Pete Spiliakos

This is a pretty terrific article by Matt Lewis about the struggles of people at the lower end of the income distribution and how bad decisions in one’s teens and twenties cause more long-term harm for those whose families have the least. Lewis says: This is a topic that deserves the . . . . Continue Reading »

There seems to be a fair amount of national interest in who will replace Jim DeMint in the Senate. A lot of this interest focuses on Representative Tim Scott. I remember people talking about who would be appointed to replace retiring Republican Senator Jim Ensign from Nevada. Whoever was appointed . . . . Continue Reading »

It seems likely to me that virtually any unobjectionable Republican who Nikki Haley might appoint would retain the Senate seat that is opening up with Jim DeMint’s retirement.  And if Haley’s likely Senate appointees are ideologically similar (and judging from their . . . . Continue Reading »

Since Peter Lawler asked, but the conclusions are sobering. 1. Of all the candidates who ran for the Republican nomination, Romney was best able to talk fluently about a range of national issues, while building a national campaign and fundraising organization. Perry could not do the former. . . . . Continue Reading »

A while back on Twitter, Ross Douthat wrote “Social cons gave GOP Todd Akin. Elite donors gave GOP “47 percent.” Both hurt, but latter hurt a lot more.” I’m not going to disagree with Douthat. Romney was more important than Akin and “47%” sentiment was more . . . . Continue Reading »

Josh Barro wrote that “Social conservatives are more likely to signal openness to pro-middle class economic policies than the “hardheaded business types” who fund the party.: I think there is some truth to that, and I think that Barro’s next observation is interesting and . . . . Continue Reading »

Matthew Schmitz has a terrific post which discusses Mike Murphy’s suicide-for-the-Republican Party idea that the Republicans should abandon social conservatives and focus on hard headed economic conservatism. Murphy’s post has been beaten up by better writers than me so I’ll focus . . . . Continue Reading »

Ramesh Ponnuru disagrees with the idea that Republican rape theoreticians Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock were a major cause on the Republican Party’s disastrous Senate outcome in which they lost 25 out of 33 Senate races. Ponnuru rightly points out that Republicans lots of different races . . . . Continue Reading »

I think William McGurn puts little too much stress on the whole Obama “Life of Julia” slideshow, but he does raise the perfectly reasonable question of why so many middle-class Americans decided that Obama had their back while Romney was indifferent at best. Let’s take a look at . . . . Continue Reading »

I don’t know where to begin.   Let’s start with where McCain says: As far as young women are concerned, absolutely, I don’t think anybody like me — I can state my position on abortion but, other than that, leave the issue alone, when we are in the kind of economic . . . . Continue Reading »