Tea Partiers
When Mitt Romney accepted the GOP nomination for president on Thursday night, Republicans greeted him with a standing ovation. But it's safe to say that there were dozens of politicians in the convention hall who were thinking: That could be me—in four years. READ MORE >>
Dimon In The Rough
So let me get this straight. JP Morgan loses more $2 billion, reportedly thanks to the recklessness of a trader nicknamed “the London Whale” and “Lord Voldemort,” and all Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has to say is “it was bad strategy, executed poorly”? Well, no, that isn’t precisely correct. READ MORE >>
The Perverse Impressiveness of Romney's Victory
Why the Entrance Poll Misleads
If you do some quick math based on the Iowa entrance poll, you see Ron Paul and Mitt Romney bunched in the low 20s and Santorum slightly behind them at 19 or 20. But there are reasons to think the entrance poll understates Santorum's support. That's because a caucus is a much more public act and than the typical balloting exercise. People vote in front of their friends and neighbors, not in the privacy of a voting booth. That arrangement would seem to favor a candidate with momentum, like Santorum. READ MORE >>
Organization Man
Why Newt is Romney’s Dream Opponent
The Newtonians
Every politician needs a base. Mitt Romney has the business establishment. Ron Paul has libertarians. Rick Santorum has social conservatives. Michele Bachmann had Tea Partiers for a while, before Herman Cain won them over. READ MORE >>
New Hampshire Dispatch: Mitt Romney Panders to Tea Party, Fails
Concord, New Hampshire—With the choreographed precision of a giant amoeba, the crowd of blue-shirted Mitt Romney supporters stopped listening to the speaker on the stage and squeezed its way toward the Tea Party Express bus. A moment later, as the former Massachusetts governor parted the blue sea of about 40 cheering fans—many bused in from Massachusetts—to deliver his speech at the much-ballyhooed Tea Party event on Sunday, the blue shirts erupted into rapturous applause. READ MORE >>
The Utter Meaninglessness of the Debt Ceiling Deal
Twenty-six years ago—as part of the price for raising the federal debt ceiling to a shocking $2 trillion—Congress, in a wave of fiscal self-flagellation, approved the Gramm-Rudman bill. If a spendthrift Congress failed to meet prescribed deficit targets, then Gramm-Rudman would slice the budget with the across-the-board subtlety of Sweeney Todd. READ MORE >>
