Redstate

Posted at 7:52am on Jun. 6, 2008 MI Morning Update: MI GOP State Committee Meets - Remembering Reagan - Electoral College Analysis - STOP TAXING OUR PHONES!

By saul anuzis

151 Days until Election Day

June 6, 2008

MORNING UPDATE:

STATE COMMITTEE MEETS...today and tomorrow. Pizza and Politics tonight and the formal state committee meeting Saturday morning.

RONALD REAGAN REMEMBERED...yesterday, we commemorated the death of President Ronald Reagan who died June 5, 2004. Even before he made the White House his home, Ronald Reagan spoke for the American people, capturing the hearts of small-town citizens and world leaders alike. His remarkable career in public life, spanning over fifty years, began in the Midwest as a student leader and sports broadcaster, then in Hollywood as an actor and long-time director of the Screen Actors Guild, later as Governor of California, and finally, as President of the United States. His legacy, too, is extraordinary: In eight short years as President, Ronald Reagan presided over epochal international changes and ushered in unparalleled peace and prosperity - not only to his country but the world.

Posted in Electoral Votes | Michigan Republican Party | Phone Tax | Republicans | Ronald Reagan | Saul Anuzis | State Committee — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 5:17pm on May 15, 2008 Think Progress fails history

By Soren Dayton

ThinkProgress notes a passage from John McCain's speech today in which McCain warns of the dangers of appeasement:

Yes, there have been appeasers in the past, and the president is exactly right, and one of them is Neville Chamberlain. I believe that it’s not an accident that our hostages came home from Iran when President Reagan was president of the United States. He didn’t sit down in a negotiation with the religious extremists in Iran, he made it very clear that those hostages were coming home.

Think Progress proceeds to fail history 101:

McCain’s praise of Ronald Reagan is wholly misplaced. To recap, during the Iran-Contra affair in the 1980s, hostages were not released because of Iran’s fear of Reagan, as McCain suggested. In reality, Iran released them after Reagan administration officials infamously sold arms to the country, which were transfered to Ayatollah Khomeini. As a result, 11 Reagan officials were convicted of crimes.

They are so laughably, ignorantly wrong. The hostages were released on Reagan's inauguration day. Recall that these guys recently accused McCain of plagiarism when someone had actually stolen the lines from him.

Hacks and clowns

Posted in 2008 | John McCain | Ronald Reagan | Smearing And Sliming John McCain | ThinkProgress — Comments (66) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:31am on Feb. 14, 2008 A Finer Tune

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Cover politicians, like cover bands, can be entertaining.

But I like the oldies. Oldies are the genuine article.

(Via Stephen Bainbridge.)

Posted in History | Inspiring AND Substantive Rhetoric | My President | Ronald Reagan — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:16pm on Jan. 25, 2008 I am no longer a RiNO

By Neil Stevens

For the record, I no longer consider myself a RiNO. I will vote for the nominees of the Republican party* all the way down the ticket automatically. That's my new policy.

This is a major change for me. I've always considered voting for another party to be a reasonable message-sending approach. but I was misguided: my thought processes hinged on the assumption that the Republican party is truly and rightfully Reaganite. But that is not the case, so I have to adapt.

Posted in conservatism | Conservatives | Republicans | RINOs | Ronald Reagan — Comments (152) / Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 9:48am on Jan. 25, 2008 I Guess The Clinton Campaign Can Run The Negative Ads Now

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

This candidate clearly praised Ronald Reagan. He gets what's coming to him:

It was a remarkable moment: A young, free-thinking presidential hopeful named Bill Clinton sat down with reporters and editors at The Post in October 1991 and started saying things most Democrats wouldn't allow to pass their lips.

Ronald Reagan, Clinton said, deserved credit for winning the Cold War. He praised Reagan's "rhetoric in defense of freedom" and his role in "advancing the idea that communism could be rolled back."

"The idea that we were going to stand firm and reaffirm our containment strategy, and the fact that we forced them to spend even more when they were already producing a Cadillac defense system and a dinosaur economy, I think it hastened their undoing," Clinton declared.

Clinton was careful to add that the Reagan military program included "a lot of wasted money and unnecessary expenditure," but the signal had been sent: Clinton was willing to move beyond "the brain-dead politics in both parties," as he so often put it.

His apostasy was widely noticed. The Memphis Commercial Appeal praised Clinton a few days later for daring to "set himself apart from the pack of contenders for the Democratic nomination by saying something nice about Ronald Reagan." Clinton's "readiness to defy his party's prevailing Reaganphobia . . .," the paper wrote, "is one reason he's a candidate to watch."

Posted in 2008 | Reagan Derangement Syndrome | Ronald Reagan | The Clintons — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 8:31am on Jan. 22, 2008 How Consequential A President Was Ronald Reagan?

