Wrong-Way Columnist - It's Perry-Bashing Time!

Paul Krugman is worried enough about Rick Perry that he engages in a bit of preemptive Perry-bashing. Troubling! The last time Krugman messed with Texas the results weren't pretty. So here we go again:

Wrong Way Nation

Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is running for president again. What are his chances? Will he once again become a punch line? I have absolutely no idea. This isn’t a horse-race column.

What I’d like to do, instead, is take advantage of Mr. Perry’s ambitions to talk about one of my favorite subjects: interregional differences in economic and population growth.

Interregional differences is one of his favorite subjects? There is that Nobel Prize thingy, but let's hold that thought.

...[Rick Perry's] national appeal, if any, will have to rest on claims that he knows how to create prosperity. And it’s true that Texas has had faster job growth than the rest of the country. So have other Sunbelt states with conservative governments. The question, however, is why.

The answer from the right is, of course, that it’s all about avoiding regulations that interfere with business and keeping taxes on rich people low, thereby encouraging job creators to do their thing. But it turns out that there are big problems with this story, quite aside from the habit economists pushing this line have of getting their facts wrong.

To see the problems, let’s tell a tale of three cities.

One of these cities is the place those of us who live in its orbit tend to call simply “the city.” And, these days, it’s a place that’s doing pretty well on a number of fronts. But despite the inflow of immigrants and hipsters, enough people are still moving out of greater New York — a metropolitan area that, according to the Census, extends into Pennsylvania on one side and Connecticut on the other — that its overall populationrose less than 5 percent between 2000 and 2012. Over the same period, greater Atlanta’s population grew almost 27 percent, and greater Houston’s grew almost 30 percent. America’s center of gravity is shifting south and west. But why?

Is it, as people like Mr. Perry assert, because pro-business, pro-wealthy policies like those he favors mean opportunity for everyone? If that were the case, we’d expect all those job opportunities to cause rising wages in the Sunbelt, wages that attract ambitious people away from moribund blue states.

We would expect rising wages as people moved to an area? With high and capital labor mobility why wouldn't we expect the reduced supply in New York to prop up wages there and the increased labor supply in the Southeast to keep a lid on wage hikes there?

Pressing on, with my emphasis:

It turns out, however, that wages in the places within the United States attracting the most migrants are typically lower than in the places those migrants come from, suggesting that the places Americans are leaving actually have higher productivity and more job opportunities than the places they’re going. The average job in greater Houston pays 12 percent less than the average job in greater New York; the average job in greater Atlanta pays 22 percent less.

So now we are talking about "average" wages across all sectors? If (purely hypothetically) New York became a haven for high-priced professionals and all the blue collar jobs disappeared to Texas, I for one would expect average wages in New York to *rise* as the proportion of lower-paying jobs in the greater New York area fell. As to Texas, I would expect total employment to rise; whether average wages rose or fell would depend on the change in the job mix.

How I would use those average wages to draw useful inferences about productivity and "job opportunities" is hazy at best. Certainly I would encourage a guy with a high school education to see if Goldman Sachs is hiring on their trading desk, but if a job there doesn't come through I might tell him to check out Texas. Retooling the US economy so that everyone trades mortgage backed securities but no one actually builds those pesky houses would certainly raise average wages and measured productivity but is a longer-term project.

Still more:

So why are people moving to these relatively low-wage areas? Because living there is cheaper, basically because of housing. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, rents (including the equivalent rent involved in buying a house) in metropolitan New York are about 60 percent higher than in Houston, 70 percent higher than in Atlanta.

In other words, what the facts really suggest is that Americans are being pushed out of the Northeast (and, more recently, California) by high housing costs rather than pulled out by superior economic performance in the Sunbelt.

If New York State was so whiz-bang people would be getting pushed to low-rent Utica, Albany, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo instead of to Houston and Atlanta. Instead, upstate New York has continued its slow fade from the halcyon days of the Erie Canal.

