Pete Spiliakos

I’m not the biggest fan of debates in their current form, but they do give voters the chance to see candidates interact with each other and explain themselves. Debates can gives a sense of how well candidates understand their own policy proposals and the obvious objections to those . . . . Continue Reading »

 I’ve been trying to avoid thinking about the next presidential election but . . . 1. It will be tough for a guy who supports a tax increase on middle-class parents to go distance with the Republican nominating electorate. I don’t think that is what the median Republican voter . . . . Continue Reading »

Baseball Crank has a terrific set of rules for running for president as a Republican.  Even if you paren’t planning to run for president, his rules are a pretty good way of looking at politics. My personal favorite is: 17-Never assume the voters are stupid or foolish, but also . . . . Continue Reading »

Byron York pointed out that Santorum has been one of the few Republicans who spent the 2012 trying to emphasize the problems of the struggling middle-class. Santorum was talking about the wage-earners who had not graduated college while the Republican ticket was publicly obsessed with extolling the . . . . Continue Reading »

An On The Square column partially inspired by James Ceaser. . . . . Continue Reading »

Support for the Senate’s immigration bill within both parties is puzzling. The bill would vastly increase low-skill immigration even as the unemployment rate among low-skill current residents is 11 percent and the labor force participation rate is only 45 percent. A further increase in low-skill workers would tend to drive down the wages of a population that is already struggling… . Continue Reading »

Byron York has written an excellent article asking a really good question. Why isn’t Santorum considered the (or at least a) frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination?  Santorum’s 2012 performance is very similar to Romney’s 2008 performance  in both . . . . Continue Reading »

  “I don’t think [the Republicans] would make it easier for small businesses.” “A corporation, maybe, absolutely. A small business?”- Report by the College Republicans Those quotes from young voters give you an idea of part of the Republican party’s problems. . . . . Continue Reading »

Jeff Sessions deserves a lot of credit for this memo he wrote on the Senate’s (really Charles Schumer’s) immigration bill. Sessions rightly points out that the Senate bill would enormously increase low-skill immigration and that this would damage the economic prospects of low-skill US . . . . Continue Reading »

Chris Christie’s attack on Rand Paul - where Christie complained about piddling “esoteric” libertarian concerns voiced by people who were too cowardly to face “the widows and the orphans” of 9/11 -reminded me of something, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. It . . . . Continue Reading »