Month: March 2012

Taegan examines the incompetence of the GOP election machinery thus far.

David A. Graham thinks he can climb out of it. Andrew Rugg doesn't: 

Romney’s current 17-point gap between his unfavorable and favorable rating spells trouble. Americans aren’t likely to vote for someone they don’t like personally. But can Mitt Romney change his fortunes and make himself more likable? All the TV ads in the world aren’t likely to do the trick. George W. Bush in 2000 was the most successful in increasing his favorability. He gained five points between March 2000 (57 percent) and late October 2000 (62 percent) in Pew’s polling. The largest overall change occurred in 1992, when George H.W. Bush lost 14 points between March and October. Even if Mitt was able to “pull a George W. Bush” he would end the general election with a favorable rating of 37 percent. Based on the historical data alone, it seems highly unlikely that he could get elected with those numbers.

The story of a man in need of a transplant:

Kornacki thinks Gingrich is being used:

The pro-Romney forces clearly grasp the potential usefulness of Gingrich and are being fairly blatant in their efforts to fortify him. The story of Sheldon Adelson, the casino magnate and Gingrich super PAC supporter, is well-known by now. Adelson has a longstanding personal and professional alliance with Gingrich, but he doesn’t care for Santorum and has essentially been flipped by Romney’s team. Adelson is still pouring money into the pro-Newt super PAC, but with the expectation that it won’t be used to tear down Romney (as it was in South Carolina) and that Gingrich will play a key role in making sure Santorum doesn’t win the nomination.

A youth shows a bump to the head during the annual 'Fastern Eve Handba' event in Jedburgh's High Street in the Scottish Borderson March 1, 2012 in Jedburgh, Scotland. The event, which started in the 1700s, takes place today and involves two teams, the Uppies (residents from the higher part of Jedburgh) and the Doonies (residents from the lower part of Jedburgh) getting the ball to either the top or bottom of the town. The leather ball, which is stuffed with straw and decorated with ribbons, is thrown into the crowd to begin the game. By Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images.

Shafer praises a new paper by Adam Thierer on "technopanics":

The beating heart of Thierer’s paper is the belief — which I endorse — that societies tend to twist themselves into moral panics when confronted with something new or unrecognized that they don’t understand. “A moral panic occurs when a segment of society believes that the behavior or moral choices of others within that society poses a significant risk to the society as a whole,” is how one academic quoted by Thierer defines it. The current panics over the Web are just the latest manifestation.

John Sides and Lynn Vavreck compare Romney to Santorum and Obama:

Even if Obama cannot attack Santorum for his Cadillacs, he might criticize Santorum’s tax plan, whose largest tax cuts would go to the wealthiest.  But compared to Romney, Santorum appears to have a definite advantage.  If politics were the Daytona 500, voters would put Santorum with the fans in the stands, not up in the owner’s box.

Dan Savage headlined the phrase in a prescient July 2006 op-ed [NYT] reacting to Washington's Supreme Court decision allowing a legislative ban on same-sex marriage:

Washington’s judges went out of their way to make [gay couples' children] disappear, finding that "limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples furthers procreation, essential to the survival of the human race, and furthers the well-being of children by encouraging families where children are reared in homes headed by the children’s biological parents." Children, the decision continues, "tend to thrive in families consisting of a father, mother and their biological children.’" A concurring opinion gave the knife a few leisurely twists: due to the “binary biological nature of marriage,” it read, only opposite-sex couples are capable of "responsible child rearing." …

These defeats have demoralized supporters of gay marriage, but I see a silver lining. If heterosexual instability and the link between heterosexual sex and human reproduction are the best arguments opponents of same-sex marriage can muster, I can’t help but feel that our side must be winning. Insulting heterosexuals and discriminating against children with same-sex parents may score the other side a few runs, but these strategies won’t win the game.

And now Washington is on the verge of enacting marriage equality.

Daniel Gross argues that higher gas prices, while painful, "won't torpedo the economy":

In the last few years, the corporate sector got religion about efficiency. Walmart has steadily increased the fuel efficiency of its vast trucking fleet. Through the use of smart logistics and route planning, UPS has shown it can significantly increase the number of packages it delivers even as its trucks drive fewer miles. Businesses that have to spend the most money on gas have the biggest incentive work on efficiency. And so they're investing in alternative fuels and new technologies. The other day in New York, I saw several electric DHL trucks, part of its fleet of 30 battery-powered vans and 50 hybrid trucks. About 30 percent of the taxis in New York City today are hybrids. Bus fleets around the country run on compressed natural gas, as the website CNGNow.com documents.

The latest:

So Miss Fluke, and the rest of you Feminazis, here’s the deal. If we are going to pay for your contraceptives, and thus pay for you to have sex, we want something for it. We want you to post the videos online so we can all watch.

Words fail.