Week in Review Part IV: Random Musings

Republican Delegate Count…post-Super Tuesday, according to the AP.

Mitt Romney 415
Rick Santorum 176
Newt Gingrich 105
Ron Paul 47

Super Tuesday results:

Alaska
Romney 33 percent
Santorum   29
Paul 24

Georgia

Gingrich 47
Romney 26

Idaho
Romney 62

Massachusetts
Romney 72

North Dakota
Santorum 40
Paul 28
Romney 24

Ohio
Romney 38…453,927…35 delegates
Santorum 37…441,908…21 delegates…filing snafus

Oklahoma

Santorum 34
Romney 28
Gingrich 27.5

Tennessee

Santorum 37
Romney 28
Gingrich 24

Vermont

Romney 40
Paul 25
Santorum   24

Virginia

Romney 60
Paul 40…only two on ballot

Up next…Mar. 10, today, Kansas caucuses; Mar. 13…Alabama primary, Hawaii caucuses, Mississippi primary.

In an NBC/Wall Street Journal national survey of registered Republicans, Romney leads Santorum 38-32, with both Gingrich and Paul at 13 apiece. Gingrich was at 37% in January.

The Romney camp should be troubled by the NBC/WSJ finding that only 28% of Americans, overall, view him positively, while 40% have a negative view.

And in the same survey, President Obama defeats Romney, 50-44; Santorum, 53-39; Gingrich, 54-37; and Paul, 50-42.

The NBC/WSJ survey also addressed the gender issue. In 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain by seven points, overall, but he won among women by 13 points, according to exit polls. Among men, Obama and McCain basically tied.

Today, though, as the Journal’s Gerald F. Seib reported:

“When the president is paired against Mr. Romney, he wins among all voters by six percentage points. But he wins among women by 18 points – and actually loses among men by six points.”

As Seib further points out, the gender gap can be a bigger problem for Republicans than Democrats for the simple reason that “Women tend to vote in higher numbers. In 2008, for example, 53% of the total turnout was female, and in 2010 it was 52%. So, in a close race – which 2012 figures to be – the advantage lies with the gender that shows up in greater numbers.”

Lastly, in 2001, George W. Bush won 44% of the Hispanic vote. Today, only 14% say they would vote Republican.

Women and Hispanics. That’s what the 2012 vote is all about, Charlie Brown.

--And the Republican base is far from fired up. I know I was watching the Super Tuesday coverage, bored to death…so I kept putting the Knicks game on (so much for Linsanity, by the way). As a Republican (who nonetheless would vote third party if there was a viable alternative), I’m tired of this group we’ve fielded. I need a break. Maybe I’ll get fired up again by the time the conventions roll around.

--Then there’s George Will. Now I’m a big fan of his work and have quoted him over the years more than any other commentator on the scene. But he got in a lot of hot water this week for a column he wrote in the Washington Post that began with a quote from William F. Buckley, Sept. 11, 1964:

“The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. The next and most urgent counsel is to take stock of reality.”

Will:

“On that evening 48 years ago – it was still summer, early in the presidential campaign – Buckley, whose National Review magazine had given vital assistance to Barry Goldwater’s improbable capture of the Republican nomination, addressed the national convention of the conservative Young Americans for Freedom. Buckley told his fervent acolytes that ‘when we permit ourselves to peek up over the euphoria’ of Goldwater’s nomination, we see that it occurred ‘before we had time properly to prepare the ground.’

“He then sobered his boisterous audience: ‘I speak of course about the impending defeat of Barry Goldwater.’ He urged ‘the necessity of guarding against the utter disarray that sometimes follows a stunning defeat.’ Goldwater’s doomed campaign should, Buckley said, be supported because it plants ‘seeds of hope, which will flower on a great November day in the future.’ They did, 16 Novembers later….

“Today, conservatives dismayed about the Republican presidential spectacle may write a codicil to what is called the Buckley Rule. He said that in any election, conservatives should vote for the most electable conservative. The codicil might be: Unless the nomination or election of a particular conservative would mean a net long-term subtraction from conservatism’s strength.

