Today's Economist has an interesting article, "Ship of fools," about why Republicans lost the election. The author is a little harsh and doesn't mince words - as you can probably tell from the title - but his basic point is sadly accurate.
"There are any number of reasons for the Republican Party’s defeat on November 4th. But high on the list is the fact that the party lost the battle for brains... Republicanism’s anti-intellectual turn is devastating for its future. The party’s electoral success from 1980 onwards was driven by its ability to link brains with brawn. The conservative intelligentsia not only helped to craft a message that resonated with working-class Democrats, a message that emphasized entrepreneurialism, law and order, and American pride. It also provided the party with a sweeping policy agenda. The party’s loss of brains leaves it rudderless, without a compelling agenda."
You can read the entire article here.
Election 2008
What does this revitalized Republican party we've been talking about look like? Glad you asked.
The Party must become relevant to a majority of Americans once again. This means actually making an effort to reach young voters and addressing the problems facing the middle class. Our answers don't resonate with people anymore because they're solutions for old problems. Conservatives fixed the problems they set out to conquer at the outset of the Reagan Revolution, and the results of that can be seen in our country's overall prosperity in the last 28 years.
And yet, there is still more work to be done. We must apply conservative principles to a new set of problems, such as health care, energy, the environment, social security, and international development.
"It is not a mandate for a party or ideology, but a mandate for change."
-Harry Reid, senate majority leader
Obama will have to remember this: he won because he represents change, not because the majority of Americans agree with his policies. This is going to make it very difficult for Obama once he actually has to start making policy.
Come on, admit it: Obama's acceptance speech was pretty awesome. Whether or not you voted for him, it was an amazing moment in American history. We have a lot to be proud of as a nation.
The reason we found it inspiring—historical significance aside—was that Obama's speech was laced with beautiful, patriotic rhetoric espousing conservative principles:
With the election upon us, we conclude our series on Obama's 'Chump Change'. Today, it's his change with foreign policy we have our doubts about.
Obama Change: Pull out all troops from Iraq in 16 months and meet with rogue dictators without preconditions.
Chump Change: Leave Iraq and the entire Middle East in a state of chaos by pulling out troops too quickly and make a huge diplomatic mistake by meeting with rogue leaders without preconditions.
If history has taught us anything, it’s that countries in turmoil are great at rebuilding themselves. For example, Germany after World War I.
After almost two years of hearing about 'Change' from Senator Obama, many are still wondering what exactly this 'Change' will be.
In case you've missed the past couple days, we've been having a little fun by intepreting what we think is actually 'Chump Change'. Today, it's his change, or lack thereof, with Social Security that we call into question.
Obama Change: Keep Social Security as it is and don’t allow it to be privatized.
Chump Change: Maintain a failed program when privatizing it would give twentysomethings more options with saving for retirement.
When Obama ironically fails to change our bankrupt system, he is forced to swap retirees’ monthly checks with coupons good for one Hot-n-Ready from Little Ceasar’s.
Here's a little Halloween treat for you: more Chump Change.
Obama Change: Invest in research for renewable energy and not drill for oil on U.S. land
Chump Change: Increase gas prices during the decades it will take our country to get off oil and not allow for a comprehensive energy plan
That cross-country trip you’ve been planning should be affordable by 2036—that is, if your car is powered by the audacity of hope.
"Change, it turns out, wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. Barack Obama is discovering that there is quite a bit he likes about the way things are." - Gerald Baker, Times Online
Although Obama is appealing and has a good message of unity and hope, the change he wants to bring has no significant value – it’s Chump Change. It's actually regressive, not progressive.
That's why over the next five days leading up to the election, we'll be sharing with you some of Obama's 'Chump Change'. Today, it's health care.
"I’m not optimistic about bringing about major redistributive change through the courts. You know, the institution just isn’t structured that way." - Barack Obama
If you think we've been a little hard on Barack Obama lately, you're probably right. It's because his economic worldview continues to be drawn into question with little more than a week until the election. By now, we're all familiar with Barack's conversation with "Joe the Plumber", where the democratic candidate advocated "spreading the wealth around".
