op ed review 4/10
THIS WEEK’S NEWS
Obama Claims Power to Make Illegal Immigrants Eligible for
Social Security, Disability
Americans spend more on taxes than food, clothing, housing
combined
Government Will Owe More Money Than Entire Economy Produces
The three Democrats on the Federal Election Commission, in
their latest and boldest move to regulate conservative media, voted in unison
to punish a movie maker critical of President Obama after he distributed for
free his latest work, Dreams of My Real Father: A Story of Reds and
Deception.
Obama Admin Advising Global Banks on Ways to Give Iran Money
Democrats Underestimate Cruz at Their Own Risk
Panama Papers Reveal Klinton’s Kremlin Konnection
Christmas came early last year for green companies looking
for Washington handouts after Congress passed legislation extending massive
subsides for wind, solar and other renewable energy companies. Now the Senate
is attempting to ensure Christmas comes again for these same companies, by
expanding the qualifying sources for green goodies.
Restoring a tiny Christian cross to the Los Angeles County seal
is unconstitutional because it places the county’s “power, prestige and purse”
behind one religion, a federal judge ruled
If a republican did this there would be hell to pay. When Hillary Clinton spoke at a fundraiser in
Denver Thursday, she apparently went to the unusual step of employing a static
noise machine to prevent journalists outside from being able to hear her.
An auditor for the Government Accountability Office told
lawmakers Wednesday that in the next few years the federal government will owe
more than our entire economy produces.
The UN starts plans to control the world's oceans
_________________________________________________________________
COLUMN OF THE
WEEK
Philip Klein 4/9
How Ted Cruz Could Capture the Presidency
The operating assumption for political observers going into
the 2016 election has been that Sen. Ted Cruz doesn't stand a chance to win a
general election. But now that the odds have increased of him actually being
the Republican nominee, it's worth revisiting that assumption.
There are no doubt a number of good arguments as to why Cruz
would be too polarizing to win a general election, particularly given how the
nation's demographic trends favor Democrats. There's a reason why the
smart money would be betting against him. But let's entertain an alternate
possibility. To start, of all the Republicans, Cruz is currently in the best
position to unite his own party. A good way to think of the party right now is
that there are three basic factions.
One is comprised of anti-establishment ideological
conservatives who back Cruz, another is made up of anti-establishment populists
who support Trump and the other is filled with establishment Republicans who
are hoping they can somehow nominate Ohio Gov. John Kasich or some other
candidate who seems safer in a general election.
The problem is that if the party nominates somebody other
than Donald Trump or Cruz, it would trigger a furious backlash from both
anti-establishment factions, who make up an overwhelming majority of those who
have actually cast votes in GOP primaries and caucuses. If Trump is the
nominee, he alienates a good chunk of ideological conservatives and
establishment Republicans.
Cruz, on the other hand, will have an argument to make to
both groups of anti-establishment voters, and the remaining group that despises
him the most — establishment Republicans — are the most pragmatic, least
ideological and most likely to fall in line behind the eventual nominee.
Moving on to the general election, there is the matter of
Hillary Clinton. Trump's staggeringly bad polling and the general circus on the
GOP side has in some ways helped to overshadow Clinton's incredible weaknesses
as a candidate.
There has been a lot of talk about how Trump would go into
the general election as the least popular nominee in decades of polling. But
that amazing stat helped obscure the fact that other than Trump, Clinton would
be the most unpopular dating back to 1984, in New York Times/CBS polling. Clinton
remains mired in scandal and is still struggling to fend off a challenge from a
septuagenarian socialist who she initially led by over 50 points nationally. As
unpopular as Cruz may be with most registered voters, polling shows him within
the margin of errornationally — and some polls taken in the last
month have shown Cruz tied with Clinton in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin and
Florida.
The bottom line is that in a Cruz versus Clinton race, both
candidates would enter the race hugely unpopular. No matter what, a sizeable
chunk of the electorate would be put in the position of either voting for a
candidate who they actively despise, or staying home.
