These are classic discussions published back in July 2010
Chris Christie Is a Rock Star
New Jersey is a state that other states typically look to when determining how not to do something. Hell, to be blunt about it, how not to do just about anything. High taxes, high crime, crappy schools, despite tremendous advantages in geography, manufacturing base, brain power, etc. But that has changed dramatically in the last 6 months, with the arrival of Governor Chris Christie. He is what, I’d imagine, just about everyone who ever runs for political office dreams of being — someone who uses straight talk, work, and common sense, to fundamentally and significantly change Government for the better. He gets down into the weeds on details. He works an idea through to completion.
In this blog post, Hot Air wishes Gov. Christie would have thrown some red meat to his fans across the Nation. He doesn’t, because it wouldn’t play so well in New Jersey. Well, since he’s Governor of New Jersey and doesn’t govern a single person in... (read more)
New and Improved Government!
David Broder wrote an interesting article on polling data. Like a lot of polling data in these uncertain times, the data is a-little-bit-of-this and a-little-bit-of-that. However, the 10th paragraph really jumped out at me. It says, “[A] generic conservative approach, pitting a leader ‘who will start from scratch with new ideas to shrink government, cut taxes and grow the economy’ beats one committed to sticking with Obama’s policies, 64 percent to 30 percent.”
For a long time now, Republicans have only rhetorically stood for those things. In reality, Republicans mostly have stood for being elected. Once elected, they grew Government and piled on debt — promising that they’d do conservative stuff after the NEXT election. Rinse. Repeat.
I’m optimistic that things might change. To me, it seems very clear that Americans are shouting that they want to shrink government, cut taxes and grow the economy. But, most of the media and government elites favor governmentalism, and, therefore, attack those... (read more)
Capitalism and Governmentalism
Though he fails to connect the dots, Fareed Zakaria unintentionally gives a strong shout out to capitalism. He notes that businesses are sitting on capital, rather than investing it in expansion and job creation, and that is hurting the economy. (Though he only mentions big businesses, small businesses likely would be hording even more capital, because they are less able to withstand government competition and Government-caused turbulence). In fact, businesses are sitting on lots of capital – which could be going toward creating lots of jobs.
Zakaria recognizes that this capital could create jobs which would pull us out of the recession. He recognizes that a key reason businesses are sitting on capital is politics; the Administration is causing uncertainty surrounding regulations and taxes. No smart business owner (which means about any business owner still in business) wants to compete against the Government or pull out in front of a governmental lurch. So, businesses wait, and the economy continues to slip. ... (read more)
What Media Bias?