Barack Obama says he's for the middle class. What's one of the best ways to help them? Create more jobs.
According to this NY Times article, though, Obama's healthcare plan would do just the opposite. As part of his healthcare plan, Obama would raise taxes on businesses with uninsured employees in order to pay for his government-funded health insurance. While this might sound great in theory, the effects of such "play-or-pay" policies haven't had a great track record at the state level over the past two decades.
Fines on businesses would cause them to either hire less people or keep employee wages low, which doesn't benefit anyone. Obama's campaign said they "decided not to decide on" the amount of the fine, but studies estimate it would cost 6 percent of a company's payroll. What does that mean? According to researchers at Harvard and the University of Michigan, 224,000 workers would be laid off as a result.
Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister before World War II, was the Bill Buckner of 20th century politics. Buckner cost the Red Sox the ‘86 World Series by letting a routine groundball roll between his legs. Chamberlain’s error was just as avoidable but far more costly. In 1938, Chamberlain broke his promise to protect Czechoslovakia and gave away part of that country to Adolf Hitler to appease the dictator and secure peace. Encouraged by Chamberlain’s weakness, Hitler broke the agreement and took the rest of Czechoslovakia.
At a glance Chamberlain and Barack Obama couldn’t be more different. Chamberlain was nearing seventy when he served as Prime Minister, the son of a prime minister, and in many respects epitomized the British aristocracy. Who could be so foolish as to compare the inspiring, rags-to-riches political saga of Barack Obama with Chamberlain, one of history’s greatest failures?
We have talked quite a bit about taxes lately as it's taken a more prominent role in the presidential election. In order to paint a picture of how our current tax breaks are not just for the wealthy, here is a simple illustration by an economics professor from Georgia.
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20.' Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
In 1970, we imported 24% of our oil.
Today it's nearly 70% and growing.
T. Boone Pickens' advertisements have been all over television the past several months. If his name alone doesn't scream 'oil baron', his slow, Texas accent certainly does.
The Pickens Plan is clear: we must reduce our dependence on foreign oil. He's positioning the issue as a matter of national security ... and it is.
Why are you going to vote this year?
If for no other reason, you should do it based off inspiration from this poster alone.
AIGA, the professional association for design, puts out a series of posters encouraging us to vote each election cycle. You can check out there entire collection here.
Obama's 'new kind of politics' is starting to resemble its predecessor: 'the old kind'. The airwaves have been bombarded recently with attack ads that mischaracterize McCain's health care plan.
To be fair, it's not like Senator McCain is winning any Congeniality awards in this campaign (as we well know: Maverick, etc.), but it's important to separate fact from fiction on this critical issue.
This article from the National Reveiw recently brought these false accusations to light, but here's a quick summary...
In elections, you always hear a lot about recent polls and how far someone is ahead. But how trustworthy are they? Well, if you've ever doubted their accuracy, here might be a solution: fivethirtyeight.com.
It's a website that looks at all the election polls around the country, places different weights on them based on historical accuracy, sample size, and how recent they are, and then produces the results. It's actually a little more complicated than that, but that's the gist of it.
The accuracy of their results in the primaries were unprecedented. You will definitely want to use this site throughout the election season.
Senator Obama has talked a lot about how he will lower taxes for 95% of Americans. And after we've heard him say it, we've heard him repeat it, slowly emphasizing "95%".
It's true that Obama is proposing a small tax break of $500 to $1,000 for many Americans (although not 95% as he claims since 45% of Americans don't have pay taxes). What's not small, though, is the harm that will be done to our economy if he raises two types of taxes: capital gains and dividend.
When you think of our failing economy, what comes to mind? Most likely (if you ever watch the news), you think about our slumping housing market and the stock market. That's why Obama's tax increases are simply not smart.
Apparently so. This article shows the influence American politicians are having on the runways of Paris. Palin's now famous "hockey mom" hair-do was all the rage at Paris' Fashion Week.
Palin wasn't getting all of the attention, though. Obama is also a source of inspirtation...for a line of dresses.
