Pete Spiliakos

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 »

I thought this was a good observation by Charlie Cook: Watching politics for 40 years now, I have seen the two major parties tend to leapfrog each other in terms of political sophistication. This state of the political art, when one party is firing on all eight (or, these days, six or even four) . . . . Continue Reading »

Listen, I’m not against some kind of DREAM Act-type law that deals with several kinds of hard cases when it comes to immigration (though I want to see the details.) I would actually be in favor of such a law, but the postelection Republican focus on “comprehensive” immigration . . . . Continue Reading »