New Poll Shows DeVore Narrowly Trailing Boxer

People have long maintained that I am insane for believing that Chuck DeVore will win the California U.S. Senate race. People said the same thing to me when I said that Scott Brown would win or that Marco Rubio would win in Florida. (Yes, I know it's pending, but have you seen the polls?) People don't really say that I'm nuts, at least as far as political predictions are concerned anymore.

Today, Rasmussen released a poll showing Chuck DeVore down by only 5 points -- which compares very favorable to Campbell and Fiorina, each down four points. With such a close difference, can Republicans really afford to elect R.I.N.O.s like Fiorina and Campbell? I hope not. Here's the mention from Rasmussen:

Boxer leads still state Assemblyman Chuck Devore, 47% to 42%. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate in that match-up, and five percent (5%) are undecided. In January, Boxer held a 46% to 40% advantage over Devore. In November, she led Devore by 10 points.

George Will has already laid out how he thinks he's going to win the nomination, which I wrote about here.

Here's how I think it's going to happen.

The California primary is in the summer. Add in the fact that there's a closed primary, and you have a very, very good chance that the tea party movement of which DeVore's affiliated will get the turnout we need to nominate DeVore. In a debate, DeVore will crush Boxer.

Phi Beta Cons Mentions My Zaid Shakir Post

The 220 comment blog post I wrote for Big Government about how the Muslim Student Association and Arabic Department-sponsored speaker, Zaid Shakir thinks guns, not jihad, caused the Ft. Hood Massacre got a mention on National Review's Phi Beta Cons, my favorite education blog today, thanks to George Leef.

My Big Government Op-ed on Jamaica Kincaid's Anti-Christian, Nonsensical Remarks

Here's a brief excerpt from the op-ed I wrote for Big Government. (I can't wait until Andrew Breitbart starts Big Education!)

[Kincaid's essay], A Small Place, is written about her native Antigua and attacks British civilization and capitalism itself. The most revealing selection from that essay? Here it is, from pages 36 to 37 as she is discussing that the white colonizer is to blame for the very corrupt government of Antigua.

You will forget your part in the whole setup, that bureaucracy is one of your inventions, that Gross National Product is one of your inventions, and all the laws that you know mysteriously favour you. Do you know why people like me are shy about being capitalists? Well, it’s because we, for as long as we have known you, were capital, like bales of cotton and sacks of sugar, and you were the commanding, cruel capitalists, and the memory of this is so strong, the experience so recent, that we can’t bring ourselves to embrace this idea that you think so much of. As for what we were like before we met you, I no longer care. No periods of time over my ancestors held sway, no documentation of complex civilizations, is any comfort to me. Even if I really came from people who were living like monkeys in trees, it was better to be that than what happened to me, what I became after I met you.

And so yes, she teaches writing at a college whose motto is “civilization prospers with commerce,” even though it looks like she’s in favor of neither.

I must say I'm getting somewhat addicted to writing for Big Government. It is such change to have people actually say positive things about me and my writing style, compared to the usual acrimony that my detractors stir up here on campus. Not that I condone all of the comments -- I certainly don't -- but it is nice once and awhile to realize that outside of this bubble, I might even be liked for what I write. But on second thought, that might reduce some of the fun of goring sacred (but oh, so secular) cows.

James Fallows on Ex-CGU Prez's Haiti Work

James Fallows recently blogged about former CGU president Robert Klitgaard's paper on the prospects of Haitian reconstruction.

Fallows (and by extension Klitgaard) makes the usual fallacy of the broken window when he suggests that this earthquake could give Haiti a fresh start.

I guess, but only if you believe that somehow government rebuilding efforts can be directed toward "good" ends. Public choice 101 would suggest otherwise.