It’s unusual when a reporter sympathetic to a politician writes a story that makes his subject look bad. But Ryan Lizza of The New Yorker has now done this twice. The first time was in an article last April on Obama’s foreign policy in which he quoted a “top aide” (National Security Adviser Tom … Read more
Newt Gingrich has an exquisitely sensitive moral antenna, and Mitt Romney’s remark suggesting indifference to the poor sent it quivering. “I am fed up with politicians in either party dividing Americans against each other,” he said. Yes, he did. Then he fell on the floor and laughed till he cried. For Gingrich to disavow … Read more
After his fourth-place showing in Florida, Ron Paul, by then in Nevada, told supporters he had been advised by friends that he would do better if only he dumped his foreign policy views, which have been derided as isolationism. Not going to do it, said Dr. Paul to cheers. And why should he? Observing developments … Read more
In his State of the Union address last week, President Obama used billionaire investor Warren Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, as a prop to illustrate the unfairness of our tax system. “Right now,” he said as Bosanek sat near first lady Michelle Obama, “Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary.” Commentators spent … Read more
Our family put our beloved greyhound Zane to sleep Friday evening about 6 p.m. A veterinarian who does such things for a living came to our house and gently administered a lethal injection. She was followed immediately by a tall, muscular man from Pet Care who carted the inert 80-pound dog to a pickup … Read more
California has a huge state debt and Washington has a huge national debt. But that does not discourage either Governor Jerry Brown or President Barack Obama from wanting to launch a very costly high-speed rail system. Most of us might be a little skittish about spending money if we were teetering on the brink … Read more
The now-famous picture of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer shaking her finger at President Barack Obama is both appropriate and deserved. In America, we don’t have rulers entitled to the deference and obsequiousness other countries show to their kings; our elected officials are ordinary citizens whom we are free to criticize. Obama apparently took offense at … Read more
At the end of Sunday mass at the church this writer attends in Washington, D.C., the pastor asked the congregation to remain for a few minutes. Then, on the instructions of Cardinal Archbishop Donald Wuerl, the pastor proceeded to read a letter. In the letter, the Church denounced the Obama administration for ordering all … Read more
What’s all this “Republican establishment” vs. “grassroots populist” business; would somebody kindly inform me? I have rarely heard of anything nuttier. The essence of this widely retailed story is that rebellious men and women of the grassroots wish to prevent the nomination of Mitt Romney for president. If Romney got elected, we are apparently … Read more
We got mixed signals from a turbulent political week. Barack Obama seems to be enjoying an uptick in polls up toward, but not quite at, 50 percent approval. It’s a reminder that he can expect to benefit from Americans’ desire to think well of their presidents and from the reluctance of many voters to … Read more
U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul, Obama’s man in Moscow, who just took up his post, has received a rude reception. And understandably so. In 1992, McFaul was the representative in Russia of the National Democratic Institute, a U.S. government-funded agency whose mission is to promote democracy abroad. The NDI has been tied to color-coded or … Read more
This may be the golden age of presumptuous ignorance. The most recent demonstrations of that are the Occupy Wall Street mobs. It is doubtful how many of these semi-literate sloganizers could tell the difference between a stock and a bond. Yet there they are, mouthing off about Wall Street on television, cheered on by … Read more
Remember when Don Imus saw his cushy CBS Radio and MSNBC career go up in smoke in 2007 when he tried very early one morning to make one of his fake misanthropic jokes about the Rutgers women’s basketball team being “nappy-headed hoes”? Black activists demanded his firing. Advertisers fled. The corporate suits, appalled and … Read more
Did President Barack Obama’s appointment of Richard Cordray to be director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau without a Senate confirmation vote violate the Constitution? The answer is plainly yes. Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution says the president “shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall … Read more
Last week marked the 39th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade, the U.S. Supreme Court decision that permitted abortions. Prior to that case, abortion was regulated by each state, and most of them prohibited it unless two physicians could certify that the baby growing in the mother’s womb would likely result in the death of … Read more
You know politicians are serious when they move from campaigning to governing. Something like that may be happening on the Republican campaign trail — but, unfortunately, not at the Obama White House. Campaigning clearly carried the day for Newt Gingrich in South Carolina, where he beat Mitt Romney by a 40 percent to 28 … Read more
Barack Obama, the law professor who railed against the Bush administration’s disdain for privacy, has been to civil liberties what the Hindenburg was to air travel: an unexpected debacle. Time after time, he has chosen to uphold government power at the expense of individual protections. Warrantless wiretapping in national security cases? For it. Detaining … Read more
Larry Sand’s article “No Wonder Johnny (Still) Can’t Read” — written for The John William Pope Center for Higher Education Policy, based in Raleigh, N.C. — blames schools of education for the decline in America’s education. Education professors drum into students that they should not “drill and kill” or be the “sage on the … Read more
The Brian Williams MSNBC debate in Florida was not only dreadfully boring — I never thought I could ever long for commercials — it was pathetic. Freed of the fear of triggering an avalanche of applause against loaded questions, Williams and his co-moderators couldn’t bring themselves to utter one single question asking the Republican … Read more
One South Carolina Republican woman said she craved to see a “bulldog” at the top of the GOP ticket. That would describe Newton Leroy Gingrich all right. The next follow-up question went un-posed: Do you want a bulldog heading up the executive branch of government, and if you do, to what end? — so … Read more