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The U.S. economy remains in better shape than bearish partisans contend. Broad economic indicators like real GDP, payroll employment, and industrial production are expanding, while the U.S. economy itself is nearing its sixth year of expansion. Yet the same bullish claim cannot be made about Michigan, which continues to lose jobs. It’s rare for a state with an economy as large as Michigan’s to record job losses in the midst of a national expansion. A lot of ink is spilled in Detroit each month reporting short-term job losses. But some key long-term trends have been overlooked. How bad is Michigan’s...

When the president of the New Zealand Police Association, Greg O'Connor, recently issued a domestic call for the all-enveloping burka garment worn by some Muslim women to be banned from the roads, it wasn't only local drivers who were paying attention to his words. In faraway New Hampshire, Mr O'Connor's crisp authority also struck an appreciative chord with the individual often regarded as one of the conservative world's most visible media commentators on the great civilisational clash of the past five years. "These little anecdotes are wonderful to come across," Mark Steyn said in an interview during a stopover in...

Mubarak's surprise surrender to democratic forces--without a fight no less--got the headlines, but little else. In fact, Mubarak's Friday speech could well be marked by future historians as the equivalent of the first hammers to hit the Berlin Wall in October 1989. Even more astonishingly, it is the lightning fast conclusion to the seemingly impossible journey on which George Bush set out--against the wisdom of his advisors and every Middle East expert (including myself)--in January of 2003. The journey actually began with a PowerPoint presentation at the Pentagon in 2002. That presentation, supposedly given by Richard Perle, is cited as...

Simply Templeton Two financial futures for Social Security. Last week I debated New York Times columnist Paul Krugman at the National Press Club on the future of Social Security. This was about as much fun as trying to eat corn on the cob with braces. Krugman is the leader of the opposition to personal investment accounts. He argues, and most liberals agree with him, that the Social Security system is not facing a financial crisis and that minor tweaks to the system will pull it out of the red for at least the next 50 years. A recent USA Today...

My friend Michael is telling us that the Battle of Fallujah was more important than we have been led to believe by the media. Our victory in Fallujah has had enormous consequences, first of all because the information we gathered there has made it possible to capture or kill considerable numbers of terrorists and their leaders. It also sent a chill through the spinal column of the terror network, because it exposed the lie at the heart of their global recruitment campaign. As captured terrorists have told the region on Iraqi television and radio, they signed up for jihad because...

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 Posted at 4:00 PM, and updated thereafter. Bush-Cheney '04 senior strategist Matthew Dowd on CNN's Inside Politics earlier today: "I think fundamentally, this is going to be a race that is a choice, and I think what you see even in the Gallup poll, your poll, when you ask them on the important issues "Who do you trust more, who do you trust more to deal with Iraq?" the public trusts the president more; "Who do you trust more on the war on terror?" the public trusts the president more; even on the economy which has...

Overall: Bush gets a big win, by hitting all his messages over and over again. He wins on substance. Biggest mistake by Kerry: "The Global Test." Sorry, the American voters aren't interested in passing any global tests. Bush stresses steadfastness and resolve. Kerry firmed up the hard-left vote, but you can't win on this. Lehrer started poorly, but came on strong. UPDATE: The FoxNews panel agrees: "Global Test" is the takeaway. On substance, Kerry wants appeasement of North Korea and Iran, globalization of conflict resolution, and a summit. Bush wants to take the war to the terrorists. Kerry wants meetings....

The President Meets His Troops This press pool report on President Bush conducting an impromptu review of troops leaving for Iraq is touching. Bush and the departing soldiers were scheduled to be at the Bangor airport at around the same time, and the troop flight hit the gas pedal to arrive in time for President Bush to board their plane. The funny thing is that one of the authors of the article is the appalling Dana Milbank, one of America's worst, most biased reporters. Still, here is part of what he says:The soldiers mostly had cameras ready to take snapshots...

FROM THE USS RONALD REAGAN [KJL] An e-mail live from the USS Reagan: The Captain announced President Reagan's death about three minutes after I saw the headline on Drudge, then the Corner. It was the shortest time the Captain has ever spent on the 1MC (the intraship speaker system). He just said what a great President he was and a great man. I sincerely hope there will be a memorial service out here in the next couple of days. I began my military life under Reagan as a cadet at the Air Force Academy. Then I served most of my...

A Big Jobs Vote for BushGood economic news favors the incumbent. By Bruce Bartlett Friday’s employment report confirms that the economic expansion is accelerating. The creation of 288,000 payroll jobs in April was almost double the consensus forecast of 150,000. Coming on top of the 337,000 new jobs created in March (revised up from 308,000), the economy has now created 625,000 jobs in just two months. This is a very impressive performance after months of disappointment. The immediate effect of this good news has to be that George W. Bush’s electoral chances are improved. Despite the problems in Iraq, history...

