Author, Investor, Speaker, Mentor
59% of Americans consider themselves “fiscally conservative and socially liberal” (I’m one of them). Yet here in California, a gerrymandered state results in rule by extremists. Tom Campbell is one of the last FC/SL Republican politicians left in the state. I would argue that this brand of pragmatic beliefs and policy focus is the California … Continue reading Come Meet Tom Campbell on November 3
Jonathan Haidt, the author of the excellent “The Happiness Hypothesis,” has written an essay that explores what Democrats consider a fundamental paradox of American politics: Why do working-class Americans vote Republican, when their narrow economic interests would be better served by the Democrats’ redistributionist policies. Haidt, a self-professed liberal atheist, concludes that there are two … Continue reading Why Moral People Vote Republican
Here’s a real doozy from my old friend and fellow Stanford/HBS grad, Adam Nash of LinkedIn:In every class, for every business case, the argument almost always broke down as follows: The MBA Students: Tell us what the rules of the game are, and we’ll tell you how to win the game. The Government Students: Tell … Continue reading Best post ever on the difference between business and government
Jeffrey Toobin of the New Yorker has penned a biased but thought-provoking hit piece on Chief Justice John Roberts. Toobin’s thesis can be summed up in his article’s subtitle: The Supreme Court’s stealth hard-liner. Essentially, he argues that behind Roberts’ admitted charm and legal chops lies a hardline conservative, dedicated to serving the interests of … Continue reading Hard Questions Don’t Have Easy Answers: Thoughts On Chief Justice Roberts
Will Wilkinson on the future of the Republican Party: “If Republicans keep bleeding young intellectual talent because increasingly socially liberal twenty-somethings simply can’t stand hanging around a bunch of superstitious fag-bashers, then the GOP powers-that-be might start to panic and realize that, once the last cohort of John Birchers die, they’ve got no choice but … Continue reading Quote of the Day: “Once the last cohort of John Birchers dies…”
How amazing is it that on today, the 47th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, Barack Obama announced that he will appoint General Eric Shinseki, a Japanese-American veteran from Hawaii, as the Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs? Like so many of Obama’s moves, this is a master stroke that shows his trademark combination of competence, … Continue reading Obama, Master of Symbolism
Many of you probably know conservative satirist P.J. O’Rourke. But his latest piece, “We Blew It,” is his finest hour. “We Blew It” is a scorching indictment of the conservative movement for wasting its opportunity. O’Rourke takes a flamethrower to liberal and conservative alike. It is a tour de force, and it gets my highest … Continue reading P.J. O’Rourke’s Finest Hour
I read a great line this morning: “College educated Americans have concluded that their bank accounts are safe with the Democrats, but that their values are under assault by the Republicans.” It seems to me that this gets to the heart of things. The Reagan coalition depended on supplementing free-market capitalists with Reagan Democrats who … Continue reading Whither Realignment? (Why Palinism Won’t Work)
I just finished reading Newsweek’s behind-the-scenes look at the presidential campaign. Wow. It is an astonishingly rich and detailed piece of reporting, filled with surprising stories and facts, and carrying the ring of truth. While anyone who was ever been in the papers knows that journalists will never get the story exactly right, it seems … Continue reading Best. Campaign. Rundown. Ever.
Seth Godin hits it on the head:“Attack ads don’t always work. There’s a reason most product marketers don’t use attack ads. All they do is suppress sales of your opponent, they don’t help you. Since TV ads began, voter turnout has progressively decreased. That’s because the goal of attack ads is to keep your opponent’s … Continue reading Cult Psychology: Why McCain’s Attack Ads Didn’t Work