3-31-09

Clive Crook: At home and abroad, then, the same two questions arise. How long can Mr Obama remain popular if his actions, for one reason or another, are not? And what is popularity worth anyway, where the calculus of ends and means remains unmoved?

Lou Minatti: Coming next: Complete government reorganization of the entire U.S. automobile sector, but with a slight twist. This is when full-scale nationalization of the U.S. medical system occurs. All part of a massive bill that I think is being quickly formulated behind closed doors. Call it the US Manufacturing Rescue Act of 2009.

Michael P. Tremoglie: A lawyer involved with legal action against Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) told a House Judiciary subcommittee on March 19 The New York Times had killed a story in October that would have shown a close link between ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama campaign because it would have been a “a game changer.”

Richard Fernandez two-fer: It is not often appreciated that increasing demands for mandated safety and absolution from liability must be met by corresponding reductions in discretion and freedom. Like everything else, the desire to be cared for by a nanny bureaucracy comes at price: that of being treated like a child. There is no free lunch.

Science is now saving the world from cow farts.

William D. Zeranski: At one time just saying you were an atheist or a non-Christian was enough, and then carrying Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion as if it were a catechism, really exemplified the point. But apparently that isn’t enough.

Obama’s Lemon: Obama needs to decide: Do we want viable private automakers, or do we want automaking government adjuncts in the business of selling green cars at a loss? The only question going forward is whether the Obama administration will calculate that the political cost of pouring billions into the auto companies outweighs the political benefit of subsidizing organized labor and stroking the fantasies of the environmental lobby. The fact that he’s even considering bankruptcy gives us hope, but it is a hope unsupported by anything in Obama’s record thus far.

Filed under: Chip by Chip