The bottom line for me on this election:  It was not as big as Reagan’s election in 1980 or the Republican “Contract with America” election of 1994, but it was close.  In order for it to be validated it terms of a watershed turnaround for the country, it will require a Republican in the White […]

Some interesting results from around the country in the past week, a few of which might have implications for the mid-term elections in 2014 and the Presidential race in 2016.  Here are a few odds and ends: New York City:  The recent trend toward renewed prosperity in the Big Apple has probably just peaked with […]

President Obama’s inaugural address was arguably the most ideological such speech in American history–a litany of progressive dreams, devoid of any recognition of the current realities, the most significant of which is the bankruptcy of the post Great Society social contract and the crisis of the entitlement state, about which more below. We’re a society […]

One of my favorite commentators and essayists is Mark Steyn, who writes for National Review, The New Criterion, and others.  Just before election day, he had a take on the presidential election that fit my sentiments pretty well in terms of the then potentially disturbing elements of the outcome, which were soon actualized: “It’s one […]

To paraphrase former President Gerald R. Ford, with apologies– our long national nightmare continues. Did we actually just spend a reported $6 billion for this, to move two states from one column to the other, leaving all else virtually intact?  And did we leave the same guy in office as CEO, after having presided over […]

When I previously used the title phrase “The End of the Narrative” in January 2011, after the 2010 election rout by the Tea Party, it was accurate to an extent, but largely premature.  Here is what I said then: “As we welcome the new year and a new political season, having given considerable time to […]

One gets the distinct feeling that this presidential election is about to blossom into a very serious and substantive debate about voter choices on the future of this country.  Unfortunately at present, there are only hints of this meaningful battle beneath the surface of the frivolity involving such inanities as Bain Capital’s outsourcing, the “made […]

It is difficult to overstate the outcome in the recall election of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.  It might still be a little early to tell if his victory signals the end of the mystique of the Barack Obama “narrative”, although that day may come soon enough with the Supreme Court decision on Obamacare.  But […]

Thanks to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, the Republicans have an issue large enough to provide a compelling message in the general election.  His budget plan is a vehicle for potentially moving the eventual nominee above the noise and into what qualifies as a space in which the enormous stakes for the American future […]

This was  forwarded to me by a friend, who picked it up anonymously, but I think it might become a classic—INEPTOCRACY (in-ep-toc’-ra-cy), a new word to describe a totally dysfunctional political system, much as we have now, defined as follows: “A system of government in which the least capable to lead are elected by the […]