RE: FREELANCE BUSH AD [Jonah Goldberg ] So many readers liked this I figured I'd post it again. Seriously, the Bushies could do a lot worse. Yes, there were many complaints about the Canadian-anti-work song by BTO. But still, good stuff. Posted at 09:22 AM

IRAN ERUPTS? [Kathryn Jean Lopez] Secondhand, from an Iranian: I am listening to KRSI (Radio Sedaye Iran) right now. There are many Iranians calling (from Tehran, and Gorgan, etc.). All reports indicate that almost every neighborhood in Tehran is on fire. People are throwing home-made bombs, Molotov cocktails, etc. into the homes of mullahs, and burning pictures of Khamenei in complete defiance of his recent edict to mourn during the month of Muharram. Background: Khamenei delivered a declaration (not really a fatwa, although some say it was) to Iranians to honor the month of Muharram, which started about two weeks...

RE: BUTTERFLY BROKEN ON A WHEEL [John Derbyshire] VERY interesting e-mailbag on my Martha Stewart postings. They are running about 2-1 in support of my pro-Martha position -- somewhat to my surprise, as I thought I was being dramatically contrarian here. Interestingly, e-mails from professionals in the securities business are pretty solidly with me -- I have appended a good example down below. Points often made: ---It is not against the law to be a rich, obnoxious, not-very-honest woman, not even if your politics are Clintonian-Democrat. ---Not only was Martha not charged with "insider trading" (whatever THAT is supposed to...

Unsafe at any Election Ralph Nader Takes Another Swing ... at His Own Reputation By MATT WELCH National Post, February 29, 2004 LOS ANGELES - It didn't take Ralph Nader long at all to begin dressing up his third consecutive run at the U.S. presidency with brazen, thigh-slapping lies. "This is a campaign," he told reporters this week, after announcing his latest doomed bid on NBC's Meet the Press, "that strives to displace the present corporate regime of the Bush administration." That is hogwash, and Nader knows it. As in 1996 and 2000, he is running a progressive-left campaign, designed...

RE: BUTTERFLY BROKEN ON WHEEL [John Derbyshire] Readers are chiding me for my support of Martha: "Rich rhymes-with-rich... arrogant... female Kerry, DYKWIA?.... little people need protection in the market... integrity of the market... yada yada." Well, fiddlesticks. I'm a conservative, and my first presumption is that my main enemy is State Power. This was an exercise in State Power, DYKWIA writ much larger than any individual in this country can write it. Stewart's offenses were trivial, not worth prosecuting. Investor confidence? Insider trading? (Which she was not even charged with!) Gimme a break. The markets are a lottery, and the...

NO "PEACEFUL" GREETING FOR DUBYA [Tim Graham] One driving force behind the Bush 9-11 ad kerfuffle is the group September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows (peacefultomorrows.org). To get a clue of how these unfortunate Americans are also hard-core lefties, see their speaking schedule here. One founder is pounding at Bush on the front page of the Washington Post this morning, but she's not identified with the group. "The idea that President Bush would rally support around his campaign by using his loved one in a way that is so shameful is hard for me to believe," says Rita Lasar. You'll...

MARK STEYN I-WAS-WRONG MOMENT Martha Stewart has been found guilty on all four counts. And it looks like all those jokes we did about the happy homemaker in the big house - how to get the file in the cake, how to make an attractive centerpiece in the cell bucket to surprise your bull dyke when she returns from the showers, etc - are about to come true. I wrote about Martha's troubles in this Wall Street Journal column from last June, and thought she'd come up smelling of roses:Most analysts reckon there are two options facing Martha Inc.: The...

The Iranian regime is in open battle with its own people. Iran is now racing, literally hell-bent toward two dramatic confrontations: one within the country, between forces of tyranny and forces of democracy and/or reform. The other rages outside the country, a desperate war against the United States, its Coalition allies, and the Iraqis who support us. Both derive from the fundamental weakness of the fundamentalist regime, which has lost the support of the overwhelming majority of the Iranian people, and is increasingly defining itself a pariah state because of its support for terror and its brazen pursuit of atomic...

President Bush’s bounce from the capture of Saddam Hussein has faded. His State of the Union message had clear vision but it lacked enough rhetorical punch to deliver another bounce. And now the president is taking political hits from all angles, temporarily slowing the stock market advance. Sen. John Kerry, on the other hand, is getting a large bounce from his primary victories, with Bush-bashing on the Democratic campaign trail nearing a fever pitch. Heavy coverage by the print and broadcast media is only fuelling the charge of the anti-Bush forces. Missing WMDs haven’t helped Bush either. Nor has lower-than-expected...