In a sense the 2016 campaign started today. Not in any technical sense, not monetarily or in terms of staff but in the more important sense of events which prepare the battlespace for years to come. Allahpundit says the reaction
A few days ago the Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a piece proclaiming MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry “America’s foremost public intellectual.” Coates didn’t really make much of a case. In fact, most of the piece was about Mitt Romney. Here’s the
A survey published Wednesday by Bankrate.com finds the percentage of people who support Obamacare has plummeted since September. Meanwhile, the percentage who say they would repeal it has grown. When Bankrate surveyed opinions before the launch of heathcare.gov it found
A communist union at a Goodyear tire factory in Amiens, France kidnapped two executives Monday morning and kept them locked in a room in order to force concessions from the company. Mickaël Wamen, an employee and spokesperson for CGT, the
According to former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, both Hillary Clinton and President Obama admitted that opposition to the “surge” in Iraq was “political.” Reporter Bob Woodward reveals some forthcoming secrets from Gates’ new book, Duty, which will be published next
I’m old enough to remember watching the 1992 convention speech by Pat Buchanan in which he described a culture war taking place in America. Twenty-two years later, are those battles on their way to being settled? That night in Houston
Health care spending grew modestly in 2012. The White House says Obamacare is responsible for the trend, but CMS–the agency that issued the new report–says the recession, not the President’s reform plan, is the cause. The Examiner’s Philip Klein highlights
The government takeover is here. It’s just not a one step process. Six days into the full implementation of Obamacare the New Republic’s Noam Scheiber has some good news for progressives like Michael Moore who are dispirited by the Obamacare
A high school science teacher re-imagined the premise of Morgan Spurlock’s film Super Size Me, eating nothing but McDonald’s for 90 days. By sticking to nutritional guidelines, he managed to lose 37lbs. and his cholesterol dropped 50 points. John Cisna
Everyone is making confessions about drug use and I figure I have a slightly different perspective than some so I’m going to share it. There will be a point I promise but you’ll have to bear with me for a
A new report from the Guttmacher Institute, the non-profit research arm of Planned Parenthood, finds that more abortions restrictions were implemented in 2013 than in any other year save 2011. The number of states Guttmacher classfies as “hostile” to abortion
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls reported that 1,067 vehicles were set ablaze on New Year’s Eve. The Local reports that Valls called it a “positive result” since last year the total number of cars burned was 1,193. The destruction was
One of President Obama’s constant refrains during the battle over health reform has been that expanding coverage would reduce inefficiency in the system. In particular, he often cited expensive expensive emergency room visits as something that reform could help reduce.
The Obama administration is always a fan of big numbers. Today they are trumpeting the claim that 2.1 million people have signed up for coverage under Obamacare since October 1st. There are actually at least four caveats to this big
Ever wonder what would happen if the media stopped literally fawning at Wendy Davis feet? It turns out she doesn’t respond well to criticism. After losing a race for City Council in 1996, Wendy Davis filed a lawsuit against the
Groups marketing for and against Obamacare are focusing their efforts on so-called “young invincibles.” This AP story walks through some of the “Brosurance” ads we’ve all seen. It concludes with the perspective of 22-year-old student Mette Jensen: Mette Jensen, a
If you like action movies you’ll be familiar with most of these iconic lines. There are only a couple that seem a bit out of place. The one from Steven Seagal’s Hard to Kill makes me laugh. That film was
Obamacare enrolled nearly 2 million people in paying plans in the first three months, which means it only fell about 50 percent short of its goal, i.e. 1.3 million people. That’s the good news. The bad news is that Obamacare
The NY Times published a lengthy story by David Kirkpatrick Saturday which attempts to explain what took place last September 11th in Benghazi. Much of the story confirms things reported elsewhere, but the author comes to a different conclusion about
Hundreds of messages proclaiming Iranian resistance to the United States have been published as comments on Barack Obama’s official Facebook page. “Hey America, Be Angry at Us and Die of This Anger, Go Die” is one of many which have
