Erick Erickson's Blog, page 94
November 9, 2011
Morning Briefing for November 9, 2011
RedState Morning Briefing
For November 9, 2011
Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
1. Perry, Gingrich, Cain, and Huntsman. Oh My.
2. Ohio Issue 2: Let's not over-react or fall for media templates
3. "Flavor of the month" is not serious analysis
4. Rick Perry on the Super Committee & Energy
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1. Perry, Gingrich, Cain, and Huntsman. Oh My.
I wrote a while back that I could not support Jon Huntsman ever for what many consider a very esoteric reason — he went to work for the President of the United States and while working for the President of the United States decided to run against his boss. That the President is Barack Obama has no relevance to me.
I am not, at this point, planning on even attempting to walk back that "ever," but consider it a sign of how frustrated I am with the race.
I have not endorsed any candidate and I do not intend to endorse any candidate. But we might as well take a look at them.
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2. Ohio Issue 2: Let's not over-react or fall for media templates
Issue 2 in Ohio has failed. Unions poured a gazillion dollars into Ohio and won. Despite having a sense of this outcome for some time it still stings. Believe it or not, a great many felt that these reforms were important steps in bring fiscal and structural sanity to government. The voters clearly did not get that message.
The media is going to try and play this as horse race politics. Governor John Kasich lost and the Democrats won. And obviously, in some important sense – even if only in the fact the story and perspective being conventional wisdom – this is true. Kasich and Republicans passed this legislation and it has been rejected. Fair enough.
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3. "Flavor of the month" is not serious analysis
Conservative activists have this nasty habit of denigrating our own politicians, and in fact the very practice of running for office to represent our side. We kick our guys (and girls) at every opportunity, sometimes for no reason but to kick politicians.
It's in that vein that some have taken to referring to one Presidential candidate or another as the 'flavor of the month,' suggesting they're not serious people, that our electorate isn't making serious decisions, and that our choices in this election are trivial.
Not only is that not the case, but the plain fact is, the actual rise and and fall of the various candidates doesn't even match up with the trend. In particular, it's either ignorant or dishonest to put Herman Cain and Rick Perry into the same category as Michele Bachmann and Tim Pawlenty.
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4. Rick Perry on the Super Committee & Energy
In the second part of my interview with Governor Rick Perry, I asked him about the Super Committee. He tied its existence into the failure of Barack Obama's leadership. His answer transitioned us into a discussion about energy policy and the ability to create jobs in the United States based on accessing our domestic energy.
November 8, 2011
The Herman Cain Accusations and Mitt Romney #EERS
I'm going live right now to discuss it all.
You can listen live here.
You can call in at 800-WSB-TALK.
Consider this an open thread.
Rick Perry on the Super Committee & Energy
In the second part of my interview with Governor Rick Perry, I asked him about the Super Committee. He tied its existence into the failure of Barack Obama's leadership. His answer transitioned us into a discussion about energy policy and the ability to create jobs in the United States based on accessing our domestic energy.
Perry, Gingrich, Cain, and Huntsman. Oh My.
I wrote a while back that I could not support Jon Huntsman ever for what many consider a very esoteric reason — he went to work for the President of the United States and while working for the President of the United States decided to run against his boss. That the President is Barack Obama has no relevance to me.
I am not, at this point, planning on even attempting to walk back that "ever," but consider it a sign of how frustrated I am with the race.
I have not endorsed any candidate and I do not intend to endorse any candidate.
I know and like Rick Perry tremendously and I think that not only could he beat Barack Obama, but that he would beat Obama and be an excellent President conservatives would not feel the need to fight against every step of the way. He just has to improve his debating skills and figure out how to reconcile his immigration views with the base (not easily done). Other than Romney, I think Perry has the easiest path to victory if he can recover some of his footing.
I know and like Herman Cain tremendously and I think that should he survive this latest problem with his campaign, he would come out of it much, much stronger and could beat Barack Obama and be an excellent President. However, I do not know that he can improve his image with women quickly enough.
