Author: Cal Thomas

“Where there is no vision, the people perish…” (Proverbs 29:18, KJV) It was George H.W. Bush who reportedly dismissed an idea from a friend that he should spend time at Camp David thinking about what he might do should he become president. According to a January 26, 1987 article in Time magazine, Bush is said […]

In Washington, most stories that make the newspapers and evening newscasts are about scandals and political infighting. Rarely is there one about redemption. In his new book, “I Should Be Dead: My Life Surviving Politics, TV and Addiction,” Bob Beckel, the longtime Democratic Party political operative, tells a deeply personal story about searching for life’s […]

Shortly after signing a bill allowing assisted suicide in California, Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed another measure that forces pregnancy crisis centers to “offer information about affordable contraception, abortion and prenatal care.” The information is to be displayed in the form of a sign tacked to the crisis center’s door and must include a phone […]

A special House committee investigating the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012 that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans may have helped Hillary Clinton become president of the United States. The former secretary of state refused an invitation to testify in private, as other witnesses had done, probably because she […]

A recent New York Times headline read, “Raising Taxes on the Wealthiest Would Pay for Bold Plans.” The story says that by soaking the rich “the government could raise large amounts of revenue … while still allowing them to take home a majority of their income.” Nowhere in the story, nor in the endless promises […]

When President Obama meets in Washington November 9 with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, I would imagine Netanyahu’s main concern will be to find out exactly what the U.S. means by “infringement” as it applies to the Iran nuclear agreement. What exactly will the U.S. do when, not if, Iran violates the deal? What if […]

Watching the Democratic candidates’ presidential debate Tuesday night one might think a Republican has been in the White House since 2009. These political Lilliputians could find little to say that was positive. The economy is bad, too many people aren’t working (whose fault is that?), we should spend trillions more we don’t have because everything […]

When Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) walked into a Capitol Hill conference room to meet with his Republican colleagues last Thursday, he seemed a certain bet to be elected the next speaker of the House of Representatives. Subsequent reports revealed McCarthy already knew he didn’t have enough votes to win, or if he did, it was […]

Hillary Clinton is borrowing from Richard Nixon, a man she worked to impeach while a staff member of the House Judiciary Committee in the early 1970s. Like Nixon, whose handlers successfully fooled a majority of voters by trotting out a “new Nixon” after his election defeats in 1960 and 1962, Hillary Clinton is trying to […]

Hurricane Joaquin dumped large amounts of rain on the East Coast, but another “force of nature” flooded the country with so much rhetoric it was difficult for most people to keep up. Before barely any facts were known, there was President Obama on camera (when isn’t he?) making a 12-minute address — a relatively short […]

The White House Historical Association is promoting a Christmas ornament honoring our 30th president, Calvin Coolidge. This summer, Coolidge was added to the “racing presidents” feature at Washington Nationals home games, in which mascots representing past presidents sprint down the sideline. The club even gave away a Coolidge bobblehead doll. Does this mean the long-neglected […]

The announcement by House Speaker John Boehner that he is retiring at the end of October stunned Washington where life is all about grabbing power and holding on to it, often until death they do part. At a meeting with reporters, Boehner said, “My first job as speaker is to protect the institution.” Really? Is […]

“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.” (Matthew 7:15-16) Major newspaper editorials and some columnists have their knickers in a twist over remarks by Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson. Appearing last Sunday on “Meet the Press,” Carson was […]

To invoke a baseball metaphor, Carly Fiorina has been called up from the minors to the major leagues. After her widely praised debate performance last week, she can expect “fastballs” to be thrown at her head, not only by some of her Republican opponents, but by Democrats. It has already started. The first pitch at […]

Self-declared socialist and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders entered what his supporters must consider the belly of the beast on Monday. He spoke at the conservative evangelical Liberty University in Virginia. Some of those supporters sat in reserved seats, ensuring his remarks would be received with some applause. Liberal and Democratic speakers at Liberty are […]