And if the Northeast was so well-run Krugman could have chosen to write about Hartford, a former financial services center, or Bridgeport, a former hub of light manufacturing. Or more broadly, he could have picked Detroit specifically and Michigan generally as an area with no apparent shortage of land. I think rent and land availabilty is an incomplete explanation.

We do get this brief nod to reality:

But why are housing prices in New York or California so high? Population density and geography are part of the answer. For example, Los Angeles, which pioneered the kind of sprawl now epitomized by Atlanta, has run out of room and become a surprisingly dense metropolis. However, as Harvard’s Edward Glaeser and others have emphasized, high housing prices in slow-growing states also owe a lot to policies that sharply limit construction. Limits on building height in the cities, zoning that blocks denser development in the suburbs and other policies constrict housing on both coasts; meanwhile, looser regulation in the South has kept the supply of housing elastic and the cost of living low.

So conservative complaints about excess regulation and intrusive government aren’t entirely wrong, but the secret of Sunbelt growth isn’t being nice to corporations and the 1 percent; it’s not getting in the way of middle- and working-class housing supply.

Mo mention of the lack of unions in the South? Whatever. Krugman then returns to polemicizing:

And this, in turn, means that the growth of the Sunbelt isn’t the kind of success story conservatives would have us believe. Yes, Americans are moving to places like Texas, but, in a fundamental sense, they’re moving the wrong way, leaving local economies where their productivity is high for destinations where it’s lower.

If doctors are leaving Manhattan to stock Walmart shelves in Atlanta becasue the rent is lower, yes, we have a problem. Otherwise, we await more details on productivity and job growth by comparable sectors.

Krugman closes with a punchline:

So Rick Perry doesn’t know the secrets of job creation, or even of regional growth. It would be great to see the real key — affordable housing — become a national issue. But I don’t think Democrats are willing to nominate Mayor Bill de Blasio for president just yet.

I'm reeling - if working class jobs come back to New York average wages will fall. Will Krugman then declare this to be a success?

He'll be here all week. And be sure to tip your waiter or waitress.

Comments

[NK]

TomM-- tres bien. Nobody takes apart and exposes Krugman's lies and stupidities as well as you. Just love your Krugman Fisking.

[NK]

Chris Cillizza reminds Dems how screwed they are in Nov. Chrissie isn't yet overtly dumping on Obummer, but he's warming up to it. http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/disconnected-obama-needs-to-change-conversation-to-help-party-in-midterms/2014/08/24/79883b48-2b9b-11e4-994d-202962a9150c_story.html

[jimmyk]

I wonder whether those wage comparisons are adjusted for taxes, cost of living, etc. It's not just housing costs. Almost everything is more expensive in the NE because of taxes and regulations.

This is too big, so right-click to see the whole thing:

[Captain Hate]

Is Krugman one of the economists that finds every revision "unexpected"?

[Danube on iPad]

*Groan*

[glasater]

I read a quick blurb the other day which said that if the TX economy numbers were taken out of the US economy we'd be considered in a recession.

[cathyf]

Another calculation that doesn't seem to get done -- the average wage just includes people who have jobs. If the unemployment rate is 20% then averaging in the $0 wages of the 1/5 of the workforce that is unemployed makes a huge difference.

[Ignatz]

--It turns out, however, that wages in the places within the United States attracting the most migrants are typically lower than in the places those migrants come from, suggesting that the places Americans are leaving actually have higher productivity and more job opportunities than the places they’re going.--

Is an economist issued a license and can he be stripped of it?

The history of the free market world is capital and labor fleeing high cost, highly regulated environments and the state and its private clientele doing what they can to disrupt such freedom.
The overall effect of such mobility is transient lower wages but eventually greater wealth and eventually higher wages from economic vitality which creates the wealth.
When the mobility is restricted the result is transient high wages and wealth (Detroit forty years ago, anyone?)

