I listened carefully to Barack Obama’s West Point speech yesterday evening — at least as best I could while indulging the important concerns of the two Little Virtuses and ultimately having to turn off the radio to sit down for dinner. By that point I could tell the speech had dragged on too long for the relatively small amount of substance it contained.
I don’t need to go into great depth: Powerline’s Paul Mirengoff and Red State’s Erick Erickson offer excellent analyses of the politics, policies and rhetoric. (And Don Johnson asks where Colorado Republican Senatorial hopefuls Jane Norton, Ken Buck and Tom Wiens come down on Afghanistan.)
Meanwhile, if you want to find the depth of substance on the military challenges we face, and in Afghanistan in particular, the clarity and substance that was lacking in Obama’s speech — presented more pointedly and concisely — I recommend you read Victor Davis Hanson’s October address “The Future of Western War” in the latest (November 2009) edition of Hillsdale’s Imprimis.
Colorado Republicans need to win four seats in the upcoming 2010 elections to win back a majority in the state senate. While such a development remains improbable at the moment, it’s certainly not outside the realm of possibility. Of the 35 four-year seats in the chamber, 19 are contested in 2010 (including two for special election). Of those 19 seats:
4 are Democrat incumbents facing re-election to a second term
4 are open seats currently held by Democrats
3 are Democrat incumbents seeking their first election to the seat after filling a vacancy
5 are Republican incumbents facing re-election to a second term
2 are open seats currently held by Republicans
1 is a Republican incumbent seeking his first election to the seat after filling a vacancy
Here’s my amateur estimation a year ahead of the game, based on a mix of conservative and optimistic projections… Of the 8 Republican seats, only one (the open seat in Senate District 2) can be considered reasonably in play. And with the Democrats having to play defense in several other districts (see below), picking up this one should not be too likely either.
Meanwhile, of the 11 Democratic seats up for grabs, 6 are safe, 1 has a Democrat edge to hold, 3 are up for grabs, and 1 is a likely Republican pick-up. Excluding the safe seats, here are the races as I see them in order of probable Republican success (disclaimer: as in everything related to politics, projections like these are subject to change based on a host of factors — please consider this a first read 11 months before the election as a snapshot in time): (more…)
First, the Denver Post‘s Dan Haley weighed in on the Republicans’ “Platform for Prosperity.” Today, the story went national with coverage from Wall Street Journal reporter Stephanie Simon, and a quote from from one of my favorite grassroots activists (in spite of her misplaced football loyalties):
Republicans, however, said the platform would prompt voters to focus on the party’s message, rather than their feelings about individual candidates. “People can vote for the agenda,” said Tom Tancredo, a former Republican congressman who had been mulling a run for governor.
But Nikki Mata, a conservative activist in suburban Denver, said that such a strategy misses the point of the tea-party movement. Endorsements and platforms matter less to her and her fellow activists, she said, than their gut feelings about whether a candidate would shake things up — or would cave in to the establishment. (more…)
With so many other outrages going on in the Obama administration, you can be forgiven if you’re not aware of the stonewalling at the U.S. Department of Labor. After months of bureaucratic wrangling, the National Right to Work Foundation was compelled to file a lawsuit to get the Labor Department to disclose its officials’ connections to Big Labor organizations.
The Washington Examiner‘s Mark Hemingway has been among those leading the way on this story. Last week he deftly noted how Barack Obama’s first-day-in-office memo that the Freedom of Information Act “should be administered with a clear presumption: In the face of doubt, openness prevails” has been a big joke at the Labor Department.
This morning, Hemingway’s insider sources tell him that the FOIA and lawsuit threat “have caused [the Labor Department] to go nuts.” Maybe some enterprising soul could compare the reaction to the bright light of sunshine causing cockroaches to scurry for cover. (more…)
Well, my friends, things may have grown much more intriguing with the revelation in a new investigation from my Independence Institute colleague Todd Shepherd: (more…)
Denver Post editorial page editor Dan Haley and I at times certainly disagree. But one observation in his Sunday column deserves a hearty “Amen”:
Too bad voters can’t be trusted with such matters as electing their leaders. At some point, party insiders need to shed their irrational fear of primaries and realize they can actually help candidates.
What’s at issue? Well, the sense of unity supposedly fostered by Republican leaders’ new “Contract for Colorado” — er, “Platform for Prosperity”. The fact that it was drafted for the party’s rank-and-file as a way to determine our candidate for us has not sat well. Especially without a grassroots escape clause. (more…)
Climategate deniers, unready to admit that the emperor has come undressed before their eyes, are aptly parodied in a YouTube video that’s worth the 3 minutes of sheer amusement: (more…)
Update, 12/11:Tomorrow (Saturday) at 1:30 PM local Mountain time I will be discussing the Every Member Option political refund and other union issues on Grand Junction’s “Getting It Right” show with Rick Wagner. You can listen live on AM 1100 KNZZ. On Sunday evening at 7:30 PM local time I will be on Denver’s Backbone Radio with John Andrews to discuss the same topic. Listen live on AM 710 KNUS.
