Robert A. Levine 1-11-12 In the current Republican presidential primaries, Newt Gingrich has garnered significant levels of support despite past ethical “missteps.” He was involved in the House banking scandal with bad checks in the late 80s and early 90s. The House Ethics Committee levied a $300,000 fine on him in 1997 for using non-profit organizations for partisan political purposes. He...

Is Mitt Romney now unstoppable? Here’s a roundup on this question.

Returns from New Hampshire are showing Jon Huntsman in 3rd place, behind Romney and Paul. The question is whether this is his one moment in the sun or if it will carry over. In theory he is well suited to South Carolina but he has not had much of a presence there. I suspect it will be just a flash for Huntsman but I hope he goes futher. His biggest problem as I see it is that with Romney as the frontrunner the...

But is it? Are most voters still tolerant of the greed machine? Even the Wall Street Journal is probing the history of Bain Capital. While it persists in claiming Romney was an “excellent CEO” of Bain, it showcases the failures… … A researcher at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said the rate at which Bain’s target companies ran into trouble at some stage “seems...

A new Gallup Poll has bad news for both political parties and (relatively) good news for Democrats and bad news for Republicans: The percentage of Americans identifying as political independents increased in 2011, as is common in a non-election year, although the 40% who did so is the highest Gallup has measured, by one percentage point. More Americans continue to identify as Democrats than as Republicans, 31%...

I will not be watching this evening’s national championship game between LSU and Alabama. I have no interest in either team and have spent little time watching college football in general. This is because with every passing year, the game becomes less an athletic spectacle and more the tip of an immense money-making iceberg. The Rose Bowl was always my favorite post-season game because it followed the...

A great response from Huntsman put into a campaign ad. If only he could get the nomination.

The only people I have more contempt for than those who would send our young men and women to get shot at, get maimed and get killed in unnecessary wars, are those who support sending our young men and women to get shot at, get maimed and get killed in unnecessary wars while they themselves refused to, declined to serve, had “other priorities,” or had all kinds of excuses for not serving in those very same...

There will be events going on today (including a debate now being shown on NBC) that yours truly will not be able to write about. Today I pack and leave for a three month tour. I will be offline except for short instances where I may do some posts. If major events occur and no one on TMV covers them, they will be dealt with later. My drive today will be 10 hours.

In his song,The Boxer, Paul Simon sang, “A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.” Frank Bruni points out, in this morning’s New York Times, that this human frailty is particularly true in the case of the Bushes — father and son — and the place they hold in the present Republican narrative: In the case of Bush the Younger, Bruni writes that: They seldom mention...

Was it ever the truth? Or a form of blind idealism our teachers wished for us. Many of us were taught, we too could grow up to be president. Even us rag-bag kids in handmedowns either too small or too big, scuffed shoes that would never shine cause they were down to the bone of the leather, crowded in 65 to a classroom, sharing desks, not enough books to go around, never ever being able to take a book home....

Imagine a math problem that asked if there were 20 jews and 10 of them were gassed, how many jews were left ? Well in Georgia there was a math worksheet not far off that mark. In an attempt to mix math and history the teacher chose one of the most offensive possible ways to do it, using questions like “If 8 slaves picked 56 oranges, how many oranges did each one pick”. I do get the concept of mixing...

I’ve been offline most of the day but I will live blogging the remainder of the ABC News Republican Presidential debate. As usual, many of my comments should be taken as the impressions of an independent voter about how the candidates are coming across. END OF DEBATE: Sort of considered a blah debate. Mitt Romney came out unscathed. Look for the band wagon to begin. 6:48: There he goes again. Former House...

WASHINGTON – It’s as if Democratic and Republican partisans think our country is made of feathers. What’s most important has been left largely unexamined: if one of these candidates actually becomes president and advances his or her policies, what would be the consequences for the nation? – What If Obama Loses? Every election season we hear about the dire consequences if one side or the...

Why is poetry no longer one of the primary forms of political analysis and commentary in this country? The answer to this question might seem obvious. Most media, at least the high profile print, broadcast and online media accessed by most people on a regular basis, no longer view poetry as an appropriate means of political analysis and commentary — a view largely shared by most American poets whose work these...

As we move into the primary season I thought I would repost my earlier musings on why President Obama is likely to retain his title for another four years. The most basic reason for this conclusion is the simple fact that most Presidents win re-election. If you look over the last 100 years or so, there are only a few examples of Presidents losing. In 1912 President Taft lost, but only because the GOP vote was...

I haven’t been posting much recently, in part because my primary computer had a mild meltdown and I went ahead and replaced it. In doing so I could not help reflecting on the advances in technology. The laptop I replaced was 5 years old and cost me around $ 1,500 when purchased. The new unit I am now using cost less than half of that and is many times faster with many more features. The same is true of...

Independent voters no longer need to watch TV, go to the movies, attend comedy clubs or listen to Donald Trump insist he is really considering a third party run for amusement. We can just watch the dance of the partisans. Many of us independent voters are not just turned off to political polemics but we have to turn off the increasingly predictable (and often execrable) ideological talk shows of the left and...

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Take a look at this photograph taken by Thomas Hoepker from the Brooklyn waterfront on the morning of September 11, 2001. Take a really good look. What are the people saying and thinking as they look away from the burning World Trade Center towers? That it’s a lovely morning to go bike riding? That they’ll be inconvenienced because they’ll have to cancel their dinner reservations in Greenwich...

DETAIL OF “MIGRANT MOTHER” Years of lugging around cameras and lenses has convinced me that luck has a central role in outstanding photojournalism. This is because lucks results from years of practice. That is the story behind pioneering photojournalist Dorothea Lange’s “Migrant Mother,” perhaps the best known rural photograph from the Great Depression of the 1930s. The woman was...

Virginia Debacle Could Seriously Hurt GOP Presidential Nominee by Matt Mackowiak and Ford O’Connell Only two candidates are slated to be on the 2012 Virginia Republican presidential primary ballot. The mainstream media is choosing to frame this predicament as evidence of which GOP candidates are running “serious” campaigns and which are not. But this media-driven narrative largely misses the...

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Cross-Posted to the Debate Link For the past few years, Republicans have incessantly attempted to argue that Barack Obama — one of the most authentically Zionist politicians America has ever seen — is “anti-Israel”. It was always a laughable claim. But it’s more so given the three Republican candidates who finished in an essential dead-heat for first place amongst Iowa Caucus voters:...

What purpose do the Republican Iowa caucuses really serve? They are an unofficial primary in a state with an overwhelmingly white population unlike the national demographic, with the Republican caucuses even more lily-white than the state as a whole. And since 1980, only two of the Republican winners eventually became the Republican nominee for president, Dole in 1996 and Bush in 2000. (Seven of the Democratic...