1. About Charleston and Rick Perry

2. Barack Obama’s George Bush Problem

3. In All Seriousness, What If Barack Obama Is Right?

4. DEA now linked to Operation Fast & Furious.

5. It’s Time for a Balanced Approach to Deficits and Green Energy

6. Jean-Claude Trichet’s Italian Job

1. About Charleston and Rick Perry

According to news reports, Rick Perry is announcing he’ll be running for President at the RedState Gathering.I know nothing. My information comes from these same news reports.The RedState Gathering is the same day as the straw poll in Ames, IA.If the Governor announces or, as Reuters suggests, “strongly hints” well then that’s just cool and fine with me.See, I told you people you should have registered for the Gathering. It is my understanding that his speech will be carried live by several networks. He will speak at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 13th.In other words, last week House Republican Leaders were pushing a story that neither I nor this site have any credibility or influence and now . . .Please click here for the rest of the post.

2. Barack Obama’s George Bush Problem

Barack Obama has a George Bush problem. This is not a W problem, but an H. W. problem.Back in 1991, George H. W. Bush’s approval rating went up to between 89% and 91% in February of that year. He was on a high from winning the Iraq War.The Democrats were confounded and had no real answer to put up as an alternative. There was a free for all. But something started happening to President Bush — gravity in the polling.Despite the war success, the country was in the tank. Making matters worse, his base felt he’d sold them down the river exchanging tax increases after they’d read his lips for spending cuts that never materialized. The right wanted nothing to do with him and the left hated him.In short, after winning a war and seeing historic job approval ratings, his base decided he was a sell out and the left disagreed with his policies.His polling fell 30 points in about 4 months and further nosedived into the high twenties by July of 1992. It was the economy stupid — and the perception that George H. W. Bush was a terrific guy, but a terrible leader.Now we have this whining piece from Emorhoid pschy professor Drew Westen to this bit of contempt and pity from Dana Milbank. Both are about Barack Obama’s failure of leadership.A lot of people are looking to the election of 1980 and Carter vs. Reagan. Today, Bill McGurn goes there.But I maintain, and have for a while, that Barack Obama has a George H. W. Bush problem and the closest parallel is the election of 1992. But with either analogy, Barack Obama has a very real problem.Please click here for the rest of the post.

3. In All Seriousness, What If Barack Obama Is Right?

Seriously. All you people on left and right, suspend your disbelief for one minute. Seriously.What if Barack Obama was right and S&P just got it wrong.Here’s what I’m hearing and it gives credence to this theory.S&P, I’m told, began telling some of its clients about the downgrade on Friday morning. That’s why the market was so screwed up on Friday.By Friday afternoon, the Treasury Department told S&P it had made a $2 trillion math mistake.But S&P had already told its clients about the downgrade. So it couldn’t walk it back now without a major loss of confidence in its credibility. Could you imagine that conversation? “Hey . . . um . . . Joe. Yeah, Charlie here from S&P. So . . .um . . . we made a $2 trillion math mistake in our downgrade analysis. . . . What’s that? You just lost $500 million in the market because of it? Oh . . . um . . . sorry Joe. Better luck next time.”So it had to come up with a different reason.Please click here for the rest of the post.

4. DEA now linked to Operation Fast & Furious.

It would appear that the DEA does not want to be the fall guy in Operation Fast & Furious*, either: DEA head Michele M. Leonhart admitted in a letter to Senator Grassley (Judiciary) and Rep. Issa (Oversight) that her organization was in fact involved in the investigation, and provided support for it. This is a significant admission by Ms. Leonhart, given that (as Bob Owens** of Pajamas Media reminds us) there is an existing allegation by the former head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, & Explosives (BATFE) Phoenix office that the DEA was a full partner in the proceedings.Please click here for the rest of the post.

5. It’s Time for a Balanced Approach to Deficits and Green Energy

The Democrats think the American people are stupid. Throughout the debt ceiling imbroglio, Obama and every single elected Democrat have regurgitated their talking points about a balanced solution to the debt crisis. They have insulted the intelligence of every voter by intimating that the budget can be balanced by eliminating a few tax credits. No, they don’t want to talk about the tens of trillions in unfunded liabilities to Medicare and Social Security. They refuse to confront the ballooning cost of all the welfare programs. The only thing they want to discuss is eliminating a few tax credits for oil companies and corporate jets.Please click here for the rest of the post.

6. Jean-Claude Trichet’s Italian Job

Jean-Claude Trichet, the outgoing governor of the European Central Bank, just announced that the ECB will engage in purchases of euro-denominated bonds issued by Spain and Italy. This long-resisted move is intended to stem the latest flareup of the sovereign-debt heartburn that is a far greater threat to financial-market stability than the US debt downgrade. If the ECB manage to sustain this, it probably will work, for a while at least.If you’re an investor in Italian or Spanish (or French) debt, your goals are pretty simple: you just want to enjoy the benefits of higher interest rates, while being assured by someone more credible than Spain or Italy that you’ll get your money back. Can’t blame people for wanting a free lunch, especially if Uncle Trichet is scared enough to offer it to them.There are two enormous problems with Trichet’s announcement.Please click here for the rest of the post.