People move from entrenched, regulated and rich but dying, static economies because the jobs are very good but the club doesn't let anyone else in, so people move and make their own clubs, while the old fat boys lumber toward the Detroit of today.
Supply doesn't just create its own demand, demand follows supply out of the stagnant slums of the state.

[NK]

Ignatz@12:08-- you'll never win a Nobel in Economics with clear headed thinking like that.

[AliceH]

TM: How I would use those average wages to draw useful inferences about productivity and "job opportunities" is hazy at best.

Much easier if you start with the inferences.

[cathyf]

hello? anybody out there? taps on mike

One post in an hour in the middle of the day? That's not the JOM I know!

[narciso]

Remember all the fooferaw:

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/08/25/white-house-syria-intervention-authorization-from-congress-thats-so-2013/

[MarkO]

Try the teriyaki.

[narciso]

All the narrative fit to print:

Michael Brown, 18, due to be buried on Monday, was no angel, with public records and interviews with friends and family revealing both problems and promise in his young life. Shortly before his encounter with Officer Wilson, the police say he was caught on a security camera stealing a box of cigars, pushing the clerk of a convenience store into a display case. He lived in a community that had rough patches, and he dabbled in drugs and alcohol. He had taken to rapping in recent months, producing lyrics that were by turns contemplative and vulgar. He got into at least one scuffle with a neighbor. [...]

[MarkO]

narc,

Perhaps, in that neighborhood, he was as good a boy as they could find.

[LouP]

Just where in the Hell does he get his premise that productivity is lower in any place but "The City"?

[narciso]

by the way, the Dentontripe I got that excerpt from, was screaming someone poked a 'hole in the cave'

[narciso]

On a serious note,

http://hotair.com/headlines/archives/2014/08/25/an-american-led-coalition-can-defeat-isis/

[Captain Hate]

On a serious note

The statement of not supporting The Surge even after the success was known should have been a WTFBBQ dealbreaker; unfortunately McRINO and his crew of dunces were very resilient when it came to squandering every advantage.

[the wolf]

Hey, don't believe all of the people moving to Texas to hold jobs and have better, productive lives. Believe the Democratic Mouthpiece Krugman.

[Danube on iPad]

I don't blame McCain. I blame the electorate that went into a swoon over this mountebank.

[Comanche Voter]

Reading and analyzing Krugman's drivel is a nasty job. The man is an economic legend in his own mind, so frequently writes on topics about which he knows darned little. Krugman's motto--never let the facts get in the way of my opinion.

Glad you are willing to take the time to analyze his stuff.

[Holly]

Not sure if this has been posted. The Aggie McDonald's beating.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/08/beaten_to_death_at_mcdonalds.html#.U_tRJPQMPfg.facebook

[Jeff Dobbs]

cathyf:
One post in an hour in the middle of the day? That's not the JOM I know!

Sorry, JOM productivity drops off when I'm busy and don't have a chance to use all my different aliases to create the appearance of a large JOM contingent of commenters.

Used to, I had automated trollatrons, but I lost the software that did that. I can't remember if it was Teh Sequester or Obamacare that took it away. Oh, wait, no, maybe it was global warming.

[NK]

WaPo inches closer to flat out calling Obummer a failure and complete nitwit BTW, the obummer buddy who is quoted about the World not conforming to Obummer's worldview, unwittingly absolutely buries Obummer: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/events-in-iraq-syria-and-russia-further-stoke-debate-about-obamas-worldview/2014/08/23/eb95db18-23ea-11e4-958c-268a320a60ce_story.html

[Captain Hate]

McCain said on 10/23/2008 "You have nothing to fear from an Obama Presidency". Outstanding campaigner imo. Who wouldn't want to vote for him?

Keep defending that, DoT. It's very inspiring.

[NK]

McCain's Sept-Oct 2008 'campaign' was unbelievably horrific. That quote was rock bottom. Romney was better... that's not sayng much of anything though.