Rarely and perhaps not in modern times has a presidential campaign more resembled the classic 1957 film, “A Face in the Crowd.” Written by Budd Schulberg and starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau, the storyline follows an Arkansas hayseed named Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes (Griffith), whom Marcia Jeffries (Neal) discovers in a county jail. […]

Let’s get something straight. America has never been a “Christian nation.” Those who believe otherwise have an obligation to say what part of our history was uniquely Christian. Was it when slavery was legal? How about when women were denied the vote? The Gilded Age? The Roaring ’20s? America is a nation in which Christians […]

In aviation it’s called the point of no return. That point in a flight when catastrophe strikes and the airplane, because of low fuel or mechanical impairment, cannot make it safely back to its take-off point. That’s where we are with the dangerous Iran nuclear deal, the theocratic Islamic Republic of Iran and the 34 […]

Back when I was in school, I performed a scientific experiment in which I poured a liquid of one color into a beaker that contained liquid of a different color. At first the liquid in the beaker was diluted, but as I kept pouring, the poured liquid eventually overtook the liquid in the beaker, creating […]

The horrible murder of two local journalists in Roanoke, Virginia, has affected me more than I thought it would. Journalists are taught early on to compartmentalize. As a local TV reporter, I saw bodies from plane crashes and victims of mass murder. I covered natural disasters and witnessed the aftermath of cruelty to children and […]

LONDON — It’s remarkable how often British and American politics resemble each other; often only the accents differ. Following a disastrous defeat at the hands of Prime Minister David Cameron’s Tories, the Labour Party appears ready to elect as its next leader one Jeremy Corbyn, a hardcore leftist, self-described socialist and member of Parliament, who […]

When Ronald Reagan announced in November 1994 he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, even some of his most ardent political opponents paused to wish him well. It was the same last Thursday when former President Jimmy Carter, who will soon be 91, held a news conference in Atlanta to announce that a cancer first […]

BELFAST, Northern Ireland — Since his party’s impressive election victory in May, Prime Minister David Cameron is moving quickly to fulfill his campaign promise to ensure welfare benefits are no longer a way of life for many of his fellow citizens. Instead of open-ended benefits for the unemployed, the government, beginning in April 2017, will […]

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders represent two sides of the same coin. Both men have tapped into a deep anger — a discontent — in the public mood. Little seems to be going right. America appears in decline under a disengaged president. We can’t seem to win wars, or know why we are fighting them. […]

If elected president, Hillary Clinton has promised to spend $350 billion to make college “more affordable.” The U.S. already has an $18 trillion debt (and growing by the day), but Clinton wants to add to it. That’s not affordable. Too many young people are graduating from universities unable to find jobs, or are underemployed. Slate.com […]

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama said: “…if somebody wants to build a coal power plant, they can. It’s just that it will bankrupt them…” He added that under his now defeated Cap and Trade bill, “electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.” In 2010, Cap and Trade died in the Senate, but the president’s […]

NASA has discovered the answer to all of our problems. It is another planet, a possible twin to Earth that could theoretically sustain life. This revelation could be bigger than Columbus “discovering” America, or Lewis and Clark finding the Northwest Passage. It offers the possibility of starting over. Hasn’t the thought crossed the mind of […]

“…if we come to see ourselves as meat, then meat we shall become.” — Leon Kass, M.D., “Toward a More Natural Science” What is most shocking about an undercover video of a conversation between Deborah Nucatola, a Planned Parenthood executive, and two antiabortion activists from the Center for Medical Progress (CMP) posing as employees from […]

At his press conference last Wednesday, our president of self-regard again linked himself with Ronald Reagan, seeking to equate his supposed success in gaining a deal with Iran not to build a nuclear weapon for 10 years to Reagan’s arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union. There is at least one major difference, which causes […]

When I listen to Hillary Clinton speak, as she did Monday at The New School in New York, outlining her “economic policy” should she become president, my first reaction was not to her lack of substance and the predictability of her party line about taxing the rich more and “income inequality,” but to how boring […]