I recently stumbled on an interesting piece of history called the Powell Memo that laid out the conservative plan for winning the hearts and minds of Americans. Written in 1971, almost every facet of the Powell Memo has come to be realized, from the creation of conservative think tanks, to […]

Ben Bernanke outlined several basic consumer protection rules in a recent speech at the National Community Reinvestment Coalition’s annual meeting. I have to give Bernanke credit for trying to strike a balance and use regulation effectively to benefit both groups: lenders and borrowers. Here is how Bernanke framed the proposed […]

Though I’m not in favor of a gold standard, it’s interesting to hear Ron Paul talk about how printing more money makes prices higher for the average American. Think about it this way, if you look at the price of oil in terms of gold, it has remained almost unchanged […]

Newsweek just published an article about how a lack of confidence doomed Bear Stearns. Here are a couple of interesting points from the article: “A company is only as solvent as the perception of its solvency,” Oppenheimer analyst Meredith Whitney Bernanke declared the subprime crisis contained last year even as […]

Not long ago, President Bush visited Saudi Arabia to ask the Saudis to turn up the spigots. The Saudis, however, didn’t bite and stated that the price of oil may be the least of our concerns. ”The concern for the U.S. economy is valid, but what affects the U.S. economy […]

This week I received a mailer from the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) thanks in large part, I believe, to my communications to Senator George Voinovich. The NRCC letter contained a survey that was quite interesting. Many of the questions fed on fears spread by talk radio and others just […]

Hillary Clinton claims that we should hire the person with the most experience to be President. It’s an interesting argument, but what is really going on here? There are two ways you could look at the term “experience” when it comes to this race: Political experience Experience fighting Republicans Most […]

In the ’80s, conservatives introduced the frame of smaller government which has transformed itself into “government is bad” or the “blame government” frame: Here’s some statements you’ll frequently hear from “blame government” politicians: It’s inefficient The market can do a better job End “big government” Government supports welfare and entitlement […]

Defense Secretary Robert Gates delivered a message to Turkish leaders today that military means alone will not solve the problem of PKK resistance fighters in Northern Iraq. Does this mean that the Bush administration has finally recognized that military means alone will not be enough to win in Iraq? If […]

As John McCain picks up the “lack of experience” story to attack Barack Obama, I thought I’d revisit this topic, revisit the argument, and think about ways to re-frame this issue. When Hillary Clinton says that she has more experience, she typically is not just referring to her experience in […]