Monthly Archives: November 2012

Second Terms

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Now that the biggest parlor game in the world “Who will be the next President” is over, the next parlor game that has us obsessing here in our nation’s capital is: Who is in and who is out in President Obama’s second-term Cabinet and senior White House staff?

Putting together the senior team for a second term is far different from the first term. Oh, there are professional members of the transition team who have served in previous Administrations, but the new boss is likely to be overwhelmed with the number of decisions that have to be made in the relatively few weeks between election day in early November and Inauguration Day on January 20. Continue reading

Line Cutters

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

During the American Civil War, it became quite fashionable for the very wealthy to pay for the privilege to have somebody else take their place in the actual fighting of the conflict.

I was thinking about this dynamic at the airport today.

Instead of paying for the privilege of having somebody else fight for you, in today’s world of frequent flyers and business class travel, you can actually pay for the privilege of cutting in line. Continue reading

Attention Wal-Mart Shoppers

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

I am thankful that I never, ever have done the early shopping the night of or the morning after Thanksgiving.

Black Friday is a black mark on American capitalism in my view. For once, I am with the union workers, who said “enough is enough” to the folks who run Walmart.

No offense to my friends at Walmart, but come on people. There is plenty of time between now and Christmas for everybody to get their shopping done. Continue reading

The Pledge

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Much was made over the weekend about cracks in Grover Norquist’s “No Tax Pledge” by Rep. Peter King and Senators Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA).

Before we go on, we all know there IS such a thing as the “No Tax Pledge,” but until last night as I was writing this, I had never actually read it.

Here is the operational section of the pledge as signed by hundreds of candidates for the U.S. House and U.S. Senate: I pledge that I will… Continue reading

High vs. Low-Income Earners

BY FRANK HILL
Reprinted from Telemachus.com

Income disparity is not as big as you may think, believe it or not.

Everyone is talking about ‘taxing the rich!’, ‘redistributing the wealth!’ and ‘income inequality!’ as if it is something from a fairy tale or something. If you didn’t know better, you would think you were reading history from the French Revolution (‘Off with their heads!) or the writings of Leon Trosky and the others who brought ‘income-equality’ (as in ‘low’ income for everyone but the rulers) in Soviet Russia for almost a century. Continue reading

Game Change or More of the Same?

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

It was a status quo election. Or was it?

The players all seem exactly the same. Barack Obama. John Boehner. Harry Reid. Mitch McConnell. Nancy Pelosi. The only change in any top leadership position was John Cornyn taking over from Jon Kyl as the Republican Whip.

Power in Washington is a game of perception. Who has it? Who doesn’t? Who can keep his troops in line and who can’t?

Power slowly recedes from a second term President. Second terms are never pretty. Continue reading

Electoral Collage

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The United States Constitution provides for an indirect election of the President. That is, you didn’t vote for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney last week; you voted for electors pledged to vote for one or the other.

The 12th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which superseded a large section of Article II, Section 1) suggests says that the ballots of the electors in the several states having marked their ballots for President and Vice President shall “transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United

Continue reading

Kick the Can Over the Fiscal Cliff

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

The election wasn’t over for 48 hours before both sides started laying down their opening bids on dealing with what has become known as the “fiscal cliff.”

At its core, the “fiscal cliff” (and I’m going to stop putting it within quotes from here on) is the result of the Congress and the President (to use another phrase I wish I could excise from the political lexicon) “kicking the can down the road.” Continue reading

Romney Will Win

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

As we have discussed before, someone – and I tried to find the source of the quote, but couldn’t – said that “four years ago Barack Obama was on a crusade; this year he’s in a campaign.”

Obama won the crusade, but Mitt Romney will win this campaign.

I know…I know. The polls are close. The national polls are tied; the state polls tilt toward Barack Obama. Continue reading