August 6, 2012: The Bay County Bulletin

PRIMARY NIGHT PARTY: Join us on Tuesday night at World Café, 200 Center Ave., Bay City, for a primary results watch party starting at 7 p.m. It will be our first look at the set of candidates that will go onward to November and help us take back the White House, turn our U.S. Senate back to G.O.P. control, keep our control of both the state House and the U.S. House, and earn a Republican majority on the Bay County Board of Commissioners for the first time in decades.

Tom Wassa, one of the candidates for Congress in the Fifth District, will be joining us as well as several local candidates.

Please invite your friends and neighbors to join us on Tuesday night.

THE MAN WHO SAVED CAPITALISM: It's a tragedy that Milton Friedman—born 100 years ago on July 31—did not live long enough to combat the big-government ideas that have formed the core of Obamanomics. It's perhaps more tragic that our current president, who attended the University of Chicago where Friedman taught for decades, never fell under the influence of the world's greatest champion of the free market. Imagine how much better things would have turned out, for Mr. Obama and the country. Friedman was a constant presence on these pages until his death in 2006 at age 94. If he could, he would surely be skewering today's $5 trillion expansion of spending and debt to create growth—and exposing the confederacy of economic dunces urging more of it. http://on.wsj.com/QYCw6Y

Snyder looking at second term, still has lots to do: Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder isn't yet announcing his re-election bid, but he said Friday there's still a lot he wants to accomplish that may spill into a second term. The Republican governor told the Associated Press in an interview he's excited about continuing his administration's efforts to match more residents with good-paying jobs. http://bit.ly/QCOXLk

Portman's 'genteel' conservatism: Sen. Rob Portman is a Bush man, all right. But just not the Bush you may be thinking of. In both his political education and political identity, Portman is much more closely aligned with the 41st president than with the 43rd. The Ohio senator and GOP vice-presidential finalist got his start in national politics on George H.W. Bush's 1980 presidential campaign and partly owes his first congressional victory to former first lady Barbara Bush, who recorded a radio ad name-dropping Cincinnati's Skyline Chili and Portman in the same sentence. And overall, his views and political style are more reminiscent of the first President Bush: center-right, bipartisan, results-oriented and gentlemanly, if not terribly charismatic. http://politi.co/LX74st

Editorial: EM law repeal must be defeated: The Michigan Supreme Court has properly ruled that a labor-backed proposal to repeal the state's emergency manager law should be placed on the fall ballot. Now that it's on the ballot, it must be defeated. It is a self-serving proposal designed to protect the interests of public employee union members at the expense of taxpayers. ... The key objection labor unions have with Act 4 is that it allows emergency managers to re-open public employee union labor contracts if their pay and benefits can no longer be afforded by financially strapped cities or school districts. The unions have couched their objections in terms of wanting to protect local self-government and democracy, but that's a smokescreen. They want to protect their pay and perks, even if a city or school district is dancing on the edge of bankruptcy. http://bit.ly/Nc8e15

CLINT EASTWOOD ENDORSES MITT ROMNEY: "Dirty Harry" star Clint Eastwood, who made waves when he appeared in the "it's halftime in America" Super Bowl ad, was at a Mitt Romney fundraiser tonight, per a pool report flagged by POLITICO's Ginger Gibson. http://politi.co/QryIhW

Sunday Shows: Republicans Attack Reid Over Romney's Taxes: On today’s Sunday shows: Republicans attacked Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid over his allegations that Mitt Romney has paid no taxes in the last decade; Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz says the tea party wave will grow this year; and Bill Keller of The New York Times says a Wikileaks hoax using his byline was both silly and annoying. http://bit.ly/MHbh08

Democrats, Republicans offer rival views to control health costs:Democrats and Republicans agree that the next U.S. president will have to contend with rising healthcare costs that pose a growing, destabilizing burden for families, employers and government budgets. But two articles published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday show how far apart each side stands on the question of what to do, ahead of a November election showdown between President Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney. http://reut.rs/QwcEEZ

Pfeiffer eats crow on Churchill bust: One of the more humorous sideshows of this year's summer dog days concluded yesterday when White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer apologized to Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post columnist and Fox News contributor, for accusing him — on the White House blog, no less — of falsely claiming that a bust of former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had been removed from the White House. http://politi.co/N2VKsr

BIRTHWEEK: Tuesday. Garrison Keillor. Friday. President Herbert Hoover, Angie Harmon. Saturday.  Hulk Hogan.


THE GAMES OF THE XXX OLYMPIAD—Wieber bounces back to anchor US gold-medal push: Jordyn Wieber didn't wait for the arena announcer to finish saying her name before the reigning world champion took off. The sooner she could get past the most crushing disappointment of her stellar career, the better. Eyes set down the runway, Wieber sprinted as if the gold medal was inches in front of her — the medal the U.S. women's gymnastics team has been chasing for 16 years. Three seconds later, she grabbed it. http://bit.ly/MzENF3

Allison Schmitt of the U.S. wins gold in 200m freestyle: Allison Schmitt shared a joke with Michael Phelps before her 200 meters freestyle final on Tuesday and she was still laughing afterwards. The bubbly American fizzed with energy in the pool and was still pretty lively out of it after completing a set of Olympic swimming medals with a gold medal to go with the silver and bronze she had already won. http://bit.ly/Qgb3kh