“If nominated, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum might not cause such subtraction. Both are conservatives, although of strikingly different stripes. Neither, however, seems likely to be elected. Neither has demonstrated, or seems likely to develop, an aptitude for energizing a national coalition that translates into 270 electoral votes.”

Will then went on to say there may come a point when, “taking stock of reality, conservatives turn their energies to a goal much more attainable than, and not much less important than, electing Romney or Santorum president. It is the goal of retaining control of the House and winning control of the Senate….

“Such a restoration would mean that a reelected Obama, a lame duck at noon Jan. 20, would have a substantially reduced capacity to do harm.”

I couldn’t agree more. But, boy, did Will hear it from many of the Republican elite for giving up the ship so soon.

And, no doubt, we are still very early in the process. As noted above, one paramount issue looms, for starters, and others are bound to present their own obstacles, so we just don’t know what the mood of the people will be come November.

That said, many of us elephants will at least sleep better knowing we have truly divided government come next fall, even if we lose the top prize.
Finally, a bit more from the NBC/Wall Street Journal survey.

57% of Americans think that the “worst is behind us,” up from 49% in November. Advantage Obama.

And this on the topic of contraception in their healthcare plans. 53% support the U.S. government requiring employers to offer free birth control coverage, 33% opposed. “But support dropped sharply, to 38%, when people were asked about the requirement applying to religiously affiliated hospitals and colleges, and having the insurer pay for the cost.” [Wall Street Journal]

Catholics do still approve of Obama’s overall job performance by a 50-42 margin.

--So the preceding brings us to the topic of Rush Limbaugh and Sandra Fluke and the debate that dominated the news coverage for a few days.

I purposefully did not bring it up last time for two reasons. I had previously noted the comments of Timothy Cardinal Dolan on the issue of religious liberty, and with regards to Rush, I exercised my “wait 24 hours” rule.

Of course, Rush Limbaugh’s use of the words “slut” and “prostitute” to describe Ms. Fluke was despicable. But I now present some viewpoints, from all sides, as I do in matters such as this.

Cathy Cleaver Ruse / Wall Street Journal

“Last week, Sandra Fluke, a student at Georgetown University Law Center, went to Congress looking for a handout. She wants free birth-control pills, and she wants the federal government to make her Catholic school give them to her.

“I’m a graduate of Georgetown Law and former chief counsel of the House Subcommittee on the Constitution. Based on her testimony, I wonder how much Ms. Fluke really knows about the university or the Constitution….

“I was not Catholic when I attended Georgetown Law, but I certainly knew the university was. So did Ms. Fluke. She told the Washington Post that she chose Georgetown knowing specifically that the school did not cover drugs that run contrary to Catholic teaching in its student health plans. During her law school years she was a president of ‘Students for Reproductive Justice’ and made it her mission to get the school to give up one of the last remnants of its Catholicism. Ms. Fluke is not the ‘everywoman’ portrayed in the media.

“Georgetown Law School has flung wide its doors to the secular world. It will tolerate and accommodate all manner of clubs and activities that run contrary to fundamental Catholic beliefs. But it is not inclined to pay for or provide them. And it has the right to do so – to say ‘this far and no further.’…

“In her testimony, Ms. Fluke claimed that, ‘Without insurance coverage, contraception, as you know, can cost a woman over $3,000 during law school.’ That’s $1,000 per year. But an employee at a Target pharmacy near the university told the Weekly Standard last week that one month’s worth of generic oral contraceptives is $9 per month. ‘That’s the price without insurance,’ the employee said. (It’s also $9 per month at Wal-Mart.)

“What about Rush Limbaugh? I won’t defend his use of epithets (for which he’s apologized), but I understand his larger point. At issue isn’t inhalers for asthmatics or insulin for diabetics. Contraception isn’t like other kinds of ‘health care.’ Yes, birth-control pills can be prescribed to address medical problems, though that’s relatively rare and the Catholic Church has no quarrel with their use in this circumstance. And the university’s insurance covers prescriptions in those cases.
“Still, Ms. Fluke is not mollified. Why? Because at the end of the day this is not about coverage of a medical condition.

“Ms. Fluke’s crusade for reproductive justice is simply a demand that a Catholic institution pay for drugs that make it possible for her to have sex without getting pregnant….

