Assuming Durbin is Right, It Still Doesn’t Make Sense…

Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) recently said,

“Every day, 70 Americans die prematurely because of a lack of health coverage…”

This, of course, is in dispute. But assuming it were true — and with the caveat that every premature death is a tragedy — consider the fact that,

“Approximately 1500 people die each day in the United States due to cancer.”

When you consider the amount of time, energy, and money we have spent attempting to nationalize health care for 300 + million Americans this year, one wonders what might have happened if we had simply directed that amount of attention toward cancer research…

Posted by Matt Lewis on Friday, March 12th, 2010 at 12:59 PM

‘Conservative Blog Watch’ Gets it Wrong

I have no idea who’s behind Conservative Blog Watch. Whoever it is, is anonymous. And they don’t check their emails…

A few weeks ago, they ran a post which contained an obvious factual error. I have attempted to email them, but to no avail.

Following is the paragraph in question (I’m not linking to it, but you can Google it, if you like):

“… she seemed to ignore MSNBC figures like Chris Matthews, Lawrence O’Donnell, Chuck Todd and Howard Dean who have hosted or guest hosted shows and commentators Chris LaCivita and Craig Crawford, who all have past links to Democratic officeholders…”

I have known Chris LaCivita for years, and trust me when I tell you he has zero links to Democratic officeholders — unless by “links” you mean, helping defeat them. Chris LaCivita is a top Republican strategist. My guess is that Conservative Blog Watch confused him with frequent MSNBC contributor, Chris Kofinis.

Note: It appears Conservative Blog Watch excerpted this post from NewsBusters. The only trouble is, NewsBusters’ post (written by Brad Wilmouth) does not mention Chris LaCivita. Here’s how their post reads:

“… she seemed to ignore MSNBC figures like Chris Matthews, Lawrence O’Donnell, Chuck Todd and Howard Dean who all have histories of involvement with the Democratic party…”

Could it be that NewsBusters made the error, then corrected it — but Conservative Blog Watch did not fix it on their end? That’s my guess (if you’re Brad Wilmouth, please let me know).

Either way, that explanation doesn’t really help if you’re Chris LaCivita. The problem, of course, is that an allegation that a Republican strategist “has past links” with Democrats is both serious and damaging. … And that it is now Google-able, means that, at some point, someone will believe (and possibly repeat) this falsehood.

If you know who is behind Conservative Blog Watch, please ask them to correct their post (or to let me know if I am somehow — inconceivably — in error here) …

Posted by Matt Lewis on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 2:05 PM

Tony Blankley on Newt’s Strategy for Handling Bill Clinton

Yesterday, I interviewed author, columnist, and PR exec Tony Blankley.

One of the many interesting jobs Mr. Blankley has held over the years includes serving as press secretary to Newt Gingrich for seven years. (He was there when Newt became Speaker, and for many years after). As such, I wanted to ask him to compare how Newt dealt with Bill Clinton’s efforts to pass “Hillarycare” — and other liberal legislation — to today’s health care debate.

Following are a few of the many interesting observations he shared with me regarding how Gingrich approached managing the Clinton years:

… We tried to figure out what made Clinton tick… but I came to the conclusion over the years — and so did Newt – that it was more important for us to understand what made us tick … if you know yourself well, you’re probably going to be able to engage them better than simply trying to figure them out.

… I think Bill Clinton wanted to be president more than he wanted to use the presidency for something. That was our judgment … In the beginning, we judged that he would be content as long as he was surviving as president.

… Once Newt became speaker, we blocked all of Clinton’s liberal ideas. People forget, he had plenty of liberal ideas when he came in … Newt decided that as long as Bill Clinton could figure out a way to continue to be acceptable to the country, he’d go along with a lot of our stuff.

On getting inside President Obama’s head …

… (President Obama) could be anything from a fairly liberal conventional standard person who just is glad to be president and just wants to get a few things done, to an ideologue…to a person who doesn’t have any ideology and just wants to be popular and successful — which I think ultimately Bill Clinton probably was.

Posted by Matt Lewis on Thursday, March 11th, 2010 at 8:20 AM

CNN’s Eric Kuhn on the podcast

Eric Kuhn, CNN’s Audience Interaction Producer, joins us on the podcast!

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Posted by Matt Lewis on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 3:35 PM

Karl Rove on ‘The Matt Lewis Show’

Karl Rove joins us on the podcast today to talk about his new book, “Courage and Consequence.”

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Posted by Matt Lewis on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 1:01 PM

Who are the swing votes for ObamaCare?

If you’re wondering who the swing votes for Obamacare are, check out my Daily Caller column.

… But don’t wait too long, this thing is in flux!

Posted by Matt Lewis on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 8:56 AM

Obama Revives Untrue Talking Point

For more than a year now, President Obama has been using a talking point, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan. If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor.” Various media outlets and fact checkers have long questioned that line, and Obama ultimately conceded that what he meant was that the government wouldn’t take away your current health care.

To be sure, Obama’s “new” plan may be different, but at the GOP Conference Retreat in Baltimore, he conceded that — when it came to the health care bill the U.S. Senate passed — his often-repeated line was probably a canard:

“… we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your — if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you’re not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge.

Posted by Matt Lewis on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 11:36 AM

Should the United States Recognize Armenian Genocide?

Check out my latest column on this hot-button topic over at Politics Daily.

Here’s a quick excerpt…

President Ronald Reagan sought such moral clarity. Just as he pointedly called the Soviet Union an “evil empire,” Reagan did not mince words on this issue. Upon his death, the Armenian National Committee of America noted: “We will remember President Reagan as the last U.S. President to properly commemorate the Armenian genocide.”

Posted by Matt Lewis on Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010 at 9:47 AM