Month: December 2011

National Review attacks Gingrich for agreeing to attend the upcoming Trump-moderated debate:

Sure, we see the angle: Gingrich excels in debates and he knows it, and in light of his threat to Romney in Iowa, his participation all but dares the yet-uncommitted Mitt to irk the pro-Trump rump of GOP voters by refusing. As a serious contender running a campaign with maximal pride in its own seriousness, Gingrich lowers himself by association with this consummately unserious man. Romney should refuse to follow suit.

Weigel has more on Trump's motivations. Patrick Caldwell wonders if Trump will revive birtherism: 

It's a terrifyingly plausible scenario that Trump will use his perch later this month to quiz each of the candidates on Obama's birth certificate; hopefully they won't take the bait and will rebut Trump's crazy ramblings, but since the majority have visited Trump Tower, they may kowtow with the hopes of securing the reality TV star's endorsement.

And wouldn't that accurately reflect the reality of the GOP these past two years? It's a talk radio show pretending to be interested in governing.

In the run-up to the Iowa caucuses, a viral video from earlier this year, of a 19-year-old Iowan standing up for his two moms, has been making the rounds again:

The guy, Zach Wahls, reflects on his Internet-fueled fame:

As crazy and awesome as this ride has been so far, I had decided to temporarily suspend my studies to focus on advocacy work because of a Facebook message I received back in February. At the guy’s request, I’m withholding his name, but here it is, verbatim: "man, i just watched your video on youtube. being from the south, the deep south, I have been raised ‘anti-gay.’ Pardon the slur. but that completely changed my view on the subject. Just amazing. Im leaving for the army in two weeks and was pretty upset about don’t ask don’t tell being repealed but again you changed my view on that. I just thought it would be nice for you to know you truley opened someones eyes. Thank you."

On the one hand, it’s cool to know that folks like Ellen DeGeneres, Ashton Kutcher, Rosie O’Donnell, and Melissa Etheridge know who I am, thanks to my video. But, sorry, stars, the previous message was way better.

Christmas gift idea here.

“If Newt Gingrich becomes president, we all deserve to die in a purifying fire,” – libertarian Will Wilkinson.

It's institutional. Noah Millman spells it out:

It would be bizarre for Europe’s leaders, faced with an unequivocal and profound design failure of their existing institutional arrangements, to punt on structural questions and simply have the ECB step in to bail out the periphery. Looser money is exactly what Europe’s central government should be delivering. But Europe doesn’t have a central government. It only has a central bank. The ECB is criticized for behaving as if it were the Bundesbank, making monetary policy based on German conditions alone. I fail to see how the situation is improved if the ECB were to behave as if it were Banca d’Italia. The ECB needs to be the central bank of Europe. To be that, there needs to be a European government. That’s what this crisis is about – not about morals and not about monetary policy, but about institutions.

But since a democratic European government is an impossibility – because of the sheer linguistic, cultural, national diversity of European life – we are where we are. The euro was a fatal over-reach for this utopian project, just as occupation of the West Bank was a fatal over-reach for the utopian project of Zionism. And yet the forces behind both European integration and Greater Israel are so great that the follies may well just deepen, until, well, until they cannot any longer, and Europe and Israel have to choose between democracy and utopianism. I hope both pick democracy.

Question? askandrew@thedailybeast.com Video archive here.

A little emotional vindication for Brett Baier:

This video of Romney speaking French could also do some damage. My favorite damning Romney video remains the following:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Moment of Zen – Mitt Romney's 1994 Senate Campaign
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

 

Dish readers – in this particular case Pete Warden, creator of OpenHeatMap – continue to amaze us with their creativity and ingenuity:

Last year I put together a map of several hundred View From Your Window photos that you were kind enough to feature on the blog. I've been working on a followup that shows 650 pictures on an animated globe, arranged by time of day. (It's using bleeding-edge HTML5 features, so you'll need a recent version of Chrome, Firefox or Safari to play with it.) I'm a massive VFYW fan, keep up the great work!

Likewise. The piece is mesmerizing and beautiful. At times, it seems we have a staff of a million people. All we can say is: thanks.

Robert Costa reports on Paul's steady, traditional strategy:

According to state GOP insiders, a Paul victory is a real possibility. In background conversations, many say Paul is much stronger than outside observers believe, with deep and wide support among a frustrated electorate. With Herman Cain’s departure from the race, operatives see Paul potentially collecting a quarter of caucus attendees. … "Ron Paul’s Internet operation is to Republicans in 2012 what Barack Obama’s Internet operation was to Democrats in 2007 and 2008," [Paul adviser Trygve] Olson says. "It’s very grassroots and national, with thousands of very active supporters who spread the message in every state. That energy is the undercurrent to what’s happening on the ground, where people are going person to person."

Last night, I sat through both O'Reilly and Hannity to get a read on the Ailes propaganda at this moment in time. The line on Paul is clear: they all say in unison at any available moment: "Ron Paul has zero chance of getting the nomination." They never said that about Cain or Bachmann or Perry, over whom Paul has solid leads. A new NBC/Marist poll indicates that Paul could attract independent voters and even disaffected Democrats in Iowa:

Paul’s popularity among independents could be a crucial advantage. Paul leads Obama 42 percent to 35 percent among independent voters, according to the poll, and he also attracts 15% of Iowa’s Democrats. 

A Paul win in Iowa would completely discombobulate Fox News. That's good enough reason in and of itself to vote for him. Any restoration of decent, intelligent conservatism must start with a weakening of Ailes.

"Does no one in Europe realize that this is the single worst thing they can do?" – Felix Salmon, panicking about one of the details in the Merkozy deal.