I do not really know, but have always liked Newt Gingrich. I think Newt Gingrich could beat Barack Obama. But Newt Gingrich, throughout his long career, has a habit of shooting himself and others in the foot and I sometimes get the impression that Gingrich, like George W. Bush before him, thinks conservatism is what he says it is and not what it actually is. So were he elected, conservatives would find themselves in opposition to him on big issues. Likewise, he has issues with women too. Consider only my wife, whose math teacher was Newt's first wife. After returning from our honeymoon, she threw out my autographed copy of To Renew America and forbid its return into our house. My wife holds grudges.
I know nothing about Jon Huntsman, but unlike MItt Romney, Huntsman is not running away from his record as Governor. He has some moderate to liberal tendencies of gay marriage and the environment, but he's never flip-flopped on abortion, the need for tax cuts, etc. I still find it shocking that the guy running as the liberal in the race, or at least the media accepted moderate, came up withe boldest, most conservative economic plan. His deficit reduction plan alone makes all the others look weak. To even get me to half-way take him seriously though, I think he'd have to get rid of Jon Weaver and show conservatives he actually is a conservative. Thus far, from his jokes at debates to his tweets, he's come across as condescending. But he does like Nirvana. That's something.
All that said, I think each of these men could beat Barack Obama and conservatives would be with them more than against them — though with some more often than with others.
I really do believe that MItt Romney cannot beat Barack Obama. You and I both have time and time again seen the GOP decide to go with "the most electable" guy only to lose. The corollary is that we've also seen a lot of conservatives decide they must stay so pure to their convictions they get the teetotaler who cannot win the general. Conservatives have to choose the right combination of conservative conviction and electability.
Notwithstanding all of that, I do not see how Romney wins given Romney's lack of any core beliefs and conservative conviction only when he needs conservative conviction. Americans want a guy who means what he says even if they don't always agree with him. Likewise, if somehow I am wrong and Romney could beat Obama, you and I both know that given how this campaign has gone so far, Romney would decide he did not need conservatives and could govern without them. If you need a more recent example, look to the election of Charlie Crist in Florida after Jeb Bush.
Mitt Romney as the Nominee: Conservatism Dies and Barack Obama Wins
Mit Romney will not go on Special Report with Brett Baier to answer the tough questions as the other candidates have done. No worries. Conservatives will bitch and moan for a few days and Romney will claim it was a scheduling issue, he'd always meant to go on, and he will go on.
Should Mitt Romney win the Presidency, conservatives will find this pattern play out repeated. Romney will head in a direction conservatives do not like and they will bitch and moan repeatedly and maybe, just maybe, he'll part his hair in their direction.
We've seen this play out over and over. Jon Huntsman comes up with the best economic plan of all the candidates, Herman Cain follows up with 999, Perry comes out with a flat tax, and Romney refuses to do anything. Until he does something.
Mitt Romney is not the George W. Bush of 2012 — he is the Harriet Miers of 2012, only conservative because a few conservative grand pooh-bahs tell us Mitt Romney is conservative and for no other reason.
That is precisely why Mitt Romney will not win in 2012. But no worry, once he loses, Republican establishment types will blame conservatives for not doing enough for Mitt Romney, never mind that Mitt Romney has never been able to sell himself to more than 25% of the GOP voters. It's not his fault though, it is the 75%'s fault.
Mitt Romney is going to be the Republican nominee. And his general election campaign will be an utter disaster for conservatives as he takes the GOP down with him and burns up what it means to be a conservative in the process.
Why Romney Will Be The Nominee
Mitt Romney will be the nominee because the other candidates, right now, are a pretty pathetic lot.
The base will not forgive Rick Perry his immigration sins. In fact, that has hurt him far more than his debate performances, but his debate performances have hurt him badly. Perry, who came out principled and fiery with a record others could only envy, has left others with the impression that he's a poor man's version of the village idiot, which in the SEC we call "Aggies". Maybe he can turn it around.
Newt Gingrich will not be the nominee because, despite his daughter's rebuttals to the horror stories of how Gingrich divorced his first of three wives, Jackie Gingrich told the Washington Post on January 3, 1985, "He walked out in the spring of 1980 and I returned to Georgia. By September, I went into the hospital for my third surgery. The two girls came to see me, and said Daddy is downstairs and could he come up? When he got there, he wanted to discuss the terms of the divorce while I was recovering from the surgery."