[Captain Hate]

The new lefty meme on Facebook is that the English Parliament treated the Irish the same way ISIS is treating its victims. The left is never lacking in quick retorts displaying an almost complete misreading of history.

[Extraneus]

Krugman is just trying to buck up the libs. No one else would be convinced by his argument, and who else reads the NYT? Well, besides TM.

[Extraneus]

McCain was swooning over the mountebank by then, CH.

[Captain Hate]

To be clear, I don't relish arguing with DoT even as a debating exercise.

[narciso]

'Winning the Future' does one come to that conclusion, the Corn Laws may not be have had the best design,

OT, Massacre at the Nutria network, 550 jobs at CNN/HLN gone (h/t Breitbart)

[fdcol63]

Fisking a Krugman article is like analyzing a stool sample.

We can detect all kinds of germs, microbes and other fecal matter, but when all is said and done, it's still just a piece of ...... shit.

[Pagar.]

The candidate who is running against the communist in Montana might want to make sure every voter in Montana knows:

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/08/never_forget_a_memorial_to_communisms_100_million_dead.html

GMAX posted the original this morning.

[narciso]

Egypt seems have been behind the phantom strikes in Libya, after all, attributed to General Hafter.

[Threadkiller]

There is one thing the mountebank did not lie about as part of his deception.

[Threadkiller]

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/cornel-west-obama-counterfeit_803604.html

[Ignatz]

The electorate is what the electorate is, just as the media are precisely what they are.

Everyone one from the Founders to Goebbels recognized the power and importance of the press.
There are always persuadables and there always will be and so long as we have a courtier press acting as a mouthpiece for the party of the metastatic state a not insignificant portion of the electorate, certainly a large enough slice to elect the otherwise unelectable, will be persuaded.

The mandarins of the left are the pimps, the media are the whores and the public is the john.
The johns pay for the services they request and get screwed. The whores keep some for themselves and pass the rest on to the pimps and madams.

[daddy]

Apparently it's in Canada.

The big news on FOX Business right now is that Burger King is considering becoming a company based out of Canada, apparently in an understandable effort to beat US Corporate Taxes.

I suspect it will soon be target number 1 for charges of "Unpatriotic Behavior" from the Administration.

IRS, Eh? Tim Hortons Deal Could Lower Burger King's Tax Bill

[Threadkiller]

Stupid but kinda cute broad on CNN just said the "authorities are close to identifying the black clad man who played a key role in the beheading video."

A key role.

[Threadkiller]

Bill Nye is up next to explain earthquakes.

Fracking probably plays a key role.

[Dave (in MA)]

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/08/25/young-man-charged-in-dawnn-jaffier-killing-due-in-court/ Whether Boston gets a visit from Al 'Freddie's Fashion Mart' Sharpton depends on the release of the perp's photo.

[Threadkiller]

Cutie:
"Is the earthquake in Napa related to the earthquake in Chile?"

Nye:
"They happened on the same planet."

[henry]

Per our nearby lurker: @ShannonBream: Breaking: #TomFitton of @JudicialWatch just told us on @FoxNews DOJ atty told JW atty that IRS/Lerner emails DO EXIST in backup somewhere.

(GUS MODE in original). So much for the galactic emperor gig.

[Porchlight]

I suspect it will soon be target number 1 for charges of "Unpatriotic Behavior" from the Administration.

Aha. Probably the reason for the "gay Whopper" ads a couple months back, to insulate them.

[Threadkiller]

Here, henry:

http://freebeacon.com/politics/judicial-watch-missing-irs-emails-are-backed-up/

[cathyf]

The mandarins of the left are the pimps, the media are the whores and the public is the john.

The existential question of 21st century American journalism: Are you still a whore if you are giving it away for free?

[Porchlight]

Warning - Daily Kos link:

Kos says GOP has 53% chance of flipping the Senate (and that's even with nonsense factored in like AK and NH being 82% likely to stay Dem).

