Reflections

Memo to Barack
Contrary to what you might assume, I didn't start with any advantages and neither did most of the successful people I know. I am the grandson of immigrants who came to this country seeking basic economic and personal liberty. My parents worked tirelessly to build on that opportunity. My first job was as a day laborer on the construction of the Long Island Expressway more than 50 years ago. The wealth that was created by my investments wasn't put into a giant swimming pool as so many elected demagogues seem to imagine. Instead it benefited our employees, their families and our community at large. (Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone, WSJ, 10/15/10)

Ever wonder why you never hear a response from Liberals on these rags-to-riches stories?  Likely it is because there is nothing they can say to refute them.  Liberals prefer inherited wealth (think Kennedy, Kerry, etc.) or wealth "acquired" through political careers (think Clinton, Obama).

Memo to Democrats
Conventional wisdom is that the election is being driven by anger and blind anti-incumbent fervor. Nonsense. Overwhelmingly, it is Democratic incumbents, not Republicans, who are under siege. This is a national revolt against the Democratic governance of the past two years. One must understand that "anger" is the explanation du jour when Republicans win big. The last wave election (1994), for example, was dubbed the Year of the Angry White Male -- despite the fact that there was not a scintilla of polling evidence supporting that characterization. Of course the electorate is angry this time around. But it is not inchoate irrational anger -- a "temper tantrum," as ABC News anchor Peter Jennings called the 1994 Republican sweep -- but a highly pointed, perfectly rational anger at the ideological overreach and incompetence of the governing Democrats. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 10/15/10)

Keeping Score
The latest Washington Post-ABC News shows an electorate still about evenly split on the health-care law: 46 percent of voters for it, 50 percent against. (Washington Post, 10/15/10)

Not so sure that we would call 46/50 “evenly split.”