Gingrich went on to cheat on the second wife with the third. Regardless of the actual facts or even the spin, he won't win women.
Herman Cain won't be the nominee because he can't win women either. Regardless of what you think of the Politico story, Cain's handling of the story has been an epic disaster. He's down at least 10 points with women in Iowa. He's falling even further and doesn't even realize it. He's largely been emboldened by a conservative media that is so used to standing by its men that too few are telling Herman that he is now at the point where he must actually sit and answer questions whether he wants to or not and whether he feels maligned or not and whether I think he should have to or not. If he loses women by as big as he is starting to lose the women, he cannot win.
So Mitt Romney will be the nominee. Conservatives will not rally together with the least of the bad alternatives and Romney, like John McCain before him, will run up the middle to the nomination. But, just like McCain, Romney will not beat Barack Obama.
Why Mitt Romney Will Not Beat Barack Obama
You'd think that given the economy, jobs, and the present angst about the direction of the country that the GOP would have an easy path to victory. You would be wrong.
You forget the electoral college. The vote is coming down to a handful of states and Barack Obama still maintains the advantage of incumbency and not terribly terrible polling in those swing states.
Mitt Romney, on the other hand, is a man devoid of any principles other than getting himself elected. As much as the American public does not like Barack Obama, they loath a man so fueled with ambition that he will say or do anything to get himself elected. Mitt Romney is that man.
I've been reading the 200 pages of single spaced opposition research from the John McCain campaign on Mitt Romney. There is no issue I can find on which Mitt Romney has not taken both sides. He is neither liberal nor conservative. He is simply unprincipled. The man has no core beliefs other than in himself. You want him to be tough? He'll be tough. You want him to be sensitive? He'll be sensitive. You want him to be for killing the unborn? He'll go all in on abortion rights until he wants to run for an office where it is not in his advantage.
Along the way, he'll drop lots of coin to grease the skids for himself. Mitt Romney is the silly putty of politicians — press on him real hard and he'll take on whatever image you press into him until the next group starts pressing.
Republican billionaires have a fantastic track record of getting Republican opinion leaders to support them and an even better track record at losing elections. Mitt Romney will be no different.
To beat Barack Obama, a candidate must paint a bold contrast with the Democrats on their policies. When Mitt Romney tries, Barack Obama will be able to show that just the other day Mitt Romney held exactly the opposite position as the one he holds today.
Voters may not like Barack Obama, but by the time Obama is done with Romney they will not trust Mitt Romney. And voters would rather the guy they don't like than they guy they don't trust.
Why Conservatism Will Die
Conservatism is already dying. Republicans on Capitol Hill are about to raise taxes on the American people with this Super Committee, but they'll say they are just "raising revenue," not taxes. Conservatives will give them a pass as they have on virtually every other major issue. Conservatives keep giving passes to people who shouldn't be given passes because conservative in Washington have been there so long, they'd much rather get invited to the cocktail parties and avoid awkward encounters.
Washington, D.C. conservatives will also rally around Mitt Romney, just as they kept doing over and over and over with George W. Bush even after steel tariffs in Pennsylvania, No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, the GM Bailout, and TARP. At some point the public will cease taking conservatives seriously when the most prominent conservatives — those in Washington who pose as the faces, voices, and writers of the conservative movement at large, keep throwing their lot in with a guy who keeps selling out the very principles conservatives claim to hold dear.
Some conservatives, of course, will not go all in for Romney. These conservatives will be blamed by major Republican and "conservative" mouth pieces for not doing enough to help Mitt Romney. They will be alienated, blamed, and made the scapegoat for the failures of the establishment GOP.
But there is something else too — Mitt Romney is winning the nomination without conservative help. The only time he pays conservatives any attention is when they cry loud enough that the media takes notice and Romney decides the story needs to go away. Once he is the nominee, it will be all about wooing the independents.
Hell, he can give the base Marco Rubio as the veep nominee, just like McCain did with Palin — a token for the base. But don't delude yourself into thinking he will seriously take conservatives seriously. He got the nomination without them and he'll only use them when it is opportunistically convenient for him.