Kos Kidz are going nutz.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/08/25/1322723/-Daily-Kos-Elections-Poll-Explorer-says-Democrats-have-47-chance-of-holding-the-Senate-right-now

[daddy]

Last week I did a post on the Solar Power plant in the Mojave Desert that was causing birds to catch fire and die at a rate of 2 per minute because of flying thru the reflected heat beam. The Green Energy bunch supporting the Solar Plant tried to downplay the numbers of dead birds per year from a logical 28,000 birds to only 1 thousand per year, because they are so beholden to the necessity of getting us off Fossil Fuels and on to Green Energy.

Well here's an interesting update:

Liberals’ Darling $2.2 Billion Solar Plant Suddenly Needs More of the One Thing You Would Never Expect---FOSSIL FUELS

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating Station... hasn’t been getting enough sunshine — despite being located in the blistering Mojave Desert southwest of Las Vegas — so the plant’s operators are asking for permission to bring in more of another fuel source: natural gas.

the plant, is petitioning the California government, requesting permission to burn more natural gas and to emit 94,749 more tons of carbon dioxide per year. That’s the equivalent of emissions from about 16,500 automobiles.

If the permit is approved, then this “solar” plant will produce about 35 percent of its electricity from fossil fuels.

So our $2.2 Billion Green Energy Plant is not just killing thousands of birds a year, it's also using enormous amounts of Fossil Fuel and pumping tons of Carbon into the atmosphere.

Even worse, (via Thomas Lifson at the American Thinker) it is the justifying model for the Green Energy's reason to construct an even bigger model of the same plant, that "is on a flight path for birds between the Colorado River and California's largest lake, the Salton Sea — an area, experts say, is richer in avian life than the Ivanpah plant, with protected golden eagles and peregrine falcons and more than 100 other species of birds recorded there.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials warned California this month that the power-tower style of solar technology holds "the highest lethality potential" of the many solar projects burgeoning in the deserts of California.

What a racket.

[Threadkiller]

I watched the segment where Bream interviewed a top dog from Judicial Watch and she said that she read all the affidavits submitted to the pissed off judge and none of them mentioned this backup system at all.

It can't be too much longer before Hans blows the roof.

[Danube on iPad]

I do not contend that McCain was a good candidate, nor do I claim that he ran a good campaign. I simply say that Obama was going to win no matter what McCain - or any other living Republican - said or did.

[Threadkiller]

McCain could have asked him about Kenya.

Birthers are those disgusting people who claim that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, in order to gain political or economic advantage.

The original birther seems to have been Barack Obama, who apparently told his literary agents in 1991 that he was born in Kenya.

http://www.birtherreport.com/2014/08/timeline-exposing-original-birther.html?m=1

"Off limits" is what limited McCain's success.

[Extraneus]

Probably the reason for the "gay Whopper" ads a couple months back, to insulate them.

Good catch!

[Threadkiller]

Daddy, I remember watching an episode of Dirty Jobs where they went up into the nacelle of a giant wind turbine. Part of the maintenance was giving the massive gear reduction unit an oil change.

IIRC it was something like 5 gallons per week/month. There is so much pressure, torque, and friction the oil breaks down in record time.

[lyle]

I simply say that Obama was going to win no matter what McCain - or any other living Republican - said or did.

Stipulated. But was it too much to ask that he at least acted like he was a viable candidate and... actually wanted to win?? His campaign all but put out massive signs: Vote For The Other Guy! We Are!

[Marlene]

Tim Hortons closed six stores in Maine last year,but there are still two dozen stores in the state. I don't know how they expected to compete with Dunkin' Donuts in New England. Tim Hortons might be iconic in Canada,but they will never brew better coffee than DD.

[Danube on iPad]

Right--if only McCain had brought up Obama's Kenyan birth, he would've won.

It seems to be the belief among many here that the default choice of the electorate in presidential years is the Republican, and if it doesn't come out that way it must be the fault of the candidate. I don't share that belief.

