Over the past thirty years, a strange thing has happened on the path to the presidency. With the advent of the twenty-four-hour news cycle and the proliferation of media outlets, potential presidential nominees can no longer control or establish their image in the minds of the public. This is particularly true of someone whom the [...]
Dem Panic: Scott Brown +9% in Mass.
February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Via Wall Street Journal: Republican Sen. Scott Brown holds a decisive lead over Democrat Elizabeth Warren in the race for U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. According to a new Suffolk University/7NEWS (WHDH-Boston) survey, the freshman senator garners 49% of the vote — nine points ahead of his main Democratic rival. It’s the first time a poll [...]
Context of the ‘National Tide’ on Same-Sex Marriage
February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Print Email Text Size The Spectacle Blog By David N. Bass on 2.22.12 @ 11:02AM My local newspaper, the News & Observer of Raleigh, today proffered another story on the upcoming marriage-amendment referendum in North Carolina. This piece was penned in the context of pending pro same-sex marriage legislation in Maryland and Washington State. The [...]
Obama the Lawbreaker versus the Catholic Church
February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
In response to the Obama administration mandate requiring Catholic institutions to pay for insurance covering contraception, U.S. Catholic bishops announced that they will not “obey” that “law.” The bishops have gotten it wrong and backwards, and in doing so have yielded the moral high ground that is rightfully theirs. Catholic bishops and the Church’s other [...]
Supreme Court Has Affirmative Action Backers Worried
February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Print Email Text Size The Spectacle Blog By W. James Antle, III on 2.21.12 @ 2:00PM The Supreme Court announced today that it will take up its first major affirmative action case since Grutter v. Bollinger. In Fisher v. Texas, a white student named Abigail Fisher said she was rejected by the University of Texas [...]
Obama Faces Fearful Political Geography in November
February 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The geographic concentration of much of President Obama’s political support in a few large Blue States and urban areas means that he could be defeated for re-election this November even while winning the popular vote. What few seem to have seriously considered so far is how daunting the present shape of the political battlefield actually [...]
New Koran-Rage in Afghanistan
February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Via NYT: KABUL, Afghanistan — Attempting to contain a violent reaction already gathering steam, the NATO commander in Afghanistan issued a fervent apology on Tuesday for foreign troops having “improperly disposed” of Korans and Islamic materials. As protesters swelled in numbers at the gates of Bagram Air Base, where the incident occurred, Gen. John R. Allen released [...]
How Obama Makes Decisions
February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Oakland Takes a Chance on Manny
February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Print Email Text Size The Spectacle Blog By Aaron Goldstein on 2.20.12 @ 9:09PM Manny Ramirez has signed a minor league contract with the Oakland Athletics. Ramirez abruptly retired early in the 2011 season during a brief stint with the Tampa Bay Rays after testing positive for performance enhancing substances for a second time. In [...]
Does Israel Have to Defend the West?
February 21, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The grotesque foreign policy of the Obama administration has now achieved its pinnacle of battiness. After three and a half years of bowing low to Dark Ages tyrants and shafting our democratic friends, with Iranian nukes well on the way — so close that even the CIA is willing to see the obvious — the [...]