Conservatism itself will not really die. But it might as well be dead as even conservatives in the heartland of the country stop taking Washington conservatives seriously.
The Contrast To Be Drawn
It is striking to me that in 2012 there is broad based popular angst against Wall Street and Washington and the Republican Party is on the verge of nominating a multi-millionaire scion of the Rockefeller Wing of the Republican Party whose closest encounters with the common man are accidentally touching one of the many hired hands in one of the many rooms of one of his many mansions. But then many of the DC-NYC Republican "conservatives" who support Romney are the same, only coming into contact with regular people when they are served their breakfast by a steward in the first class car on the Acela Express.
Neither Romney nor the Washington GOP crowd who loves him have very much at all in common with fly over country conservatives who see the GOP and Democrats both as out to lunch tools of K-Street and Wall Street. The party that could lead a conservative, populist campaign against Wall Street and Barack Obama, the former getting fat off the latter, will instead nominate a guy more at home on Wall Street than Main Street.
And enough conservatives will be cheerleaders and rally around him that by November of 2012 the ideological underpinnings of the modern American conservative movement will be coming apart.
I'm starting to think I need to walk it back on my rejection of Jon Huntsman. Because I'm starting to think even he would be more faithful in his conservative convictions than Mitt Romney.
Morning Briefing for November 8, 2011
RedState Morning Briefing
For November 8, 2011
Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
1. Mitt Romney as the Nominee: Conservatism Dies and Barack Obama Wins
2. The Rollercoaster goes back down for Herman Cain
3. Perry and Gingrich, sitting in the polls…
4. Can Rick Perry Rebound With a Flat Tax?
5. A Note To Charlotte's Workers: Get A Written Guarantee You Won't Be Outsourced To Unions
6. NYT Editorial Page Editor struggles to examine the record on voter fraud
———————————————————————-
1. Mitt Romney as the Nominee: Conservatism Dies and Barack Obama Wins
Mit Romney will not go on Special Report with Brett Baier to answer the tough questions as the other candidates have done. No worries. Conservatives will bitch and moan for a few days and Romney will claim it was a scheduling issue, he'd always meant to go on, and he will go on.
Should Mitt Romney win the Presidency, conservatives will find this pattern play out repeated. Romney will head in a direction conservatives do not like and they will bitch and moan repeatedly and maybe, just maybe, he'll part his hair in their direction.
We've seen this play out over and over. Jon Huntsman comes up with the best economic plan of all the candidates, Herman Cain follows up with 999, Perry comes out with a flat tax, and Romney refuses to do anything. Until he does something.
Mitt Romney is not the George W. Bush of 2012 — he is the Harriet Miers of 2012, only conservative because a few conservative grand pooh-bahs tell us Mitt Romney is conservative and for no other reason.
That is precisely why Mitt Romney will not win in 2012. But no worry, once he loses, Republican establishment types will blame conservatives for not doing enough for Mitt Romney, never mind that Mitt Romney has never been able to sell himself to more than 25% of the GOP voters. It's not his fault though, it is the 75%'s fault.
Mitt Romney is going to be the Republican nominee. And his general election campaign will be an utter disaster for conservatives as he takes the GOP down with him and burns up what it means to be a conservative in the process.
Please click here for the rest of the post.
2. The Rollercoaster goes back down for Herman Cain
We saw last week that Herman Cain was on his way up before the Politico story, and fell off slightly afterward.
Friday brought us a new poll which reinforces past conclusions. Yes, he really was on the way down last week, despite raising money in the seven figures.
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3. Perry and Gingrich, sitting in the polls…
R-E-B-O-U-N-D-I-N-G.
First came Cain, then came Politico, then came USA Today/Gallup and NBC News/Wall Street Journal with the latest numbers.
This also make three straight post-scandal polls that have shown Cain to have re-lost his lead over Romney.
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4. Can Rick Perry Rebound With a Flat Tax?
The Perry campaign wants to reboot, having retooled and refined its message and tried hard to get back on the jobs message.
Okay, fine, but first the Perry camp needs to answer a basic question – why should supporters who went all in for him and wound up feeling burned give him a second shot? I asked him about that and it was, perhaps, a good sign that he stayed on the jobs message.
