Pete Spiliakos

The Obama slideshow on the life of Julia gives a sense of how social democracy can combine with a kind of atomized individualism. The real Julia would face a less generous government of course (Julia would be less influential member of the coalition until she got to be a quite old Julia), but one . . . . Continue Reading »

Things like, 1.  I would prefer that a Greek default not produce an international banking crisis or even an international economic slowdown that hurts the US economy.  But it is possible (I guess.) 2.  I would prefer that Iran peacefully gives up its nuclear program so that Israel . . . . Continue Reading »

Joe Knippenberg brought this Mike Gerson column to my attention.  Gerson argues that conservatives are going to have accommodate to the fact that younger voters are less religious and less culturally conservative than younger age cohorts.  Here are some only somewhat on point responses . . . . Continue Reading »

I agree with Peter and Sean Trende that we shouldn’t worry too much about the state polls in North Carolina right now.  If Obama wins North Carolina, it will be because he clearly won the national popular vote and North Carolina’s electoral votes will not have proved . . . . Continue Reading »

I’m still thinking over this post from David Frum.  Frum argues that Republicans are unlikely to make large gains among Latino-Americans by putting Marco Rubio on the ticket and would be better off trying to win over Asian-Americans by nominating the Indian-American Jindal for Vice . . . . Continue Reading »

David Frum thinks that Bobby Jindal would be a better vice presidential candidate than Marco Rubio.  So do I, but I can’t endorse Frum’s reasoning.  Frum writes that Republicans are better off going after Asian-American voters with Jindal as VP than going after Latino voters . . . . Continue Reading »

So this guy named Pete Spiliakos says I haven’t been totally consistent on nullification and interposition.  Now I’d say that nullification and interposition are two different things.  The first is the alleged legal rights of states to suspend the enforcement of any law a . . . . Continue Reading »

I think that’s about the best speech that Romney can give and by far the best I’ve seenfrom Romney .  He found the range on the whole “fairness” thing.  It also comes across pretty authentic-seeming.  You can believe that Romney believes his . . . . Continue Reading »

or smart, public spirited guys disagree.   Mitch Daniels says that Romney ought to “ . . . Spend the precious time and dollars explaining what’s at stake and a constructive program to make life better. And as I say, look at everything through the lens of folks who have yet to . . . . Continue Reading »

So I was listening to the 1:00 PM NPR show and the host said that he had a source in the Obama White House who told him that they expect to lose a 5-4 ruling (presumably that means at least the striking down of the individual mandate), but that they expect to use the ruling to rally the public to . . . . Continue Reading »