“Should Ms. Fluke give up a cup or two of coffee at Starbucks each month to pay for her birth control, or should Georgetown give up its religion? Even a first-year law student should know where the Constitution comes down on that.”

Editorial / New York Post

“Limbaugh’s gaffe…invited the mainstream media to portray Sandra Fluke as an innocent young student slandered by a broadcasting bully rather than the hard-eyed, hyper-entitled 30-year-old radical feminist activist that she is.

“Fact is, Fluke has acknowledged that she enrolled at Georgetown precisely to challenge the Catholic university’s refusal to include contraception in its student health coverage.

“She’s stretching her 15 minutes to the limit, and Democrats are flogging the incident mightily – from President Obama’s phone call to her to House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer urging her to sue Limbaugh.

“But what about the real issue?

“The demand that religious institutions be forced to pay for health procedures and practices that do violence to their core beliefs – the essence of the ObamaCare mandate – is abhorrent to the First Amendment. People of conscience should oppose such directives in all their forms.

“As Timothy Cardinal Dolan and the US Conference of Bishops rightly put it: ‘What about forcing individual believers to pay for what violates their religious freedom and conscience?....

“As for the suggestion that the real issue is women’s health, Dolan declared: ‘We will not let this deception stand.’”

Meanwhile, advertisers have been fleeing Rush’s radio program, but Rush, probably correctly, says he has a ton of companies waiting in line.

As for President Obama and his call to Ms. Fluke, he said at his press conference on Tuesday, “The reason I called Ms. Fluke is because I thought about Malia and Sasha and one of the things that I want them to do as they get older is to engage in issues they care about, even ones that I may not agree with them on. And I don’t want them attacked or called horrible names because they’re being good citizens.”

Cough…cough cough….must be the chili I ate tonight.

Editorial / USA TODAY

“Crudity isn’t just an affliction of the right. In the past year, liberal MSNBC host Ed Schultz called conservative Laura Ingraham a slut, and HBO’s liberal commentator/comedian Bill Maher used two vulgar terms for female anatomy to describe Sarah Palin.

“This is the sort of verbal ingenuity you’d expect to hear in a locker room full of 14-year-old boys, but that demeans 14-year-old boys.”

Kathleen Parker / Washington Post

“Who’d have thought Rush Limbaugh would become the great uniter in this divisive political season?

“Indeed, he has united decent people of all stripes and persuasions with his vile remarks about a Georgetown University law student….

“The question of whether the Obama administration is acting constitutionally has been posed to the courts by religious-liberty scholars, so we’ll have an answer soon enough. In the meantime, the administration has promised to ‘accommodate’ religious groups so that only insurance companies have to pay for women’s contraception.
“Whether this is an adequate remedy is also debatable. Can the government really force private insurance companies to cover certain medications and/or procedures? What if religious organizations are self-insuring, as is the case with many Catholic organizations?....

“These are clearly compelling questions on which Limbaugh might have focused his gargantuan energies. Instead, he attacked Fluke in the vilest terms. Moreover, by addressing her argument that college women need contraception and should be able to get it for free, he essentially lent credence to the opposition narrative that this is all about birth control.

“Inadvertently, Limbaugh also helped advance the argument from the left that Republicans are waging a war against women….

“The point is that Limbaugh has so offended with his remarks that he has further muddled the issues. I realize he’s ‘just an entertainer,’ as his apologists insist, but he is also considered a leading and powerful conservative voice. His remarks have marginalized legitimate arguments and provided a trove of ammunition to those seeking to demonize Republicans who, along with at least some of their Democratic colleagues, are legitimately concerned with religious liberty.

“As a bonus, he has given his ‘feminazis’ justification for their claims that conservatives hate women. Limbaugh owes Ms. Fluke an apology – an event doubtless many would love to watch.” [Ed. Ms. Parker wrote this last Friday night and Rush apologized on Sat., and then on air on Monday, which I listened to.]

Appearing last Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” George Will: “We want to bomb Iran, but we’re afraid of Rush Limbaugh.”