The jobs message, though, raises a question about his flat tax – won't it just help the rich? Also, what about President Obama's approach and his hostility to jobs and economic reform.
I got into all those with Governor Perry last Wednesday in Orange County, CA. Perry also previewed a new line he's using with credit to Jim DeMint – "Are you better off than you were $4 trillion ago?"
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5. A Note To Charlotte's Workers: Get A Written Guarantee You Won't Be Outsourced To Unions
Based on a tip last week and subsequent conversations with employees at Charlotte's Ritz Carlton who, according to them, had been told that they are to be displaced by union workers during the DNC's 2012 Convention, apparently Charlotte's mayor and the hotel are saying that the story is untrue.
According to WBT.com's Chris Miller's twitter feed: Ritz-Carlton calls today's RedState story "absolutely false."
If the story is "absolutely false," then either the Ritz Carlton, Charlotte has a communications problem within its own hotel or employees either a) misunderstood what had been told to them, b) are lying (which seems unlikely), or c) had been told, but their management is now walking it back due to the political ramifications–since the employee (recorded here) is a Ritz-Carlton employee who spoke over the weekend.
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6. NYT Editorial Page Editor struggles to examine the record on voter fraud
For a number of reasons, I tend to avoid claims of media bias, as I am often reminded of Silberman's Law, from Rumsfeld's Rules, that notes that we often overstate "conspiracy," while "underestimat[ing] incompetency and fortuity." However, I have trouble explaining this one any other way. The New York Times editorial page editor, Andy Rosenthal, says, "A half-dozen times or so I've asked followers of my Twitter feed for examples of voter fraud – particularly of a scale that would justify erecting barriers against whole groups of voters. Haven't gotten any." Now, this was the first that I had heard of it because, well, I don't follow Mr. Rosenthal. However, I am not convinced that I will start following him, as he seems unequipped with the basic tools of research.
Now, like Mr. Rosenthal, I do get frustrated with discussions of election fraud that don't detail specific convictions. And while I believe that ACORN-style registration fraud is a real problem, I try to avoid discussing it. After all, we should lead with our strongest argument.
So let's review some recent convictions, just to remind ourselves that election fraud happens, it is well documented, and it sways elections.
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November 7, 2011
Can Rick Perry Rebound With a Flat Tax?
The Perry campaign wants to reboot, having retooled and refined its message and tried hard to get back on the jobs message.
Okay, fine, but first the Perry camp needs to answer a basic question – why should supporters who went all in for him and wound up feeling burned give him a second shot? I asked him about that and it was, perhaps, a good sign that he stayed on the jobs message.
The jobs message, though, raises a question about his flat tax – won't it just help the rich? Also, what about President Obama's approach and his hostility to jobs and economic reform.
I got into all those with Governor Perry last Wednesday in Orange County, CA. Perry also previewed a new line he's using with credit to Jim DeMint – "Are you better off than you were $4 trillion ago?"
Morning Briefing for November 7, 2011
RedState Morning Briefing
For November 7, 2011
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the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
Congratulations LSU. GEAUX TIGERS!
1. Democratic National Convention Outsources Charlotte Jobs to Beltway Union Shop
2. DNC Union Favoritism Forcing Furloughs Of Charlotte's Non-Union Hotel Workers?
3. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the Big, Bad Pipeline
4. Cain Accuser "Speaks"
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1. Democratic National Convention Outsources Charlotte Jobs to Beltway Union Shop
On Friday, you met John Monteith, a Charlotte, NC print shop executive who was told that he would not be awarded any contracts in conjunction with the upcoming 2012 Democratic National Convention to be held in his town because his shop was not unionized. Given that Charlotte is located in a right-to-work state, this upset John enough that he sought media attention to shine light on what he viewed to be in stark contrast to the stated goals of Mayor Anthony Foxx, a close ally of President Obama. Foxx claimed that the convention would be a boom to the Charlotte economy creating plenty of jobs for everyone and plenty of work for local businesses while fervently denying that unionization was the primary factor in decision making.
