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I appeared on Silvio Canto Jr's talk show from Dallas yesterday.  It's here.

NOVEMBER 10,  2014 

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:52 P.M. ET: 

WHOOPS – From The New York Times:  "WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Monday offered a surprisingly modest estimate of the number of people who would sign up for health insurance in the second round of open enrollment, which begins on Saturday.  Sylvia Mathews Burwell, the secretary of health and human services, said she was working on the assumption that a total of 9.1 million people would have such coverage at the end of next year.  By contrast, the Congressional Budget Office had estimated that 13 million people would be enrolled next year, with the total rising to 24 million in 2016. In the past, the White House has used the budget office numbers as a benchmark for success under the Affordable Care Act."  Where are those 40 million Americans who were desperate for new health insurance?  I think that's a question the Obama press must answer.

WARM FRIENDS – President Obama is in China, wearing Chinese-style clothing at least some of the time.  And, during his visit, we learn this.  From Fox:  "Chinese government operatives reportedly are suspected of hacking the U.S. Postal Service, in a security breach that may have compromised personal information for more than 800,000 workers.  The breach was announced Monday, as President Obama arrived in Beijing.
The Postal Service confirmed the incident in a written statement, saying personal information that may have been obtained in the attack includes employees' names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, addresses, emergency contacts and other information."  I wonder if Obama is concerned about this.

WOMEN PESSIMISTIC ABOUT JOBS – From WaPo:  "The 'gender gap' typically refers to the difference between how much women and men are paid, the kind of jobs they tend to pursue or how well they're represented among a company's senior ranks. Yet a report released by Gallup on Monday finds there's also a big gap between how confident men and women are about the job market. And that gap is wider in North America than in any other major region of the world.  Fifty-six percent of North American men, according to the 2013 data set, thought it was a bad time to look for a job, compared with 62 percent of North American women. While Europeans were much more negative overall about their job outlook — 77 percent of European women thought it was a bad time to look for a job — the average gap between the views of men and women there was smaller (just three percentage points, compared to the six-point spread in North America). In Asia, there was also a three-point difference; but, in a flip, Asian women rather than men had the more favorable outlook."  Bottom line:  the job market is bad for both sexes.  Yes, we're creating jobs, but nowhere near enough, and not jobs of the quality Americans are used to.

November 10, 2014       Permalink

COUNTDOWN – AT 11:15 A.M. ET:  We are only two weeks away from the deadline in the Iranian nuclear talks.  The negotiators are supposed to come to some agreement on restricting Iran's nuclear program by November 24th.  If no agreement is reached, the talks will end.  Unless they're extended. 

Obama sees an agreement with Iran as a possible crown jewel in his foreign policy.  But a majority of Congress, and American Mideast allies, see it as potentially disastrous, especially if it is filled with loopholes and leads to the abandonment of sanctions against Iran.

Obama is speaking cautiously, suggesting that an agreement may not be reached at all.  Whether he's being serious, or just posing as a tough negotiator, is hard to determine.  Integrity is not the strong suit of this administration.  From Reuters: 

Iran, the US and European Union will hold an unscheduled second day of talks on Monday, on disagreements blocking resolution of a dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme, a US official and Iranian state media said.

In the US, meanwhile, President Barack Obama said there was still a big gap between Iran and western powers, and said a deal could be out of reach.

Speaking in an interview with CBS, Obama said a final step in the talks would involve Iran providing “verifiable, lock tight assurances that they can’t develop a nuclear weapon”.

“There’s still a big gap,” he said. “We may not be able to get there.”

Obama declined to comment on a report that he sent a letter to Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, about combating the Islamic State militant group in Iraq and Syria. The president said the US and Iran shared a common enemy, but reiterated the nuclear talks were not connected to the fight against Islamic State, also known as Isis or Isil.

“We’re not coordinating with Iran on Isil,” he said.

With two weeks to a deadline for a comprehensive accord on Iran's nuclear ambitions, Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, US secretary of state John Kerry and EU envoy Catherine Ashton met in Oman’s capital, Muscat, on Sunday to address a decade-long confrontation that has raised the risk of a wider war in the Middle East.

Reiterating Iran’s official line, Ali Akbar Velayati, a top aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was quoted by Iranian media as saying the Islamic Republic would not abandon its nuclear “rights” but was committed to the negotiations under Khamenei’s leadership.