Cruz's narrative for how he could win a general election has
always gone something like this: Republicans lose general elections because
they nominate squishes, so the way to win is to nominate a truly principled
conservative who will drive up turnout among the base. There are good reasons
to be skeptical of this theory. However, if there were ever an environment in
which such a strategy could work, it would be something like the one in which
we now find ourselves — in which both parties' nominees are so disliked by so
many people that it drives down turnout among disillusioned swing voters,
making it more crucial to turn out the base.
And if Cruz does become the GOP nominee, he will have done
so because he proved himself a brilliant tactician with a stellar ground game. Furthermore,
the assumption is that Cruz cannot improve his image among the broader electorate,
but that's hard to know for sure, because he's never had to do it. While
opinions on Clinton are deeply entrenched after her decades in the public
spotlight, Cruz isn't as universally known and has more of an opening to get a
second look.
At the end of the day, Cruz is intelligent, a disciplined
campaigner and a skilled debater. He has a chance to reach out to more voters
through his vice-presidential pick. He can exploit Clinton's many weaknesses. Cruz
would enter the general election campaign with a reputation as an extremist,
which the Clinton campaign would do everything to play up. But the risk of such
a strategy comes if Cruz is able to defy such a caricature during the election
among voters getting to know him for the first time. To quote Shakespeare's
Prince Hal: "By so much shall I falsify men's hopes/And like bright metal
on a sullen ground/My reformation, glittering o'er my fault/Shall show more
goodly and attract more eyes/Than that which hath no foil to set it off."
____________________________________________________________________
FROM OTHER COLUMNS
“Mr. Trump doesn’t even seem to be trying to do the one big
thing he has to do now. He is the front-runner for the nomination. At this
point it is his job to keep the support he has and persuade those who don’t
like him to give him a second or third look. To do that he only has to be more
thoughtful, stable and mature in his approach — show he may be irrepressible
and fun and surprising, even shocking, but at bottom he has within him a
plausible president. Instead, he is stuck at nutty. Rather than attempt to win
over, he doubles down. In the process he shows that what occupies his mind
isn’t big issues, significant questions or the position of the little guy, but
subjects that are small, petty, unworthy. Instead of reassuring potential or reluctant
supporters, he has given them pause. Instead of gathering in, he is repelling.
This is political malpractice on a grand scale.”
-Peggy Noonan
_________________________________________________________________
LEFTIST WATCH
Lefties get together:
Bernie Sanders invited to Vatican by Pope?
___________________________________________________________________________
GLOBALONEY
A newly released international study debunks climate models
on global warming that forecast extreme rainfall and drought tied to
temperature swings, casting doubt on disaster scenarios promoted by the
climate-change movement.
16 Democrat Attorneys General Begin Inquisition Against
'Climate Change Disbelievers'
______________________________________________________________________
ARTICLES
A new Associated Press poll found after months of media and
GOP establishment attacks a majority of Americans overwhelmingly view Trump
negatively. Seven in 10 people, including close to half of Republican voters,
have an unfavorable view of Donald Trump. Six in 10 people have an unfavorable
view of Ted Cruz even though the liberal media has not started its campaign of
destruction against the Texas senator. Grandma Hillary has a 55% unfavorable
rating. Trump is wildly popular with Middle Class voters but that doesn’t
impress the Beltway elites. Ronald Reagan’s favorable rating was also at 30%
back in March 1980. The GOP elites at the time also worried he could never win.
________________________________________________________________
NOTEWORTHY
WEBSITES
See 1900s America come to life: Artist uses vintage still
photos to bring to life bygone New York, Boston, Detroit and DC in incredible
moving pictures
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3530156/See-1930s-America-come-life-Artist-uses-vintage-photos-create-animations-New-York-Boston-Detroit-Washington-DC.html#ixzz45H6z7VWG
________________________________________________________________________
WISE WORDS
“In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide.
Regard not the particular sect or denomination of the candidate — look to his
character.”
-Noah
Webster
posted by gary at
6:11 PM
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