[narciso]

Apparently, lyle, btw at least of McCain's top men, Davis, was representing the Ukrainian govt, the one that was toppled in February. that was the important thing, Schueneman, who did represent the Georgians, and the opposition, who vouched for the Huntress, publically, while Dr, Evil and 'Nora Desmond'
badmouthed her, anonymously, all acting out the Jones memo, Madden, may have deliberately in the dark,

[Porchlight]

Mmmm, DD coffee.

I agree that Obama was inevitable, but only because of the media doing his work for him. I don't think McCain could have overcome that. It would have been nice if he had appeared to try.

I like to HOPE that a third term will be as difficult a hat trick for Dems in 2016 as it was for Republicans in 2008. But history doesn't follow familiar patterns lately when it comes to American elections.

[AliceH]

DoT@4:00pm

How many is "many"?

[Threadkiller]

Not exactly, Danube. What I am suggesting is that if he knew he was going to lose, there is nothing he could say that would hurt his chances.

My understanding is that we are to believe that Obama lied on his biography in order to boost sales of a book.

McCain had a golden opportunity to make out Obama as a serial liar. And in doing so he may or may not have changed his chances, but since he knew he was going to lose what difference does it make?

[clarice]

Mystery solved--Who's piloting these planes though?http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/26/world/africa/egypt-and-united-arab-emirates-said-to-have-secretly-carried-out-libya-airstrikes.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=LedeSum&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=1&assetType=nyt_now

[narciso]

what I was referring to,

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/03/mccain_manafort_and_the_ukraine.html

you need a program to know all the players, both then and now,

[Dave (in MA)]

My understanding is that we are to believe that Obama lied on his biography in order to boost sales of a book.

I wonder if he lied about it, or perhaps his representation came up with that idea and he went along with it.

[Dave (in MA)]

DD takes good coffee and then brews it too week. To get a decent cup you have to but the 'turbo shot' option.

[Dave (in MA)]

(weak)

[Extraneus]

Surely they ran the bio past him for approval.

[Threadkiller]

It is one of the better links, Dave. I don't see how he wasn't involved to the point that he could claim clean hands.

McCain could have also stomped all over the idea that a guy who went to private schools has any street cred.

[lyle]

In case there was any doubt:

http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/jimmy-carter-give-keynote-speech-muslim-convention-detroit

Wait until Champ is out of office. He'll grow a beard and become an honorary imam.

[cathyf]

My understanding is that we are to believe that Obama lied on his biography in order to boost sales of a book.

Or, maybe, the airhead intern who wrote his jacket copy didn't actually read the book, or didn't understand what she read, and Obama was not able to get the dopes to understand when he tried to get them to correct it. Maybe they made a gazillion errors, more important that this one, and he ran out of energy/patience in getting them all fixed.

Have you ever been interviewed for a newspaper article, and then read the resulting article? You are sitting there talking to the reporter, watching his blank face, thinking that this is utterly futile and there is no way that the article is going to make any sense or have any relationship to reality. And then the newspaper comes out, and it's even worse than you thought...

There are lots of explanations other than "lying".

[narciso]

What is striking is David 'Abbott' Kirkpatrick, figured it out, naw, someone dropped a dime on the Emirates, so it's Dubai vs. Qatar in a proxy fight, if the map is right they had to cross the Kingdom to get there,

[Dave (in MA)]

NECN ‏@NECN 7m UPDATE: Fort Lee shooter has died. http://trib.al/44J7P4i

Does this count as #WarOnWomen?

[Threadkiller]

Maybe Obama was lying in 2006, cathy:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=87pXa2pK6sg

Or, is that the voice of an airhead intern?

[lyle]

There are lots of explanations other than "lying".

Sure there are. But lying is his modus vivendi. By now is there any doubt?

