Who’s high on the hog?

In this tough economy, one group seems to be doing just fine: government employees. Not only that, but they continue to unionize while the competitive  workforce continues to move away from the practice. This is a problem because public sector unions are bleeding taxpayers dry and electing Democrats to keep the money coming, writes Michael Barone. The cycle will repeat itself until voters say enough – a time which may be approaching, in the view of the author.

Dems hit the wall of common sense and the American people

Self-assured intellectual and moral superiority is blinding liberals to the reality of public discontent with President Obama and congressional Democrats. Why else would the president forge ahead with a stubbornly ideological and adversarial State of the Union address? How else could the party resist acknowledging the implications of Scott Brown’s historic special election victory in Massachusetts?

Charles Krauthammer dissects the matter in Friday’s column for the Washington Post. He notes how Democrats portrayed their own opposition to President Bush as “dissent…one of the truest forms of patriotism,” while Republican resistance to the current majority is labeled “obstruction” arising from “nihlistic malice.” How true….

Diversity Discussions

Diversity remains a buzz word on today’s college campuses, including the University of Missouri. The term has come to represent a sociopolitical movement with a sweeping agenda of establishing and enforcing certain liberal mores of political correctness. Its acolytes live to lecture others, but often assume the guise of benign and disinterested parties who seek to simply “ask questions” and stage “difficult dialogues.”

Is it wise to participate in such exercises, given the inherent ideological and immoderate approach to the issues? That is the question I ask in a piece for the National Association of Scholars, as I reflect on some of my recent experiences in attempting such engagement.

Over the next several months I will guest contribute to the organization’s website. I will continue to devote full attention to Principally Political, while linking to anything that I publish at NAS.  I’m humbled by this special opportunity.

Steve Walsh out at Missourinet

Steve Walsh will no longer work as a political reporter for Missourinet. His departure follows an apparently controversial personal comment he published on his Twitter account recently. More on this later – there’s several things to discuss here. Thanks to Combest for the link.

At the moment I’ll just say that I’m sorry to see Walsh leave his current position. I don’t know him, and was interviewed by him only one brief time during my tenure in state politics. But like so many other Missouri politicos and news junkies, I often read or listened to his reports for Missourinet.

Whether his comment (which humorously revealed similarities in political positions held by Osama Bin Laden and some liberals in this country) was appropriate for a journalist to make on his own time, on his own dime, is an appropriate topic of discussion. It certainly calls attention to the perils of self-publishing on social networks, and today’s interactive web.

There are journalists who may personally be liberal or conservative but who report the news independently and fairly, and also those of both stripes who may allow their own biases to shape their coverage. Whatever his private viewpoints, I believe Walsh was one of the straight shooters in Missouri political journalism and that’s why I’m sad to see him go. I wish him the best.

The story Reuters (or the White House?) doesn’t want you to see

Reuters published – then pulled – this story this morning. Hat tip to Drudge.

Now, what I want to know is what sort of communication occurred between White House officials and Reuters editorial staff between the time this story was published and the time it was pulled. This is an unusual move for a wire service to actually withdraw a published story. Why would the news organization do that? If there was specific misinformation, why not issue a retraction or a correction?

However, the fact that the story was pulled may draw even more attention to it. After all, it’s usually not the “incident,” but the cover-up of the incident that makes the most waves. In this case, if the WH was involved in getting the story pulled, maybe they will draw more attention to the issue than had they let it go without interference.

Again, I don’t know that the WH was involved. But killing bad stories is part of any good press operation, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if that’s what happened here.

Branding Obama

Sol Sender, whose symbolic logo was instrumental in the branding effort of Barack Obama’s campaign, will speak at the Kansas City Public Library this evening. This should be interesting for Democrats and Republicans alike.

Kudos to the Kansas City Young Republicans for bringing the event to my attention. The event is at 6pm, admission is free but RSVP is requested.

Seriously?

What’s going on? Obama bows to…….Mayor Pam Iorio 0f Tampa, Florida.

Maybe he thought he had landed in Cuba and was greeting a new communist head of state.

Via Drudge.

I know you are but what am I?

Are Liberals Smarter Than Conservatives? It’s a good question – if in large part because the former seems always to suggest exactly that. Jason Richwine tackles the issue and offers sound and honest insight.

While it may raise some interesting points of consideration, ultimately such a question does not meaningfully advance serious public policy discourse. This is the conclusion Richwine reaches, and it seems a reasonable one.

I suggest that any conservative who has ever been confronted by liberal intellectual arrogance read this article, and read it well.

State of the Union

President Barack Obama basically stuck with a left wing program – not much in the way of a pivot to the center, as some had speculated might be the case.

• He started the substance of the speech with the economy. Smart, and necessary. He defended against a) the notion that the administration hasn’t been focused on the economy and b) the notion that earlier effort on the economy was ill advised. On both counts he invoked the much maligned stimulus package, saying he and Congress “hated it,” but that it was necessary, if not popular.
• He railed against big banks and Wall Street, and said they’ll be forced to pony up dough to Uncle Sam to help community banks make loans to small businesses. Oddly enough, he also channeled main street confusion (or contempt, more likely) with wall street firms getting rewarded for bad behavior – I think he thought everyone would assume he was talking about big bonuses for corporate executives, but in fact he might has well have been referencing the bailout (which would put him on the side of rewarding bad behavior, undercutting his attempted populist rhetoric).
• He said all combat troops would be out of Iraq by August of this year. This surprised me, making a major and specific promise like this, given his failure to meet his Gitmo pledge.
• He pushed for repeal of don’t ask, don’t tell. How serious he is about it I don’t know – it may have been just to throw a bone to a Democratic Party constituency that has been making noises about being under-appreciated by a White House they thought would be an aggressive ally. I disagree with the president on this issue, but moreover, it would simply seem like a tough one to accomplish politically, at least any time soon.
• He called for Congress to keep working on health care.
• He called for Congress to do something on cap and trade.
• And had all the usual stuff about the determined optimism of America, etc.
• There was an extremely awkward moment where he seemed to introduce Michelle Obama almost as an after thought – and she seemed to offer an icy reception in reply. It’s hard to be sure simply watching on tv, but this didn’t look good. He said something like “oh and by the way, our First Lady Michelle Obama is working on such and such a thing….” Very, very odd. Poor form. He played it down by saying she was embarrassed, but the whole moment was just painfully awkward. I wonder if that’s what contributed to a rather mediocre delivery of the rest of the speech. His timing, normally impeccable, seemed a bit off in a few key moments of the night.

All in all, this speech is not going to help Obama that much. To the degree that he projected humility and expressed a desire for a more civil tone, sure, maybe he slows the bleeding a bit as far as his deteriorating public image – but this administration’s agenda is still going nowhere fast.

If he hasn’t already started learning this lesson from his international diplomacy efforts, Obama may learn after tonight that using words alone to hit the “reset” button on serious political issues doesn’t make debates dissolve and problems magically disappear.

Musician in the Spotlight: Caleb Johnson

My brother Caleb Johnson is a violist, studying at the respected Peabody Institute of John’s Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland. He just launched a website showcasing his professional musical pursuits and background.

If you are looking to enjoy live classical music in the Baltimore/Washington D.C. area, consider an ensemble group like Vivre Musicale, Charm City String Quartet, or Peabody Camerata. In the former two cases, you could probably even secure the services of the same.

The site looks great, Caleb! I look forward to hearing you play when I’m in town for CPAC next month.