Archive for 2012
September 3, 2012
IF YOU’RE A SARAH HOYT FAN, you can get the advance uncorrected version of her new Darkship Renegades now. I’ve read it and it’s great; just the thing if you’re facing a dull Labor Day. (It’s an e-book so you can have it instantly). Or even an exciting one! Of course, I say that as a practicing USAian.
WHAT DO YOU THINK? A reader emails: “Any media going to ask about the Dem no shows at Charlotte?- Distancing themselves from O.”
DEM PLATFORM CALLS FOR GUN CONTROL, BUT SOME DEMS WANT TO GO FARTHER:
The draft language of the Democrats’ 2012 platform – set for a final vote this week in Charlotte – argues that current safeguards protecting the public against gun violence are insufficient and urges “an honest and open conversation about firearms.”
The document also calls for “reasonable regulation” governing guns, including laws banning assault weapons and requiring all gun sellers – not just licensed dealers – to perform background checks on potential buyers.
But – while the Republicans’ 2012 platform addresses such hot-button topics as concealed carry, stand-your-ground laws, high-capacity clips and the reporting of bulk long-arm sales – the Democrats’ policy statement makes no mention of those thorny issues.
Gun control is a loser issue almost everywhere nowadays, and the Dems are (mostly) smart enough to know that.
PAUL RAHE: Another Straw In the Wind:
A few days ago, I drew attention to a Gallup poll indicating that, for the first time in the last twenty years, Americans thought better of the Republican Party than of the Democrats. Later that same day, I pointed to a Pew Foundation poll reaffirming the drift towards the Republicans. Today, I came across further evidence pointing even more emphatically at the same conclusion.
For ten years now, Rasmussen has been studying partisan trends. Its latest survey indicates that, for the first time in that period, more Americans self-identify as Republicans than as Democrats. To be precise, 37.6% now think of themselves as Republicans — more than in September, 2004 — and only 33.3% self-identify as Democrats. What makes this especially interesting is that two years ago — on the eve of the Republican blowout in the 2010 midterm elections — 35% self-identified as Democrats and only 33.8% self-identified as Republicans.
It is a grave error to suppose that everyone in this country has made up his mind. Things are in motion. The Republicans have an argument and a plan, and the Democrats — thanks to the wisdom of Barack Obama — have nothing to offer.
InTrade still has Obama ahead, but I’m not sure why information like this doesn’t have a bigger impact. Anyway, don’t get cocky . . .
MARYLAND GOV. MARTIN O’MALLEY: No, We’re Not Better Off Than We Were Four Years Ago.
NATIONAL EMPTY CHAIR DAY: Photos From Around The Country.
IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE Y-12 SECURITY DEBACLE, WINNERS, LOSERS, AND LOTS OF BLAME. “In a worst-case scenario, terrorists could have gained access to vaults where stocks of highly enriched uranium are stored and used the fissionable material to create and detonate on the spot an improvised nuclear device with a Hiroshima-like yield, Stockton said.”
JENNIFER RUBIN: Decay, decline and dishonesty in higher education. “The higher-education system, institutions dominated overwhelmingly by the left, have made opaqueness into a fine art. These entities are in a state of financial, academic and ethical decline. Perhaps it’s time to start cleaning house and cut off the flow of financial support from American taxpayers until these entities can get their act together.”
THAT’S BECAUSE, IN GENERAL, THE ANSWER IS “ARE YOU FREAKIN’ KIDDING ME?” Obama campaign struggles with question “are voters better off now than they were 4 years ago?”