Adam Hanft: We Are More Civil Than Obama Gives Us Credit for

Ron Reagan Jr.: Oh Yeah, My Father Had Alzheimers While President
Gee, thanks, Ron. You father would be proud of you. Of course this gives credence to all the loons on the left who cracked funny about President Reagan being senile while in office. Nancy must be thrilled. Oh and how's this odious little twit telling us this? In a book "honoring" his father. Stay classy.2011 is a big year for Ronald Reagan fans, being the centennial of his February 6 birth in Tampico, Ill. But youngest son Ron Reagan is spoiling the good cheer with a new book that suggests the G...

Uncivil rhetoric may be curbed but what will be done about uncivil behavior?
LatinaLista.net -- While it's been heartening and encouraging to hear our political leaders pledge to start speaking with more "thoughtful consideration," it's been as equally disheartening to still hear and read of examples where Incivility among people is masked by either denial or called progress. For example, a graduate Student at Oklahoma State University wrote an Open Letter to his university after completing an assignment where he had to observe people of different cultures interacting....

Maine governor to NAACP: Kiss my butt
Why would a man engage in such undiplomatic language? My theory: After a week of incendiary and irresponsible Rhetoric from the left over the Arizona shootings, his nerves were frayed by the “climate of hate” and he just snapped. Granted, I have zero proof, but it pleases my partisan sensibilities to believe it, and besides, it’s a fittingly idiotic note on which to end a week of pure political insanity. So congratulations, liberals — you drove him to this. Slublog has ...

Model of Deliberative Democracy: Gabrielle Giffords
During my first few days of the semester this week I was afforded an unusual opportunity to engage in a discussion on "deliberative Democracy," the theme of my textbook, from Joseph Bessette and John Pitney, American Government and Politics: Deliberation, Democracy, and Citizenship. And as announced by the publisher, a key element of the the text is the focus on " thoughtful, selfless consideration of issues and on civic participation as essential components of good citizenship ." And it strikes...

Another Way the GOP Could Go About Repealing Health Care Reform
I’ve been saying that the ACA Repeal vote now scheduled in the House for next week is basically a symbolic payoff to Tea Partiers and other core Republicans, who the leadership hopes can be bought off with symbols since their real goal—full Repeal of ACA—is unrealistic in the current Congress. Note that there was another track Republicans could have taken. Rather than go for a full Repeal that will be dead on arrival in the Senate, Republicans could have targeted the least pop...

Recycled Hope
By RightKlik OMG, OFA! WTH? One thing on the pep rally-disguised-as-a-memorial on Wednesday night. I happened to, as I have been told, anger a lot of people yesterday by saying that the president delayed the memorial while waiting for the polling data to come in and the T-shirts to get printed. Well, guess what? I was right on both counts. The polling data shows, as you know, that the American People do not associate conservative Rhetoric with what happened out in Arizona. In fact, there's a Q...

Mark Levin takes on the haters
$5 Gas Predicted Under Obama — What, No Pitchforks? $5 Gas Predicted Under Obama — What, No Pitchforks? WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck and Luke Morton requires Flash Player 9 or better. People are talking a lot right now that the vitriol needs to be leveled down a lot.  Problem is there are too many people that thrive on it.  To me journalism hit the current low when Keith Olbermann went on MSNBC.  I think he’s the worst editorialist in the world.  ...

U.S. growth agenda must broaden beyond tax cuts
U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s meeting with chief financial officers further suggests the White House may push for Corporate Tax reform. But with Unemployment high, President Barack Obama’s efforts to boost growth shouldn’t stop there. More government investment in research and infrastructure is also warranted. Trend GDP growth of 3 percent will little improve the nation’s dire jobs situation. The broadest measure of Unemployment — which includes part-t...

Reince Preibus New is RNC Chair Michael Steele: Now I Exit Stage Right.
In the end, it has all worked out beautifully for the Republican National Committee.   The personally-likable but Scandal-dogged Michael Steele bowed out gracefully during voting.  Replacing him will be someone who was kind and loyal to Steele, but who also served as the listening post for GOP Conservatives who were restive for regime change. Reince Preibus is from Wisconsin, which staged the most amazing blue-to-red transformation of any state this year.  ON WISCONSIN! ...

I BLAME THE OVER-THE-TOP RHETORIC: Shock CBS Poll: 77% of Americans are Extremist Teabaggers, Want
I BLAME THE OVER-THE-TOP Rhetoric: Shock CBS Poll: 77% of Americans are Extremist Teabaggers, Want to Cut Government Spending. ...

Republican Misleaders Urge Party To Tone Down Its Rhetoric On Immigration
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — Republican speakers at a conference on reaching Hispanic voters urged the party to tone down its Rhetoric on Immigration and to take up comprehensive reform in Congress, warning that the party could lose ground with the country’s increasingly diverse citizenry if it doesn’t. “(Hispanics) will be the swing voters as they are today in the swing states. If you want to elect a center-right president of the United States, it seems to me you should be ...

Epic Fail
Posted by John at 7:17 PM This Quinnipiac Poll provides more evidence that hardly anyone buys the Democratic Party's spin on the Tucson murders. When asked "What do you think is the main reason for the Arizona shooting; failure of the Mental Health system, lax Gun Control laws, overheated political Rhetoric, or do you think this is a situation that could not have been prevented?" respondents answered: * Mental health system: 23% * Gun control laws: 9% * Political rhetoric: 15% * Couldn't have b...

It Did Not'
Jan 24, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 18 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL Get alerts when there is a new article that might interest you. After a depressing week—a horrible shooting that killed 6 people and wounded 14 others, followed by days of demagoguery and idiocy surpassing even the normal standards of our power-without-responsibility punditocracy—recent days have brought encouraging news. The medical prognosis for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords seems more hopeful than had been thought likely. And the A...

