BY RICH GALEN
FEB 24 | Reprinted from Mullings.com

One of the things you learn when doing communications and messaging for a political campaign is: Find something good to say.

If a poll shows your candidate is in 9th place 276 percentage points behind the guy in 8th place, you say, “Our internals indicate our message is just beginning to break through, so we take great heart in these excellent numbers.”

Then you go to confession. Even if you’re Jewish. Continue reading →

BY JOHN FEEHERY
FEB 23  |  Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Nobody trusts Ted Cruz.

And since trusting Ted Cruz is one of his major campaign themes, that’s a major problem.

Cruz is a smart guy. Just ask him.

He must look at the Supreme Court vacancy left by Antonin Scalia and wonder where it all went wrong for him.

He was aiming for the wrong job all along.

I’m not saying that Cruz would get confirmed by the United States Senate should he cut a deal with Marco Rubio to drop out of the race and then get named by President Rubio to fill the Scalia vacancy, because I don’t think that’s possible. Continue reading →

BY B. JAY COOPER
FEB 22 | Reprinted from The Screaming Moderate (bjaycooper.com)

Here goes: I’ve been wrong.

I never believed (still don’t or maybe better put can’t) that Donald Trump would be the Republican candidate for president. The facts are the facts though – he may be.

The stars have aligned: voters are angry with the way things are and Trump, who will say anything about anyone or anything and feel no qualms about it because he can say the opposite a minute later, channels that anger. The GOP field has stayed big for too long and his 30 to 35 percent of the GOP primary base has been more than sufficient to win New Hampshire and South Carolina. He attacked and attacked his previous biggest target – Jeb Bush – and Jeb now is gone. The remaining GOP candidates don’t have anywhere near Trump’s hooooge personality or mouth so who will take him down? Continue reading →

BY BOB WALKER
FEB 15  |  Reprinted from Facebook

On this day of celebrating the presidential leadership qualities of President Washington and President Lincoln, it is interesting to think about how they might fare in today’s political environment.

They were honest and trustworthy.

They were neither narcissistic nor vulgar.

They believed in the equality of opportunity, not the equality of outcome. Continue reading →

BY JOHN FEEHERY
FEB 11  |  Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

“We are all connected.”

Said John Kasich in the single most inspirational and evangelical political speech of the year.

The former Catholic altar boy turned Anglican has been the most faithful of Christian enthusiasts in the GOP primary race.

He is the one who is taking the most heat for being such a faithful Christian, not from the left but from the right.

He expanded Medicaid in his state for one stated purpose: He wanted to help the poor. Continue reading →

BY JOHN FEEHERY
FEB 3  |  Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

While the President announced his “moon shot” to cure cancer from the Speaker’s Rostrum overlooking the United States House of Representatives, he might as well been speaking from an alternative universe.

Don’t get me wrong. I think we need to invest a lot more in cancer research. I also think we need to invest more to cure Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

Here is what the President said: Continue reading →

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JAN 29

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
― Abraham Lincoln

There is much that Lincoln said in his lifetime that we should all carry with us, but this quotation is particularly apt as we enter an election year. I say “enter” because not one single American has yet to cast a single vote for a single candidate for office even though the oracles and surveyors have already decided our fate. It’s Trump. No, it’s Cruz. No, Kasich is coming up on the inside rail in New Hampshire. Gotta be Rubio. Watch Christie. Bush is dead. “Donald Trump basks in growing sense of inevitability,” says Politico. My. My.

I read that crap and think back to what we learned from the experiences of Presidents Guiliani, Tsongas, Gingrich, Santorum, Hillary Clinton, and my favorite, Michele Bachmann. They all led in the polls. They all won key caucuses and primaries. And who remembers that loser Bill Clinton, who limped out of Iowa with less than 3 percent in ‘92? Continue reading →

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JAN 24

I’ve decided to enroll in the Sanctuarial University of Experiential Learning (SUEL). This SUEL campus is nestled among the Himalayan Mountains in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, just blocks from the Potala Palace, where the Dalai Lama once had his summer home.

Classes are not held on the campus, of course. If they were the learning wouldn’t be experiential now would it?

The actor Sean Penn first introduced me to experiential learning. He is well advanced in the methodology, already a practitioner of what he calls experiential journalism. Continue reading →

BY JOHN FEEHERY
JAN 21 |  Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Few people can rival Bob Dole in his service to America.

In April of 1945, Dole was severely wounded during World War II in the Italian Alps, and lost the use of his right arm. His recovery was long, slow and painful.

His orthopedic doctor was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide (and yes, to my Turkish friends, there was an Armenian Genocide) who dispensed this advice: focus not on what you have lost but what you have left. Continue reading →

BY JOHN FEEHERY
JAN 19 |  Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

On 17 October 1521, Pope Leo X declared King Henry VIII the Fidei Defensor or Defender of the Faith.

The Pope was more than a bit desperate. Martin Luther had posted his 95 theses on a church door in Wittenberg, Germany and the Catholic Church was in a world of hurt.

Henry was not exactly the poster child for the faithful little Catholic. He was a notorious womanizer and a murderer to boot. He would have his many wives executed once they failed in producing a male heir.

