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Annotations & Elucidations

Obama’s 17-Minute Non-Answer; George Orwell Proven Right?

We lead off the News today with our own Victoria Cobb interviewed about the McDonnell administration’s prices of filling 900-plus positions on state boards and commissions. The Richmond Times-Dispatch was intrigued by conservative activists (namely us, see here) urging conservatives to get involved and apply. Otherwise, the state’s political media remains obsessed with the attorney general.

Nationally, there is intrigue of another sort: Republican U.S. Senate primaries. Former U.S. Representative J.D. Hayworth (R-Ariz.) is putting up a serious challenge to incumbent John McCain while former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani endorsed former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio in the hotly contested GOP nomination fight which also includes current Governor Charlie Crist. Speaking of the GOP, the fallout from the wacky fundraiser has one resigning and Chairman Michael Steele under fire.

Commentary is abuzz with The Answer — President Obama’s 17 minute ramble to a simple question from a woman about taxes! Bobby Eberle, David Limbaugh and Debra Saunders share their thoughts. We gladly feature the great Thomas Sowell, again, and Harris Sherline expounds on something mentioned here from time to time: George Orwell is more right than even he had a right to expect.

News

*McDonnell urges online applications for boards, panels (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

GOP has dream activist in Cuccinelli (AP/Danville Register & Bee)

Cuccinelli casts a shadow (Norfolk Virginian-Pilot)

State employee argues to Va. Supreme Court that he was fired for being gay (Washington Post Virginia Politics Blog)

Analysis

Supreme Court prospects are Kagan, Wood Garland (AP/GOPUSA.com)

National News

Hayworth defines Ariz. race as tea party vs. DC (AP/GOPUSA.com)

RNC official steps down, but Steele stands firm (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Gingrich tells GOP: Back off RNC’s Michael Steele (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Giuliani endorses Rubio for Senate seat in Fla. (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Whitman chips in $20M more in Calif. gov. race (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Karl Rove ad urges residents to fill out census (AP/GOPUSA.com)

Commentary

Race and Politics (Thomas Sowell/GOPUSA.com)

Just think if Obama had to answer a hard question (BobbyEberle/GOPUSA.com)

Didn’t Obama Get the Memo that His Bill Passed? (BobbyEberle/GOPUSA.com)

Read the Transcript and Freak (David Limbaugh/GOPUSA.com)

Obama’s 17-Minute Non-Answer Answer (Debra Saunders/GOPUSA.com)

Congress Has Become an Institution of the Useless (Doug Patton/GOPUSA.com)

George Orwell’s Predictions Come True (Harris R. Sherline/GOPUSA.com)

From Karl Rove:

There are 63 House Democrats who represent districts won twice by George W. Bush. Of those, there are 49 such Dems who represent districts won the last three elections by Mr. Bush and John McCain.

How will they vote on socialized medicine?

Here’s an interesting take on the campaign from Karl Rove, the former senior advisor and strategist, and former Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush. It is a commentary written in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal (click here).

Toward the end, he observes what he believes is something behind a recent quote from Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama during an interview with ABC News: 

In a revealing slip in an interview with ABC recently, Mr. Obama said, “If we’re going to ask questions about who has been promulgating negative ads that are completely unrelated to the issues at hand, I think I win that contest pretty handily.” That he is in fact winning the contest for the most negative campaign could well spell his defeat.

There’s enough negative campaigning to go around. But this isn’t the first unintended slip from Senator Obama or his running mate, Senator Joe Biden. At some point, the media and others have to believe the sources themselves.