If you want more civilitythen be more civil
For four days this week following the horror in Tucson our country was subjected nonstop to vicious lies and hatred from liberal-leftists in the media and, more disturbingly, from Democrats on the public Payroll.  This is a new low in American politics, a 24/7 rant that blamed the Tucson rampage on everyone the left hates, fears or blames for their crushing defeat in November. There may examples in history where individual comments were more despicable than those hu...

A Lincoln without a Gettysburg: Obama speaks at Tucson
Whatever others may make of him, Barack Obama continues to see himself as a statesman standing above party and Partisanship, one who, unlike his opponents, is actuated by a lofty civic vision. This vision was on display in Tucson on Wednesday evening. Mr. Obama rose above tacky surroundings to deliver the best Speech of his career. It was the best because it was the most Lincolnian. The problem was that Tucson wasn’t Gettysburg. The event, Together We Thrive: Tucson and America, was quite ...

State of the Union Preview: The New Drive to Eliminate Partisan Rancor
It began in 1983 as the congressional version of a high-school gag. Frustrated that once again they would be reduced to extras in the over-produced spectacle of a Ronald Reagan State of the Union address, House Democrats secretly plotted their revenge. When the advance text of the president's remarks circulated on Capitol Hill the day of the Speech, Tip O'Neill's merry pranksters highlighted an innocuous sentence towards the end of the speech: "We who are in government must take the lead in rest...

1/14: Most Say Compromise Key for New Congress Fewer Predict Gridlock
According to this national McClatchy-Marist Poll, more than seven in ten Registered Voters — 71% — want to see Compromise among political leaders in Washington in order to get things done.  Nearly one in four — 23% — disagree and believe Congressional Republicans should stand firm on their positions even if it means there is a stalemate between them and the Democrats.  Just 5% are unsure.  Little has changed on this question since McClatchy-Marist’s late Novemb

1/14: Expectations High for Second Half of Obamas Term
Midway into his term, President Barack Obama may be finding his political sea legs.  According to this national McClatchy-Marist Poll, when asked about how the president will perform during his next two years in office, 61% of Registered Voters are optimistic, saying the president will do better than he did in the previous two years of his term.  About one in five voters — 21% — think he will do a worse job, and 5% believe he will perform about the same as he already has.  12% a

New poll shows Americans still not buying media spin on Tucson shootings
The last poll from CBS that showed Americans rejecting the “extreme Rhetoric” blame game was taken in the first couple of days after the shooting.  This Gallup Poll for USA Today was conducted on Tuesday, with plenty of time for the media’s “magical thinking,” as Allahpundit put it, to mold Public Opinion.  It’s still no sale: Most Americans reject the idea that inflammatory political language by Conservatives should be part of the debate about the forces ...

In Op-Ed McCain Backs Obama's Tucson Message, Takes Blame for Political Debate & Empathizes with Palin
ABC News' Jonathan Karl & Matthew Jaffe report: In a remarkable op-ed set to run in Sunday's Washington Post, Sen. John McCain, R-AZ, embraces President Obama's message in Tucson, criticizes his own political Rhetoric, and makes a powerful statement for civility in the wake of the Arizona tragedy, while offering a defense of sorts for Sarah Palin's Controversial statement on the Arizona shooting. "I disagree with many of the president's policies, but I believe he ...

Murkowski, Udall want colleagues to set aside partisanship for president's speech
The letter, sent Friday, doesn't make any mention of the shooting on Jan 8 of Congresswoman Garielle Gifford and 19 other people in Tucson at a Safeway as Giffords hosted a public forum. Six people died and Giffords was gravely injured. But the move toward a more civil union, especially among elected officials, has ramped up following the Tucson shootings. Murkowski and Udall aren't the first to suggest the revised seating chart for the President's Speech. Third Way, an organization devoting its...

Wingnuts Back Crazy Eyes 2012
The religious right is lining up behind Rep. Michele "Crazy Eyes" Bachmann's possible plan to run for president in 2012, which she said she'll do only upon direct orders from God. Some tout her as the next Ronald Reagan — with a twist. Religious Leaders supporting her include Matt Barber of the late Jerry Fallwell’s Liberty Council, who said, “To date, no man has succeeded in filling the conservative standard-bearer’s legendary boots. Well, maybe it’s time to swap boots for p

Zogby: 71% of Democrats, 8% of Republicans Say Politicians Bear Some Responsiblilty in the Arizona Shooting
zogbyUTICA, New York - A new Zogby International interactive poll of Likely Voters about the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others in Tucson, AZ found most do not expect it will change political Rhetoric and that the shooter was not politically motivated. Also, 60% say the shootings should not lead to stronger Gun Control laws, and 71% doubt stricter laws will be enacted. Here are results of the survey for all voters, as well as for Democrats, Republicans and Independents. Totals i...

Palin to Headline Hunters Convention
Yahoo! Buzz Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin will headline one of the nation’s biggest gun shows and convention later this month in Reno, Nev. Ms. Palin, who is widely considered a top presidential contender, will speak Jan. 29 at the Safari Club International convention, which describes itself as the “leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and promoting Wildlife Conservation worldwide.” The group said last year’s event drew nearly 20,000 people. Other speakers include Michae...

Bill Donohues Lesson from Tucson: More Censorship, More Smears
Catholic League President Bill Donohue’s time in public life has been centered on pushing anti-gay Bigotry, ridiculing progressive Christians, and promoting Censorship and Boycott campaigns. He most recently won a notable victory when, with the help of GOP leaders and other social Conservatives, he convinced the Smithsonian to censor an exhibit on the marginalization of gays and Lesbians in America. The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery removed a film by the late artist David W...