Israel could attack Iran without causing a major war in the region

My latest piece for The Guardian

My new Daily Caller piece

My latest piece for The Daily Caller - 'Socialism, Communism and the beauty of Capitalism'

Romney - Ohio Speech

This is a great speech by Romney in Ohio the other day. He appears confident, focused and articulate. Th speech takes apart Obama's failed policies and false rhetoric. Romney is a bright man with a strong message. Especially with the addition of Ryan onto the ticket. I am relieved that Romney appears increasingly comfortable with his campaigning and is now more willing to aggressively take on the President. Game time.

Facebook 'Like' = Free Speech?

The decision by a US District Judge to reject constitutional protection for a man who clicked 'like' on a political candidate's Facebook page, was in my view a serious error. The US Appeals Court should overturn this ruling. The individual was affirming his support for a political ideal and was engaged in a public domain speaking on an issue of public concern. To suggest that a Facebook 'like' falls below the standard for constitutional protection, is similar to suggesting that the government should be able to restrict a speaker from setting up a yard sign on his front lawn. In both cases the speaker is attempting to present his private political agenda to a public audience. From my perspective, a Facebook 'like' is an affirmation of agreement and thus a clear statement of opinion.

Paul Ryan as a candidate

This video effectively explains why Paul Ryan will make a great VP candidate. Because the Democrats refuse to suggest solutions to medicare/social security cost growth, they are unable to do anything but apply scare tactics against Ryan's plan. It is pathetic and it will be seen as such by the American people

Paul Ryan - VP

IF Paul Ryan is indeed to become Romney's VP running mate, he would be an extremely strong choice. Ryan has been one of the few Republicans willing to propose a serious process for reducing the catastrophic federal debt. He has been clear and articulate in taking apart the President's disingenuous and failed debt reduction policies. The Ryan debt reduction plan (which Romney has endorsed) makes bold choices on tax (it reduces loopholes - some popular) in return for lower rates. The Ryan plan also offers substantive reforms to social security and medicare, in order to maintain those programs for future generations. In contrast, Obama's plan would let those programs erode with the weight of the baby boomers. Ryan will be able to articulate why the President's policies are so abysmal and how America can do better. It is important that this election is centered around intelligent debates concerning the deep financial difficulties that we are facing. No candidate is better suited to that debate than Paul Ryan.

I am much happier with this VP choice than the last one!

New piece for The DC

My latest piece for The Daily Caller.

Obama v Romney - Latest polling analysis

The NYTimes is carrying an interesting story examining demographic polling for the presidential election. The polls conclude that Obama continues to have strong support among women, while Romney has a consolidated base of support among white families earning less than $100,000 a year. As a Republican, I draw positive conclusions from this story. The polls illustrate that Obama's anti-Romney business narrative has pretty much failed. The President has been spending ludicrous amounts of money on pathetic adverts that represent the height of hypocrisy for a man who said he would 'change' Washington for the better. Many voters have not been persuaded by these ads. I believe that the voters in Romney's camp understand that it is in fact Obama who has failed on the economy. These voters want real change and Obama is incapable of offering it. I also believe that when Romney really starts running (which he hasn't yet) and spending money on ad campaigns in key swing states, Obama's lead among women voters will deteriorate. The Democratic spin story about the 'war on women' is a bunch of bs. Contraception is cheap, I don't want to subsidize someone else's sex life. That isn't a war on women, it's common sense. Obama's slight overall polling advantage resides on the negative attack ads that he has brought to bear against Romney. When Romney responds to these ads with facts, Obama will lose support and I expect that Romney will pull ahead in the polls. 

Obama's Economic Failure

The jobless numbers today were better than expected (UPDATE- the jobless numbers released in September illustrate the President's ongoing economic failure). However, they were still exceptionally poor. The economy continues to suffer from an 8 .2/.3% unemployment rate. As the BLS statistics show, far too many Americans are currently disengaged from the employment figures because they have effectively given up looking for work. The job situation in America is very unpleasant. It cannot be denied that President Obama inherited an extraordinarily difficult economic environment. BUT.. Obama has been President for 3.5 years now. As Harry Truman stated with regards to responsibility of the President - 'The buck stops here'. Obama's economic policy has been a profound and continuing failure. I believe there are three core reasons for this.