COMMENT:  The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency warned last week that Iran has been uncooperative, that it has not revealed what it must reveal to assure the rest of the world that it isn't developing nuclear weapons.  If Iran's nuclear program were, as it claims, peaceful, why would Tehran be hiding things?  We know the answer.  This is a weapons program, and no agreement will stop it.

November 10, 2014       Permalink

MORE FROM SHARYL – AT 10:17 A.M. ET:   Sharyl Attkisson is turning out to be a major thorn in the side of CBS News.  A former star at the network, she found herself increasingly at odds with what she charges was a pro-Obama bias.  She is charging a cover-up over Benghazi.  From Newsmax: 

Former CBS News investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson says CBS News executives kept a clip of President Obama refusing to call the Benghazi attacks terrorism secret until after the election in order to help Obama's re-election.

Obama was interviewed by Steve Kroft for "60 Minutes" the Sunday following the attack and said, "Well, it's too early to know exactly how this came about, what group was involved. But, obviously, it was an attack on Americans."

That clip did not air as part of the original interview, but the full transcript was sent to the "CBS Evening News" staff.

Mitt Romney brought up during one of their 2012 presidential debates Obama's failure for 14 days to label the attack terrorism. Attkisson said that would have been the perfect time to have brought out the clip.

Appearing Sunday on Fox News Channel's "MediaBuzz," Attkisson said, "That exchange, I believe, should have been pulled out immediately after the debate, which would have been very newsy at the time.  It was exclusive to CBS. It would have, it appears to me, proven Romney's point against Obama. But that clip was kept secret."

Attkisson said she was covering Benghazi, yet no one told her about the clip, instead directing her to another clip from the same interview that made Obama sound like he had labeled the act terrorism from the beginning.

"And it was only right before the election that somebody kind of leaked out the transcript to others of us at CBS and we were really shocked. We felt that there had been something very unethical had been done to have kept that up," Attkisson said.

COMMENT:  It's disturbing.  I'm not going to claim that this kind of thing only started with the Obama administration.  There have always been disturbing practices in journalism, and ethical failures, and incidents of bias. 

The problem, in my view, is that too many in journalism now accept bias as normal, and even desirable.  Far from wanting to "report the news without fear or favor," they want to "make a difference."  That's an entirely different view of what journalism is, and far different from the understanding of the American people.  These "make a difference" journalists are changing the very premise of their profession.  It is dangerous to journalism, and dangerous to the First Amendment. 

While the First Amendment does not say so explicitly, the American people understand a free press to be a barrier between themselves and government, the institution on which they can depend for the truth, or at least an attempt to get the truth.   If that understanding is violated, I think support for freedom of the press will decline, and a free press will become increasingly suspect.  That is what is happening today.  Fortunately, we have the internet.  In the end, that mechanism may save journalism as we want it to be.

November 10, 2014      Permalink

THE FADING OBAMA – QUOTE OF THE DAY – AT 9:32 A.M. ET:   Ah, it was so different
in 2008 when Barack came to save us.  Why, our future was secure.  We were pure and holy.  What could go wrong?

Everything went wrong.  Jonah Goldberg, in a terrific column, points out that the real Barack is a guy who runs campaigns very well, as long as he's a candidate, but messes up pretty badly in every other area, including his role as leader of his party.  Our quote of the day, from Jonah, in the Baltimore Sun:

In Tuesday's wake, any talk of an Obama-fueled realignment seems delusional. Young voters have soured on the president. Hispanics didn't show up. Contrary to a lot of spinning early election night, this wasn't an "anti-incumbent wave"; it was an anti-Democratic, or more properly, an anti-Obama wave. The GOP captured Senate seats in Iowa and Colorado, each of which voted for Obama twice. The governor's race in deep-blue Maryland, where Mr. Obama campaigned, went to the Republican as did Mr. Obama's home state of Illinois and liberal Massachusetts. Incumbent Republicans triumphed almost everywhere while incumbent Democrats lost almost everywhere.

When the next Senate convenes, 25 more Democrats who voted for Obamacare will be gone, and the GOP's majority in the House will be so big and solid that NBC's Chuck Todd says Democrats won't be able to recapture it until at least 2022.

But Obama is still the president, which is apparently all he ever cared about.

