Morning Briefing
For October 30, 2012
1. Disaster Relief
With Hurricane Sandy wrecking havoc in the Mid-Atlantic and New England now is a good time to give to the Salvation Army and other charities instead of, or in addition to, political campaigns. . . please click here for the rest of the post →
2. The Man Without A Mandate
Barack Obama is trying to do something no president has ever done: get re-elected without winning the national popular vote. If he were to somehow succeed at this, he would be the weakest elected president since Rutherford B. Hayes, and the lamest lame duck in American history.
Since popular vote totals were first recorded in 1824, four presidents have been elected while losing the popular vote (five, if you count John F. Kennedy in 1960). None were incumbents seeking re-election. And three of the four – George W. Bush in 2000, Benjamin Harrison in 1888, and John Quincy Adams in 1824 (as well as JFK) – could legitimately claim a different sort of mandate upon election: while they may not have won the popular vote, their parties won or kept control of the House of Representatives, the House of Congress that – unlike the Senate and the Electoral College – represents the people in roughly equal proportion . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
3. Colorado Early Vote Returns From Overseas Already Outnumber Totals From Last Two Election Cycles
Ballot requests and early voting returns among military and other overseas voters from Colorado already surpass 2008 and 2010 turnout numbers, the secretary of state’s office announced on October 29.
To date, 19,055 military and overseas Colorado voters have already requested ballots, exceeding the 2008 presidential election totals by 2,804 ballots. Of the 19,055 ballots requested this year, 8,320 have been returned thus far from Colorado voters around the world. This is already 80 percent greater than the total number of ballots submitted from oversees voters in the 2010 election cycle. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
4. Thomas Friedman Defines Pro-Life As Life In Communist China
Over the weekend, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman took a few minutes off from his slavish boosterism of totalitarianism and Communist China to tell us all what it means to be pro-life in a column modestly titled Why I Am Pro-Life. What we learn is that he really hasn’t a clue on the subject.
This cri de coeur from Friedman comes from the success that social conservatives are experiencing in Republican primary elections. He takes aim at Richard Mourdock (who knocked of RINO Richard Lugar), Todd Aiken (who defeated two other pro-life candidates but has achieved notoriety with his unfortunate exegesis on human biology), and Joe Walsh (whose apparent sin is running against the rent-seeking Tammy Duckworth) and uses them as a point of departure to describe what being “pro-life” really means. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
5. Egyptian Leader Calls For Sharia Law
In yet another triumph for Obama’s support of the Arab Spring, Saad al-Katatni, the newly elected chairman of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s political wing, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), has called for the institution of Sharia law. The FJP is the majority party in the Egyptian parliament. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
6. Is The Economy Moving Forward or Simply Stumbling?
Last week I wrote about the need to look beyond the headlines in order to have a more informed view on what is or is not going on with the domestic economy. Last Friday, we received the gross domestic product (GDP) figures for 3Q 2012 from Bureau of Economic Analysis, and once again the headline of 2% growth does not reflect what is really going on.
First off, the GDP headline of up 2% for the September quarter compares to 1.3% in the second quarter and 1.65% for the first half of 2012. To the casual observer, today’s data would suggest an improving economy, particularly since the GDP figure was ahead of the 1.8% or so consensus forecast held by most economists. However, when we break the GDP data down we find the upside surprise was due an unexpected increase in government spending and defense spending in particular. This marked the first increase in government spending in the last 9 quarters. . . . please click here for the rest of the post →
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