Chris Sununu in New Castle

Rick Santorum in New Castle

Tax Day Message from Rich Ashooh

My friend Rich Ashooh asked me to share his Tax Day message:

NH has vacant spot on Republican National Committee

With Sean Mahoney's resignation yesterday, New Hampshire is missing one of its three representatives on the Republican National Committee.

John DiStaso reports, accurately, that I'm thinking about running for the position.

Veteran activist and former congressional candidate Grant Bosse became the first Republican to signal a serious interest in the post. The former radio talk show host and news anchor who unsuccessfully ran for the 2nd District U.S. House seat in 2008, is a researcher for the free-market Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy.

Bosse said the GOP "needs some new energy and a focus on free-market politics and that's what I'd bring to the table if I end up running."

Meanwhile, some friends have started a Grant Bosse for National Committeeman Facebook page urging me to run. Thanks so much.

Redneck Nirvana

Last night, at the Manchester Chamber of Commerce Legislative Dinner, New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley described our state as "Redneck Nirvana", at least in the minds of people coming here for small government, low taxes, and personal responsibiilty. But he says these deluded rednecks soon find out how progressive and sophisicated New Hampshire has become under Democratic leadership, and move back to Texas or whatever backward state they came from.

What an elitist jerk. Let's show Buckley that disagreeing with his snobbish liberal vision of New Hampshire doesn't make us a bunch of Rednecks. Join Redneck Nirvana on Facebook.

Winter 2009 Alumni Council Report to the Class of 1994

Seasons Greetings from Hanover, or at least close by. I recently completed my first Alumni Council Weekend as your representative for the Class if 1994. I'm honored to be your voice to the College, and your source of information for what’s happening on campus.

Trustee Nominations

The biggest news to come out of last weekend's meeting was the Nomination of two candidates for the two open seats on the Board of Trustees. The Council voted 89-1 to forward the recommended candidates of the Nominating Committee to the alumni body. I was the sole dissenting vote, not because I find any fault with the chosen candidates, but because recommending a single candidate for each open seat negates the reason for having an election.

The Nominating Committee believes that by forwarding a single candidate, another candidate will come forward through the petition process. This will then lead to a one-on-one election between the Alumni Council candidate and the Petition candidate. I believe this process cements a two-party system that recent rule changes have tried to avoid. I hope that I am proven wrong, and that we do have a spirited choice between outstanding candidates for both seats when we vote this spring. My objections to the process aside, I want to thank the Nominating Committee for giving us two spectacular candidates, Morton Kondracke '60 and John Replogle '88.

Both Mort and John came up to Hanover to introduce themselves, and both spoke passionately about their love of Dartmouth. Kondracke is best known for his years in journalism, from his time as a panelist on "The McLaughlin Group" to his current stint as one of the Beltway Boys on Fox News. He is also a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, but I promised not to engage in mudslinging.

Replogle is President and CEO of Burt's Bees, a leading personal care company that specializes in natural and ecologically friendly products. John is also a veteran of WFRD/WDCR, which is a sign of sound judgment and character. I wish them both the best of luck, and thank them again for stepping forward to run for Dartmouth Trustee.

I've been encouraged by Alumni Council leadership to campaign on behalf of Mort and John, but I will limit myself to providing you with a much information as I can on the candidates and the upcoming campaign.

You can learn more through the Alumni Council's Facebook page, and through the two announced candidates campaign websites, Mort4Dartmouth.com and John4Dartmouth.com. If and when petition candidates come forward, I will be happy to pass along information about them. Here's to a robust and positive Trustee Election.

Budget Crisis

New Dartmouth President Jim Yong Kim was kind enough to meet with the Alumni Council not once, but twice, during the weekend. While his stirring address to the Council Dinner on Friday night was moving and memorable, the stark outline he gave Saturday morning of the financial challenges facing Dartmouth needs to be communicated. The national economic recession has hit Dartmouth's Endowment hard, though not as hard some comparable universities with more aggressive investment strategies. With no changes to the College's budget and investment plans, Dartmouth is facing a $50 million deficit next year, growing to $122 million by 2014.

President Kim's plan to tackle this mounting deficit is to cut $50 million in expenses next year, another $50 the following year. This $100 million in annual savings will bring the budget back into balance over the next five years, but also mean some tough and painful choices have to be made. An alternative approach, one being adopted at Yale for instance, is to phase in the budget savings over several years while tapping into the Endowment to smooth the transition. President Kim and VP for Alumni Affairs David Spalding made a compelling case that making deeper cuts today will leave Dartmouth's budget and endowment in much better shape down the road, whether the economy rebounds strongly in the next year or suffers another dip.

