Council Winners
Watchers Council winners have been posted for the week of May 23.
First place in the council went to Republicans Ponder The Abyss at Wolf Howling.
He may be writing with great subtlety here and talking about a campaign strategy, rather than a governing policy. If so, the party would be harking back to Reagan, who raised plenty of taxes, spent plenty of money, and compromised on small things for the sake of shifting the government into different channels.
But I still think he overlooks the role of the irrational in voting. I don't think it matters who Republicans run. I think the voters are simply worn out after two terms of Bush and friends, and consider the conservatives have had their chance, and it's time to let some fresh ideas in. And however ambivalent many of them are about Obama, McCain and his platform-mates is likely to say any number of intemperate things between now and November that will edge the voters -- emotionally -- closer to Obama.
Let's see if I'm wrong.
It's refreshing, at least, to see that the voters in the council, most of them I think conservative Republicans, didn't take offense at being cast as Macbeth. Now if a Democrat had done that ....
Votes also went to George Bush Isolationist at Soccer Dad; Seattle Times Writer Defends Hitler's Aggression! at Rhymes With Right; Renaming the Paradigm at Bookworm Room; No One Will Solve Our Energy Problems For Us at Hillbilly White Trash; and Would You Buy An ObamaMobile From Tom Friedman? at Joshuapundit.
Outside the council, the winner was Blog For Human Rights -- May 15th, 2008 at The Whited Sepulchre. This looks at the Four Freedoms, Roosevelt's bold proposal for a decent world, in light of some current events. It does so largely by putting up Norman Rockwell's moving illustrations of them against selected photos from current events.
Votes also went to The William Ayers Plan To Turn America's Schoolchildren Into Maoists and How Barack Obama Helped Him at Pundita. Either writing about Obama is approaching Hofstadter's notion of the paranoid style, or there is a lethal Manchurian Candidate running for president.
Other votes went to Dow Jones: Israel Means Business at The Elder of Ziyon, about 90 percent of which is quoted from two other sites, one a news story, the other a blog roundup. That can be a useful thing to do, but I tend not to vote for those.
Votes also went to The Lord of Perpetual Victimhood at Pondering Penguin and Vanderboegh: Loophole at Western Rifle Shooters Association, which is a useful entre to a topic for those unfamiliar with the cutting edge of the Second Amendment debates.
First place in the council went to Republicans Ponder The Abyss at Wolf Howling.
Republicans have two key national issues they can run on and win. The first, the pocket book issue, is the price at the pump. The second is national security. But they will only win on those issues if they accomplish two prerequisites. One, they need to embrace fiscal responsibility like it was just written on stone tablets by fingers of flame emanating out of a burning bush. Two, they need to adopt an effective communications strategy.
He may be writing with great subtlety here and talking about a campaign strategy, rather than a governing policy. If so, the party would be harking back to Reagan, who raised plenty of taxes, spent plenty of money, and compromised on small things for the sake of shifting the government into different channels.
But I still think he overlooks the role of the irrational in voting. I don't think it matters who Republicans run. I think the voters are simply worn out after two terms of Bush and friends, and consider the conservatives have had their chance, and it's time to let some fresh ideas in. And however ambivalent many of them are about Obama, McCain and his platform-mates is likely to say any number of intemperate things between now and November that will edge the voters -- emotionally -- closer to Obama.
Let's see if I'm wrong.
It's refreshing, at least, to see that the voters in the council, most of them I think conservative Republicans, didn't take offense at being cast as Macbeth. Now if a Democrat had done that ....
Votes also went to George Bush Isolationist at Soccer Dad; Seattle Times Writer Defends Hitler's Aggression! at Rhymes With Right; Renaming the Paradigm at Bookworm Room; No One Will Solve Our Energy Problems For Us at Hillbilly White Trash; and Would You Buy An ObamaMobile From Tom Friedman? at Joshuapundit.
Outside the council, the winner was Blog For Human Rights -- May 15th, 2008 at The Whited Sepulchre. This looks at the Four Freedoms, Roosevelt's bold proposal for a decent world, in light of some current events. It does so largely by putting up Norman Rockwell's moving illustrations of them against selected photos from current events.
Votes also went to The William Ayers Plan To Turn America's Schoolchildren Into Maoists and How Barack Obama Helped Him at Pundita. Either writing about Obama is approaching Hofstadter's notion of the paranoid style, or there is a lethal Manchurian Candidate running for president.
Other votes went to Dow Jones: Israel Means Business at The Elder of Ziyon, about 90 percent of which is quoted from two other sites, one a news story, the other a blog roundup. That can be a useful thing to do, but I tend not to vote for those.
Votes also went to The Lord of Perpetual Victimhood at Pondering Penguin and Vanderboegh: Loophole at Western Rifle Shooters Association, which is a useful entre to a topic for those unfamiliar with the cutting edge of the Second Amendment debates.
