Todd's Mischief Blog

Rick Perry's campaign released a new ad on Tuesday. I just wanted to share my thoughts on it and invite others to express theirs: This ad makes me think that perhaps Perry is a different breed of Republican than we've become accustomed to. I already know that his campaign strategist, Dave Carney, is a different breed of strategist. But this goes beyond mere strategy. Perry actually adopted the "President Zero" tagline, which is exactly what all the right-wing talkers were suggesting on radio and cable news. That is a major curveball. I was not expecting any candidates to take advice from the talkers. That is a very anti-establishment move. That really demonstrates Perry's receptiveness to the conservative base. As for the ad itself, it is extremely cinematic. The approach is not necessarily novel among political ads anymore, but it’s still not the norm. What sets this ad apart is its full embracing of that approach. He's not just dipping his toes in. This is a...

Nancy Pelosi is pissed off at Republicans. While that isn’t all too surprising, her reason is. In advance of President Obama’s jobs address before a joint session of congress tonight, Boehner’s office announced that no one from the Republican Party will issue a formal rebuttal. Boehner spokesman Mike Steel said Obama's proposals "will rise or fall on their own merits."  But apparently Pelosi was gearing up for a row, and she’s going to pick a fight no matter what. Pelosi claimed that by not offering a rebuttal, Republicans are being “not only disrespectful to [the president], but to the American people.”  Aren’t politics confusing? It seems that since Obama took the oath of office, Democrats have been admonishing Republicans to lay off the president. Furthermore, I thought the American people were tired of partisan bickering. Forgive me for thinking this looks like a double-dose of giving people what they want. Surely there is some calculation behind the Republicans’ deci...

Bachmann Wins Ames Straw Poll  Just announced, Michelle Bachmann has won the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa, taking first place with 4823 votes and becoming the first woman to do so. With 4671 votes, second place goes to Ron Paul while third goes to Tim Pawlenty with 2293 votes. Mitt Romney and Rick Perry did not participate (the latter being a little late to the game) but they took 567 and 718 votes, respectively. So what does it all mean?  Any discussion of the Ames Straw Poll should rightly start by pointing out that it has only been conducted five times in the past, so there’s not all that much precedent to rely upon. On the other hand, since the event began in 1979, the candidate winning the Iowa Caucus has placed first or second in the straw poll every time. And the Caucus, with a longer track record, is a pretty fair indicator of who gets the party nomination. So, if the Straw Poll changes anything, it is that it spells out definitely exactly what chances Bachmann has for the...

Okay, not one of my best titles In light of the supposed dust-up between presidential candidate Michelle Bachmann and anchor Chris Wallace on "Fox News Sunday," I fully expect the liberal media to start dredging up all the things that she has said that they find “flaky.” Among those I bet will be her statement in support of intelligent design (ID) theory being taught in classrooms. It just so happens I was was defending Bachmann’s statement on another forum lately. Of course I had to start from behind, first having to correct my opposition’s understanding of ID: Problem is… “intelligent design” is a RELIGIOUS theory, not a scientific one. It absolutely belongs in a classroom… religion class. I considered editing my response into a proper article, but I decided against it. Should I blame you for not checking your facts? On one hand, the history of ID has been thoroughly revised since the 1980′s. However, I suspect your interpretation of ID has more to do with your opinions of...

A Crash Course on Arab-Israeli conflict in the 20th Century In his excellent article, “ Whencesoever Palestine? ” Hassan Nurullah handily exposes the very idea of Palestine as an ancient-world political fabrication carried into modern times by anti-Semites of every stripe and color since. I highly recommend reading his article before reading this one. Much has been made regarding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s response to President Obama’s remarks on Israel and Palestine. His response to a call for a return to 1967 borders in a speech delivered from the Oval Office has been chastened by critics as “rude” and “lecturing” the president “like a schoolboy.” Aside from the dangerous potential for a racist code-word to be hidden in that description of Obama, these critics seem to have forgotten that politics is a game played by grown-ups. For this author, the most remarkable thing about President Barack Obama’s call for Israel to return to pre-Six-Day War borders, "mut...

Distancing conservatism from “birthers” may not be as easy as it seems Trump is strutting like a peacock over the release of Obama’s long-form birth certificate. Not surprisingly, even this does not quell the birthers, as indicated by Trump’s promises to now investigate the document . So leave the kooks to themselves. For the rest of us, the issue is put to bed and we can all move on, right? Maybe not. Having the birth certificate released ought to make it easier for Republicans and Tea Partiers alike to distance themselves from the birther movement. As the 2012 presidential campaign season opens, it would be nice to focus on important issues like the economy, foreign affairs, and entitlements. But don’t be surprised if you hear charges of racism lobbed at the president’s political adversaries once more. Already, left-wing pundits say that it was racism in the Tea Party that gave rise to the birther movement. Even if they are willing to admit that birthers were a Clinton Machine creati...

Glenn Beck doesn’t like to be accused of looking for “ booger bears ,” so I won’t. The top story today on Glenn Beck’s…well, almost everything is about proposed State Department form DS-5513, “Biographical Questionnaire for a U.S. Passport.” Glenn is weirded out by some of the questions that it asks—and there are some weird ones—but the speculation he engages in because of it sounds like a part of the FEMA camp conspiracy theory that he worked so hard to debunk .  “Why doesn’t Gov want you to have a passport?” his website asks. On radio, Glenn put it this way: “Who is it that won’t be qualified—or won’t be allowed to get a passport to leave the country?” That the form would only be issued to “some” applicants is not a relief to Glenn but a sign of the ominous because, as the form states, “failure to provide the information requested may result in … the denial of your U.S. passport application.” Ya think? “Who are they trying to trap here?” Glenn asks. Enemies of the president, he ...