However, on the same day the DNC was scrambling to prove how pro-local business they are, it was revealed who they awarded the work that had been denied to John Monteith's shop. The work went to a company called Hargrove Inc, a shop that boasts its work force of more than 3,000 union personnel and hails from the union bastion of the Washington D.C. metro area. They work with the biggest names in the union market. From the Teamsters, to the Carpenters Union, union favoritism seems to be a very important reason Hargrove was selected.
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2. DNC Union Favoritism Forcing Furloughs Of Charlotte's Non-Union Hotel Workers?
In February, when the Democratic National Committee chose Charlotte, North Carolina as the host city for its September 2012 convention, it left the door wide open for the Charlotte-area's union-free workforce to be discriminated against in favor union workers. Although Charlotte's Democrat Mayor, Anthony Foxx (who is facing GOP challenger Scott Stone in Tuesday's election), has denied the allegation, it appears Foxx has been misleading Charlotte residents on both his (alleged) job creation record as well as the outsourcing of DNC convention jobs to union labor.
Late last week, we received a tip that the DNC was forcing the downtown-Charlotte hotels to displace their own existing workers and bringing in union labor to work during the DNC Convention. While the Hyatt Place denied the rumor, numerous calls were placed to general managers at other area hotels but were not returned.
However, at the Ritz Carlton, Charlotte, where President Obama is reportedly staying during the convention, employees did confirm that they had been told they would be laid off during the convention.
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3. Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the Big, Bad Pipeline
The habitual self-loathing of the American Left is perhaps its most endearing quality.
Most of us remember actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus from her lead role in the late, lamented CBS sitcom Watching Ellie.
Now she's an expert on energy, international economy, and the environment. Here's a video in which she expresses her opposition to the Keystone XL Pipeline.
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4. Cain Accuser "Speaks"
The attorney for the woman who accused Herman Cain of sexual harassment in 1999 has spoken. Well, not really. As predicted, she sent her attorney out to the media – she continues to refuse to disclose her identity, answer questions, or provide any details whatsoever about the alleged incident. Her attorney's statement is perhaps the most vacuous statement I have ever seen an attorney make, and that is truly saying something indeed.
Contrary to the assertions of my esteemed colleague streiff, this has nothing to do with blaming messengers or victims. This has everything to do with the fact that it is impossible to evaluate the credibility of an anonymous accusation that contains absolutely no factual details. And the assertion that this woman is somehow not anonymous because someone knows who she is distorts the meaning of the word "anonymous" beyond recognition. Woodward and Bernstein knew who Deep Throat was – that doesn't mean he wasn't anonymous to the public, which is the only kind of anonymity that matters in this case.
If this woman really suffered sexual harassment at the hands of Herman Cain then he deserves to take a lot of lumps – perhaps even the destruction of his entire political career, depending on the circumstances. But there is no way to judge whether that is the case- none whatsoever. The accuser's lawyer said repeatedly in his statement that the accuser does not wish to relive the incident – however, literally the only point served by his null set statement is ensuring that the story lived on in the news cycle.
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November 4, 2011
RedState's Exclusive Interview With Texas Governor Rick Perry
Tonight at 7:05 p.m. on the Erick Erickson Show, I'm going to play the audio of my interview with Texas Governor Rick Perry. The actual interview will start around 7:35 p.m. and then re-air in its entirety at 9:00 p.m.
You'll be able to listen to the entire interview by clicking right here.
Morning Briefing for November 4, 2011
RedState Morning Briefing
For November 4, 2011
Go to www.RedStateMB.com to get
the Morning Briefing every morning at no charge.
First a programming note: Tomorrow, RedState will broadcast the audio of the debate between Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain.
Second, to my friends Joe Scarborough and Amos Snead: GEAUX TIGERS!
1. 2012 DNC Discriminates Against Charlotte Businesses, Demands Unionization
2. A Moment for Two Deep Breaths
3. Bipartisan Big Spenders Appointed to Conference Committee for Spending Bills
4. #OWS Turns A Corner In The Latest Quinnipiac Poll
5. Unions & #OccupyWallStreet Reveal Their Hidden Agenda: A Worldwide Financial Tax
———————————————————————-
1. 2012 DNC Discriminates Against Charlotte Businesses, Demands Unionization
After working in construction for many years in Canada, John Monteith had had enough of unions calling all of the shots and forcing themselves onto employers. So John did some research on the United States, and found that one of the best right-to-work states was North Carolina.
