Tag Archives: National Review

Perry Aide Confronts Charges

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Curt Anderson, the Perry campaign aide accused of leaking the Cain story to Politico, is fighting back against the claim.

He says he did not know about Cain’s 1990s sexual harassment charge. “It’s hard to leak something you don’t know anything about.” He was then asked directly if he knew about the specific incident. “I don’t have any knowledge of any of this and you know, it’s just not true.”

On Fox News he continued. “All this stuff about who leaked whatever, any reporter in the free world is free to say anything to anybody that I ever said to them about Herman Cain. I give them carte blanche to do that because I have absolutely nothing to hide.”

Jim Geraghty at National Review notes that “Curt Anderson was only hired by Perry in the last week, i.e. after Politico had the story…Cain also knows his former strategist was a Romney guy in 2008 and now is definitely not on Team Cain for 2012.”

Seems reckless that the Cain camp would tar someone without any evidence, except if it was in their political interest.

Words of the Week

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Lots of interesting turns of phrase this week.
For example, did you know there is an “anxiety index?” Perhaps it is related to the misery index we all experienced under Jimmy Carter. Pollster Frank Luntz asks questions to determine this, connecting it to the right track/wrong track measurements. Seems like it is high and climbing.
The Weiner saga continues to be a fertile linguistics field. Greta Van Susteren, Fox host, concluded he “sexted himself out of the mayoral race.” Maybe she said “sexed”; either would be appropriate.
Neil Cavuto on his show referred to the “fess up” four days after the Weiner denial. “Fess up” has a good feel to it and probably should always follow a mess up.
“Cyber harem” was another phrase spawned by Weiner’s peccadilloes. Hasn’t twitter and facebook brought a whole new dimension to politics?
Second to Weiner, Newt Gingrich had his own linguistics tango. Particularly good: “Newtiny” when his entire staff up and left him and “Newtered” what he did to his own campaign. National Review’s “Newt Is Moot” good, too.
Our biggest trouble spot, the economy, lead to “screwflation.” Hedge Fund expert Doug Kass explains it’s like stagflation with a dash of inflation. Lower interest rates hurt savers like the retired and elderly and then combine with the high cost of food and energy, screwing the average American. Sounds about right.

It Just Gets Better

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As information trickles out on the deal House speaker John Boehner brokered with the Obama administration and the Senate, it looks even better.

Powerline blog finds that “numerous studies of the health care bill will be ordered, the results of which could provide the GOP with juicy political ammunition heading into next year’s election.” Then, yearly audits by the General Accounting Office and private industry on the impact of last year’s financial services reform package will be done, too. Interesting what will surface then, especially in the collusion of banks and politicians.

The agreement also bans the IRS from hiring any more agents. This is one of the tactics to neuter the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare. D.C. will be blocked from using federal funds for abortions, too.

National Review concludes the Republicans “have successfully moved the ball and set the stage for the coming battles. Democrats control two-thirds of the government, but they are playing on our turf. They look weak and disoriented.”

Why Did the Unemployment Number Drop?

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Jim Geraghty reports in “The Campaign Spot” at National Review that a numbers cruncher took a deeper look into Friday’s Jobs Report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. He concludes that our workforce lost 2.33 million people in one year. How?

“The percentage of the overall population that is employed in March 2010 was 58.6%. One year later, the total percentage of overall population is 58.5%. Conclusion: In a growing population we have produced fewer jobs than the number that the population grew. (For the record, the number of civilian, non institutional population was 237.2 million in March 2010 and is 239 million in  March 2011.)

The number of people who were ‘not in the labor force’ in March 2010 was 83,264,000 (seasonally adjusted). In March 2011, it was 85,954,000 (seasonally adjusted). If you want to know how unemployment dropped a point, look no further than this statistic.”

Geraghty notes, “If you removed 2.33 million people from the labor force within one year, that will indeed help lower the unemployment rate. It is, however, not the same as helping the unemployed find jobs.”

October Surprise and What to Do about It

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A secretive political adviser who goes by the name Obi Wan Kenobi posts from time to time on Hugh Hewitt and National Review. The sage shares his Madison Avenue/Wall Street opinions on how conservatives can capture popular opinion and turn it into electoral wins.

Frequently our side tends to quake and concede to the other side rather than stand and fight for our principles. His most recent caveats make for an interesting read. Take a look.

I agree that this year the Democrats will throw everything they can at our candidates. I would caution also not to believe a lot of what they put out. I’ve heard many things Michael Steele has said blown up to make him and Republicans look bad. Don’t fall for it. Unless I hear something personally – and in context – I’m not willing to concede that our side messed up. Think of who benefits from the smear? Who are the biggest targets? Who do they want to take out? After you consider this, it gives some perspective. Rush Limbaugh says you know who they fear by the ones they attack. So true!