Newtmentum?

I can sort of understand why Newt Gingrich might initially benefit from Herman Cain's recent drop in the polls, but why is Newt still doing so well after announcing his silly immigration proposals?  Especially when you consider how much damage Rick Perry did to himself with his infamous "heartless" remark in response to a question about in-state tuition for illegal immigrants.

In terms of policy, Perry's stance on immigration should actually be easier to defend than Newt's.  Yet, somehow, Perry's gaffe has led to an implosion of his poll numbers, and paved the way for Cain to be in the lead, at least for a while... and now Newt seems to be replacing Cain as the new anti-Romney, but can that really last if Newt is proposing what amounts to a sort of amnesty?  If Perry's poll numbers have dwindled all the way down to Ron Paul levels, how will Newt ever manage to remain the frontrunner?

Happy Thanksgiving!

The Council Has Spoken!

This week's results for the Watcher's Council vote are in, they've been posted over at Watcher of Weasels. The winning council entry for the week was "Book Burning – It’s All The Rage" by The Noisy Room, and the winning non-council entry for the week was Baron Bodissey's post "An Iron Burka Has Descended Across the Continent" over at Gates of Vienna. Congrats!

The Cain Conundrum

This has been one of the weirdest campaign seasons that I've ever seen in my life.  With Obama's spectacular failure to come through on his promise to prevent the unemployment rate from exceeding 8%, you'd think it would be easy for the GOP to cough up a worthy opponent to run against him... but they just can't seem to settle on a frontrunner for some reason.

For a while there, it was looking like they finally settled on Herman Cain, but his poll numbers have fallen a bit in the wake of whatever the hell these past couple of weeks have been.  I'm not sure that "scandal" is the right word to describe it, because I don't even know what I'm supposed to be outraged about.  I've seen a lot of allegations being thrown at Herman Cain, but no credible person has stepped forward yet to make a specific allegation that can be backed up with any kind of evidence.

The way that the media has covered this story has been utterly atrocious, which may earn Cain some sympathy points from conservatives who are sick to death of having our candidates chosen for us by a blatantly corrupt media over and over again... but as unfair as the media may have been to Cain, his campaign's handling of all this hasn't been so great either.  When it's all said and done, I worry that the idea that Cain did something wrong will be cemented in the heads of too many people, even if those people aren't really sure what that something is.

But all the nebulous accusations of impropriety aside, there is another problem for Cain here: he seems to be "winging it" way too much.  I want to support him, but I'm not entirely sure where his head is at on some issues... and lately, I'm not even sure if he knows where his own head is at.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he'd make a terrible president... just about anyone would be a thousand times better than Obama.  The question is, how would Cain be as a candidate in the general election?  Obama has been campaigning for years now, it's just about the only thing he knows how to do... any time there is a problem, he just reverts back to campaign mode.  He is a lousy president, but he is very comfortable with pretending to be a great president, and he can afford to "wing it" now and then because the media will be covering for him every step of the way... whoever the GOP nominates won't have that luxury.

So then, where does that leave us?  One of Ace's commenters makes this dire prediction:

Too late. Newt Gingrich is now the Wave of the Future.

We are accelarating towards the point of anti-Mitt singularity where the last anti-Mitt ends up being Mitt Romney himself, so we have 2 Mitt Romneys running against each other.

In other words, Mitt Romney's existing political platform which goes Schrodinger's cat on every issue.

The Council Has Spoken!

This week's results for the Watcher's Council vote are in, they've been posted over at Watcher of Weasels. The winning council entry for the week was "War Drums On Iran?" by Joshuapundit, and the winning non-council entry for the week was Raymond Ibrahim's piece "Muslim Prayers of Hate" over at PJ Media. Congrats!