For more information on Dartmouth's financial picture, I encourage you to visit budget.dartmouth.edu or watch President Kim’s recent 90-minute presentation on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HEN5J7jfuU. Copies of most of the slides used at available at http://budget.dartmouth.edu/communications.

Academic Affairs Committee

I’m thrilled to be a member of the Council's Academic Affairs Committee. Undergraduate instruction is the core of Dartmouth’s mission, and I can't think of a more important way to give back to the College. During Alumni Council Weekend, we received a comprehensive overview of the Native American Studies Program from Chair Bruce Duthu, and a fascinating presentation from the student editors of the Dartmouth Journal of Undergraduate Science. This periodical gives Dartmouth students a unique opportunity to publish original scientific papers. It is a wonderful resource that elegantly compliments Dartmouth's core academic mission, and provides real value to current and prospective Dartmouth students.

What can you do for Dartmouth today?

One thing we all have in common is an abundance of ideas for what other people can do to help Dartmouth. But I wanted to tell you about a few small things I did last weekend to help the College on the Hill.

I've started a Facebook group for those interested in the upcoming Trustee Election. On Facebook, search for DarTEC (Dartmouth Trustee Election Clearinghouse) and join. Hopefully, the Alumni Council page and Vox the Vote will provide comprehensive information on all Trustee candidates, but it's important to have an independent source of information on the issues facing the Board of Trustees as we consider who to add to that Board. The site is open to all to read and to post. Feel free to post links or commentary you find useful, and to make the case for your candidate. I will be monitoring the page in order to maintain a civil discussion, but will make no other editorial restrictions on content.

I've subscribed to the Dartmouth Journal of Undergraduate Science, http://dujs.dartmouth.edu Not only will this dramatically improve the quality of my coffee table literature which is currently limited to Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly, but it will support a great undergraduate publication.

And of course, I've made sure my Class Dues are up to date. But your Dues are current, right?

The next Alumni Council meeting is in May. In the meantime, I am available to answer any questions I can, and forward any I can't to the Alumni Relations Office. You can get in touch with me at grantbosse@gmail.com or call me at (603) 748-3659.

Thank you again for the honor of representing you on the Alumni Council, and Merry Christmas.

Yours in service to Dartmouth,

Grant Bosse '94

Dartmouth Trustee Nomination Follow-Up

I wanted to add some follow-up thoughts to this afternoon's post about the Dartmouth Trustee Candidate Nominations.

First, I neglected to thank both Tom Daniels '82, who chaired the Nominating Committee, and Janine Avner '80, Alumni Council President. Though I disagree wholeheartedly with their nominating strategy and their belief that the Alumni Council should now actively work to elect the Committee's nominees over any petition candidates who emerge, both have gone out of their way to welcome my input, and to give me a chance to share those opinions with my fellow Councilors. From past Councilors, I understand that this is a marked improvement from the way dissenting voices were welcomed over the past several years. It shows we can disagree, sometimes passionately, about the issue facings us at Dartmouth, and still respect each other. Of course, I think that reinforces my view of the world, but I would, wouldn't I.

Scott comments on the prior post that since petition candidates can and likely will step forward, it's unfair to claim that the Nominating Committee set up an uncontested election. But in the Nominating Committee's mind, there shouldn't be a contest. We should confirm its choices. And any candidates who get their name on the ballot should be defeated. I find this an obvious overreach of their responsibility.

Further, the Nominating Committee strengthens the presumption that Dartmouth Alumni are forever split into two camps, insiders and outsiders, and that each camp distrusts the other's motivations and judgement. Having watched the governance battles of the past five years, I believe that the division they seek the quell stems at least as much from Alumni Council defensiveness as from disaffected alumni. Building those divisions into the nominating process is a bad idea.

I'm not going to belabor the process argument much further. Alumni interested in serving on the Board of Trustees now have the opportunity to seek petitions to be put on the ballot, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to find out and share their vision of Dartmouth, along with Mr. Kondracke's and Mr. Replogle.

I'll have full report from the Alumni Council Weekend for the Class of '94 and anyone else interested tomorrow or Sunday. President Kim's speech tonight was phenominal. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to watch the Mort Report and buy some Burt's Bees lip balm.

