Daren Jonescu

Shock Study: Snoopy Extends His Lead

A new study published today suggests that, with the start of actual voting barely a month away, the frontrunner in the Republican primaries remains Charlie Brown’s beagle, Snoopy.

...And Then There Were Two

On November 28th, I posted an article defending Herman Cain against the takedown being perpetrated against him by the Republican establishment and the media. For several hours, readers sent supportive comments, appreciating my effort to refocus the lens onto Cain’s policy strengths and personal appeal. Suddenly, however, the comments turned in a new direction, as news broke of a woman alleging a 13-year affair with the candidate, and one which had continued into very recent times. “It’s over,” shouted those who never liked him anyway. “It’s over,” furthermore, lamented some who, like this writer, had wished to believe that the very worst claim against Cain, even if it were true, represented a moment of moral weakness more than a decade ago, an episode that ended—according to the accuser—with Cain accepting the premise that “No means No.”

Cain’s World

“Herman Cain knows too little about foreign policy to be President of the United States.” When I say that, of course, what I really mean is that I’m just a tiny bit nervous that the sexual harassment allegations against him may have some truth behind them, and I don’t want to have that blow up in my face after he wins the Republican nomination, and yet at the same time I don’t want to look like a lily-livered shrimp of a cowering weenie by appearing to bail on Cain over old, unsubstantiated claims that all seem to be traceable to David Axelrod’s apartment.

A Time For Choosing Substance Over Demagoguery

Much of what is truly at stake in the Republican presidential primaries—not to mention the 2012 elections—resides in that peculiar no man’s land of Unspeakables. These are problems so huge, so devilish, so intractable, that even to utter their names is regarded as impolite—as a breach of the contract named “Life As We Know It,” which includes the all-important subsection labelled “Politics As Usual.”

The Tea Party Faces The Fear

The conservative arguments against the re-election of Barack Obama are unassailable. The purposeful dismantling of a once-great economy and the global demeaning of a once-great society are almost too obvious to require any further argument. If not stopped, it will not be long before the United States of America reaches a point of no return on the possibilities of both economic recovery and the recovery of the basic human freedoms that were once the very meaning of “America” to the unfree peoples of the world.

Thanksgiving Forum Shatters Myths

After a month of growing mythology surrounding Newt Gingrich as the one Republican who could debate rings around Obama, the Iowa Family Forum—the first debate of this season that allowed the candidates room to move and time to explain—ought to have changed the game significantly. The Forum had flaws, but it shone a light on something hidden by the formats of the previous debates: For all his ersatz erudition and ready-to-hand citations, Gingrich’s actual positions are vague, his statements of principle confusing, and his bravado derivative—unsurprising discoveries about the most Machiavellian candidate in the race. By contrast, the truth surely did set the other candidates free, as they spoke without fear and without reservation, in some cases for the first time during this debate season.

Newt-Romney, All-American

In a marriage as unlikely as it is unholy, the Republican Establishment has combined forces with the liberal media to create the primary race they desire. Or, to be more accurate, they have created the fictional narrative that they prefer, with the intention of convincing people that the fiction is reality, and in turn of achieving a self-fulfilling political prophecy.

Newt’s New Strategy: Hide in Plain Sight

As of 2008, Newt Gingrich’s position on the science of global warming was essentially the same as Al Gore’s. True, he was advocating supposedly “conservative” solutions, as opposed to Gore’s expressly UN-oriented agenda. And of course no one is capable of sounding as moronically maniacal as Gore. Nevertheless, regarding the basic ‘theory’—that human activity is leading to a significant and potentially catastrophic alteration of Earth’s climate—they were absolutely of one mind.

The Death of Citizenship

Imagine there’s no polling, It’s easy if you try. No tide to tow us, No Gallup-fostered lie.

A Newt For All Seasons

During the summer, as Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign appeared to be sputtering due to a lack of funds, many in the media began to ask why he thought he could win with no money. His reasonable answer—the only possible answer under the circumstances—was that he was going to pull a McCain. In other words, he would use the debates, along with the free campaign stops presented by political TV and talk radio programs, to present his ideas directly to the voters, which is to say without benefit of a significant team on the ground.

The Spirit of ’76 vs. The Spirit of ’67

Can anything be more frustrating for Tea Partiers than the attempts by conservative and centrist Republicans (e.g. Gingrich, Paul, Romney, Huntsman, Cantor) to play divide and conquer with the Occupy Wall Street people by separating them into ‘the decent, concerned Americans who have a lot in common with the Tea Party’ and ‘a small group of ne’er-do-wells’ who are spoiling the movement for the others?

Republicans Look Into the Mouth of the Gift Horse

In November of 2010, the depth and breadth of the Tea Party's seriousness and power of influence was fully understood by the Republican Party Establishment (RPE) for the first time. The Democrats' attempts to dismiss and belittle this grassroots movement could easily be taken as evidence of their fear of a middle-American backlash against Obama's neo-socialism, and would account for their desire to nip the new threat in the bud with ridicule. The RPE, however, which, if victory were the name of the game, ought to have embraced the Tea Party as their unforeseen salvation, was uncomfortable with it from the get-go.

Candidate Bachmann Steals Human Ears!

From a November 10th Reuters article, we have the following:

“Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann was about 10 minutes into a foreign policy speech in South Carolina on Thursday when she was drowned out by the shouting of protesters.

99 Percent Confusion

A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of numbers provided by the Internal Revenue Service and the Census Bureau is being trumpeted through the mainstream media. According to the news reports, the analysis shows a widening gap between the rich and the poor in the period from 1979 to 2007.