Author: Roger Simon

TAMPA, Fla. — Politics is about pain. Not the pain you feel when you watch it. The pain felt by the candidates. They brush it off, laugh it off, shrug it off. But it kills them a little inside. Presidential candidates are, appearances to the contrary, human. If you prick them, they do bleed. And […]

Remember that one? I certainly do because, as a young leftie, I shouted it at many demonstrations. I also shouted, “Off the pig!” and even went so far as to support, at least from a distance, the “Days of Rage” as described by John Jacobs of the Weatherman faction of the Students for a Democratic […]

It’s perhaps a bit mean to liken the hapless Harvard law professor and senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren to that other Warren, Kitty — the brothel owner from George Bernard Shaw’s “Mrs. Warren’s Profession,” described by the playwright as “a genial and fairly presentable old blackguard of a woman.” Elizabeth Warren is, after all, rather WASPish […]

Reading the unemployment numbers for May — can you imagine what the real ones would be? — your lefty-liberal friends should be ashamed of themselves. At least those that aren’t committed, Cloward-Pliven style, to the fall of the U.S. You know, those who wish to bankrupt our country so that it can be rebuilt as […]

Maybe it’s just me, but I find it hard to believe liberals believe in liberalism anymore. With the obvious global meltdown of Keynesian economics, how could anyone remotely intelligent support the continued deficit spending that is driving the Western World into bankruptcy? And yet a large proportion of our population still backs Barack Obama for […]

At PJ Media — the online media company where I am CEO — we preach to the conservative choir quite a bit. It’s not our fault for the most part. It’s the way of the world these days. The left talks to the left and the right talks to the right. Sure, we have some […]

Socialism is a rich man’s game. Oh, sure, random overheated: (sometimes: impoverished) Occupiers agitate for their version of economic equality, possibly gumming up the works at the Lincoln Tunnel, but the real financial justice action comes from the wealthy — or so it would seem. And I’m not just talking about Hollywood, where George Clooney is full […]

Richard A. Grenell — a frequent contributor to PJ Media, where I am CEO — has been named “national security and foreign policy spokesman” for presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney. Writes The Washington Post’s Election 2012 Blog: “Grenell brings foreign policy chops and more than a decade of political experience to the aggressive but […]

I was amused to read Maureen Dowd’s recent column titled “State of Cool” in The New York Times, calling Hillary Clinton “cool,” because I was about to write just the opposite — not just about Hillary, but about her (and my) whole generation of liberal-progressive-whatevers. They are anything but cool. They are the New Squares. […]

Passover 2012, which started at sunset on Friday, April 6, will not be a particularly auspicious one for the Jewish people. Despite being superficially strong in many ways, Israel — the sole Jewish state — and Jews in general face more determined opposition than they have at any time since World War II. From terrorists […]

When Barack Obama asserted — in advance of a completed police investigation, let alone a jury trial or grand jury investigation — that he identified with young Trayvon Martin, the black teenager shot and killed in Florida, it was an extraordinarily reactionary moment with possible ramifications of interference with the justice system. But it was […]

Psychotherapists often talk about the difference between “wanting to be right” and “getting what we want”. Many of us, myself included, often prefer to be right — or what we believe: to be right — even if it interferes with our larger goals. This is the kind of behavior that destroys marriages. It can also have […]

When a whirlwind dies, there is a sudden quiet. Los Angeles last Thursday was deathly silent. Andrew Breitbart — the conservative gadfly-blogger-entrepreneur — died at the age of 43. He just crumpled on a Westwood sidewalk, in full view of other pedestrians. Breitbart — besides being a unique media figure who in many ways changed […]

As Republicans gnaw at each other’s throats, playing a desperate game of “I’m more conservative than you,” something yet more depressing and deeply ironic is occurring: Capitalism is saving Obama. In the spirit of ‘no bad deed goes unrewarded,’ the very system our president cut his teeth on despising — the unbridled free market — […]