Peggy Noonan: “(Rush’s words were) deeply destructive and unhelpful (and) confused the larger issue, which is ObamaCare and incursions on religious freedom.”
Finally, Cardinal Dolan said some of the following last weekend.

“Don’t impose your teaching upon us and make us do as a church what we find unconscionable to do!  The Health and Human Services fight is a freedom-of-religion battle.

It is not about contraception. It is not about women’s health. No, we are talking about an unwarranted, unprecedented, radical intrusion into the interior life of, integrity of a church’s ability to teach, serve and sanctify on its own….

“I suppose we could say there might be some doctor who would say to a man who is suffering from some sort of sexual dysfunction, ‘You ought to start visiting a prostitute to help you…and I hope the government will pay for it.’….

“President Johnson said, as an American, I look to the church – I look to religion as a beehive. If you leave them alone, they’re going to give you tons of their honey. But if you stick your head in there, you’re going to get stung bad.” [New York Post]

--I didn’t have a chance last time to comment on the death of political scientist (not sociologist, as so many called him), James Q. Wilson, 80. As the New York Post editorialized:

“Most New Yorkers have probably never heard the name…

“But all New Yorkers owe him a debt.

“It was Wilson…who, together with George Kelling, developed the ‘broken windows’ crime-fighting theory that Rudy Giuliani used to save the city in the ‘90s….

“The theory was simple – but devastatingly effective. It argued that small crimes and/or blight – like a single broken window in an abandoned building – if ignored, inevitably lead to social chaos.

“ ‘Consider a building with a few broken windows,’ they wrote in their landmark 1982 article for The Atlantic.

“ ‘If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for the vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires.’

“Mayor Giuliani and his police commissioners focused on long-ignored quality-of-life issues like graffiti and squeegee men and crimes like fare-beating.

“The result: Crime rates, both petty and major, began tumbling. And this success has been copied around the country.”

--So this winter, specifically December thru February, was the second warmest on record in these parts, and snowfall totals, starting in December and not including the Halloween disaster, was the fourth fewest for New York City on record. But what is truly remarkable is we haven’t had one coastal storm when we normally get at least five, with two panning out to be doozies.

--Lastly, I have to admit, years ago, when the American wind power industry was getting going in earnest, I largely pooh-poohed some of the stories on the impact the turbines had on birds, saying things like far more birds are killed by pet cats, which remains the case.

But I couldn’t help but note an op-ed by Robert Bryce in the Wall Street Journal this week.

“For years, the wind energy industry has had a license to kill golden eagles and lots of other migratory birds. It’s not an official license, mind you.

“But as the bird carcasses pile up – two more dead golden eagles were recently found at the Pine Tree wind project in Southern California’s Kern County, bringing the number of eagle carcasses at that site to eight – the wind industry’s unofficial license to kill wildlife is finally getting some serious scrutiny….

“It’s about time. Over the past two decades, the federal government has prosecuted hundreds of cases against oil and gas producers and electricity producers for violating some of America’s oldest wildlife-protection laws: the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and Eagle Protection Act.

“But the Obama administration – like the Bush administration before it – has never prosecuted the wind industry despite myriad examples of widespread, unpermitted bird kills by turbines. A violation of either law can result in a fine of up to $250,000 and imprisonment for two years….

“A pernicious double standard is at work here. And it riles Eric Glitzenstein, a Washington, D.C.-based lawyer who wrote the petition to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He told me, ‘It’s absolutely clear that there’s been a mandate from the top’ echelons of the federal government not to prosecute the wind industry for violating wildlife laws.”

Save the Eagle! Occupy the turbines! [Have a picnic.]

---

Pray for the men and women of our armed forces…and all the fallen.

God bless America.

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Gold closed at $1711
Oil, $107.40

Returns for the week 3/5-3/9

Dow Jones -0.4%   [12922]
S&P 500   +0.1% [1370]
S&P MidCap +0.8%
Russell 2000 +1.8%
Nasdaq +0.4% [2988]

Returns for the period 1/1/12-3/9/12

Dow Jones +5.8%
S&P 500 +9.0%
S&P MidCap    +12.0%
Russell 2000 +10.3%
Nasdaq +14.7%

Bulls  47.9
Bears 26.6 [Source: Investors Intelligence]