[Rick B]

Narciso,

The UAE is probably supplying the flying gas stations. They have 3 Airbus A330s while Egypt has zip. If it's the gas stations, they could have just flown around the KSA rather than over.

This could be a good deal for Egypt if Sisi has made a deal with Hafter. It could be a good deal for Hafter if Sisi keeps the agreement, somewhat less than a good deal if Sisi decides to supply armor, artillery and infantry for a much larger piece of pie.

[Threadkiller]

More on the intern:

A limp statement was squirted out yesterday after the Breitbart item appeared that a woman who worked at the time as a low level assistant at Acton and Dystel, then Obama’s agent (and is now the Goederich who is Dystel’s partner) was now taking full responsibility for making an “error.”

As someone who has run a number of top bestseller publishers, I think this is an amazing MIRACLE.

It is the ONLY case I have ever heard of in which an editorial assistant INVENTED a biographical detail. I have heard of typos, wrong dates, misspellings of names. But to pick a really weird country of origin like Kenya for an author?

NEVER

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2012/05/a-word-from-tom-lipscomb.php

(Found in BR link above)

[Danube on iPad]

"How many is 'many?'"

Dunno; never counted.

[lyle]

Definitely worth your time:

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2014/08/20140824-141734.html

[narciso]

Of course, 'the first rule of North African fight club,...' the local paper, the Libyan
Herald, hasn't 'cottoned' to it,

[fdcol63]

I'm sure it was a simple mistake.

The intern just misread "Obama, whose father was born in Kenya" for "Obama, who was born in Kenya".

[Cecil Turner]

I simply say that Obama was going to win no matter what McCain - or any other living Republican - said or did.

I disagree. He should've fought hard on pinning the great recession on Democrats, and run full-time videos of CBC members blocking Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac regulation, Jamie Gorelick's payday, and highlighting campaign donations to Obama and Dodd and Frank. It would've been no more dishonest than what they did, and may well have worked.

I'm not saying it would have been enough . . . but it might have been. (Coupled with a few other things including full-throated support for his VP nominee.) But like most other replays of history, the results are unknowable.

One thing for certain . . . acting like you're ashamed of conservatism and your running mate, and triangulating for that one last voter on the liberal/independent divide, and accepting Dem propaganda on the war and the financial crisis (and how to fix it) was a loser. A big loser.

[matt]

Ayers was "just a guy in the neighborhood". Of course Obama lied. It was a political fluff job.

Hollande disbanded his government today. Germany is sliding into recession. The Russians and the Ukrainians are edging closer and closer to war. Israel is still sucker punching Hamas.

The ME is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma at the moment. Supposedly we are, with the Brits, setting up hunter killer teams to take out high value targets within ISIL. Of course Obama will dither some more and by the time the orders are cut the plans will be useless.

The Iranians are apparently now supplying armored vehicles to the Kurds, which is a wowzer. We ain't in Kansas anymore, Toto, and the Emperor is coming back from vacay with all sorts of executive orders lined up.

[Captain Hate]

Kos Kidz are going nutz

Short journey.

[daddy]

So how would Krugman explain Burger King's completely sensible move to Canada to drop corp taxes from 35% to 15 %, as something other than an example of Adam Smith's free market in action?

[Jim Eagle]

Talk about chutzpah.

I just got an email letter from Cindy McCain asking me to sign an online birthday card to My Friend and also make a contribution of $25 to $2,500. So, I guess McRino has decided to run again and out age Strom Thurmond or was it Grand Kleagle Byrd?

Just kidding, I know what the money is for - its to unelect more Cruz's and Paul's and Lee's.

[narciso]

Well General Suleimani, has had long standing
contacts with the Pesh merga, so that part isn't surprising, the prime minister, was making too much sense,

[fdcol63]

I think McCain should have simply asked:

"Why does Barack Obama think it's necessary to 'fundamentally transform' America? Does he truly believe that America is so rotten at its core that only such radical change is necessary? My fellow Americans, I believe that America is already the greatest and best country in the world, and all we need is some tweaking here and there to continue to improve this exceptional nation ..... not such radical, 'funadamental transformation' ".

