The Plank
Harry Reid vs. The Round Mound?
The Hill has a piece about the upcoming Senate race in Nevada. It seems Danny Tarkanian, son of coaching legend Jerry, is looking to unseat the Senate majority leader with the help of some of daddy's old players and other NBA notables the family has become chummy with over the years. READ MORE >>
Speaker Says: Forget Wilson
Kudos to Nancy Pelosi for swatting down the push by some in her caucus to sanction horse's ass Joe Wilson for his huffy little outburst during last night's joint address. I understand the Dems' are peeved. More than that, Congress is an incredibly self-important club that makes much ado about affronts to its traditions and rules of decorum. READ MORE >>
Look on My Works, Ye Washingtonians, and Despair
The countdown has begun: In just six days, residents will awaken to find themselves in a changed city. One invaded by Founding Fathers scandal, by fictitious Harvard symbologists, by very short chapters ending in cliffhangers and exclamation points! One to which the tourists will flock, brandishing conspiracy theories. We want the real story, they'll say to helpless docents at the Smithsonian, perhaps, or the Scottish Rite Masonic temple. This is the real story, docents will reply. No, the reeeeal story. Wink wink. READ MORE >>
Little Shul on the Prairie?
Riffing on Norman Podhoretz's new book Why Are Jews Liberal?, Robert Stacy McCain offers these thoughts on what he calls the "town-and-country divide" in American politics: Think of Reagan, riding horses and clearning brush at his ranch -- it is an image that appeals to the "country" side of the town-and-country divide, embodying as it does the antique ideal of the American frontier homesteader. READ MORE >>
The Cocky Right
One striking thing to me is the extreme confidence conservatives have that health care reform will fail. The Weekly Standard has been at the forefront of this triumphalism. Fred Barnes, writing in the Weekly Standard, flatly declares reform won't even make it out of the House: READ MORE >>
The Centrists’ Take on the Speech: Pretty Darn Good
Today at TNR (September 10, 2009)
Exceeding Expectations
By The Numbers
In a 47-minute, 5482-word speech, President Obama hit some words hard--and avoided others entirely. Below is a tally for selected keywords from his remarks as prepared. (Rep. Charles Boustany's response, coming in at about one-tenth that length, is available here.) Insurance company: 23 Government: 21 Reform: 20 READ MORE >>
Good Speech; Who Cares?
The health care debate has revolved around the sacrosanct principle that nobody who has health insurance should have to worry about any change in the slightest. President Obama paid lip service to that idea again tonight. But, when he wasn't doing that, he was trying to make people understand that the health care system actually isn't that great. Indeed, it's awful, as almost any empirical examination of costs and outcomes will show. READ MORE >>
