David McElroy

During the administration of George W. Bush, the political left was rightfully indignant about no-bid contracts going to administration allies. The poster child for such corruption was Halliburton. Now that it’s clear that the administration of Barack Obama is doing the same thing, are we going to see the same protests? Or will those on the left look the other way?

The Los Angeles Times has an excellent story this weekend detailing how the Obama administration is handing a no-bid contract to a company controlled by a major Democratic Party donor. The contract is for a smallpox drug that hasn’t been tested on humans and which experts say isn’t even necessary.

When the company complained that the Department of Health and Human Services was resisting paying what it wanted to charge, senior Obama administration officials removed the government’s lead negotiator from the deal. Doesn’t this sound like serious political corruption to you?

The point here isn’t that Democrats are corrupt or that all Republicans aren’t. The point is that the system has incentives that lead to anyone in power doing the same things. Some Republicans end up doing it when they have power. Some Democrats end up doing it when they have power. And here’s the thing that’s hard for some people to understand. If we elected a libertarian government (or a socialist government or a communitarian government or any other kind you can think of), it would happen anyway.

Keep Reading

I sense growing frustration among many Republicans. They can’t stand Barack Obama and will do anything to dump him, yet there’s no real enthusiasm for any Republican who might be nominated. I can’t say I blame them.

When Rick Perry jumped into the race, I thought he had the look and feel of someone to come out of nowhere and win the GOP nomination. But Perry has had an instinct for self-destruction that I haven’t seen in a candidate lately. I still think Herman Cain is a “flavor of the month” candidate whose star would have faded quickly even without his female accusers lately. Newt Gingrich? Give me a break. He has no chance. Ron Paul? He has passionate support that’s never going to go much above 10 percent. He can’t win.

Mitt Romney is probably going to be the Republican nominee by default. He’s always at or near the top of the polls, but have you talked to anyone who’s passionate about supporting Romney? I haven’t. I finally saw my first Romney bumper sticker Friday, so I know his supporters actually exist. It’s just hard to imagine why anyone supports him.

So here’s the likely scenario in my mind. Romney and the other Republican candidates keep up their never-ending stream of fake debates for months. (If they add any more of these events that are more like joint news conferences, they’ll be able to save money by just traveling together like the member of a band on tour. When I mentioned this earlier, one friend suggested we call them the Grateful Dead.) Anyway, it’s likely that Romney will win the nomination and all the Republicans who are completely cold about him right now will suddenly decide that he’s Mr. Conservative — all because he’s their only hope to defeat Obama.

Keep Reading

In the current environment of horrid grammar and poor word usage, an English teacher can only take so much before snapping. Some of the rest of us aren’t far behind.

Keep Reading