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Consequential enough to inspire a whole line of argument at last night's Democratic debate. At this rate, the Democrats will carve his likeness into Mount Rushmore while denouncing him at the same time to their constituencies. It's more than a little amusing to witness the split personalities on this issue, but I guess this is the result of two big Reagan electoral wins that continue to live on in the Democratic consciousness.

Posted in History | Ronald Reagan | The Aftermath Of Morning In America — Comments (6)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 1:21am on Jan. 17, 2008 Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a request to make. (Open thread)

Please? For me?

By Moe Lane

A habit has crept into comments, when referring to the current junior Senator from Illinois. In what is apparently an effort to annoy and distress our colleagues on the Other Side, certain individuals make it a point to refer to said Senator by turning his first name into an initial and spelling out his middle name. I would appreciate it if this habit stopped, from now on; it's kind of low-rent, if you know what I mean.

So, please, when referring to him in the future, use his proper name. The one he's earned: Senator Barack "Reagan-lover" Obama.

Thank you for your attention in this matter.

Moe Lane

PS: Open thread.

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Ronald Reagan | Who Knew? — Comments (147)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 12:57am on Jan. 17, 2008 Memo To Barack Obama

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Not a bad statement, but oh, how the Clintons are going to beat you up for this:

(Via the Politico.)

Posted in 2008 | Barack Obama | Ronald Reagan | The Clintons | The Politics Of Ideological Retribution — Comments (18)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 4:42pm on Dec. 28, 2007 Mitt Romney's Ronald Reagan problem

Or is it Reagan's Romney problem?

By Mark Kilmer

First, a disclaimer. I am not writing this in an attempt to rally the conservative troops against or for any candidate; rather, I'm expressing a concern, the reason for which has been evincing itself with regularity of late.

Talking to a very friendly Rich Lowry, substituting for Sean Hannity on FNC's Hannity & Colmes Thursday evening, Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney was asked about his lack of foreign policy experience in light of the recent assassination of Pakistani opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Romney replied that he would consult a team of experts, get a broad range of opinion, and make his decisions that way. This reminded me of Ross Perot in 1992 during his many appearances of CNN's Larry King Live.

Perot, completely from memory:

You gonna let me finish, Larry. Larry, it's a pig in a poke. What you do, Larry, is you get a team of experts and sit them down in one room. Problem solved, Larry.

And he mentioned Ronald Reagan as an example of a President with no foreign policy experience, and he pointed out that Reagan won the Cold War.

But Mitt Romney is not like Ronald Reagan.

Read On...

Posted in 2008 | Mitt Romney | Ronald Reagan — Comments (81)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 10:09pm on Nov. 18, 2007 Lou Cannon's Historical Memory Is Better Than Paul Krugman's

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Behold.

Posted at 3:29pm on Nov. 17, 2007 It's not about the Human Life Amendment

(a minor Presidential political squabble)

By Mark Kilmer

Doffing my cap to Erick's post below, I have a quick reflection to add.

Neither Fred Thompson nor Mitt Romney, unless they've changed their minds, will propose a Right to Life Amendment, or anything federalizing abortion. Neither will a party platform. It is up to Congress, and nothing has been happening there.

The currently-heralded 1980 Republican Party Platform reads on this matter:

While we recognize differing views on this question among Americans in general—and in our own Party—we affirm our support of a constitutional amendment to restore protection of the right to life for unborn children.

What amendment? It was up to Congress to propose.

The platform continued:

We also support the Congressional efforts to restrict the use of taxpayers' dollars for abortion.

The latter, not requiring a consensus of the three-fourths of the State legislatures, is much more doable and has been done. And will continue to be done. But President Reagan did not strongly push the Amendment and Congress brought nothing of import. The plank was a laudable goal, as is much of what comprises a party platform, but it was not a true draft of policy much less legislation.

But it can be something meaningless but contentious when argued out of context on a Sunday Morning Talk Show.

Read More…

Posted in 2008 | Abortion | Fred Thompson | Human Life Amendment | issues | Ronald Reagan — Comments (13)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 2:10am on Nov. 12, 2007 The Innocent Mistakes Of Paul Krugman

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

So there is this campaign to condemn Ronald Reagan for supposedly relying on Richard Nixon's "Southern Strategy" to get elected to the Presidency in 1980. Paul Krugman is elbowing competitors out of the way to issue the condemnations. But I think that perhaps Krugman may have committed some innocent mistakes.

There is a lot more below. Read on . . .

Posted in History | Innocent Mistakes | Paul Krugman | Ronald Reagan — Comments (24)/ Email this page » / Read More »

Posted at 3:29am on Nov. 10, 2007 Rebutting Bob Herbert

By Pejman Yousefzadeh

See here and follow the links. An apology for Herbert's distortions are necessary. Lacking them, and since that apology will never come, David Brooks and others are naturally forced to set the record straight.