Gov. Palin stopped the bleeding last night. She's bounced back from punch line status to legitimate Vice Presidential candidate. It looks like Tina Fey is back to her day job (aka 30 Rock).
Palin's interview with Katie Couric was a dark day for the GOP ticket—she stumbled over several questions which replayed repeatedly for the viewing public. If you watch CNN with any regularity, you've probably seen the clip a dozen times.
Certainly the media has been too critical of Palin, but that's not the most unfair part. It's hard to understand why our media literally makes fun of a Vice Presidential candidate for not having vast foreign policy experience. Since when was that a prerequisite?
Whether this is the first election you can vote in, or it's the first time you care enough to vote, the deadline for registering is almost here. It varies by state, but this list will tell you about yours. If you still need to register, visit Rock the Vote.
Also, don't forget to vote absentee if you won't be around on good ol' November 4. The process can sometimes take several weeks, so it's good to start early.
The presidential campaign has been awfully dramatic lately. Will there be a debate? Why did McCain go to Washington? Who's wearing lipstick?
While all of this drama might be entertaining, the most important piece of legislation this decade has seen is still being debated in Washington. In case you haven't seen the news lately, our financial institutions are in a bit of a pickle, and Bush has proposed spending $700 billion to buy up bad loans that banks have made, allowing them to lend freely again.
In the first two parts to this series, we gave Mayor Bloomberg's thoughts of the current financial woes and how we got here in the first place. In short, he said our government pressured banks to make bad loans, the banks were too aggressive in making these loans, and greedy Americans gladly bought more than they could afford. He also said the government shouldn't create more regulations but simply create a better (more simplified) system for oversight. Washington should also remember what fiscal conservatism means and work to get our country out of debt.
Recent polls show McCain is now leading in the Electoral College - barely. McCain is likely up 227-216, but neither candidate is close to securing the 270 needed to win.
This is handy line chart from Rove & Co. shows the recent shift.
New York's Fashion Week wrapped up last week, but don't worry fashion fans... an all-new episode of the beloved Project Runway airs tonight.
Fashion has been newsworthy for decades, but Bryant Park is now mentioned more than ever thanks to Bravo, Heidi Klum, and Tim Gunn (aka the “Silver Fox”).
Few industries capture the attention of Americans quite like the world of fashion. While we could never imagine wearing 97% of the clothes paraded down the runway, we’re still captivated.
As we all know, though, the fashion industry can have its dark side – from malnourished models on runways to sweat shops in developing countries. These sweat shops, controversy aside, illustrate what truly makes the fashion industry work: trade.
As we mentioned previously, education is a unique issue because both sides strongly agree on the desired outcome and have committed large amounts of money to it. It's also an area where more Americans are generally okay with larger-than-normal government programs, mainly because equal opportunity is a value deeply embedded within us.
Differences are clear in this election, however, and they mainly fall along party lines. Obama wants to increase funding for several programs while starting several new programs. He proposes this as his "historic commitment" to improve the current public system, which would make the federal government's role in education much larger than it currently is (a liberal value). McCain wants to keep funding at its current level while proposing ways to make our current system better. He also wants to increase a parent's ability to choose where their child goes to school (a conservative value).
Religious belief is a funny thing. We're not supposed to talk about it at parties. If it's Madonna, People Magazine lauds her spiritual search and says, "Rock that red bracelet." When it's a political candidate, the tune sort of changes.
Recently, Governor Sarah Palin's religious beliefs have become the focus of significant media scrutiny. Gov. Palin grew up attending Wasilla Assembly of God. The Assemblies of God is a fundamental, Pentecostal movement that believes the Holy Spirit is active and available for all followers of Christ. Many elected officials at various levels of government have been and are adherents in Assemblies of God churches across the country. The Palin "controversy", however, is not with the Assemblies of God. It is with the beliefs of Wasilla Assembly's senior pastor, Ed Kalnins.
Last time, we summarized Obama’s education plan. Today, we will take a look at McCain’s. For his complete plan, you can visit his website.