Donald Trump reminds me of Henry. Continue reading →

BY RICH GALEN
JAN 18 | Reprinted from Mullings.com

Why is Iowa important?

Because it is.

Same reason the Kardashians grace the cover of magazines at the supermarket checkout: They’re somebodies because they are.

In two weeks from today, Iowans – some Iowans, will go to someplace in their town or neighborhood, listen to speeches in favor of one candidate for President or another, and cast a vote for their favorite. Continue reading →

BY JOHN FEEHERY
JAN 15 |  Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

When Ted Cruz attacked Donald Trump for exhibiting New York values, Trump reminded his younger rival that the Big Apple wasn’t all bad and that it indeed has produced some important figures in the conservative movement.

And then he mentioned William F. Buckley.

I have been thinking a lot about Bill Buckley lately and how badly the Republican Party needs his leadership today. Continue reading →

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JAN 15

“I think the country’s on a bad path, a dangerous path. I think we could lose what’s so unique about our country—this American idea the condition of your birth doesn’t determine the outcome of your life.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan on CBS‘ Face the Nation, January 10, 2016

It was an unusual Sunday morning talk show to say the least. Here was House Speaker Paul Ryan in a lengthy interview with Face the Nation host John Dickerson. The two of them, new to their jobs, appeared to be experimenting with a new and revolutionary format in television and politics.

They were talking substance. Continue reading →

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JAN 14

President Obama’s final State of the Union address, like its six predecessors, will not be remembered for long. Obama is in good company. Most recent Presidents and their spin doctors have tried to make the State of the Union much more than the Constitution intended and usually failed.

As messages go, a good share of President Obama’s  were not believable. He tried in vain, and maybe some desperation, to define international terrorism as a problem, but not a crisis. He tried in vain to preach the gospel of renewed economic vitality to millions of unemployed, underemployed, underpaid American workers, plus another 46 million living in or around the poverty level, plus more millions watching their retirement drift off into a foggy future of unknown depth and direction. The next day the stock market took another deep dive. The most egregious message related to how well we are treating our returning military and veterans. Veterans, in particular, have been badly mistreated at veterans facilities all across the country. Continue reading →

BY JOHN FEEHERY
JAN 12  |  Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Donald Trump is leading the Republican polls in Iowa and New Hampshire. Bernie Sanders is leading in the Republican polls in the same states.

You tell me if the State of the Union is strong.

The good news is we live in America and it’s a lot better than living in China or Europe.

At least in America, we are free to achieve our dreams, even if that means sitting on the couch and playing Grand Theft Auto all day. Continue reading →

BY RICH GALEN
JAN 7 | Reprinted from Mullings.com

All of the posturing. All of the spinning. All of the punditry. All of the knowing glances among the political pros will mean nothing in about 25 days when the good people of Iowa trudge out, certainly in the cold, and maybe through the snow, to their neighborhood caucuses on February 1.

We will know – or we will think we know – who won on both the Republican and Democratic sides by about 11 PM Central Time. Continue reading →

BY JOHN FEEHERY
JAN 6  |  Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

I became Ian Baker Finch when playing golf with Mike Oxley.

To clarify: Ian Baker Finch was the former British Open winner who would later lose his ability to hit a tee shot and would become a famous broadcaster.

Mike Oxley became famous in the financial world for Sarbanes-Oxley, legislation passed after Enron, MCI and a variety of other big companies went belly-up after conducting financial shenanigans. Continue reading →

BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON  |  JAN 6

Another year is in front of us, and with it the ritualistic adoration of resolutions, promises, and agendas.

In politics, promises are king. They rule the  rhetoric, produce prolific, big block headlines, raise expectations, generate motion, and usually, accomplish nothing. It is because they are ritualistic that they survive.

Agendas are similar. They are just something we have to have at the onset of each new day, week, month, year, and millennia.  Continue reading →

BY RICH GALEN
JAN 4 | Reprinted from Mullings.com

Welcome to the first workday of 2016 and maybe the first day of World War III.

The last two World Wars started when a couple of countries got into it and everyone else began to choose sides.

Over the weekend, the Saudi Arabian government executed 47 people including one senior Shiite cleric who had been an outspoken opponent of the Saudi rulers.

The Iranians immediately set fire to the Saudi Embassy in Tehran. The Saudis immediately emptied its embassy of diplomats, cut off diplomatic ties, and ordered the Iranian mission out of Riyadh within 48 hours. Continue reading →

BY JOHN FEEHERY
DEC 29  |  Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

In a properly functioning democracy, politicians would work extra hard to make certain that the very, very wealthy would pay an appropriate amount of taxes.

In a dysfunctional political system, where the exceedingly wealthy (and by exceedingly wealthy, I mean billionaires and multi-millionaires), have an outsized access to the political class, closing down the tax loopholes seems to be damn near impossible.

The New York Times just published an expose about how the super-wealthy avoid paying taxes. “With inequality at its highest levels in nearly a century and public debate rising over whether the government should respond to it through higher taxes on the wealthy, the very richest Americans have financed a sophisticated and astonishingly effective apparatus for shielding Continue reading →