[P]ro-lifers who see the GOP as the only plausible vehicle for their goals have an obligation to look the party's failures squarely in the face and work to fix them, instead of just doubling down on the case for single-issue pro-life voting. . . . And calling Catholics who voted for Obama "mindless" and "stupid" is a poor substitute for building the sort of Republican Party that can attract the votes of those millions of Americans, Catholic and otherwise, who voted for the Democrats because they thought, not without reason, that George W. Bush was a disastrous president whose party should not be rewarded with a third term in the White House.In a similar vein, Brink Lindsey and David Frum did a Bloggingheads on what ails the GOP. Lindsey, a Cato libertarian, has given up on the party and endorsed Obama. Frum takes more of a "Stay and fight" attitude.
IT'S NOVEMBER: Time for the annual reports from the sports press about how a skinny Duke player spent the summer bulking up on his mama's home cooking.In an interview, Ms. Rhee said she considered tenure outmoded. “Tenure is the holy grail of teacher unions,” she said, “but has no educational value for kids; it only benefits adults. If we can put veteran teachers who have tenure in a position where they don’t have it, that would help us to radically increase our teacher quality. And maybe other districts would try it, too.”Cue the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the unions.
[A]fter the unions have put companies into an untenable position, they come to the rest of us looking for a handout to continue the unsustainable levels of pay and benefits. Almost everyone I know makes less than an autoworker, and has a whole lot less job security. Why should they pay autoworkers for the privilege of making cars no one wants?McArdle has been fantastic on the proposed Detroit bailout -- highly recommended reading.