Hope and Cookies

Now I'm getting scared. On the one hand, the Scott Brown effect (aka 'The Scott Heard Around the World') has effectively convinced Pelosi Partisan ideologues like Patrick Kennedy that there was not a shot in hell of him beating Scott Brown like candidate John Laughlin. On the other hand, now even moderate democrats are jumping ship. The very guys who you could count on to negotiate. That's not a good sign.

You never know when the tide of war is going to change. Relatively small events can have large effects. I don't think George Washington thought that crossing the Delaware and taking Trenton would be a game changer. Rather it was a cheap shot by battle standards of the day, and it was more of a desperate attempt to keep troops from leaving the misery of Valley Forge and stay on for another season. The effect of crossing the Delaware was larger than he dreamed.

Not that the election of Scott Brown is a small event, but it is right up there in likelihood with Washington's chances of taking Trenton without a shot fired.

Avery good and very historical perspective of what is going on around us appeared in todays Wall Street Journal.

Another Liberal Crackup

Democrats failed in the latter half of the 1960s, as the twin burdens of the Great Society and Vietnam ended the Kennedy boom and split their party. They failed again after Watergate, as Congress dragged Jimmy Carter to the left and liberals had no answer for stagflation. They failed a third time in the first two Bill Clinton years, as tax increases and HillaryCare led to the Gingrich Congress before Mr. Clinton salvaged his Presidency by tacking to the center. 

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A fourth crackup is already well underway and is even more remarkable considering how Democrats were set up for success. 

This is the problem with the two party system. You get mad at the party that most represents you, then you vote for the other party when they screw up, and the other party screws it up even worse!

For the fourth time since the 1960s, American voters in 2008 gave Democrats overwhelming control of both Congress and the White House. Republicans haven't had such large majorities since the 1920s. Yet once again, Democratic leaders have tried to govern the country from the left, only to find that their policies have hit a wall of practical and popular resistance.

They just can't help themselves. It is like kids and the cookie jar. They know if they get caught they will be in big trouble. They know it because they have been caught, and there was big big trouble. But just like a kid they think "this time I can get the cookie"

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.