Frank Miller not a fan of OWS

Frank Miller is probably best known for his work as a graphic novelist and as a director, but he's also something of a curmudgeon.  Here's his unflattering take on OWS:

The “Occupy” movement, whether displaying itself on Wall Street or in the streets of Oakland (which has, with unspeakable cowardice, embraced it) is anything but an exercise of our blessed First Amendment. “Occupy” is nothing but a pack of louts, thieves, and rapists, an unruly mob, fed by Woodstock-era nostalgia and putrid false righteousness. These clowns can do nothing but harm America.

“Occupy” is nothing short of a clumsy, poorly-expressed attempt at anarchy, to the extent that the “movement” – HAH! Some “movement”, except if the word “bowel” is attached - is anything more than an ugly fashion statement by a bunch of iPhone, iPad wielding spoiled brats who should stop getting in the way of working people and find jobs for themselves.

(found via @jtLOL)

The Council Has Spoken!

This week's results for the Watcher's Council vote are in, they've been posted over at Watcher of Weasels. The winning council entry for the week was "President Obama's Latest Horror - A Trillion Dollar Timebomb For America's Economy" by Joshuapundit, and the winning non-council entry for the week was Anestos Canelides' essay "Slavery and Jihad" over at Gates of Vienna. Congrats!

Oy, gevalt!

Writing at Yid With Lid, Jeff Dunetz has this to say about Occupy Boston's attempted takeover of the Israeli Consulate this weekend:

The attempted attack on the consulate should be a big surprise to people who read the mainstream media because they have been reporting the anti-Israel/anti-Semitic incidents coming from the Occupy protests were the product of a few lone-wolf nuts. This particular Anti-Israel event wasn't a fringe group or a lone nut, it was an officially sanctioned Occupy Boston event.

Thankfully they didn't get into the consulate - only the building's lobby, but even if they got to the embassy there would have been no one there because these Occupy "friends of the Jewish Community," forgot that Consulates of the Jewish State are closed on the Jewish Sabbath.

(found via Right Truth)

Mac vs. PC vs. Reality

It's funny how there always seemed to be a political aspect to the Mac vs. PC divide, with left-leaning people seeming to favor the Mac and right-leaning people seeming to favor the PC... at least that's how it always seemed to me.  And yet a biography of Steve Jobs has Jobs warning Obama of being a one-term president, and complaining to him about overregulation killing business and the teachers' unions having too much power, among other things... meanwhile, Bill Gates is running around trying to get a global poverty tax imposed on us.  What the hell??

Matt Welch urges Salon to grow up a little

Matt Welch doesn't sound too impressed with Salon's New Declaration of Independence:

I don't recall anything like the promises so cruelly unkept in Salon's list. I do remember my father warning me that an engineering degree would be much more useful in the workplace than English, to which I uttered a phrase available to 18-year-olds everywhere: Thanks, Dad; not your call. Ditto for the legions of well-meaning adults urging me to finish my undergraduate degree, to sign up for the Selective Service, and even (when I finally attained a decent living in the second half of my 30s) to pay a mortgage instead of paying rent. One of the best perks about being a grown-up is that you get to make your own choices, and to own the results, good and ill.

Which is why phrases like "wage slaves," "inescapable debt," and "force" "force" "force" leave me feeling like a brother from another planet. Adult human beings have agency, the ability (even responsibility!) to run their own cost/benefit analyses and choose accordingly. You could go to a state school (or community college) instead of an over-inflated prestige mill. You could pay for a 10-year-old car in cash, instead of a new one on installments. You could try to make it in Minneapolis before living the dream in Williamsburg. You could stare into the face of a no-money-down, adjustable rate 30-year mortgage at the tail end of a housing-price run-up and conclude "Maybe that one's not for me." You could even choose to turn down a bad if high-paying job when you're living below the poverty line. If we indeed live in a "candid world," let us state bluntly that offloading 100% of the blame for your own mountain of debt on a group of Greedy McBanksters who "forced" you to "play by the rules" is more than a little pathetic.

(found via Insty)