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5:27pm: And so after the drama of Wednesday, today ran a little bit more smoothly for the NSW Liberal Party.

Initial talk of a leadership contest between Mike Baird and Gladys Berejiklian was discounted early, when the latter withdrew her candidacy to focus on becoming deputy. This was unwelcome news to the right of the party, but they appeared to be later mollified, as Pru Goward and Anthony Roberts withdrew from the race to be deputy.

This allowed Baird and Berejiklian to be elected unopposed to head the party.

Baird then gave a confident first press conference where he announced he didn't just want to stabilise NSW, but "transform it". (An attempt to distance himself from O'Farrell's reputation as a plodder, perhaps?)

Ms Berejiklian announced she would stay on as transport minister, rather than take on the treasury portfolio, while Mr O'Farrell is going to continue in politics, presumably on the back bench.

Quote of the day goes to Mr O'Farrell, for his joke as the two future leaders walked into a party room meeting.

"You're late. As a consequence, Gareth Ward has been elected Premier unopposed."

This ends our live blog. For a wrap of the day's events, click here.

5:10pm: A snapshot of some of the conversation happening on Twitter about our newly elected state leadership.

4:59pm: That wraps up the first press conference of Mike Baird as Liberal leader and soon-to-be Premier.

Go here to read the rest:
Liberals gather to choose NSW premier

David Graham | Ralph Rodighiero | 24th District West Virginia House of Delegates | Liberals ACA Guns
David Graham and Ralph Rodighiero are both running for the 24th District West Virginia House of Delegates. This video covers some of what has been found with...

By: West VA Liberal Agenda

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David Graham | Ralph Rodighiero | 24th District West Virginia House of Delegates | Liberals ACA Guns - Video

George Will: Liberals Have #39;Racism Tourette #39;s #39;
In response to a viewer question (it was really more of a statement) accusing President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder of "race baiting," cons...

By: Secular Talk

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George Will: Liberals Have 'Racism Tourette's' - Video

Ever since ObamaCare supposedly hit the arbitrary target of 7 million sign-ups by March 31, its supporters have been taking the most premature victory lap since conservative proponents of the Iraq War (like me) crowed about the results of the three elections inside Iraq in 2005 and how they demonstrated the country was on the verge of a historic peace.

Its all over but the shouting: ObamaCare is working, said Eugene Robinson in Tuesdays Washington Post. All the naysaying in the world cant drown out mounting evidence that the Affordable Care Act, President Obamas signature domestic achievement, is a real success.

Those words summarize the relief of many liberals who plunged into despair last fall when the HealthCare.gov site proved to be a $600 million disaster. So relieved was Ezra Klein of Vox.com that he blithely claimed the sudden resignation last Friday of Kathleen Sebelius, the top administration official in charge of the ObamaCare rollout, was actually a mark of the policys great success.

It takes a very special pair of rose-colored glasses to ignore the simple reality that officials almost never resign when the policy theyve been working to implement has triumphed. But rose-colored glasses are the only ones ObamaCare fans are allowed to buy from Warby Parker these days.

Yes, its true that six months after that catastrophe, people can actually sign up for ObamaCare. Its also likely true that the programs worst possible fate in which it literally collapses on its own because its overall insurance pool holds far more sick people than healthy people has been avoided.

But the idea that, by meeting their obligations under the law, those 7 million signers-up have thereby indicated their support for ObamaCare, or their approval of it, or have ensured its success, is simply delusional.

In the first place, we dont yet know how many people who didnt have insurance before now do which was the entire point of this exercise. But its not a lot. According to an analysis by Avik Roy of Forbes, the number might be as low as 1.4 million.

Thats 1.4 million out of an overall uninsured population of 31 million to 47 million.

The other 6 million have gone into the program because circumstances compelled them to as in, they already had insurance until it got canceled due to the coming of ObamaCare.

Second, even by the administrations own calculations, as many as 1.5 million of the sign-ups havent paid their premiums yet. Standard accounting principles say such people shouldnt be considered covered by the law.

Read more:
Liberals in rose-colored glasses consider ObamaCare a victory

Ontarios governing Liberals will table their budget May 1, an event that could trigger a quick trip to the polls if both of the opposition parties fail to support its contents.

The Liberals have held a minority position in the Ontario legislature for the past 2 years, but have managed to survive the past two budgets with the support of the New Democrats.

But two weeks ahead of the budget, NDP House Leader Gilles Bisson said it was too soon to say if his party would be in a position to support what the Liberals wouldbringforward.

"It's not responsible for us as a party and I don't think it's responsible for anybody else to say we're going to do X, Y or Z without seeing what's in it and without really taking a look at what the options are," Bisson said.

The Progressive Conservatives have voted against each of the past two budgets and do not appear to have any different plans this time around.

The budgets timing is not a surprise, as the PCs previously announced that they had obtained documents pointing to a May 1 delivery date for the budget.

Ontario PC Leader Tim Hudak then accused the Liberals of having a "budget-leaking team," which would strategically leak elements of the pending budget ahead of May 1.

On Tuesday afternoon, Finance Minister Charles Sousa announced that the budget would be tabled on that date and alluded to the "speculation" as to when it would be delivered.

"I know that youve all been waiting with bated breath and Im going to shock you today, by telling you that the date has been established as May 1," he said.

Sousa also said it was coincidence that he announced the timing of the budget at the same time that a top civil servant was testifying in front of a committee that has been examining issues related to the gasplant scandal.

Continue reading here:
Liberals to table Ontario budget on May 1