[rich@gmu]

Posted by: Rick B | August 25, 2014 at 04:39 PM-

Good call on that.

also a stray thought popped into my head with all the movement (esp the monarchies) ... wonder if the word has gone out that there is a real crisis in the Saud monarchy. Iran published a story a few weeks back indicating that the king has terminal lung cancer (i'll take it with a grain of salt) and they've gone through 2 crown princes in a short period of time. just a thought.

[Carol Herman]

Wake up to the light. Perry is picking up voters! When Austin ran with its indictment, Drudge put Perry center page. And, at the top ran the headlines. You could see the video of the drunk DA Lehmberg. Being as obnoxious as she could be. And, the camera kept rolling. While she was put in restraints. From that point on, Perry moved into first place.

The 2016 GOP convention will be interesting. Mitch Daniels is probably a dark horse. But whoever recommended those black glass frames is smarter than Karl Rove.

Perry's the winnah.

What happens, ahead, in November, will pretty much indicate how Americans are lining up to actually vote. (I think dems are worried.)

[lyle]

For CH:

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/08/25/karl-rove-i-think-holder-did-something-of-a-good-job-in-going-to-ferguson/

Opening line from noted squish blogger:

In which one of conservatives’ least favorite Republicans praises one of their least favorite Democrats.

[Jim Eagle]

CT,

Ditto's from me. Its very close to my assessment of the missed strategy. This velvet glove approach doesn't work against the American political equivalent of ISIL and never will. They have massive proproganda outlets on their side nationally and locally. You have to be ruthless and suffocating in terms of their failures and how it has affected numerous negative outcomes.

Playing nice in the playground ends up with some one losing, bruising a knee and running home crying.

[Jane]

Surely they ran the bio past him for approval.

I can't imagine that Obama cared less what it said as long as it sold.

[rich@gmu]

Posted by: daddy | August 25, 2014 at 04:49 PM-

unpatriotic and wreckers ... wicked even.

[Threadkiller]

I'm sure it was a simple mistake.

The intern just misread "Obama, whose father was born in Kenya" for "Obama, who was born in Kenya".

Possible.

Do you believe that Obama, from 1991 to 2007, never read the pamphlet that mentioned him?

Keep in mind they edited his biography along the way, but didn't remove Kenya until he threw his kufi in the ring.

[Threadkiller]

Jane, are you suggesting he isn't the narcissist we think he is?

[daddy]

OT.

The recent discovery of this huge tomb in Greece from approximately the time of Alexander the Great, has been very interesting to arm chair archeologists like me.

The pics in the linked story show they have done more digging since I first saw the story last week, and now we can see the stone walls around the huge oval structure, some interesting carved sphinx's, and some bright paint on some of the lintels and columns.

I suspect the place was probably picked clean ages ago, as the heads of the 2 sphinx's have been knocked off, but I am still still maintaining a bit of cautious optimism that as the dig goes on these next few weeks, we may actually find from very interesting stuff.

Anyhow, I will try to do update duties on this Greek tomb for the next few weeks if I can find some decent sites with pics covering the excavation.

[Danube on iPad]

2nd Amendment victory in CA:

http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/386253/californias-firearms-waiting-period-deemed-unconstitutional-charles-c-w-cooke

[Threadkiller]

It shouldn't, but it does still amaze me that so many wish to make excuses for Obama.

Maybe McCain was the perfect choice for the given electorate.

[daddy]

On the intern's BS story, I recall that we discussed how idiotic it was for somebody to say they had recall of making that error at an event 20 years previous, about such a minor item, when the Pres never even published a book with the company, and he was a complete nobody. It was as foolish to think she would recall that as if we all were able to recall exactly what we were doing at noon on 14 march 1993.

[rich@gmu]

since it was a sunday, I was sleeping in.