See previous: 2007.04.29 Decision '08 Roundup

Below the fold (newest items at the top):

• Photo of the Day: The Democrats’ Truther Problem
• Hurricane forecaster: It’s “crazy” to blame global warming on humans
• The Unfairness Doctrine
• Goracle: Too extreme for his own guru
• The Blog Primary
• Wrong argument
• The Nancy Reagan primary
• Still a maverick but no longer useful
• Edwards pitches Clinton-era taxes

Can The Reagan Legacy Be Rekindled?
Dan Riehl 

Rekindling the Reagan legacy may have been more easily achieved directly after the Clinton years, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. And it appears some former Reagan insiders are considering doing just that very thing in the person of potential presidential candidate Fred Thompson.

A key figure in the Reagan inner circle has now given his seal of approval to Mr Thompson, best known as a star of the television crime drama Law and Order.

As deputy chief of staff, Michael Deaver was a key member of the "troika" of aides who kept the Reagan White House on track. With the chief of staff James Baker and special assistant Ed Meese, he was the master of image and presentation.

Mr Deaver sees the same raw material in Mr Thompson as was perceived in Ronald Reagan, describing him as someone "that could really make a difference". He added: "He is very popular in his party. He could change this whole thing and turn this primary system upside down.

Apparently Deaver isn't the only former Reaganite jumping on board and Thompson is moving to firm up similar types of support. That's all well and good, Thompson may indeed juice up the race by presenting a candidacy in the Reagan model. But will that be enough and is Thompson really enough like Reagan to pull it off? ...

Gonna be an interesting election, folks. I think there are a whole lot of people like me who voted for Bush because he wasn't Al Gore, and then voted for him again because he wasn't John Kerry. I'll vote for someone who isn't Hillary or Obama or Edwards next year, but wouldn't it be nice to vote for someone instead of against someone? Everything I know now points toward Fred Thompson being someone I can vote for. Michael Steele is another such person. There doesn't seem to be any chance of him being nominated for President but he'd be an excellent VP choice -- a minority from the North to go with a traditional southern gentleman, the second man on a ticket we can actually vote for.

*** ***     *** ***     *** ***     *** ***     *** ***     *** ***

Photo of the Day: The Democrats’ Truther Problem
Bryan Preston

The Republicans have a war problem in 2008, but so do the Democrats. They’re just different war problems, reflecting the polarity of the two parties’ support bases.

For the GOP, it’s the fact that the base supports the war while most of the country just wants to be out of it.

For the Democrats, it’s a Truther problem. Until the major Democrat presidential candidates refute these Truther clowns, they’ll find themselves in photos like this one or videos like the one in which John Kerry acts like he’s never heard the bark of a raving moonbat before. These vignettes make their whole party look stupid. The problem is, as soon as the Democrat presidential candidates do refute the Truthers, they’ll see some of their most motivated support start melting away to the likes of Dennis Kucinich. ...

***

Hurricane forecaster: It’s “crazy”
to blame global warming on humans
Bryan Preston

Ah, scientific consensus.

The United States’ leading hurricane forecaster said Friday that global ocean currents, not human-produced carbon dioxide, are responsible for global warming, and the Earth may begin to cool on its own in five to 10 years.

William Gray, a Colorado State University researcher best known for his annual forecasts of hurricanes along the U.S. Atlantic coast, also said increasing levels of carbon dioxide will not produce more or stronger hurricanes.

He said that over the past 40 years the number of major hurricanes making landfall on the U.S. Atlantic coast has declined compared with the previous 40 years, even though carbon dioxide levels have risen.

Gray, speaking to a group of Republican state lawmakers, had harsh words for researchers and politicians who say man-made greenhouse gases are responsible for global warming.

“They’re blaming it all on humans, which is crazy,” he said. “We’re not the cause of it.”

Gray is no fan of the Goracle. ...

***

The Unfairness Doctrine
Ed Morrissey

George Will takes aim at the effort led by Dennis Kucinich to reimpose the Fairness Doctrine on the broadcast industry -- and its ultimate aim to destroy talk radio. He points out that the heart of this effort is a mistrust by "illiberals" to trust the marketplace and a failure of left-wing radio to appeal to the American broadcast market:

Some illiberal liberals are trying to restore the luridly misnamed Fairness Doctrine, which until 1987 required broadcasters to devote a reasonable amount of time to presenting fairly each side of a controversial issue. The government was empowered to decide how many sides there were, how much time was reasonable and what was fair.

