Month: November 2011

Kevin Drum thinks so:

On a day-to-day basis, I suspect Romney would govern about as conservatively as any of the others. But in an emergency, he's the only one who seems pretty certain of responding in a non-catastrophic way.

A map shows when different states are predicted to return to pre-recession jobs levels:

Catherine Rampell captions:

Across the country, there are 4.7 percent fewer jobs today than there were when the recession began in December 2007. And remember that the United States population has grown in the last five years, so if the economy were healthy there would be more jobs today than there were then. This analysis only models when we’ll be back to square one.

Richard D. Kahlenberg decries legacy college admissions:

By rewarding birth rather than merit, legacy preferences are un-American, and yet they are also uniquely American, rarely found in other leading universities across the globe. … If the Supreme Court curtails the ability of universities to use racial affirmative action, as many expect, there will be new pressure to end preference for the offspring of alumni. Lawyers are already promising to challenge legacy preference in the courts as an unconstitutional relic of the past.

Flesherton, Ontario, 9.05 am

Robert Hiltonsmith summarizes a new report on the recession's lasting consequences:

Rising debt, un- and underemployment, and dim job prospects have forced many Millennials to postpone the key decisions that historically marked entry into adulthood. Nearly half of the 25- to 34-year-olds surveyed said they’ve put off purchasing a home; 29 percent say they’ve delayed starting a family; and 26 percent still live with their parents. These decisions have long-lasting effects.

Someone who is forced to delay purchasing a home until their 30s will likely not have that house paid off by the time they retire in their late 60s. Those who have to put off starting a family will still be paying for kid-related expenses until their late 50s or early 60s (or later, if their own children are unemployed and living with them in their 20s). Millennials’ parents, the Baby Boomers, were able to buy their first homes and start their careers and families in their late teens and early 20s, right out of high school or college, with little or no debt.

Today on the Dish, Herman Cain truly outdid himself, a witness corroborated his accuser Sharon Bialeck's story, and the GOP embraced torture. Andrew Cohen blamed Obama, John McCain stepped in, and we corralled foreign policy debate reax here. Bachmann sort of clarified her assertion that the CIA is "run by the ACLU," we checked Perry's pulse, and assessed Gingrich's surge. Andrew glimpsed "the fantastic utopian nightmare of Newtism," he stood by his condemnation of Mike McQueary (as did Dreher), the Penn State football cult widened, and readers weighed in here. Andrew assailed the GOP's newfound anti-tax ideology, he introduced a related new construction ("successful and wealthy"), and in our AAA video, he addressed whether he was reckless in contracting HIV.  

We wondered if/when Germany would take over Europe, Berlusconi fell from grace in Italy, and the Arab League denounced Assad. Jennifer Rubin endorsed "throwing Arab prisoners into the sea to meet righteous divine punishment," and we noted vile murderous sentiments on the other side. 

SCOTUS will hear the case against Obamacare, the supercommittee equivocated, and big business undermined free markets. We envisioned the Future Of Interaction, Wikipedia is as wondrous as the pyramids, and modern DC architecture is deliberately unoriginal. Child actors grew up, O'Reilly botched the history of the Lincoln assassination, and Harold & Kumar pioneered a stoner's "post-racial dream." We shouldn't condescend to the elderly, the mentally ill spurred the early humans on, and vaccines have a greater impact on health than "all the new drugs." We were inspired by Mark Kelly, Nicole Gelinas reimagined personal-retirement accounts, bad local immigration policies have far-reaching effects, and dirty work is "beneath" most Americans.

Malkin award nominees here and here, hathos alert here, cool ad watch here, VFYW here, FOTD here, and MHB here. 

— M.A.

(Photo: New York police clear Zuccotti Park, the Occupy Wall Street movement's encampment in Lower Manhattan. Protestors were told they could return, but without sleeping bags, tarps or tents, once the park has been cleaned. Follow updates here and here, and live footage here. Photo by @Newyorkist.)

Dreher defends his calling McQueary vile:

I do not see a contradiction between recognizing that a) what McQueary did was vile and cowardly, and b) that any of us might do the same thing under those circumstances. In fact, I think plain moral sanity requires us to hold both views. I find it to be a dangerous sentimentality that seeks to withhold or minimize condemnation of McQueary on the grounds of imaginative empathy (“I might do the same thing in his position.”) Yes, of course we might — which is why we need to hold before us, clear in our minds, the despicable nature of such an act, as a kind of vaccination against falling prey to the same moral cowardice.

I suspect it will, reluctantly. Walter Russell Mead isn't so sure: 

I’m agreed that Chancellor Merkel has no intention of being the chancellor who threw Europe away, but both at home and abroad she faces some challenging constraints.  I think there is a non-trivial chance that events could move too far, too fast for her to step in.  Some kind of banking crisis in France, for example, could create an immense and overwhelming mess.  Anything that affects France’s credit rating could lead to a position in which no simple and effective solution could be put in place quickly enough to stop an unpredictable and uncontrollable set of financial consequences.  Chancellor Merkel does not have a free hand at home; the German Constitutional Court and fractious coalition partners are watching her closely.

Amazing:

Allahpundit cringes:

His candidacy’s now basically an experiment to see if there’s anything he could say about policy that grassroots conservatives wouldn’t ignore/forgive in the name of nominating a candidate who’s “authentic” instead of some slick RINO Beltway insider phony …

Drezner invokes the mercy rule:

There's a mercy rule in Little League, and I'm applying it here — unless and until Herman Cain surges back in the polls again, or manages to muster something approaching cogency in his foreign policy statements, there's no point in blogging about him anymore.  I can only pick on an ignoramus so many times before it feels sadistic. 

Pamela Geller, who previously endorsed Cain, calls it an "unrecoverable moment":

This is just unacceptable, Herman. … He is not ready.

Chait dismisses the campaign's attempt at damage control:

Cain was operating on four hours sleep, his campaign tells Chuck Todd.  I have been on four hours sleep before. It has not prevented me from recalling the general outline of recently concluded American military interventions. 

Malkin:

Cain makes Rick Perry look like a Mensa president. 

Friedersdorf:  

Cain clearly hasn't thought at all about a war his country was fighting while he ran for president. Presumably he was briefed on it prior to Saturday's foreign policy debate. … The man is not a quick study.

Philip Klein focuses on a different part of the interview, in which Cain expressed support for collective bargaining power for public sector unions at both the state and federal level, which "would put his position to the left of the policy that exists even during the Obama administration": 

It's unclear whether Cain's candidacy is just part of his book tour, part of an effort to land a Fox show, or some sort of mere vanity project. But whatever it is, it is not a serious presidential campaign. Cain hasn't earned the right to be taken seriously, because he hasn't approached the task of being a presidential candidate with seriousness.

[Post updated with more reaction]