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On the site, so pardon our dust!

Bob Barr is in the Race

It looks like Bob Barr has officially thrown his hat in the ring. This is going to be interesting!

R3VOLution March - July 12

This could be really outstanding, so long as there are more constitutionalists there than knee-jerk peaceniks.

Bold Prediction: McCain Remakes the GOP

Whether or not you like McCain, he is the only thing that can save the Republican “brand.” He will win in the fall and reinvigorate the party by returning fiscal discipline to Washington. Thoughts?

25 Most Influential Right Wingers

John Hawkins polled “right wing” bloggers and came up with the following list.

#25) Mark Levin: 6
#21) Hugh Hewitt: 7
#21) George Will: 7
#21) John Roberts: 7
#21) Ronald Reagan: 7
#20) Victor David Hanson: 8
#19) Antonin Scalia: 9
#18) John McCain: 10
#14) Glenn Beck: 11
#14) George W. Bush: 11
#14) Glenn Reynolds: 11
#14) Matt Drudge: 11
#13) Bill Kristol: 12
#10) Charles Krauthammer: 13
#10) Thomas Sowell: 13
#10) Laura Ingraham: 13
#9) Karl Rove: 14
#8) Jonah Goldberg: 15
#7) Bill O’Reilly: 17
#5) Newt Gingrich: 21
#5) Ann Coulter: 21
#3) Mark Steyn: 23
#3) Sean Hannity: 23
#2) Michelle Malkin: 24
#1) Rush Limbaugh: 49

First, I’m not surprised that Rush topped the list. He is one of, if not THE most influential person in American politics. But I’m surprised at some of the other names. Coulter? Really? Rove? Listen, I will stipulate that Rove is the best political operative the right has ever seen. He makes Begala and Carville look like third graders (I guess they do a good job of that their selves). But ten years from now, are we really going to look back and say this is the party that Rove built? I doubt it. Bill O’Reilly? Come on. The guy buys into all the “windfall profits” crap.

I was also surprised that Ronald Reagan was so far down the list. But I guess the living carry a certain priority. Finally, I don’t think I would have pick John Roberts, but I’m glad he is on this list. Much more than Rove, Roberts is likely to have a profound impact, not just on the direction of the party, but the direction of the country.

Rich Miller Supports Illinois Constitutional Convention

I didn’t realize Rich Miller was pro-Con Con! That’s terrific. He criticized Dawn Clark Netsch yesterday for being afraid of the debate. Kudos.

For those of you not up to speed on Illinois’ Constitutional Convention, check out the Illinois Citizens Coalition and Illinois Issues.

Alan Keyes Gets a Couple Votes

NOOOOOOOOO! Oh Wait … whewww! He’s in North Carolina. That was close.

So What If Obama Wins?

Going into today’s primaries, the punditry has been preoccupied with the question of whether or not Obama can “close the deal.” A valid question, sure. But a more interesting question might be what happens if he wins?

I’m a baseball fan, and every year there is a team that manages to clinch their division relatively early in August. Or worse yet, they never do quite clinch and end up limping into the playoffs. In sports, momentum is everything, and these teams don’t usually do well in the post-season.

To superimpose the metaphor onto politics. Say Obama pulls this thing out; it will be a limping victory. Can he overcome the lack of momentum? Can he and Hillary “unite” and re-energize the party? These are the pertinent questions.

From a political point of view, if Obama wins the nomination, he’d be wise to offer the VP nod to Hillary for precisely this reason; she’s the one with momentum right now and he has to figure out a way to leverage that.

Illinois Government Deeper in Debt

Another year older and what do you get. The Chicago Tribune reports this morning that the Governor’s people are preparing to fight over a $750 million budget gap. The chart below shows that we are (according to Dan Hynes records) off pace for the year, by 0.7%.

The Trib calls this a “shortfall.” Isn’t that one of those words that should be banned from use in the context of government? Is it a shortfall if revenue has not increased as fast as expectations and government spending has grown beyond expectations? Some clarity would help.

It will be interesting to how Springfield behaves this year. Word is, nothing will get done until after November because Democrats don’t want to go into the election with a tax increase on the table, for fear of voter backlash. But will they come back in the veto session and raise our income taxes? You can probably count on it.

Gas Tax Holidays, Some Advice for Barack Obama

Regardless whether a gas-tax holiday will really do anyone any good, Obama’s failure to anticipate and triangulate the issue is exposing a major weakness of his. Yes, sure. I agree that gas-tax holidays are more pandering than anything else. There are probably better ways to deal with the energy problems. But this is not really the point. The point is, should the government self-inflict some pain when the taxpayers are going through a painful time. Obama insists that suspending the federal gas tax would pull dollars away from necessary infrastructure improvements. And yet, this insistence shows a certain arrogance (or naivety) on his part. Americans are smart enough to know that money (especially Federal tax dollars) is fungible and that pain in one area of the budget can be made up for in another. Moreover, transportation bills are notoriously load with pork.

Obama’s position is untenable because it requires he explain why the taxpayers are wrong to want a tax holiday. This will only reinforce the narrative that Obama is an ideologue and an elitest.

The only way to beat a panderer is to out pander. Obama should say, “Yes, we have to do something, and a tax holiday is a good place to start. But in the long run it will no solve the problem … etc, etc.”