Well, actually one could write a Ph.D. dissertation on why the city of Detroit sucks. But if you could distill it into a single 200-word story, it would be this one. Any city who elects leaders that believe the future of that city requires outside assistance – that city, by definition, sucks.

Apollo posted this at 9:11 PM HKT on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 as Amer-I-Can!, Crocodile Tears

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Nate Silver is a must-read regarding the plight of liberals. I won’t excerpt anything here – it needs to be read in its entirety.

Some time this summer – I don’t feel like looking up the link – I pointed out that it was impressive how much political capital Obama had spent on his stupid stimulus. It was a bill that any thinking person knew wouldn’t work, it pissed off a lot of people, and it showed Obama’s campaign rhetoric about controlling spending to be exactly what it was – a bald-faced lie. In a matter of weeks after assuming office, he had ruined his image as post-partisan reformer and had become the sort of throw-more-money-at-the-problem liberal we haven’t elected since the 70s.

Think back to the Republican high-tide after the 2004 election, and the ensuing disappointment. Bush had enacted most – all? – of his 2000 campaign agenda during his first term. The most he promised in his second term was Social Security reform, but even with 55 Republican senators not many of us held out hope of that. His majority was squandered, but at then end of those last four years we had two new Supreme Court justices (one superb, one above-average, and both reliably conservative) that significantly shifted the balance of the Court, we were wrapping up things in Iraq, and we were safe at home. In very round-about, often painful ways, George Bush left us with an awful lot of what we wanted from him.

Now look at where liberals were after the last election. Except for FDR and LBJ, Obama won a larger percentage of the popular vote than any Democrat since Jackson(!). They had 59 senators (the last time Republicans won 59 senators: the 1920 election) and enough squishy Republicans that a filibuster was a remote possibility. They had a large House majority (larger than any Republican majority since the 1928 elections). They had a confirmed San Fransisco liberal as Speaker, and plainly she was the driving force on Capitol Hill.

And what, pray tell, has that amazing alignment of the stars produced for them? Porkulus, a mediocre Supreme Court justice (who barely moved the Court, if at all, to the left), and a few very minor victories (gays covered by hate crimes laws; goofy but toothless equal pay law). No gays in the military or closing of Guantanamo (either of which could have been done by executive order), an increase of American soldiers in Afghanistan, an utter catastrophe on health care reform, and a Republican in Ted Kennedy’s seat.

The way Republicans squandered their 2004 majority was frustrating for conservatives. But I don’t think it’s anywhere near what liberals are feeling right about now.

P.S. Liberals also get to be in the same party as Arlen Specter. Specter’s loss to Toomey this November will be one of the great moments in the recent history of the republic; he is a snake, and the sooner he slithers off the national stage, the better. In the mean time, I’m just glad he’s in no way associated with me.

P.P.S. I gave a good, long chuckle after reading this. Add it to the list of things liberals presumed Obama would accomplish, but that he hasn’t.

Apollo posted this at 1:45 AM HKT on Friday, January 22nd, 2010 as CHANGE!, Crocodile Tears, The Democratic Congress

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