John got in touch with an immigration attorney, and worked with him to emigrate legally to the United States at a cost of $40 thousand of his personal money. Well worth it as far as he was concerned, to have the freedom to run a business without being forced into negotiations and contracts with special interest groups. So he packed up his bags and never looked back.
He eventually found himself working for a company called Heritage Printing & Graphics. Originally located in the Northeast, Heritage had decided to open up a large format print shop in Charlotte, NC, and they hired John to help with business development to grow their sales.
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2. A Moment for Two Deep Breaths
The first thing I think it is necessary to say is that the general tenor of the allegations has moved beyond allegations of vague inappropriate comments and gestures to allegations that are considerably more serious. We are walking into territory now where the allegations, if true, would destroy Herman Cain publicly both as a candidate for President, and a candidate for any other office he might seek in the future, and furthermore as a prominent spokesman for the GOP. I find that the way these charges were reported by another prominent conservative website today was irresponsible and reckless. The story was written in such an intentionally vague way that it was possible for the reader to infer anything from a woman regretting a one night stand to an actual rape committed by Herman Cain. Later, after the damage had been done, this website posted corrections which changed significant details of the story at the bottom of the story and on the second page, where the casual reader would not see them unless they bothered to click the "Next" at the bottom of the screen. Given the nature of the allegations and the materiality of the corrections that were intentionally buried, I can only conclude that this piece was an intentional hatchet job and that its rollout was maliciously intended to cause the maximum political damage to Herman Cain.
This conclusion leads to some necessary things that I think need to be said about both the way we as conservatives treat our primary candidates and the particulars of Herman Cain's alleged behavior.
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3. Bipartisan Big Spenders Appointed to Conference Committee for Spending Bills
After dithering for almost three years without a budget, Democrats are in a hellfire rush to finish all of the 12 annual appropriations bills. Unfortunately, Republicans leaders are in such a hurry to bury the hatchet on spending fights, they are willing to void all of the House-passed bills, in return for bipartisan conference reports. These conference committee versions – chock full of Senate Democrat amendments – will be forced down the throats of House conservatives without a chance to amend them, even though they never voted on two-thirds of the underlying bill. Worse, virtually all of the conferees are leftists, appropriators, and squishes.
Senator Sessions and other Senate conservatives tried to warn Republicans that Harry Reid was manipulating the process to insert $11.1 billion in extra spending to the Agriculture minibus bill. While overall discretionary spending caps have already been set at $1.043 trillion, Democrats still have leverage (thanks to weak Republican leadership) to spend tens of billion more on transfer programs, while compensating for the extra expenditures with massive cuts to –you guessed it – the Defense appropriations bill. They also have the ability to raise spending levels on mandatory programs, which are not subject to the spending caps imposed by the debt deal. Moreover, the Senate stripped out many of the House-passed policy riders, such as a provision to defund most of the FDA food takeover bill (FDA Food Safety Modernization Act ).
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4. #OWS Turns A Corner In The Latest Quinnipiac Poll
Quinnipiac has polled the American people about Occupy Wall Street. The numbers are not what Adbusters would have hoped for. Thirty percent overall view them favorably, 39% wish to see the occupation ended. 31% wanted to know when LSU vs. Alabama kicks off.
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5. Unions & #OccupyWallStreet Reveal Their Hidden Agenda: A Worldwide Financial Tax
If there's one thing about the Marxists controlling today's unions, it is that they are predictable. If you watch them long enough, the pattern is always the same: Demand the extreme with something attainable in mind as the fallback position.
In labor relations, the making of outrageous demands is a classic negotiating tactic at the bargaining table because union negotiators know company negotiators will only agree to what they are willing to based on business economics. In politics, however, the union tactic is an absolute winner because their prey (politicians, many of whom are bought by unions anyway) always fall for it and, besides, it's only the taxpayers who are stuck with the tab. One thing though, whether at the bargaining table or in politics, unions always reveal their hidden agenda—eventually.
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