Go Big Green!

Pre-empting the Election at Dartmouth

The Dartmouth Alumni Council just voted 89-1 to nominate two candidates for the two Trustee positions up for election next spring. I was the one. Never before have I felt like such a voice crying out in the wilderness.

The Nominating Committee brought forward two outstandingly qualified candidates, Mort Kondracke '60 and John Replogle '88. Both men are extemely distinguished in the field, both made the trip to Hanover to introduce themselves to the Council this weekend, and both spoke passionately about their love of Dartmouth.

While I can't quiblle with the Nominating Committee's work in filtering the field of Dartmouth graduates down to a pair of Trustee candidates, I am left to wonder the point of an election with only one candidate for each office.

Tom Daniels '82 Chaired the Nominating Committee, and justified the decision to limit the field to one candidate based on "rumblings" that other candidates would surely emerge through the petition process, and that they wanted to ensure a one-on-one contest. Yet there is no guarantee that a petition candidate will qualify for the spring ballot, or that there will be only one challenger. What the Nominating Committee has done is game the system in an attempte to redetermine the outcome of the Alumni election.

Voters deserve a choice. That needs to be the cornerstone of any election. Yet the Nominating Committee, and the Council through its vote today, has decided to substitute its judgement for that of the voters. There are real issues facing Dartmouth, and real choices on where the College goes under the Kim Administration and beyond. Kondracke and Replogle may be outstanding Trustees, and might end up supporting them both once I learn about their priorities for Dartmouth. But I would never use my new position as my Class Representative on the Alumni Council to tell my classmates how to vote. I'm going to try my best to get them good information about both candidates, even if they end up unopposed, so that my classmates and the rest of the Dartmouth Community can make an informed choice.

Elections are inherently messy. Tempered get frayed and feelings get hurt. But the Nominating Committee, in its zeal to avoid any unpleasantness, is generating far more division. In a conference call before my first meeting of the Alumni Council, I was instructed that it my job not just to communicate the actions of the Council to my classmates, but also to advocate for the election of their slate of candidates. I'm skeptical of In Loco Parentis when it comes to college students. This paternalistic doctrine certainly has no place after graduation.

I may be wrong, but despite today's vote, I know I'm not alone. We deserve a real choice about the direction Dartmouth takes. I'm sick of Trustee Elections being all about how we elect Trustees. Let's trust our classmates to choose between competing ideas amongst qualified candidates who all love Dartmouth. Let's have a real election, and then let's move Dartmouth forward together.

Grant Bosse '94
Alumni Council Representative
Dartmouth Broadcasting Board of Overseers

Grant Bosse Launches Phantom Campaign for Congress

Greetings Google searchers and Cavuto viewers. Here's my segment with Brian Sullivan on "Your World". For my latest work, please check out New Hampshire Watchdog.

Kelly Ayotte in Newport

Potential Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte addresses the Sullivan County Republican Committee dinner in Newport last Friday evening.

Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

Bold Prediction- Obama Approval Ratings will rise in next ten days

I'm predicting that President Obama's approval rating will go up, at least 3 points and possibly more, over the next ten days.

We like our politicians more when they aren't showing up on television reminding us of how much they are doing to help us. Call it the John Lynch Popularity Model. He was extremely popular when he wasn't doing anything. This year, he's actually had to govern, done it badly, and is seeing his support erode.

President Obama has also sabotaged his signature initiatives, especially the ObamaCare debacle, by putting himself in front of the issue on every occasion. Now that's he's going on vacation for ten days, he won't be holding any awkward and pedantic press conferences or lying about AARP's endorsement at Town Hall meetings. This has to be good for his image.

As of Friday, Rasmussen has Obama's approval ratings at -8, 31% to 39%. I predict that by September 2nd, which will give the full vacation time to make its way into the poll, his approval rating will be up to at least -2. Then, he can come back to Washington and resume eroding his popularity.

President tells "folks who created the mess" to get out of the way

I presume he's talking about Barney Frank:

Star Wars for the 4th

Let me be clear ahead of time. If we end up shooting down a North Korean missile on the 4th of July, not only will that be super-cool, but I will give President Obama full credit.

He's said some silly things against missile defense in the past, but if he manages to demonstrate that the United States will not remain defenseless in the face of a ballistic missile threat, he will have greatly strengthened national security, which in turn will make the world a safer place.

