Pete Spiliakos

Jonathan Chait writes that Perry has made the Bachmann campaign obselete.   Peter Lawler picked up on it first. . . . . Continue Reading »

1. Yuval Levin makes the case for the current Republican field about as well as it is going to be made.  There is also a lot that is unsaid but still communicated about some Republican presidential candidates from this cycle and the last. I’m not there yet.  There are too many . . . . Continue Reading »

While the Ryan people were announcing that he wasn’t running for President (sigh), I was out watching FRIGHTNIGHT.  Very enjoyable vampire movie that does a smart job of incorporating some of the anxieties of the Great Recession.  That is tougher to do than it sounds.  The . . . . Continue Reading »

I think Allahpundit overstates the case against a Paul Ryan presidential campaign.  Whatever else Ryan might be, he wouldn’t be another Tim Pawlenty (or at least not the phony, weaselly, cynical Pawlenty who ran this time around.)  Allahpundit is right that it is tough to see a Ryan . . . . Continue Reading »

Talk of Paul Ryan maybe running for President seems to be all over Fox News today.  Here are my thoughts: Con: 1. Ryan’s original Roadmap proposal has huge political problems on the taxation side.  He seems to have proposed a middle-class tax increase with sharp tax cuts for . . . . Continue Reading »

1.  Well I’m sorry that I won’t have Pawlenty to kick around anymore, but he ran a campaign that deserved to run aground.  2.  I’m looking forward to Peter’s treatment of Perry, at least partly because it will help relieve me of having to form my own opinion . . . . Continue Reading »

So Pawlenty, after focusing his efforts on Iowa, got less than half as many votes as either Ron Paul or (the WINNER) Michele ‘Tip of the Spear’  Bachmann at the Ames Straw Poll.  As Yoda would say, “How embarrassing.”  If Pawlenty continues with his campaign, . . . . Continue Reading »

Ah, Tim Pawlenty.  He was a governor who, facing divided government and a Democratic-leaning electorate, managed to produce a more or less sustainable budget (overwhelmingly through spending cuts) while maintaining core government services.  That sounds like pretty good preparation for . . . . Continue Reading »

Too bad it is being buried in a Ta-Nehisi Coates comment thread (and Coates is very much worth reading himself), but this blog comment by Yoni Appelbaum (who writes as Cynic) is a brilliant critique of a certain kind of smug and shallow Bachmann-despising journalism.  Here is a taste: . . . . Continue Reading »

Ryan Lizza’s profile of Bachmann is designed to produce guffaws from the New Yorker’s readership, but I was impressed by the discipline and focus of Bachmann’s campaign.  They know that the public cares more about the economy and government spending than which Founder fought . . . . Continue Reading »