Month: May 2011

"If I were a Palestinian (and, should there be any confusion on this point, I am not), and if I were the sort of Palestinian who believed that Israel should be wiped off the map, then I would be quite pleased with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s performance before Congress this morning," – Jeffrey Goldberg, yesterday.

Joyner reflects on the film's subtle title, "The Undefeated":

I happen to think no Republican would have won in 2008 and that her impact on the race was mixed; but it’s still odd to proclaim yourself undefeated after a major loss. Second, it’s also the name of a pretty good John Wayne-Rock Hudson picture from 1969. The plot involved a Confederate colonel who takes his band of soldiers down to Mexico after Lee’s surrender to fight with Emperor Maximillian. Presumably, the title was ironic, in that they lost twice.

Irony is not Palin's strongest suit, one suspects.

"We need to be honest with the president, with the Congress, with the American people, indeed with ourselves, about what those consequences (of additional defense budget reductions) are:  That a smaller military, no matter how superb, will be able to go fewer places and be able to do fewer things. … To shirk this discussion of risks and consequences—and the hard decisions that must follow—I would regard as managerial cowardice," – Robert Gates, speaking at the American Enterprise Institute.

He's right. Unwinding global military hegemony to save the fiscal viability of the republic will have costs. It will limit our options for intervention, and require some ceding of influence in various regions where rising powers are emerging. But in my view, if done prudently, it is a crucial adjustment to global reality and its urgency intensified by the massive over-reach in the last ten years.

Now, that's a beard. From the Tumbler site, FacialAwareness. Which leads to this image from another Tumblr site about the compulsive addiction to beard blogs:

Just doing our part to make America less productive.

Ezra Klein checks in on the debt ceiling talks:

[T]hey've made more progress than most expected, and both sides now think a deal including more than $1 trillion in cuts is likely. Republicans now need that deal more than ever. And, in particular, they need a deal on Medicare, because they need something that takes the Ryan plan off the table while putting both parties on the hook for Medicare cuts. That's their best, and perhaps their only, chance to defuse the issue in the 2012 campaign. But a Medicare deal is hard to reach on its own terms and almost impossible so long as Republicans are also saying tax increases are off the table. Democrats aren't going to bail Republicans out and accept painful cuts to Medicare so long as Republicans aren't budging on taxes.

Maybe NY-26 will help.

Ramesh Ponnuru says "no":

[T]he number of serious contenders is small. If Huntsman doesn’t take off, the race could well be a two-man contest between Romney and Pawlenty. The Democratic wave elections of 2006 and 2008 left Republicans with few plausible contenders (although their own wave election of 2010 gives them a deep bench for 2016). And no candidate dominates the field, giving a misleading impression about the strength any of them would bring to the general election.

James Joyner nods. But Romney and Pawlenty have no starbursts, to recall a phrase. That matters in a president. Even Bob Dole was more interesting, if only because he was so Gen-Y funny. If either runs, each will have to put a Palin or Bachmann on the ticket. If Palin and Bachmann fail to beat them in the primaries.

That's what David Frum is calling Paul Ryan:

The GOP will run on a platform crafted to be maximally obnoxious to downscale voters. Some may hope that Tim Pawlenty’s biography may cushion the pain. Perhaps that’s right, at least as compared to Mitt Romney, who in the 2008 primaries did worst among Republicans earning less than $100,000 a year. And yes, Pawlenty is keeping his distance from the Ryan plan. But biography only takes you so far. The big issues of 2012 will be jobs and incomes in a nation still unrecovered from the catastrophe of 2008-2009. What does the GOP have to say to hard-pressed voters? Thus far the answer is: we offer Medicare cuts, Medicaid cuts, and tighter money aimed at raising the external value of the dollar.

No candidate, not even if he or she is born in a log cabin, would be able to sell that message to America’s working class.

Ryan's new Medicare pitch via Mike Allen. Could the GOP actually move the country to the left? It couldn't be that big of a meep-meep, could it?

Actually, all of Washington said so. Palin has been airbrushed out of the GOP race by the entire scene – from Politico to National Review. And yet, for some unfathomable reason, she has secretly put together an hour long "Triumph Of The Will" "Evita" "Undefeated" documentary that will attempt to do what Josh Green tried: to reframe her as a visionary reformer. ("Undefeated" is another odd lie, of course. She lost the last general election overwhelmingly and would almost certainly have lost re-election in Alaska if she hadn't quit. But we're in postmodern Republican land here, so logic is not of the utmost concern.) More to the point, it's going to air in Iowa next month.

Why would someone who has decided not to run do that? Or am I airing bizarre conspiracy theories again – as opposed to the dignified restraint so many in Washington have shown? Here's what RCP's Scott Conroy has found out in a great piece of political reporting:

["The Undefeated"] is a two-hour-long, sweeping epic, a rough cut of which [filmmaker Stephen K.] Bannon screened privately for Sarah and Todd Palin last Wednesday in 
Arizona, where Alaska's most famous couple has been rumored to have purchased a new home. When it premieres in Iowa next month, the film is poised to serve as a galvanizing prelude to Palin's prospective presidential campaign — an unconventional reintroduction to the nation that she and her political team have spent months eagerly anticipating, even as Beltway Republicans have largely concluded that she won't run. Bannon, a former naval officer and ex-Goldman Sachs banker, sees his documentary as the first step in Palin's effort to rebuild her image in the eyes of voters who may have soured on her, yet might reconsider if old caricatures begin to fade.

An interesting tidbit from the film:

Those unfamiliar with Palin's political background will be surprised to learn that the woman who has become one of the nation's most boisterous press critics was once such a media darling that two of the Alaska TV news correspondents whose highly favorable reports are shown in the film ended up leaving their jobs to join the Palin administration.

Balloon Juice commenters have some fun coming up with alternate titles. McGinniss, who understands her, notes he expected something like this. It may be a testing of the waters. But it has a crucial Palin aspect. It is entirely controlled by her; it is designed as pure propaganda; she is running against the media; she is running as a victim; she is running for revenge.

I, for one, feel nothing but a chill go up my spine.

Queen Esther is coming. Look busy.