Happy Independence Day

By GRANT BOSSE

Mother Nature has a cruel way of reminding us that the Fourth of July isn’t all about fireworks and barbeques. This particular date on the calendar marks the anniversary of American independence. Maybe the rainy weekend will remind us that the day is about more than hot dogs and sunscreen.

On July 2, 1776, the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia voted to declare the 13 American colonies independent from Great Britain. This was a bold and controversial decision, even for a group of revolutionaries that had been at war for a year. At the time, a sizable segment of colonists held out hope for reconciliation with the Crown, and a return to British rule with greater colonial autonomy. Declaring independence meant not only the prospect of a long war, but of a life without political and economic support from the British Empire if they won.

The Continental Congress announced this new Declaration of Independence on July 4, and most members signed the document on August 2. John Adams wrote his wife Abigail that “the Second of July, 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.” He was only off by two days.

While the importance of independence and the tragic fate that befell so many of the Declaration’s signatories have made their mark on American history, it is the strength of Thomas Jefferson’s words that have truly changed the world. While it was conceived as a formal notice to King George of the grievances that led to separation from the Crown, Jefferson’s poetic preamble turned the Declaration into one of the most powerful statements of human rights ever printed. I would summarize its meaning, but Jefferson stated the inherent justice of self-government more succinctly than I ever could:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more
disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

Deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. I still haven’t found a better way to describe the limits of government in a democratic society. It turns out the government the Founders instituted in 1776 didn’t work very well. The Articles of Confederation were scrapped in 1789 in favor a Constitution, granting us what Benjamin Franklin described as, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”

Jefferson’s ideals have spread over the past 233 years. The rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are shared far beyond our borders. The people of Iran are fighting for those rights today. The people of North Korea are still trapped in darkness.

I hope the sun comes out long enough this weekend to use the grill. I’m taking the family to Fenway on Sunday. So I’m going to enjoy this Fourth of July. But I’m going to celebrate Independence Day.

Souter Wrong Again for Old Times' Sake

The Supreme Court made a lot of sense today by siding New Haven firefighters who did well on a promotions exam but had the results thrown out, because those who did poorly didn't like the results. New Hampshire's own David Souter ruled that the city should have put political correctness over public safety, and that firefighters should have been promoted based more on skin color than on ability. His sloppy jurisprudence will not be missed, though likely-Justice Sotomayor's race-based rulings won't be any improvement,

Richard Epstein does into much more detail about the Ricci case, and it's implications for government-sponsored racism in the future.

I'd also recommend the continuing coverage over at the Volokh Conspiracy, the best legal blog on the planet.

And if you've still got the time and interest in the Ricci case, you can check out today's reaction from the worst legal reporter in America.

Cline on Sanford

UL editorial guru Andrew Cline has a new piece in the American Spectator on the political suicide of Mark Sanford. Read the whole thing, but I had to clip this paragraph:

Beautiful women can impair men's reasoning faculties. If that was the case here, Sanford's mistress must be the most beautiful woman on earth because she turned his brain into grits.

Sanford exits Zipped Pants Caucus

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is the latest politician who can't keep it in his freaking pants!

We Are All Iranians Now

The future is on the brink right now in Iran. The next few hours may decide whether an oppressive regime hangs onto power or crumbles under the force of freedom. There is little we can from here, but perhaps we can make it just that much easier for Iranian bloggers to remain free from the state security services.

Join Operation Haystack, change your Twitter settings to Tehran, and provide some cover for those telling the world about what's going on in Iran right now.

After 9/11, the world reached out to America. Tonight, my prayers are with the Iranian people. We are all Iranians now.

Help the Iranian People

Two small ways to help Iranians risking their lives for more freedom, one useful and one symbolic.

1) Change your Twitter location to Tehran, and your time to GMT +3:30. The State Security Services are searching Twitter to find protesting bloggers. Adding more hay to the haystack will make it harder for them to find the needles.

2) Change your Twitter and Facebook pictures to make them green in solidarity with the protesters.

It's remarkable how useful new media, and especially Twitter, has been in not only letting the world know what's going on inside Iran, but also helping protesters communicate with each other. I know people like to mock Twitter as just bloggers telling each other what they're eating, but any tool that makes it easier for people to communicate makes for a better world.

NY Times Reporter Escapes Taliban

Nice.