Asymptosis: Always Approaching

Category: Politics

  • Not Blinking

    My sister sez: I wish someone would make the point that, if you don't blink, you get a lot of sand in your eyes. Seems like that would make it kind of hard to see "the facts on the ground." Related posts: Ah: The Republicans Banned Earmarks! To claim “objectivism” at 20 is predictable. To…

  • Polling the Pollster Pollers: Obama Still Strong

    Update: If you're looking for conservative polling, click here. I've been meaning to put together a post for a while now on the metanalysis sites: the top-feeders one level above pollster.com, realclearpolitics, electoral-vote and the like (who aggregate and average recent polls)–outfits that run statistical crunchers on the polls, and spit out what everyone wants…

  • Everything Sez: “Obama Landslide.” What Gives?

    Update: If you're looking for conservative polling, click here. We all know that national polls tell us nothing about what's gonna happen in November. (See, for instance, this very funny post.) But still. The national polls seem way out of synch with every other indicator. Obama and McCain have been nearly tied for months (with…

  • Pro-Growth Republicans Revisited

    In comments on my recent post–which discusses how the economy performs (much) better under Democratic presidents–my friend Steve uses a few different rather familiar arguments to undercut the import of the facts imparted therein. He claims first that presidents don’t have any effect on taxes and such–that congress controls the purse strings. But he acknowledges…

  • Tax-Cutting Republicans? Get Real

    Put aside for the moment the current Republican presidential candidate’s tax plan, which imposes higher taxes on 250 million Americans than the Democratic candidate’s plan. The simple fact is–as innumerable sages (at least since Adam Smith) have pointed out–spending is taxing. Three choices (laid out very nicely by Brad DeLong): Raise taxes in the future.…

  • Inequality is Bad Because it Hurts the Republican Brand

    I thought I'd pointed this out in a previous post, but apparently not. When you hear Republicans speaking negatively of America's extreme and growing inequality, it's only because it might hurt their brand and their electoral prospects. David Frum is the poster child. In this week's NYT Magazine, he's nice enough make my point for…

  • Even Fox Sez McCain’s Lying About Taxes

    Major Garrett: McCain’s TV commercials assailing Obama’s tax policy contain serious distortions, if not out-right lies. On Aug. 8, FactCheck.org, published this report on a spate of new McCain TV spots on Obama and taxes. Read it here: www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/more_tax_deceptions.html That report followed one in July that raised similar concerns about the truthfulness of the McCain…

  • Pro-Growth Republicans? Get Real

    Republicans like to claim that they’re the party of growth and prosperity. Even though all the facts say otherwise. I’ve pointed out repeatedly that when you compare a lot of developed countries over decades, you see that lower taxes and smaller government don’t result in faster growth. Tax cuts are an effective vote-buying political pander…

  • Mankiw Endorses Obama, Slams Palin

    The former chair of Bush II's Council of Economic Advisors, in his manifesto, Smart Taxes: An Open Invitation to Join the Pigou Club (pdf): "It is not a stretch to believe that more thought about an issue leads to more reliable conclusions." Okay well, not explicitly. And in any case he does contradict this sentiment…

  • Corruption: Are Pubs Worse than Dems?

    My friend Steve can’t resist taking a somewhat tangential jab at me regarding corruption: Dems versus Pubs. For those who aren’t in the know, he and I have had this conversation already, and after looking at his evidence, I found myself hard-pressed to argue that in the legislative branch, over decades, the Pubs are necessarily…

  • Peggy Noonan’s Right: It’s Over

    What do they really think? Caught on open mikes yesterday, three top political analysts–including two being long-time top Republican operatives–said what they really think about the Palin choice ("cynical"), and about McCain's prospects following that choice. The money quote, from Peggy Noonan: "It's over." Peggy's right. On fivethirtyeight.com, Obama's odds of winning have gone from…

  • More Great Minds: Lincoln on “Conservatives”

    From the Cooper Union speech. Emphasis mine. “But you say you are conservative – eminently conservative – while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick to, contend for, the identical old policy on the…

  • Palin for President: Be Afraid

    I guess John McCain will do anything to (try to) win an election. He’ll even saddle his country with a president who knows nothing about foreign or military affairs. While we’re fighting two wars. I’ll just point to my previous post. Related posts: Insurgents surging in from inside and outside Why nominating Clinton would be…

  • McCain: Rebel Without a Brand?

    My 17-year-old daughter just pointed out to me something that's completely obvious, but that I hadn't realized, and that I haven't seen discussed much, at least in these terms. Think about the words Hope. Change. Yes We Can. Who owns 'em? I mean owns them? When you think Obama, what words come to mind? When…

  • Do Voters Prefer Death or Taxes?

    Today's NYT/CBS poll gives the answer: Taxes. 67% of voters think it's "more important to provide health care coverage for all Americans" than to "hold down taxes." Related posts: Tea Partiers: Old, White, Rich, Educated Men Business Roundtable Proposes Obamacare to Restore American Competitiveness ‘Pubs Love Catastrophic Coverage. Too Bad the Free Market Doesn’t Provide…

  • Why Friday Night?

    I've searched all over but haven't found any discussion of why they announced Biden on friday night/saturday morning. The exception: some wildly worded Aha! comments on right-wing blogs saying that the Obama team was forced into the announcement by a leak. (The leak, presumably, being secret service arriving at Biden's place?) It's common wisdom that…

  • Great Minds Think Alike: Obama on “Conservatives”

    I say somewhat presumptuously, even audaciously. Andrew Sullivan points out: Obama in Time: I was always suspicious of dogma, and the excesses of the left and the right. One of my greatest criticisms of the Republican Party over the last 20 years is that it's not particularly conservative. I can read conservatives from an earlier…

  • McCain’s Tax Plan: You Call That “Conservative”?

    I pointed out recently the horrific rise in the federal debt caused by the much-ballyhooed Reagan Revolution (with only a brief respite under Clinton)–a debt built on the apparent belief among so-called conservatives that we can borrow and spend our way to prosperity. It went from 34% of GDP in 1980 to nearly 70% today.…

  • Oh Crap I Can’t Resist: Obama’s VP Will Be…

    Clark. Because, the following seems very odd to me. According to Steve Clemons at The Washington Note, the Obama campaign is either ignoring Clark or actively putting him at arm's length–he's supposedly not even attending the convention. Odd because: Clark's clearly a Very Big Democratic Asset, and what Obama describes as one "inartful" comment doesn't…

  • Maybe Obama’s Not So Bad…

    My wonderful friend and former business partner Steve allows as how maybe Obama isn't going to drive our economy into extinction after all. His route to that revelation, via a Mankiw post, puts aside that sage's other comment in the post: [Obama quote:] Over the past decade, we've seen…hefty corporate profits, but a shrinking share…

  • Taxes: Obama vs. McCain

    Here’s the best laid-out presentation I've seen, from the Washington Post. Sort of speaks for itself. Hat tip to Monte Asbury. Related posts: Embarrassed Republicans Admit They’ve Been Thinking Of Eisenhower Whole Time They’ve Been Praising Reagan The Macroeconomics of Chinese Kleptocracy Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart Clear-Eyed Sowellian “Realists” Hyperventilating. Again.…