As I suspected, the Clint Eastwood “Halftime in America” commercial for Chrysler that aired during last night’s Super Bowl turned out to be quite controversial. This AP article discusses some of the reaction to the ad from various points on the political spectrum and quotes Eastwood as saying the ad was not intended to be [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Politics’
Halftime In America? (II)
Posted in Politics, TV, America, tagged TV, Politics, America, Chrysler, President Obama, Detroit, Clint Eastwood on February 6, 2012 | 2 Comments »
A Glimmer On The Horizon
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, tagged America, Jobs, Politics, President Obama, Republicans, The Economy, Unemployment on February 4, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Yesterday’s unemployment report contained some good news, for a change. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released data stating that 243,000 new jobs were created, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent. Both results are better than what economists and analysts — who never seem to be right — were expecting. There are some curious [...]
Wimping Out In Florida
Posted in Politics, tagged 2012 Republican presidential race, Florida, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Politics, Republican Party, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul on February 1, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The big news out of Florida is that Mitt Romney soundly defeated Newt Gingrich in a contest that, by all accounts, featured lots of “negative advertising.” I think the more interesting story, however, has to do with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul. Santorum and Paul got clobbered in Florida. Santorum ended up with 13 percent [...]
Are Federal Workers Overpaid? (II)
Posted in America, Politics, Work, tagged America, Congressional Budget Office, Federal Employees, Federal Workers, Government Employees, Politics, Private-sector employees, Work on January 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
About a year ago I wrote a post about whether federal employees are overpaid. It’s a never-ending debate — and now the Congressional Budget Office has weighed in. The CBO conducted a study that compared the wages, benefits, and overall compensation of federal employees and private-sector employees who shared certain comparable observable characteristics. The study [...]
The President And The Governor
Posted in Politics, tagged Arizona, High School, Jan Brewer, Politicians, Politics, President Obama on January 29, 2012 | 2 Comments »
When I read the political news, I often feel like I’m in high school again. That was my reaction when I read the story this week about an apparently testy exchange between President Obama and Arizona Governor Jan Brewer on an airport tarmac. President Obama, fresh from his State of the Union speech, flew to [...]
Tuning Out
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, TV, tagged America, Politics, President Obama, recession, State Of The Union speech, The Economy, TV, Unemployment on January 26, 2012 | 1 Comment »
I didn’t watch the President’s State of the Union speech earlier this week. It turns out I’m not alone. According to the New York Times, 37.8 million viewers watched the President’s speech. That’s down from 42.8 million in 2011, 48 million in 2010, and 52.3 million for the President’s 2009 speech to Congress. In short, [...]
High Expectations And Electric Football
Posted in Growing Up, Humor, Politics, tagged Electric Football, Growing Up, Humor, Politicians, Politics, toys on January 24, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Life can be difficult if you approach it with high expectations. You vote for a new President expecting him to live up to his promises, for example, and inevitably you are disappointed. That’s not a problem for me, because I grew up with Electric Football. Electric Football was a toy, but its ads portrayed it [...]
Ending Endorsements
Posted in America, Politics, TV, tagged America, Chicago Sun-Times, Fox News, MSNBC, Newspaper endorsements, newspapers, Politics, TV on January 23, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The Chicago Sun-Times has announced that it will no longer endorse particular political candidates for election. The Sun-Times concludes — accurately, in my view — that people don’t pay a lot of attention to newspaper endorsements anymore, that there are lots of other sources of information available to voters now, and that many people just [...]
The Race Rolls On, And The Big Issues Linger
Posted in America, Politics, tagged 2012 Republican presidential race, America, Budget Deficit, Federal Debt, Florida, Iowa, Mitt Romney, National Debt, New Hampshire, Newt Gingrich, Politics, President Obama, Republican Presidential Candidates, Rick Santorum, Ron Paul, South Carolina on January 23, 2012 | 1 Comment »
The Republican presidential primaries, already seemingly endless, roll on. With Newt Gingrich’s big win in South Carolina, the race is in disarray. Gingrich is on the rise, Mitt Romney’s shield of inevitability has been dented, and Ron Paul and Rick Santorum are hanging on. The focus now moves to Florida. As has come to be [...]
The President As Pitchman
Posted in America, Politics, The Economy, World, tagged America, Disney World, Politics, President Obama, The Economy, Tourism, We Can't Wait, World on January 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Last week President Obama went down to Disney World to tout tourism in America and got his picture taken with the Disney castle in the background. The trip was part of the President’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign, in which he does things by himself that are supposed to promote job growth and show that we [...]
Newtered
Posted in Politics, tagged Conservatives, Mitt Romney, News media, Newt Gingrich, Politics, Republican Presidential Candidates, Republican Presidential Debate, Republicans, South Carolina on January 21, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Today South Carolina Republicans vote in their state’s presidential primary. Polls indicate it is a two-man race between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich. Gingrich apparently has been given a boost by the most recent Republican candidates debate. Gingrich was asked about the recent comments of his ex-wife, who said he asked that she agree to [...]
Mitt’s Tax Test
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Capitalism, Mitt Romney, Politics, Tax Returns on January 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Mitt Romney’s failure to release his tax returns is a self-inflicted wound — and a missed opportunity. It’s hard to believe that Romney didn’t understand that when you run for President, you check your privacy at the door. People have come to expect that candidates for office will release their tax returns. It’s consistent with [...]
The Real Lesson In Perry’s Departure
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Governors, Politics, Presidential Campaigns, Presidential Candidates, Rick Perry on January 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Yesterday Texas Governor Rick Perry ended his race for the Republican nomination for President. His brief campaign started with a bang and ended with a whimper — his departure wasn’t even the top news story on a day that featured stories about open marriages and another debate — but it’s worth some reflection. When Perry [...]
Making Hard Budget Choices: Time To Finish Head Start
Posted in America, Politics, tagged America, Great Society, Head Start, Lyndon Johnson, Making Hard Budget Choices, Politics, President Obama on January 20, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
There may be no federal program that was begun with better intentions than Head Start. It was a key part of Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society initiatives and had an ambitious social engineering goal: to help impoverished kids better prepare themselves for school and a useful life by providing them with preschool. It is now 45 [...]
