth Mandel | @SethAMandel

02.07.2012 - 4:02 PM

As Jonathan discussed earlier, today is a big day for the campaign of Rick Santorum. He is in position to possibly win two out of tonight’s three contests. He will also take with him some momentum from the support he has won from conservative media, most notably the recent endorsements from Michelle Malkin and Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey.

Those endorsements are important in part because they help Santorum build a certain narrative: that he can best unite the party. At this point in the process, being the “not-Romney” is less of a draw than it was before Mitt Romney began winning big in the Northeast, South, and West. Luckily for Santorum, Romney has turned his fire on the former Pennsylvania senator, which makes the argument that Santorum is the “not-Romney” without Santorum having to do so himself. Santorum simply doesn’t have the time or money left to build campaign momentum on the claim he belongs in second place. He does have two advantages, however.

Leave a comment

The Left Plans to (Violently) Occupy CPAC

Bethany Mandel | @bethanyshondark

02.07.2012 - 3:37 PM

Only days after the U.S. Park Police cleared the Occupy DC camp, the Heritage Foundation’s Lachlan Markay reports a new plan from the group: violent occupation of the CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference). According to Markay:

The protesters suggested pulling fire alarms in the hotel where the conference will take place, screaming “fire” during conference activities, “glitter-bombing” participants, cutting electrical power, and barricading entrances to the hotel, according to the source, who requested anonymity.

“Speakers will be physically assaulted, not just verbally confronted,” the source told Scribe in an email. Two occupiers, who the source also identified as members of the New Black Panther Party, “said they would be disappointed if they didn’t get arrested and planned to ‘make it count.’”

Read More

3

Leave a comment

Watch Sources on Afghanistan More Closely

Max Boot | @MaxBoot

02.07.2012 - 3:05 PM

Here is a follow-up to my earlier item on Lt. Col. Daniel L. Davis, the army reservist who spent some time last year traveling around Afghanistan helping to assess army equipment and has returned to write an article claiming senior commanders are lying when they say we are making progress.

This is hardly the first op-ed Davis has written. The others are collected on his own website, which suggests he is an aspiring blogger.

2

Leave a comment

Obama Campaign Under Fire for Selling Designer Goods

Alana Goodman | @alanagoodman

02.07.2012 - 2:39 PM

The Obama campaign has yet another fundraising scandal to deal with today. This time it’s under fire for selling hideously ugly designer merchandise (seriously, that Beyonce t-shirt looks like something you’d make at day camp) at low, low prices on its website. According to the Wall Street Journal, Obama may be in violation of campaign finance laws for selling these clothes and handbags created for him gratis by celebrities and designers:

Jan Baran, an election lawyer with Wiley Rein LLP, said designers can’t ask employees to work on political projects unless they willingly volunteered their time. “Someone who is paid to do campaign work is not a volunteer,” he said. If the designer or staff are paid by anyone other than the campaign, it would be considered a campaign contribution from a company to a candidate.

The Obama campaign said the gear complies with campaign-finance rules.

“All of the designers volunteered their personal time to create these great designs,” the campaign said, and were “not underwritten with any corporate funds.”

Read More

Leave a comment

« Newer Posts — Older Posts »

Are you a subscriber?

Register | Log In