Update, 12/4:I am slated to be on the Jeff Crank Show Saturday at 8:30 AM to explain the Every Member Option refund deadline to a Colorado Springs-area audience. A podcast of the appearance will be available here after the show.
Are you a Colorado public school teacher? Or perhaps a friend or loved one? If so, do you or (s)he belong to the union? Are you interested in getting back your money that the union spends on politics? If you answered Yes to these questions, then the following video about the Every Member Option (EMO) political refunds is for you:
Or go ahead and listen to an EMO overview and some frequently asked questions on a 3-minute podcast by clicking the play button below (if you can’t see the player, or it doesn’t work, click here to listen):
In any case, the information is only valuable if teachers know about it and act on it by December 15. (Teachers in the AFT union have a political refund, too, but no deadline to request it.) Then they’ll have to wait to next school year. So please help spread the word!
Meanwhile, some in the grassroots remain thoroughly unconvinced and stand behind hard-working longshot Dan Maes. The issue is not the rhetoric or the substance of the 20 governing principles that has earned skepticism or even ire. It’s some of the cast of characters involved that many understandably still have a hard time trusting. I’m not all the way there yet myself.
What might help make the Prosperity Platform more palatable is an escape clause — and by that I mean not for McInnis, but for us. So the issue is an agreement to fulfill the 20 principles. What happens if he is elected and then reneges, works actively against one of the 20, or simply delays any serious effort to implement one or more particular actions? What then? Where does that leave the grassroots who are expected to work hard on his behalf? (more…)
The exciting opportunity for a Republican pickup in Senate District 16 with a departing incumbent Democrat Dan Gibbs has taken some interesting turns in the past week. State senate minority leader Josh Penry’s most highly touted replacement was Cheri Gerou. But the HD 25 representative told me today her current seat is “where I plan to stay.” So count out Gerou.
Then there’s Ali Hasan who, while refuting my initial speculations that he might contend, had suggested Jeffco GOP chair Don Ytterberg as a great candidate. However, Ytterberg says he has no desire to take another shot at SD 16 and is dedicated to his current work. “I made the commitment to work for the success of our party and I will do that to the best of my ability,” he said.
But as of today the Republican Party finally has an Evergreen businessman willing to jump in and battle for the open SD 16 seat. No, not that Evergreen businessman, the one who has expressed a firm commitment to the governor’s race and was left out of the crafting of the unity “Prosperity Platform.”(more…)
The antithesis of the conservative reform agenda now being heavily touted by many Colorado Republican leaders is the sort of stale tax-and-spend thinking that emanates from the many taxpayer-funded commissions appointed by Bill Ritter and the Democrat legislature.
Such an example is the Long-Term Fiscal Stability Commission. Three of the minority party members who suffered through hours sitting on the panel — state representative Cheri Gerou, Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway and my Independence Institute colleague Amy Oliver Cooke — ably deconstruct the work of the commission in a column for yesterday’s Denver Post:
The commission squandered a golden opportunity to reform government and provide long term fiscal stability. Instead, it indulged in the same, worn-out argument that government spending must grow. Should big spending proponents succeed, the result will prove to be more than unimaginative: it also will prove to be unsustainable. No wonder taxpayers are disheartened.
And for many taxpayers, disheartened puts the matter mildly. Which also ought to put on alert many of Colorado’s elected officials (most especially those in the majority Democratic Party) as they go back to the people to seek re-election in 2010.
Huffington Post is running video of our appointed junior U.S. Senator Michael Bennet saying he will vote for Obama Care socialized medicine even if it means losing his job. In other words, he’s completely ignoring you.
But sounds like a good idea to me. A few sensible Democrats remaining in the Senate join Republicans to block increased political controls in medicine, but Bennet votes for it anyway and punches his ticket to come home in 2011. Let’s help make it happen.
Word has leaked to the Grand Junction Sentinel that state senate minority leader Josh Penry will formally announce his endorsement of former rival Scott McInnis for Colorado governor. The endorsement was contingent on the McInnis formally agreeing to 20 conservative governing principles.
“These are the principles that swept the GOP to victory in New Jersey in Virginia,” Penry said. “And they can re-unite our Party too, and pave the way for a successful campaign and, more important, a successful governing party when the election’s over and done with.”
Without further ado, here’s the list of unified governing principles that was forwarded to Mount Virtus, a list that contains a fair amount of specificity: (more…)
On a different note, George Will has a great column about the power of states to nullify a coercive Obama Care law — a Plan B I hope we can keep in mothballs.
