Archive for the ‘Jamie Weinstein’ Category

Jamie Weinstein

Days after the massive Chilean earthquake, deputy Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Bret Stephens created a stir. In a column, Stephens had the audacity to credit the great free market economist Milton Friedman for the way Chile fared during its recent massive earthquake.

Results.

“Milton Friedman has been dead for more than three years,” Stephens wrote. “But his spirit was surely hovering protectively over Chile in the early morning hours of Saturday. Thanks largely to him, the country has endured a tragedy that elsewhere would have been an apocalypse. ”

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Jamie Weinstein

Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio was the first speaker at this year’s Conservative Political Action Committee that got under way this morning in Washington, D.C. Before Rubio’s speech, I had heard of the legend of Marco Rubio.  But I had never heard him speak in person. Now I have. He’s the real deal.

The real deal.

Indeed, Rubio is all he is made out to be and more. Young and energetic, he says that he is ready to work with Democrats to defeat radical Islam and reduce the deficit, but he is not ready to work with them to abandon America’s free market system and make America a “submissive” member of the international community.

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Jamie Weinstein

Can the Republicans take back the Senate in 2010?

In the words of a certain Alaskan politician, you betcha.

Two months ago you would have been certifiably insane for suggesting such an outlandish idea. But last month’s Massachusetts massacre has changed everything.

The tide is turning.

No one really saw what happened in the Bay state coming until it was basically upon us. And when I polled Indiana political experts before the election, all of them said that Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh was most definitely safe in 2010. So did all the national experts. As did all my friends who laughed at me for bringing up the idea of Bayh potentially being vulnerable.

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Jamie Weinstein

During President Obama’s State of the Union address he declared, “This year, I will work with Congress and our military to finally repeal the law that denies gay Americans the right to serve the country…”

President O is right on policy, but wrong on timing.

Now is not the time.

First, let us be clear that prohibiting gays from serving openly in the military is not a completely irrational policy, as some seem to glibly suggest. There is logic behind it. After all, men and women do not sleep in the same barracks for obvious reasons.

Nonetheless, there is ample evidence of gays openly serving in other militaries around the world without serious problem. And not “theoretical” militaries. Real ones that actually engage in combat, like the British Armed Forces and Israel Defense Forces.

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Jamie Weinstein

Like all State of the Union addresses, President Obama’s Wednesday night was a snooze fest, as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano demonstrated. The smartest person in political life was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who someone secured a get-out-of-class pass from the president.

Blah blah blah . . .

For those who stayed up to watch what seemed like a never-ending speech, you probably had some trouble understanding the president. That was because he was speaking politicalese. Fortunately, I am a world-class translator, a veritable Rosetta stone between English and politicalese.

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Jamie Weinstein

American Idol has become in the last decade an American institution. In many ways, its success has been due to an American import – a Brit, Simon Cowell.

It is no overstatement to say that, without Cowell, the show would not be the huge success it is today. If the judges were just Randy, Paula (now gone), and whoever the new girl is, the show would be far less interesting.

How 'bout it, Hitch?

Sure, the show is ostensibly about singing talent. But it also driven by sober evaluation of that talent, and sometimes that sober analysis requires acerbic wit.  Cowell provides that for us in an entertaining, if not sometimes cruel, way.  And, yes, I admit to being an American Idol fan. We all have our skeletons.

Now that Cowell has declared that he will leave the show at the end of the season, what will become of America’s favorite singing contest? Can it succeed without Cowell? Perhaps, but not unless a new judge emerges capable of filling Cowell’s shoes.

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Jamie Weinstein

Madame Speaker, Vice President Biden, Members of Congress, honored guests, my fellow Americans,

I speak to you tonight just over one year into my presidency.  I also speak just eight days removed from a report card given by the people of Massachusetts on my performance to date.  It would be fair to say that the grade was far lower than the B plus I so recently thought I deserved.

How about making the country applaud?

Fellow citizens, the state of our union is surely strong, but my task is to ensure it remains so. Let us not delude ourselves. We face great challenges both domestically and internationally.

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Jamie Weinstein

With the one-year anniversary of President Barack Obama’s presidency upon us, pundits are deluging op-ed pages and cable news shows with their analysis of year one in the Age of Obama. But whose opinion can we trust? What analyst can we turn to for unfiltered truth?

Well, why not America’s most trusted politician? You know, indicted former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Great political theatre.

With an anniversary of his own just recently passed in December (the one-year anniversary of his arrest, that is), I thought I would see what the man who governed Illinois when Obama was making his meteoric rise in politics, first in Illinois and then nationwide, thought of how his former constituent has done in the White House.

“You can make a very strong argument that [President Obama] is just, you know, a more eloquent Bush,” Blago told me over the phone at the end of December, expressing his disappointment in Obama. “Obama gets elected and his first economic stimulus plan is what? He takes our money, the taxpayers money, calls it economic stimulus and gives it to the big banks.”

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Jamie Weinstein

The political earthquake that shook the country Tuesday, when Republican Scott Brown trounced Democrat Martha Coakley in a special election for Ted Kennedy’s old Senate seat, raises a scary question for Democratic senators scheduled to face voters in November: If a Democrat can’t even win in Massachusetts, who else might be in jeopardy that is not currently on the political radar?

Nah! Couldn't be . . .

Before Brown was declared the victor Tuesday night, Indiana Democratic Senator Evan Bayh was warning of a “catastrophe” for Democrats in November if party officials didn’t draw the right lessons from what was happening in Massachusetts.

“If you lose Massachusetts and that’s not a wake-up call, there’s no hope of waking up,” Bayh told ABC News. “Whenever you have just the furthest left elements of the Dem party attempting to impose their will on the rest of the country – that’s not going to work too well.”

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Jamie Weinstein

In Connecticut, former Rep. Rob Simmons is embroiled in a tough primary for the Republican Senate nomination. His opponent is none other than Linda McMahon, wife of Vince McMahon and former CEO of World Wresting Entertainment (formerly known as the World Wresting Federation).

CT. voters have questions. Does she have the answers?

The WWE has faced harsh criticism in the past. Some critics see it as lewd, others see it is as glorifying violence. Naturally, McMahon’s affiliation with the WWE demands that she answer some serious questions for Connecticut’s voters about this association. Here within are 10 questions she can start with:

1) How close is Linda McMahon to the Iron Sheik and how will that affect her position on Iran? Read the rest of this entry »