To say the least, things do no look good for the Republicans at this moment. Rasmussen polls released Tuesday showed Mitt Romney trailing Barack Obama at 49 to 42 percent and Rick Santorum lagging even further behind at 41 percent. No word on Newt Gingrich, but it’s hard to be optimistic. According to the pollster: […]

Rick Santorum — a man who lost his last election in his home state by 18 points — is suddenly threatening the front-runner status of Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination. He, not Newt Gingrich, is emerging, at least for the moment, as the conservative alternative to Romney, having won decisively in three state […]

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 truck […]

The Republican field debated for the 19th time Thursday night, and once again, the media promised us it was going to be a “make or break” event. Don’t believe the media. The media say the debates have been the most critical factor in the nominating race so far because the media have been forced to […]

It was the debate that was over in less than five minutes. Although the setting was more dramatic as the numbers dwindled down to a precious few, the Thursday Republican debate in Charleston was another meaningless discussion signifying nothing. Once again, all the candidates, with the exception of course of Ron Paul, essentially agreed on […]

OK, I don’t really consider myself a pundit-pundit, but I owe my readers an apology: I am a lousy judge of character. Don’t ever trust me again — or at least vet me extremely carefully. I fell for Rick Perry, a man less qualified, it turns out, to be president than my dead grandmother. Yes, […]

After listening to so many Republican debates that I can no longer count them, one thing became clear: There were almost no significant policy distinctions between the candidates in the domestic arena. All were basically minor differences, although often inflated for political purposes. What set the candidates apart were qualities of personality, electability and experience, […]

It was only a week or so ago that I made a short video titled “What Do We About the Donald?” (available on YouTube). It was intended to be a goof, riffing on Trump’s supposed presidential ambitions and suggesting a better use of his abilities — i. e., to take over the United Nations and […]

A good portion of the right-wing punditocracy, Beltway sorts especially, appears to harbor a deep dislike of Newt Gingrich. They can’t believe he is currently the frontrunner for the Republican nomination and are doing everything in their power to enlighten the great unwashed about the multiple inadequacies of this man and knock some sense into […]

The Bambino stands in the center of the stage, untouchable, uncatchable, unbeatable. He is Newt Gingrich, and he has become the Sultan of Swat. It is Saturday night at yet another Republican debate, and — wham! wham! wham! — Gingrich keeps blasting them out of the park. Mitt Romney claims he should be president, because, […]

Barack Obama and his minions — Hillary Clinton, who these days disses Israel every chance she gets, and Ambassador Howard Gutman, who thinks Islamic anti-Semitism began at a Tel Aviv falafel shop a week ago Thursday — love to put pressure on our supposed ally … but on Iran’s despicable mullahs, not so much. So […]

Every four years, we are pushed farther and farther away. The candidate recedes into the distance, separated from us by rope lines, staff and attitude. This will be the 10th presidential election I have covered, and sometimes people ask me what has changed the most over the years. We used to get close, I tell […]

In politics, this has been The Year of Living Dangerously. It has been the year of the risk, the shiver, the shudder, the thrill. All quickly felt. All quickly passing. The media have driven it. Faced with an incumbent president running a careful and as yet uninspiring campaign, and a Republican field as dynamic as […]

Do not share this column with your friends, unless you really must. And, please, no Twitter or Facebook. It’s quite embarrassing. Nevertheless, I no longer in good conscience can withhold this information. In the grand tradition of the father of our country, I cannot tell a lie. I have been — and still am on […]

“It’s the economy, stupid,” some dude named Carville once said. He was referring to what was the correct prescription for winning a presidential election — and it’s been gospel ever since. He’s probably right. Except when it comes to actually being president, it’s something else altogether. “It’s the foreign policy, stupid” — because day one […]

We live in times when the different sides in our country speak languages as far apart as Chinese and Italian. Witness what happened to me earlier this week when I was a panelist at the Los Angeles Public Library’s ALOUD Program on the subject of “Hollywood — Left and Right.” With me on the panel […]