COMMENT:  And it may get worse for the Dems.  Obama is about to issue an executive order on amnesty for illegal immigrants that is bound to be unpopular.  It may even turn out to be unpopular among parts of the Democratic base, which fear loss of jobs to illegal immigrants who are suddenly made legal.  There are legitimate fears among African Americans and, yes, Hispanics.  The Hispanic vote for Democrats was down last week.

November 10, 2014       Permalink

GREAT SCOTT – AT 9:14 A.M. ET:  Much buzz, and increasing, about Scott Walker as a presidential candidate.  It's understandable.  Superb governor, wins every election, unflappable.  Weekly Standard has a great piece, including the first analysis I've seen of how Walker won his latest race for governor. 

Scott Walker has won every round of his long fight with Big Labor in Wisconsin, but it wasn’t until November 4 that he delivered the knockout punch. In his third gubernatorial election in four years, Walker defeated Democratic challenger Mary Burke by 6 points. It was the same margin of victory he had in the 2010 Republican wave and just a point shy of his 2012 performance in a union-funded recall.

Walker’s victory has secured the conservative reforms he implemented in his first term and will encourage other governors to follow his lead. It should also make him a serious contender for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination if he wants it—which seems likely.

Some of Walker’s opponents have tried to console themselves with the belief that he triumphed simply because Republicans win low-turnout midterm elections, while Democrats win high-turnout presidential elections. “President Obama went into Milwaukee” and “did all he could do,” a distraught MSNBC host Ed Schultz said on election night. “He went to the base. This was a base election. He just apparently didn’t get out enough people.”

But in reality, the election didn’t come down to turnout. Walker could have survived 100 percent turnout in the liberal bastions of Milwaukee County and Dane County (which includes Madison, the capital and home to the state’s flagship university). Burke could have netted the same number of votes in Milwaukee and Dane counties as President Obama, but if everything else had stayed the same, Walker still would have won.

And...

The key to Walker’s success was his performance among middle- and lower-income voters. Walker won those earning more than $100,000 by 20 points, just as Mitt Romney had in 2012. But he won voters earning between $50,000 and $100,000 by 17 points; Romney only won them by 1. Those earning less than $50,000 Walker lost by 9 points—whereas Romney lost them by 25. As reporter Molly Ball pointed out in the Atlantic earlier this year about that last group, “whether Democrats win these voters by a 10-point or a 20-point margin tells you who won every national election for the past decade.”

COMMENT:  Absolutely fascinating.  Walker is winning where we need to win, and holding down Dem margins where that's necessary.  The rap against him is that he's a boring speaker.  I'm not so sure.  Over time his explanatory rhetoric seems to grow on people. 

I went to a meeting of our side over the weekend, and there was buzz about a Walker–Martinez ticket, the Martinez being Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico. 

We have to win in 2016.  I'm not terribly interested in ideological purity.  We'll never get it anyway.

November 10,  2014     Permalink

NOVEMBER 9,  2014

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:53 P.M. ET: 

SCIENCE NEWS – From Britain's Independent:  "A virus that infects human brains and makes us more stupid has been discovered, according to scientists in the US.  The algae virus, never before observed in healthy people, was found to affect cognitive functions including visual processing and spatial awareness.  Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medical School and the University of Nebraska stumbled upon the discovery when they were undertaking an unrelated study into throat microbes."  Now we know what's affected the White House staff. 

HINTING – Much presidential talk surrounds Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, who won his third gubernatorial election Tuesday.  He's not discouraging it.  From The Hill:  "Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) is staying tight-lipped about his plans for 2016, but said on Sunday that a governor like himself would have a better chance of beating Hillary Clinton than a member of Congress.  'Overall, I believe governors make much better candidates than members of Congress,' Walker said in an interview with 'Meet the Press.' "  I think he tastes it.  He saved Wisconsin.  His sights are high.  There is buzz about a ticket with Walker at the top and Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico in the vice-presidential slot.   Strong ticket, though neither is a great speaker.

AGAIN? – From WaPo:  "With the next time to buy health plans under the Affordable Care Act starting in less than a week, the Obama administration is expressing confidence that HealthCare.gov is no longer the rickety online insurance marketplace that exasperated consumers a year ago.  Behind the scenes, however, federal health officials and government contractors are scrambling, according to confidential documents and federal and outside experts familiar with this work. They have been making contingency plans in case the information technology or other aspects prove less sturdy than the administration predicts. And some preparations are coming down to the wire."  You'd think that after all this time, they'd have a foolproof system.  But this is the Obama administration.

