A great piece from today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail:

The Real Walt Disney

Walt Disney died 40 years ago this month, but his work continues to leave a huge imprint on American culture. A new biography by Neal Gabler provides a definitive look at the man and his legacy, including fascinating glimpses into his role as an authentic conservative hero who would no doubt be horrified by some of the politically correct stands taken today by the company that bears his name.

As a Horatio Alger figure who built an entertainment empire from nothing, Disney was often celebrated as a great entrepreneur. He firmly believed that… Read More

I am testing my prowess at imbedding a video link from YouTube into a post on this blogsite. If it works right, this is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new ad (t/y Bill Bradley).

Bill, I’m not sure that my running this ad on the ‘conservative’ FR is Steve Schmidt’s idea of ‘successful microtargeting’ — but hey, it was the most convenient video to grab :-)

Here it is – We’ll call this commercial "Bi-Bartisan" though it undoubtedly has a different actual name. … Read More

Just a little while ago, Congressman Duncan Hunter made it official — he is running for President!

The drumbeat of oppostion to 1B- to 1E continues. The California FamilyCouncil is another pro-family group that works in the Capitol and local areas on a host of pro-family issues. They realize that the state’s bond debt is out of control. They are saying no to all of them. Check out their resources here.

Hopefully these grassroots groups can overcome the big money and star power selling these frauds.… Read More

Today the Strickland for Controller campaign released that their own internal tracking numbers on his race show that Strickland is now enjoying a 2% lead among likely voters — a four point swing from a little over a week ago when his Democrat opponent, John Chiang, was up by a similar margin. Of course, this illustrates exactly how close this race truly is — with momentum being an inportant issue.

Speaking of momentum, this latest bit of good news for Strickland comes as he is enjoying the front-end of a major, multi-million dollar independent expenditure on his behalf by Indian Tribes and other interests who clearly do not want to see the liberal Chiang in this important office. While Strickland ‘face time’ on the tube is going up, Chiang has had to cancel significant portions of his own statewide media buy — apparently his resources are lacking.

On a final note, according to the Strickland survey, 93% of Republican voters said they plan to vote, up from 86% a week ago. This is compared to only 86% of Democrats who said they plan to vote.

With Arnold Schwarzenegger trouncing Phil Angelides by as much as 20 points, the… Read More

Tony Strickland is beating his opponent, former IRS attorney John Chiang, in all aspects of their campaign.

First, he beat Chiang in the critical slate battle, having maneuvered to appear on about 50% more slates than Chiang.

Now, Strickland has beat Chiang up onto the air for a final TV blitz.

Tony is up with two good “bookend” spots (15-second, as opposed to 30-second ads to get more bang for the buck), one even featuring an endorsement from Rudy Guliani.

Tony’s campaign tells me that the ads have started in the LA market, and will stay up until Election Day. And, even with the plethora of IE’s playing in this race, Tony’s will be the ONLY ads in the Controller’s race to play in the LA market – which makes up some 40% of the electorate.

Plans are for the ads to spread further throughout the state.

That’s where FlashReport leaders can make a difference.

The ads will only spread as far as Tony has money to air them. And as Tony likes to say on the stump, his campaign is fully funded –… Read More

My loyalty to the Republican Party began in 1979-1981 because, in that time period like most of my classmates, I both hated and was terrified of "The Communists". I don’t know that I understood much more than they had nuclear weapons, they were evil, and they wanted to kill me and my family. At 9,10, and 11 I can’t write that I was some sort of young political genius or that I gave a goose about politics or that I read the paper or watched the news, but I figured for right or wrong was we were going to have a war with the Communists – maybe a nuclear war. And that scared me.

The events of 1979-1980 and the Presidential election certainly helped shape some of these opinions. My notions of the political parties and of the Presidential candidates at that time in my life were vague at best, really only the impressions of a child.

From what I recall, my impression of Carter and the Democrats is that they were scared of the Communists. My impression was that they were weak, or they would get the hostages back. My impression was that they were the ones who thought our relatives, friends, and neighbors who had fought in ‘the war’… Read More

By FR San Diego Correspondent Barry Jantz

Interestingly enough, the adjective "redux," meaning "brought back," comes from the Latin word "dux," meaning "leader" or "duke".

Duke. Well, at least we can be comforted in knowing that the current political contest in California’s 50th Congressional District will not result in a Duke Cunningham redux.

Bilbray-Busby IIis but a sad sequel to all its former glory. Also less confusing, considering the former ballot included both a special run-off to fill the remainder of Cunningham’s term as well as the respective party nominations for the next. By any reasonable watcher’s account, the June run-off was Francine Busby’s only chance, if there ever really was one.

Without as much fanfare as that which seemed to garner rapt attention in June, here are five reasons Brian Bilbray wins it like oiled silk a week from Tuesday: