A metaphor I learned at a young age was imparted by Wiley Coyote's purchase of the Acme Company's Rocket-propelled Darts. At the start of that cartoon, Coyote let loose a string of the rocket-propelled projectiles in his quest to dine on Road Runner. The darts missed their target. Throughout the rest of the cartoon, at some of the most inconvenient moments for Coyote, a dart would flutter down from the sky, its rocket fuel spent, jab Coyote in the butt and blow up. The metaphor was about…

   Some Republicans have stated their party received a "mandate" from the voters in the November 6 election because the Republicans retained control of the United States House of Representatives. "Mandate," in this context, is defined as "the instruction as to policy given or supposed to be given by the electors to a legislative body or to one or more of its members."  The American College Dictionary, 1962 ed.

   As I wrote last week, Indiana’s delegation in U.S. House is a…

   Here are my own, somewhat different predictions for today’s primary elections:

   1) The race for the Republican Party nomination for United States Senate will not be very close. Senator Richard Lugar has distanced himself from this State and its people. State Treasurer Richard Mourdock. (as I prefer to pronounce it "Mor-dock" as in "Mordor; if you do not catch the allusion, read The Hobbit then the trilogy.) This will cause the Democratic National Committee to sit up and…

   People purport to hate negative political ads on TV.  By "negative ads" I mean ads aimed mainly at trashing one candidate.  Polls that I have read consistently indicate over 60 percent (60%) of respondents do not like negative ads. Yet research and personal observation indicate negative political ads "work." They motivate some people to move, not so much "for" one candidate, but "against" the candidate at whom the ad is aimed (thereby helping the candidate in whose interest the ad was…

   Who will make the money from Indianapolis’s hosting of the Super Bowl®?

   1) The number of locally-owned businesses downtown (or anyplace, for that matter) has declined significantly over the past decade. The hotels are national chains—Marriott, Hilton, Westin, or spin-offs. The bellpeople, housekeeping staff, and other personnel will earn their paychecks and maybe receive some well-deserved tips. The Slippery Noodle Inn and St. Elmo’s, the last I checked, are locally-owned. The…

   I did not understand why the Republican Old Guard allowed such mopes to dominate the primary elections and run-up to the 2012 presidential election. 

   If the Republican Party wants to defeat President Obama in 2012 so badly, what would be the best thing that could happen? A center-left candidate with a solid national profile runs on a well-funded third-party ticket. Such a candidate could bleed votes from the Obama campaign in key states and in the right numbers and Romney would…