Maybe America Could Have Afforded Her Ideas After All ...

Remember when Hillary Clinton let it slip during the Democratic primaries that America couldn't afford all of her ideas?

Little did we know that Clinton may have been a pretty cheap date in comparison.

David Frum:

President Obama and the Democrats have responded [to the economic crisis] by steering the US radically to the left. Since World War II, the federal government has most years spent less than one dollar in five of national income. Once the stimulus gets underway, the federal government will spend more than one dollar in four. The cost of everything the Democrats want to do comes closer to one dollar in three.

We’re facing more regulation of everything from high finance to the ordinary workplace. The Democrats are expanding Medicaid to crowd out private insurance. The federal government wants a huge new role in redirecting private investment in transportation and energy in the name of “green jobs.”

In 1996, Bill Clinton asserted, "We will meet these challenges, but not through big government. The era of big government is over."

Would President Billary have been as intent on sinking so many hundreds of billions of dollars into the black hole that is the porkulus package?

I, for one, think that the damage would have been marginally smaller.

Oh, Bill. If only you had been right about the era of big government being over.

The Empire Strikes Barack!

Luke Skywalker played by Barack Obama? Fine.

Darth Vader played by Hillary Clinton. Kind of a gimme but I can deal with it.

The Emperor played by Billy Jeff. Fantastic.

But Han Solo played by Bill Richardson? That's just completely unacceptable.

H/t Ace

Christopher Hitchens: Men Only Run For Office To Get Laid

Well, it's a reasonable enough thesis. He uses Spitzer as the case in point but Billy Jeff and JFK make their way in there as well. Mild content warning. Just a little strong language.

Village Voice:

Eliot Spitzer missed one question on his SAT. He missed none on his law-school admissions test. He went to Princeton, Harvard Law. This was a guy who could not only understand securities fraud but could prosecute it, too, often under arcane laws that nobody had looked up since Prohibition. In other words, he was a bright dude.

So what in the wide world was Eliot Spitzer thinking?

"Oh, that's easy," Christopher Hitchens said from his Washington apartment last week, as word of Spitzer's morning resignation buzz-sawed through the Beltway.

...

"You wouldn't be doing any of this if one of the objectives was not to increase the amount of pussy that was available to you. That is what you do," Hitch says. "You don't do it to be, ah, the most approval-rated governor of New York, for fuck's sake."

So that's why Stephane Dion won't step down as Liberal leader. His own party hates him, he's frighteningly inept as a politician, but power is sexy and he isn't ready to stop living the dream quite yet.

During the 1992 presidential primary season, Hitchens pointed out, the day that Bill Clinton won the endorsement of the Democratic Leadership Council—"which, in fact, meant it was overwhelmingly probable he would be the nominee" was the very day he hit on Paula Jones.

"He said, 'Wait—I could be the next president of the United States. Now, where's the next cutie? Because I need that now, much more than I did 10 minutes ago,' " Hitchens speculated.

And likewise with JFK: "With Kennedy, it's really all over the guy for everyone to see," Hitchens said. "From dawn till dusk, from soup to nuts, from everything he does to the last day he dies: 'I do this to get laid.' "

I'd be relieved if the darkest motivation our politicians have for entering politics is increasing their likelihood of getting laid. There's something really ugly about the pursuit of power for power's sake. But the pursuit of sex? Well, that's a little more understandable.

Hithcens added:

Returning to Spitzer, he added that the man's moral grandstanding and bullish style of governance should have been a dead giveaway to his boudoir habits: "What's the point of all this if I don't get an orgasm now? What's the point of being an alpha male?

"Anyone who doesn't get this," he concluded, "doesn't know diddly-squat."

The man talks sense.

Bill Clinton Gives 9/11 Twoofers A Good Talkin' To

"9/11 was an inside job! 9/11 was an inside job!"

Even Bill Clinton knows these people are nuts. For some reason, they seem to seek him out. Luckily, he ain't afraid to put them in their place.

ABC reports:

“Are you one of those it was an inside job guys?" the former president asked. Continuing, "Hillary agrees we should end the war, but we have heard from you now, now you hear from me. I let you be rude and interrupt me screaming at the top of your lungs. Nine-eleven was NOT an inside job, it was an Osama Bin Laden job with 19 people from Saudi Arabia, they murdered 3000 Americans and others foreigners including Muslims and we look like idiots, that the people who murdered our fellow citizens did it, when they are continuing to murder other people around the world. So we heard from you, you go away," Clinton said to the cheering crowd.

Video here.

H/t Ace

Romney: "The American People Don't Want Bill Clinton Running Around The White House With Nothing To Do"

A bit of a snoozer, according to Bryan at Hot Air. All in all, I think the night goes to Mitt Romney. He had a couple particularly strong moments, the most memorable of which came in response to a question about the war in Iraq.

Here's the clip:



And another good moment for Romney:



You have to like the man's chances going into the next few states. Now that many if not most Fred Heads have made the less-than-smooth transition to the Mitt camp, Romney heads into Florida polling strongly and with momentum on his side. Unless Giuliani has something spectacular up his sleeve - and I mean spectacular - then I just can't see him rallying in time to make a real run at winning the state. The so-called "late state" strategy turned out to be a stinker.

Maybe be next time, Rudy.

Obama: "Ronald Reagan Changed The Trajectory Of America"

... "In a way that Richard Nixon did not. And in a way that Bill Clinton did not."



H/t Hot Air