Tag Archives: Ricochet

The NFL, America’s Heroes in Uniform, and Traumatic Brain Injury | Ricochet |3.26.2015

By Clark S. Judge | Published: March 31, 2015
I usually write about politics, economics, foreign relations and national security, law and the Constitution, and, occasionally, American history and culture. Today I am going to write about our armed services, professional sports and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).  For the past month I have been immersed in understanding how TBI can be treated. Last week, […]
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Treating Traumatic Brain Injury — Telling a Mistold Tale | Ricochet |3.19.2015

By Clark S. Judge | Published: March 31, 2015
In the last few weeks, I have been immersed not in an untold story but a mistold one. So far as I can see, the mistelling has nothing to do with politics, but here is what it is. War is hell. It is also a powerful catalyst for medical advances: penicillin in World War II; […]
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Selma Misses the Historical Mark — Dr. King, LBJ and America Deserved Better | Ricochet |1.19.15

By Clark S. Judge | Published: January 28, 2015
On Friday evening I saw Selma, the Academy Award nominated film about the 1965 civil rights march that Dr. Martin Luther King led from Selma, Alabama, to the state capitol in Montgomery, fifty miles away. The film depicts the enormous courage of the marchers and the inspirational leadership of Dr. King. But it misses the historical […]
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The Ricochet 200th Podcast: The Larger Meaning | Ricochet.com | 01.26.14

By Clark S. Judge | Published: January 28, 2014
As all Ricochetti know, tonight James, Peter, Rob and many more will have themselves a 200th Ricochet podcast. The golden voices and lively wits will record live at the Town and Gown Ballroom on the University of Southern California campus in downtown Los Angeles. One of the organizers tells me that the audience may exceed […]
Posted in Economic Policy: General | Also tagged | Comments closed

Is Money Too Easy…or Too Tight? | Ricochet.com | 01.11.14

By Clark S. Judge | Published: January 14, 2014
Last week, I posted a summary to a New York Times op-ed by financial crisis expert Peter Wallison (“Nightmare on Elm Street: A Picture of the New Housing Bubble”). Wallison had argued that a new housing bubble was developing.  I included with my summary a chart that he circulated privately to back up his claim. In a comment […]
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Nightmare on Elm Street: A Picture of The New Housing Bubble | Ricochet.com | 01.06.14

By Clark S. Judge | Published: January 14, 2014
No one has written as deeply and well on the financial crisis as Peter Wallison, once White House Counsel for President Reagan and now a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. His core analysis: Beginning in the late 1990s, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac — driven by the Clinton Administration and Congressional policy (read: […]
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Midgame (Not Endgame) for Fighting Obamacare: Seeking Team Ricochet’s Reaction | Ricochet.com | 09.24.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: September 24, 2013
In response to Ted Cruz’s promised filibuster, critics are shouting “what’s your endgame?” I have a different question, directed in particular to GOP governors and gubernatorial candidates: What’s your midgame? Here is the key fact: We can’t repeal Obamacare until 1) the GOP wins the White House and both houses of Congress (the Senate by […]
Posted in Economic Policy: Health Care | Also tagged , , , , | Comments closed

An Evening with Presidential Speechwriters of Days Gone By | Ricochet.com | 05.28.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: May 29, 2013
You may or may not have heard of the Judson Welliver Society.  It was the creation of William Safire, the now-departed columnist for The New York Times and before that a speechwriter for President Richard Nixon.  Periodically it brings together former presidential speechwriters from all prior administrations with living speechwriters.  Peter has asked me to report on […]
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Ike’s Warning: Beware the Corruption of Science | Ricochet.com | 05.20.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: May 23, 2013
Just before he left the presidency, Dwight Eisenhower famously cautioned the nation that “[i]n the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.” In that same address, he offered a less heralded warning: Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been […]
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GOP Wise Up: New Media = Smarter Campaigns | Ricochet | 03.13.13

By Clark S. Judge | Published: March 14, 2013
I was in a meeting with a nationally respected consultant to political campaigns this morning. We were talking about how the web had changed campaigns. His answer: Substance is becoming king. “Take endorsements,” he said. “When TV drove campaigns, all you would see about newspaper editorials in campaign advertising was the banner, ‘L.A. Times or […]
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Confessions Of A ConfoBiOholic | Ricochet.com | 11.11.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: November 12, 2012
My name is Clark and I am a ConfoBiOholic. As you know, ConfoBiOholism is a well documented addictive disorder.  As with most addictions, the first step to recovery is acknowledgment.  In ConfoBiOholism, acknowledgment is known to be especially challenging.  The condition is all but invisible to the addict himself, no matter how persistently friends and […]
Posted in Political Commentary: Campaign 2012 | Also tagged , , | Comments closed

OK, Here’s My Election Prediction. What’s Yours? | Ricochet.com | 11.3.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: November 5, 2012
The shouting has almost stopped. Weeks ago the voting began, but Tuesday the balloting storm reaches landfall. It is time for pontificators to prognosticate. So here you go.  My call: Romney 52%, 277 electoral votes; Obama 47%, 261 electoral votes. Romney wins Florida, North Carolina, Virginia, New Hampshire, Iowa, Colorado, and Wisconsin — and loses […]
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What The Veep Smackdown Tells Us About Tonight’s Debate | Ricochet.com | 10.16.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 23, 2012
Since March, the lead in the Rasmussen daily tracking poll – perhaps the country’s most reliable poll – has switched more than thirty times.  It could happen again. The president has said he was “too polite” last time.  I say that if that is what he believes he did wrong in the first debate and […]
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Foreign Policy Debate, Romney Looked Like The Real President | HughHewitt.com | 10.23.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 23, 2012
Four debates, including the Veep debate.  Four wins for Romney-Ryan. Everyone had said about this debate that Romney needed to show we could trust him as commander in chief and head of our foreign policy.  He cleared that hurdle and then some. Given the political moment, the incumbent needed to look far superior to his […]
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Who’s Right, Gallup or Rasmussen? Today may tell. | Ricochet.com | 10.19.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 19, 2012
By now it is clear that, in terms of public perceptions (maybe on points, too), all three debates have been winners for Romney-Ryan. But have they been big enough winners to push the GOP ticket over the top? In Washington, the question is being framed this way: Is Romney up 49-47 points, as pollster Scott […]
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Biden’s debate night bluster looks even worse 48 hours later | Ricochet.com | 10.13.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 16, 2012
Rick Wilson persuasively argues below that Vice President Joe Biden’s principal objective going into Thursday night’s debate was to reenergize the dispirited Democratic base.  If so and if the vice president’s clownish performance fitted the script, it only confirms the cluelessness of the supposedly brilliant Chicago-based managers of the Democratic campaign. Everything I learned about […]
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Five Debate Night Ideas for Romney and His Team | Ricochet.com | 10.02.12

By Clark S. Judge | Published: October 3, 2012
Last week Peter emailed me an invitation to join the Ricochet gang. I immediately said yes. As he explained in his generous introduction below, Peter and I met in Ronald Reagan’s White House, where we both served as speechwriters, first to Vice President George H.W. Bush, then to President Reagan.  Peter was one of the […]
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