Category: The Dish

Healthcare Mandates

Tyler Cowen is impressed with the arguments against them made by David Cutler, Obama’s chief healthcare adviser. I’d point out something else about this rare Clinton-Obama policy difference. Obama is the more pragmatic and centrist of the two on this matter. The notion that he is the more liberal of the two is not a very enlightening analysis. In general, they represent different strands of liberalism, and it’s reflected in their campaign rhetoric. Obama tends to emphasize people’s ability to help themselves and their capacity to do so independently of government. Clinton tends to emphasize the neediness of people for government support and help, and she’s much more comfortable with coercive government action.

It’s "Yes, We Can," vs "I’ll Take Care Of You."

And that’s why a simplistic Obama-is-a-leftist critique won’t work as well as some seem to think. He’s a liberal, but a reconstructed one. He’s the kind of liberal who sees dependency as a problem not a solution. And he’s not a statist in the way previous liberal generations have been. He actually listened to and absorbed some of the conservative critique of liberalism these past two decades. And he has changed not just to protect his right flank.

McCain-Romney?

Victor Davis Hanson proposes a ticket. A couple of thoughts: McCain despises Romney; the country finds Romney almost as distasteful. Campaigns do help you figure out whether a candidate has that hard-to-define factor of popular appeal. K-Lo doesn’t understand this, because she’s in a cocoon. But Romney doesn’t work. No one’s buying it.

The Republican party today reminds me of the British Labour party in the early 1980s – rewarding its most unhinged activists, punishing its most appealing leaders, and circling the electoral drain, without even fully realizing it. If you want an image and a sound to illustrate this – listen to the boos for McCain at CPAC:

Here Comes The Sun

Climate change CO2 skeptics have long argued that the sun’s cycles are the most potent influence on the earth’s climate. More research is surely a good idea:

Kenneth Tapping, a solar researcher and project director for Canada’s National Research Council, is among those looking at the sun for evidence of an increase in sunspot activity.

Solar activity fluctuates in an 11-year cycle. But so far in this cycle, the sun has been disturbingly quiet. The lack of increased activity could signal the beginning of what is known as a Maunder Minimum, an event which occurs every couple of centuries and can last as long as a century.

Could the sun give us time to solve global warming?