Overview for FF Spotlight

What's the Plan After Default?

David Frum writes : Tip O’Neill, the former speaker of the House, was asked at his retirement in 1987 how Washington had changed since he arrived in 1953. He answered, “The people are better. The results are worse.” What he meant: There are many fewer drunks in government than there used to …

Written by Andrew Gelman on Sunday September 25, 2011

Huntsman's Chance

The continuing deflation of Rick Perry after yet another fumbling debate performance has opened the most unexpected chapter yet in the GOP 2012 race: Jon Huntsman's emerging challenge to Mitt Romney - from the right. Sound incredible? Take a look at the opening of Jon Huntsman's speech …

Written by David Frum on Friday September 23, 2011

I'm Already Paying "My Share" Ms. Warren-And More

A video from Elizabeth Warren’s campaign tour in Massachusetts, has been circulating online. In it she justifies on moral grounds the need to raise taxes on “the rich”. As her thin platform from which to launch a tax-the-rich clarion call, she refers to a hypothetical factory owner who must …

Written by Brad Schaeffer on Thursday September 22, 2011

The Texas Non-Miracle

About all those new jobs created under Gov. Rick Perry... The Center for Immigration Studies reports some facts that should sprinkle a little cold water on over-heated claims for the low-wage/high-immigration Texas economic model. Of jobs created in Texas since 2007, 81 percent were taken …

Written by David Frum on Thursday September 22, 2011

The Hobgoblin of Little Minds

At the end of the 1980s, the US was hit by a severe financial shock: the Savings & Loan crisis. I'll spare you the antique details of the crisis, but in 1990 the US found itself looking at perhaps $200 billion in federally insured bad loans by the failed S&L industry. The economy slipped …

Written by David Frum on Wednesday September 21, 2011

The GOP Field is Now Closed

Washington Post blogger Jennifer Rubin is unhappy with the state of the Republican Presidential field and so has come up with a roadmap for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to enter in at the last minute and sweep the primaries and election. The sheer scale of the plan that Rubin is …

Written by Noah Kristula-Green on Tuesday September 20, 2011

Repeat After Me: 2012 is an Uphill Battle for Republicans

The economy is in the dumps, President Obama's latest plans for taxes seem dead on arrival and his approval ratings are near the low point of his presidency. As a result, it's becoming conventional wisdom--at least among over-eager Republicans--that the President is a dead duck and sure to lose in …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Tuesday September 20, 2011

Real Debates Don't Use Pre-Packaged Questions

I have no questions to ask for the GOP debates because I don't believe that questions (plural) should be asked at debates. Ever since the Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, the USA has believed that debates are events where the rivals stand on stage next to each other and answer standard press-conf…

Written by Thomas J. Marier on Tuesday September 20, 2011

Perry is Toxic to Jewish Voters

President Obama, the Republican Jewish Coalition, and Ed Koch are all doing their best to push Jewish voters away from the Democratic Party. These efforts are having effect. In NY-9, Jewish voters turned from the Jewish Democratic candidate to hand the victory to his Catholic Republican rival Bob …

Written by Stephen Richer on Monday September 19, 2011

States Can't Go Bankrupt

The Wall Street Journal carried an op-ed last week arguing that many key provisions of President Obama’s jobs bill are intended as a bailout for “blue states” (defined as Democratic states with heavy union presences) and that other aspects of the same bill might make things worse for the same …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Monday September 19, 2011

Charles Percy, 1919-2011

Charles Percy-former Republican Senator from Illinois died on September 17th at the ripe old age of 91. I met him in his last year in the Senate when I was in Washington on an internship/study program run by Hamilton college. Jonathan S. Tobin lambasts him and his views on Israel here . This is …

Written by John Vecchione on Monday September 19, 2011

The Green Jobs Money Pit

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Written by David Frum on Saturday September 17, 2011

The Ugly Truth About the American Dream

The promise of upward economic mobility is central to the American Dream. Marco Rubio invoked it at CPAC in 2010 with stirring language: [America is] the only place in the world where it doesn't matter who your parents were or where you came from. You can be anything you are willing to work …

Written by Noah Kristula-Green on Friday September 16, 2011

Thank God the US Doesn't Count Religions

As Stephen Richter points out in passing nobody really knows what percentage of New York's ninth Congressional district is Jewish. And that's a good thing. The United States government--which tracks things like the number of farms of 100 to 499 acres in Missouri --does not keep any statistics …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Friday September 16, 2011

What Exactly is a "Green" Job? (Updated)

Here's a skill-testing hypothetical for you environmentalists out there. Some future US government decides to impose a tax on oil to maintain the price above $125 a barrel. Responding to this price signal, more Americans tell their real estate agents they want housing from which they can walk …

Written by David Frum on Thursday September 15, 2011

Calorie Counts are a Dud

September is National Childhood Obesity Month, and the President marked the occasion with a proclamation calling on all Americans to “take action by learning about and engaging in activities that promote healthy eating and greater physical activity by all our Nation’s children.” Obesity is a …

Written by David Gratzer on Monday September 12, 2011

New York Nine: Don't Get Too Excited

It looks like Bob Turner, a Republican, is going to walk away with the special election in New York's Ninth Congressional District. (This is the seat vacated by Anothony Weiner.) Certainly, a Republican House pickup is a cause for celebration. It's true also that a result will, at least in …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Monday September 12, 2011

Despite Threats, We're Winning the War on Terror

The reports of a terror threat tied to the 9/11 anniversary were, of course, cause for vigilance. But the particulars of the threat mentioned in media reports, a car bomb, does provide a modicum of evidence that the expensive, costly, oft-mismanaged War on Terror has not been fought for nothing. …

Written by Eli Lehrer on Monday September 12, 2011

The Two Party System

Comparing and contrasting the jobs speeches of Mitt Romney and President Obama, Americans face an unhappy choice. One political party has decided that the only thing that matters - or anyway, that can be achieved - is to enhance America's long-term growth path by reducing regulations, rationaliz…

Written by David Frum on Friday September 9, 2011

Obama's Cunning Speech

First reactions to the president's big jobs speech: 1) Qua speech, it was excellent - clear, focused, unrhetorical. The core concept - stressing past Republican approval of the major elements of the proposal - ingeniously put Republicans into an awkward spot. And in fact, the maneuver has had …

Written by David Frum on Friday September 9, 2011