November 9,  2014     Permalink

THE NEW ARCHITECT – AT 12:32 P.M. ET:  One of the great heroes of this last election was Reince Priebus, the Republican National Chairman.  For once, the party has a leader who knows what "win" means.  For once, losing isn't standard.  Now Priebus, in dealing with the Louisiana runoff, shows us that you take nothing for granted.  From Daily Caller: 

Look out everyone: the RNC is going all out in Louisiana for Bill Cassidy.

Less than a week after their nationwide drubbing of the Democrats in Tuesday’s midterm elections, the RNC is flooring the car and putting all of their efforts into the Louisiana Senate race in an effort to propel Rep. Bill Cassidy to victory over yet another Democrat incumbent, Sen. Mary Landrieu.

In a Friday interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, RNC chairman Reince Priebus detailed the party’s efforts over the next month as they look to increase their majority in the Senate.

“Are the Democrats trying to head fake us in Louisiana by pulling the money out of Mary Landrieu? Or have they really given up? And are you going to take that head fake?” asked Hewitt.

“I just saw that all the ad buys for starting on Monday in Louisiana, every single market in Louisiana, there is not a single ad pro-Landrieu booked in Louisiana – not from her campaign, not from the Dem Senate Committee, no 527,” said the RNC chairman.

“If you look at the pro-Cassidy ad buys…every media market’s full. So I don’t know exactly how she’s going to compete,” Priebus questioned. “The RNC is sending 220 full-time staffers this weekend on planes. We’ve got hotels, meal plans, cars…”

COMMENT:  Right on!  Always fight as if you're 20 points behind.  The election isn't over until the votes are counted.  This is what the party has needed for years.

November 9, 2014      Permalink

THE DAMAGE – AT 12:20 P.M. ET:   The Democratic Party has been badly wounded by losses in two midterm elections.  Ace political reporter Dan Balz has the story in WaPo: 

When President Obama was elected in 2008, his victory signaled a generational change and the prospect of renewal for the Democratic Party. Instead, the opposite has occurred. Over the past six years, the party has been hollowed out.

The past two midterm elections have been cruel to Democrats, costing them control of the House and now the Senate, and producing a cumulative wipeout in the states. The 2010 and 2014 elections saw the defeat of younger politicians — some in office, others seeking it — who might have become national leaders.

As the post-Obama era nears, the Democrats’ best-known leaders in Washington are almost entirely from an older generation, from the vice presidency to most of the major leadership offices in the House and Senate. The generation-in-waiting will have to wait longer.

Presidential campaigns and open nomination contests help bring new leaders to national prominence. That appears unlikely in 2016. For all her positive attributes, former secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton is a suffocating presence when it comes to intraparty presidential competition. Her command of the Democratic machinery, from fundraising to grass-roots organizing, is so extensive that almost everyone else is understandably intimidated about even testing their talents against her.

COMMENT:  My heart breaks, and I'm anguished at their loss.  You know, you can send flowers.   Think kindness.

November 9, 2014        Permalink

THE REVELATION – AT 12:08 P.M. ET:  The president of the United States, and distinguished professor of Constitutional law, has now given a revised assessment of the election.  From the Washington Examiner: 

President Obama for the first time provided a concise analysis of Tuesday’s election results: “We got beat.”

Obama, in a taped interview with CBS’ “Face the Nation” that aired Sunday, also tried to demonstrate that he is taking the blame for the dramatic Democratic losses at the polls.

“The buck stops right here at my desk,” he said, borrowing a phrase from President Harry Truman. “And so whenever, as the head of the party, it doesn’t do well, I’ve got to take responsibility for it.”

The actual phrase was, "The buck stops here." 

The message Obama said he was taking away from the midterm loss of Democratic control of the Senate and historic GOP gains in the House is that “people want to see this city work.”

Despite the chastened general tone of the interview, Obama didn’t specify how he would approach the job any differently in terms of policy, repeating his pledge to issue a new executive order on immigration by the end of the year. He also pointed out that Congress could override his action by passing a comprehensive immigration bill.

COMMENT:  It would have been nice had Obama taken responsibility immediately.  Clearly, this new statement was issued in response to criticism.  Compare please to President Kennedy's response to a reporter who asked who was responsible for the debacle at the Bay of Pigs.  "I am the responsible officer of the government," Kennedy replied, and he didn't need coaching.

November 9, 2014     Permalink