McCain’s plan isn’t as long or detailed as Obama’s. That’s likely due to his general philosophy about education: it should mainly stay in the hands of the states. The McCain approach is about allowing the states to determine what is working and to provide support for those programs. In this view, the states drive change and the federal government's role is to draw attention to working models, encouraging other states to try them.
In the world of video games, there are two types of players: those who play by the rules, and those who use cheat codes. To be honest, cheat codes are fun. They make the game a lot easier; you skip all of the hard work and get straight to the payday. You can get unlimited health, limitless resources, or whatever else the game will allow. At some point, the game ends. You’ve got to return to reality, get a job, and pay the bills.
Apparently Barack Obama didn’t get that memo. One might assume he thinks winning the presidency is like a giant game of SimCity™—one where he holds the cheat codes. As a side note, EA recently announced that SimCity™ will soon be available on the iPhone/iPod Touch platform (but I digress).
While watching Governor Palin deliver her address at the Republican Convention I found myself bubbling over with excitement, and judging from the calls and instant messages I received, I wasn’t the only one. The reason I and many others were thrilled and relieved by Governor Palin’s speech was that we could sit back and say, “She’s one of us,” and by that I don’t mean a conservative, I mean an ordinary, down to earth American.
The more I think about it, the more I realize that being able to relate to ordinary Americans is a trait shared among other successful conservatives, including George W. Bush and most notably Ronald Reagan. Maybe it’s because they all had the same speech coach, but I’ve got a good feeling it’s something deeper.
More than 37 million Americans watched Gov. Sarah Palin's historic speech this week. That's pretty impressive considering that Senator Obama, the greatest political orator of our time, only garnered a million more viewers for his convention speech (Greek columns and all).
To put that in perspective, the TV audiences for these speeches were bigger than those for this year's Academy Awards, the finale of American Idol, or the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
Before McCain announced his VP choice, most Americans had never heard of Sarah Palin. While it was fun watching different reporters mispronounce her name the first day, Palin has quickly become a fixture on the national scene.
And honestly, we couldn't be happier.
Obama delivered a masterful speech last night, and it was certainly a historic moment. Unfortunately, it was a misleading speech at extreme odds with his record.
It's understandable that Obama is trying to move to the middle as the general election approaches, but many parts of his speech were based on strong conservative principles. In fact, part of his speech gave a better representation of the benefits of conservatism than we've seen a Republican give in a long time.
Here are some of the highlights of the speech that have conservative principles at the core:
A new survey by Reuters shows that McCain has a 5 point lead over Obama. It also shows that Obama's lead with young voters has slipped by 12 percentage points to 52 percent. McCain is currently getting 40 percent of voters ages 18-29.
CNN has launched The League of First Time Voters, which connects those who are voting in a election for the first time. It also helps to compare views and give resources.
The website shows that most first time voters (who have visited this CNN site, at least), tend to lean left on most issues.
Obama might not have these young voters in his pocket, though. In this video, young journalists talk about how young voters view this election.
There's also a music video by Daughtry. What more could you want?
Google will be showing up at both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. In addition to free smoothies and massages, they'll be there promoting a couple new tools they've developed.
Power Reader in Politics lets politicians and political pundits share articles they are reading with you.
Google Elections Video Search automatically transcribes candidates speeches to text and indexes them. The gadget not only allows you to search the titles and descriptions of the videos, but also their spoken content.
Oh, and did we mention they are providing an entire room for RockBand?
Here is a story of young conservatives getting out there and making a difference - one congressional district at a time.
Four College Republicans have hit the road this summer to help out congressional candidates and spread the McCain love.
Here is a video that explains a little more about it, and you can also visit their website to find out more.
A recent post on the liberal blog Open Left shows that Obama has almost lost his lead. Polling shows Obama still has the lead, but McCain is closing the gap.
One of the most-watched state primaries in our country is in Missouri tomorrow. Many will be watching to see what happens in the gubernatorial race, as Republicans Sarah Steelman and Kenny Hulshof wrap up a heated primary battle.
The Relevant Elephant has previously endorsed Hulshof, saying that he is the “candidate who has truly proven his relevance to young voters in Missouri” and that “when it gets right down to offering real solutions and achieving real results, Kenny stands out.”