December 26, 2025

SHOCKER:

UPDATE: Another split.

Posted at 4:30 pm by Glenn Reynolds

VDH: Pseudo-Recessions.

The Cold War ended in a U.S. victory.

Germany was reunified in October 1990.

In December 1989, Bush successfully removed the narco-dictator Manuel Noriega of Panama, who threatened the viability of the Panama Canal.

The Gulf War was won brilliantly by February 1991.

The nuclear START treaty was signed with the Soviet Union in July 1991, just before the USSR itself collapsed in December.

By any normal reckoning, Bush should have been a shoo-in: spectacular foreign policy successes and a rebounding economy after a brief recession that had ended 15 months before the November 1992 election.

Instead, the pseudo-recession of 1992 dominated the campaign. Indeed, Bush’s many achievements overseas were cleverly distorted by Clinton as proof that the globe-trotting president was more interested in the world abroad than “putting people first” at home.

As in Bush’s prior 1988 campaign, Lee Atwater would have torn the Clinton campaign apart as inexperienced and disingenuous. Atwater would have ordered Bush to talk nonstop about virtually no inflation, robust four percent economic growth, and declining unemployment.

Instead, the lackluster Bush campaign team never caught on and was crushed by Clinton, with help from the economic populist Ross Perot.

The pseudo-recession of 1992 should remind the Trump people not to repeat the same mistake in the 2026 midterms.

In 1988, Atwater was able to sell Bush as Reagan’s third term, and voters, delighted by the turnaround from the Jimmy Carter’s malaise-filled late 1970s to Reagan’s go-go 1980s economy and his sunny optimism made Bush a shoe-in. But with Atwater having passed away from brain cancer in 1991, the following year, Bush looked utterly exhausted on the campaign trail, in sharp contrast to Clinton’s rockstar energy and charisma. While Rush Limbaugh was on the scene by 1992, there was no Fox News, no original era Drudge Report, no Blogosphere, and the DNC-MSM could still shape reality uncontested for millions of voters: The Real History of the Liberal Media and George H. W. Bush.

One of my favorites was the DNC-MSM, in lockstep with their candidate Bill Clinton, pummeling Bush in the run-up to the 1992 election over a minor recession that Clinton described as “the worst economy in 50 years,” only to turn around and reveal that, as the Charlotte Business Journal wrote in 2010, “The U.S. economy actually grew 4.2% in the fourth-quarter that year and went on to enjoy a terrific decade-long run of prosperity. And we learned in hindsight that recession had actually already ended when the [September 1992 Time magazine] article was printed.” Time described it in December of that year as “Bush’s Economic Present for Clinton.”

Related: Ross Perot was the populist who betrayed populism.

Posted at 4:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

GREAT MOMENTS IN MULTICULTURALISM: MN Lt. Governor Flanagan puts on hijab, declares Somalis built Minnesota.

Posted at 4:14 pm by Ed Driscoll

BUREAUCRAT GAMES AT VA, FEHBP: Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) used “novel” interpretations of law and regulation to get around long-standing bars on government funding of abortions.

It’s one thing for a President to countermand decisions percolating up from deep within the bureaucracy, but that’s a short-term solution to a problem that cries out for a long-term resolution. As it happens, Trump is actively countermanding, but, as I explain in a lengthy news analysis on The Washington Stand, he’s also pushing a permanent reform for which future chief executives will thank him.

Posted at 1:14 pm by Mark Tapscott

BORAT’S GUIDE TO THE UNITED NATIONS:

Posted at 12:30 pm by Ed Driscoll

PRETTY MUCH, YEAH:

Posted at 11:08 am by Stephen Green

FASTER, PLEASE:

Posted at 10:45 am by Ed Driscoll

NATIONAL LAMPOON’S NIGER VACATION HAS BEEN CANCELLED:

Posted at 10:14 am by Ed Driscoll

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEFING: It’s the Feast of Stephen and I’m Full. “I will continue to do a ‘Best Of’ rerun of a classic Morning Briefing post on holidays and the day after holidays, but with a twist. I’ll be recording video greetings for each one. These won’t be behind the paywall. Still, I would encourage everyone to join us over there. This doesn’t apply to those Monday Post Office holidays that I barely know are happening.”

Posted at 9:47 am by Stephen Green