Last week at Blog World Expo, a fascinating discussion broke out. Jerome Armstrong from MyDD and Markos from DailyKos, among other lefties, argued that Iraq was going to be a driving issue. They, furthermore, argued that success wouldn’t matter, because the failure was the initial decision, and Americans will stop Read more
Joe Klein posits that the GOP may end up running on immigration in 2008: It’s long been my belief that the GOP hole card in 2008 is going to be a rancid furriner-bashing anti-illegal-immigrant smear campaign. … A few months ago, I asked Mitt Romney if he thought illegal immigration Read more
A friend of mine is a lobbyist. He was on the Hill and asked a bunch of GOP members what they thought. Their position was basically: This is a blue state problem and the people affected are going to vote Democrat anyway Moral Hazard arguments and federal gov’t should not intervene Read more
James Pethokoukis, who used to work at IBD and whose writing seems to lean pretty much to the economic right, has a consistent critique of the GOP primary so far. His most recent post is entitled, "GOP Debate Strangely Ignores Financial Turmoil." To be clear, he’s talking about things like Read more
Haven’t I been saying this? The housing crunch is most severe in some of the most hotly contested political battleground states, a trend that could spell trouble for Republicans next year. Six of the 10 states with the highest foreclosure rates in the country last month are considered by leaders Read more
The Foreign Policy blog has some interesting details about rich people losing their homes: A good example of this is the greater Washington, D.C., area. One might think that subprime loans would be most popular in poorer areas of the District. And they’d be right. According to a study by Read more
Another month. More lousy housing numbers: A total of 223,538 foreclosure filings were reported in September, up from 112,210 in the same month a year ago, according to Irvine-based RealtyTrac Inc. The number of filings in September was down 8 percent from August’s 243,947, the firm said. Sounds like it Read more
Last night, I was really struck by Mike Huckabee’s language on economics. Let’s go to the transcript for a moment: Mr. Huckabee: The real fact is, unions are going to take a more prominent role in the future for one simple reason: A lot of American workers are finding that Read more
If the test of a debate is memorable lines or gaffes, then Mitt Romney’s line about lawyers was a big problem. Marc Ambinder has the exact quote: "We’re going to let the lawyers sort out what he needed to do and didn’t need to do." Dave Freddoso at NRO doesn’t Read more
They start with Fred Thompson. Thompson: No reason to believe in a recession. He rattles off the numbers. He cuts to long-term spending, which is right up his ally. They follow up and ask about the polling and the angst. They switch to Romney and ask about foreclosure. 1/100-some. Romney Read more