1) The President does not accept basic capitalist economic theory. This can be seen in health care - Obama has increased demand dramatically without producing a correlative increase in supply. I have suggested ways Republicans (who have been pathetic on this issue) could offer a better alternative. Obama's economic mindset can also be seen in his comfortable attacks on corporations - happily comparing them to the bogey man rather than as job creators. This President has an inherent suspicion of capitalism - his attacks on Bain Capital providing the most troubling example. This point has recently become more clear with Obama's observation that successful business owners owe government for their success. For the President, success is inextricably linked with government. As a correlative point, government should therefore at least in the President's eyes, play a fundamental, active role in society. I believe that this mindset is fundamentally flawed. It is true that government facilitates economic growth by providing roads, schools and law/order etc. However, at the core of business success (as with any success) is the hard work of individuals, the willingness to take risks that others won't and the creativity that comes from the individual with an idea. Ultimately, the President believes that Washington DC is better than individual investors at allocating capital. (See 3).

2) The President is seemingly incapable of being honest about the need to reform and resolve America's tax code/debt crisis. Until America's tax policy is permanently reformed, there will be a continuing fog that prohibits individuals and businesses from making long term decisions about how and where they should allocate their money (their "scare resources"). Instead of offering a tax reform plan that would lower rates and increase revenue by removing deductions, Obama instead calls for higher rates and a continued tax system characterized by insane complexity and numerous loopholes. To date, Obama's only  remotely serious tax reform proposal offered reduced corporate rates in return for a winners and losers system in which Washington would allocate its own loopholes to favored industries. In essence, it just re-dressed the same problem. On the issue of debt, until America is able to produce a long term plan for reduced spending, foreign and domestic investors will remain timid and interest payments will continue to soar. On debt, Obama rewarded John Boehner's bold  summer 2011 willingness to find a deal with games. Now, as he runs for re-election, the 2008 candidate for honesty, hope and change peddles the old democratic lie that raising taxes on the rich can alone pay to erase the debt crisis. These failures represent a collapse of leadership and the unsurpassed hypocrisy of Obama's 2008 election narrative.

3) The President believes that the government is best placed make decisions about allocating capital. See Solyndra for how this works out. I used to believe that criticisms of the President were silly when they typified him as a socialist. Now I think they are somewhat justified. I believe that the President's ideology is closely bounded to a liberal mindset that mistrusts capitalist instinct and believes that the government should exist as an active positive constraint against this instinct. I'm not an ultra capitalist, but I do believe that capitalism is a large part of what has made America strong. Government must regulate and punish (SEC and DoJ for example) where capitalism runs amok, but as a general rule, I believe that the less government interference, the better. I believe this is an especially prescient point with regards to Unions. Unions are the President's favorite special interest. Even though they destroy state budgets, reduce employment opportunities, drive up living costs and restrict the free movement of workers. And damage economic productivity.

The above issues are real and considerable obstacles to building a better economic future for America. In my opinion, Mitt Romney would be a far better President than the incumbent.

Dick Cheney, Sarah Palin and Ted Cruz

I am happy that Dick Cheney called out Sarah Palin. Palin is simply not Presidential material. She is rude, arrogant, anti-intellectual and thinks being folksy constitutes the supreme value of leadership. The Republican Party can do far, far better than her. Luckily, it seems that the election of Ted Cruz as the Republican nominee for the 2012 Senate race in Texas might lead to his replacing of Palin as the 'face' of the Tea Party. He is intelligent, charismatic and has a compelling life story. He would make an impressive and certainly far superior Republican leader than Palin. If Republicans are going to take back the White House and succeed in advancing our agenda, then we will need candidates who can articulate compelling ideals for Americans to unite behind. Simply hating Obama is stupid and insufficient. People want honest, persuasive alternatives.