By trying to again empower the government to regulate broadcasting, illiberals reveal their lack of confidence in their ability to compete in the marketplace of ideas, and their disdain for consumer sovereignty—and hence for the public. ...

The Left blames talk radio for many of the nation's ills. After the Oklahoma City bombing, Bill Clinton and other Democrats openly accused conservative talkers of complicity in generating the hate behind the attack -- even before the Clinton administration had fully investigated the terrorist attack. Tom Daschle, then Senate Majority Leader, said that Rush Limbaugh indirectly encouraged people to threaten public officials by stirring up anger.

But that's not the reason they want to slam the lid on talk radio. The most compelling reason is their inability to compete in the field. ...

***

Thompson mulling summer announcement
Mike Allen

Advisers to Fred Thompson have begun exploring a range of staffing options -- including talking to potential campaign managers -- as the actor and former Tennessee senator firms up his plans to enter the Republican presidential contest, according to people involved in the conversations.

Thompson has not made a final decision but is on track to be ready to announce his candidacy in June or July, his advisers say. Thompson has already been polling better than some of the announced GOP candidates, and his entry would shake up a field that has left many Republican faithful dissatisfied. ...

***

Goracle: Too extreme for his own guru
Bryan Preston

The apprecentice didn’t heed the words of his mentor:

He was the author of the influential 1982 Scientific American article that elevated global warming on to the public agenda. For being “the grandfather of the greenhouse effect,” as he put it, he was awarded the National Medal of Science by the first President Bush.

Roger Revelle’s most consequential act, however, may have come in his role as a teacher, during the 1960s at Harvard. Dr. Revelle inspired a young student named Al Gore.

Dr. Revelle would change Gore’s life, particularly since the climate-change field had become cutting edge, with Dr. Revelle adding to the excitement by giving his students advance notice of the fruits of his research.

“It felt like such a privilege to be able to hear about the readouts from some of those measurements in a group of no more than a dozen undergraduates,” Gore later explained. “Here was this teacher presenting something not years old but fresh out of the lab, with profound implications for our future!”

So there’s your set-up: the Goracle learned at the feet of professor Revelle. Which makes this part interesting:

While Gore in the late 1980s was becoming a prominent politician, loudly warning of globalwarming dangers, Dr. Revelle was quietly warning against taking any drastic action. ...

***

Time for this old dog to admit he's not going to get to feelin' better without some bed rest, but I can't let you miss these. Maybe I'll pull some excerpts later.

• The Nancy Reagan primary

• Wrong argument

• The Blog Primary

***

Still a maverick but no longer useful
Paul Mirengoff

Nothing illustrates the cynicism and intellectual dishonesty of the mainstream media better than its treatment of John McCain. The MSM likes to harp on the theme of McCain's alleged transformation from gutsy maverick in 2000 to pitiable party man in 2008. In reality, though he's the same guy. To be sure, McCain no longer is pounding George Bush, but then he's not running against Bush this time. The real test is on the issues. Here McCain has done very little trimming, and continues to take positions inconsistent with the views of the Republican base.

This was evident again on Sunday when, in an appearance of Fox News, McCain lashed out at the harsh interrogations techniques we've used on high value detainees in the war on terror. It's unlikely that this position will endear him to the Republican base -- it certainly will make it very difficult for me to vote for him in the primary. But it also illustrates that McCain is a man of principle, and every bit the maverick he was in 2000. ...

***

Edwards pitches Clinton-era taxes
By Stephen Dinan

SAN DIEGO -- Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said yesterday raising taxes for higher-income families back to their levels under the Clinton administration is a floor, not a ceiling, and he would consider even higher tax increases.

"What I believe is the starting place is to go back to the Clinton levels," Mr. Edwards told reporters after addressing the 2,000 delegates to California's state Democratic Party convention.

Four years ago, during his last presidential run, the former North Carolina senator drew boos and jeers from the California convention for his defense of the Iraq war. This year, he was back with a completely different message -- both on the war and on how far he would go in rolling back President Bush's legacy. ... 

Read the whole thing, folks. It's just chock full of good reasons to give the Dims even more control over this country than they already have.