There are a lot of end of year lists circulating this week. This BBC list of 100 interesting facts which appeared in news stories in 2013 may be the most interesting one. Some are science facts, others arcane bits of
In a poll of registered voters, CNN finds that NJ Governor Chris Christie beats Secretary Hillary Clinton 48-46 in a hypothetical 2016 match-up. It’s still a year before 2016 campaigning begins in earnest but pollsters continue to ask who voters
Obamacare is not going to bend the cost curve downward. In fact, there are reasons to think it may exacerbate monopolistic practices which lead to overcharging. That’s the premise of a new piece in Washington Monthly which suggests further government
There was a surge in enrollment in December which brought Obamacare back from the brink of abysmal failure to something more like plain-old failure. A spreadsheet suggests enrollment in private plans is now at 26 percent of the goal for
On Christmas Eve in the afternoon, Reuters dumped this story recapitulating the long history of Obamacare’s IT failure. It’s a technology failure that stemmed from management failure, one which the ultimate manager, the President himself, was completely unaware of until
I just went to healthcare.gov to see how it was doing on the eve of the newly announced deadline (today was the deadline until this morning). Here’s what I found: Right now on http://t.co/q5M34LsNOW: pic.twitter.com/hwNSlIPcAB — John Sexton (@verumserum) December
Last week the White House announced that Obamacare itself could count as a hardship, meaning anyone with a cancelled plan could opt out of the individual mandate for 2014. Friday, CBS This Morning got some reaction from insurers, who were
Obama had a bad 2013 but Huff Post’s Sam Stein wants to know why. Among the answers he comes up with is the White House’s own arrogance. Stein reviews a series of reasons why 2013 broke bad for the President.
The Obama administration has extended the deadline for enrollment from Monday at midnight to Christmas Eve at midnight. There was no public announcement of the change. According to the Washington Post, which published the news Monday, CMS declined to comment
This week the administration claims they have almost broken even on the number of people who gained vs. lost insurance, but they offered no way for anyone to check their math. That’s a problem because their claims don’t seem to
Based on statements the President made in his press conference today, Obamacare is on track to enroll about 12.5 percent of its final goal by January 1st. The President released new information on the progress of Obamacare enrollment Friday. In
CNN/ORC have released a new poll which finds President Obama still stuck at his lowest approval rating ever, 41 percent. Obama’s disapproval is also unchanged this month at 56 percent. Majorities of two important Obama constituencies–women (52-45) and young voters
Thursday Ezra Klein once again compared Obamacare’s unpopular rollout to Medicare part D. While it’s true that part D was unpopular and that Obamacare could one day surmount its image problems, Klein continues to gloss over the significant differences in
Does the twenty-something college kid in onesie pajamas strike terror into the hearts of conservatives? That’s the argument being made by several liberal writers today as part of a backlash against conservative mockery of the goofy OFA ad. Adam Serwer
Ronald Reagan told the story of a benefit stealing “welfare queen” back in 1976 to argue for smaller, leaner government. Liberals have complained about the generalization ever since. Paul Krugman called it a “bogus story” as recently as 2007. It
Yesterday OFA tweeted out an image of a young man in hipster glasses and zip-up pajamas, encouraging everyone to “get talking” about Obamacare over the holidays. The image was roundly mocked on the right, which of course led to push
Under pressure from the Obama administration, insurers have decided to “voluntarily” extend the deadline for paying premiums by 10 days. Today the board of AHIP, the insurance industries largest trade group, voted to grant an extension until “at least” January
Jeffrey Goldberg has an opinion piece in Bloomberg today which should be required reading for gun control advocates. Goldberg makes five points about why the Newtown tragedy did not become the inflection point that many gun control advocates hoped it
Nearly five years from the inauguration of President Obama an overwhelming majority of Democrats continue to blame George W. Bush for the nation’s economic troubles. The Washington Post released the results of a new poll today. The results were mostly
A series of new ads feature three individuals known for doing good in their life along with a “new guy.” The ads were created to encourage donations to Unicef in Sweden. All of the characters speak English (Jesus speaks with