Category: Column

In 1831, Henry Clay formed a new political party. He called it the Whig Party. His goal was to ensure Jeffersonian democracy and fight President Andrew Jackson, a Democrat. Over the course of the next 20 years, the Whig Party achieved several presidential victories. But as slavery assumed more and more national importance in the […]

Barack Obama’s favorability in the polls falls when he is himself — overexposed, hard left in his press conferences, and boastful about legislative achievements like Obamacare and a stimulus of more than $1 trillion. Then a strange thing happened. Obama largely went quiet. Often he was out of sight, vacationing in Hawaii or golfing. It […]

Forgive Republican candidate Mitt Romney for his alleged failure to adequately explain why he paid “only” 14 percent of his income in taxes. The honest answer — “Well, because my accountants couldn’t figure out how to get them any lower” — does not work in this or very many other election years. Romney seemed flat-footed […]

One of several casualties of the vitriolic name-calling between Republican presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich is what to do about Iran. In interviews, Romney has spoken about tougher sanctions, but it’s been difficult to consider the candidates’ positions on Iran — or much else — with the childish talk about who is the […]

Mitt Romney’s impressive victory Tuesday makes it very likely that we will look back on the Florida primary as the contest that determined the 2012 Republican nomination. To be sure, the campaign fight will go on, and Romney is by no means assured of a sweep of the relatively few February contests. Newt Gingrich has […]

Here’s the reason Mitt Romney won in Florida: Women turned against Newt Gingrich. In the primary on Tuesday, Romney carried men by only 5 points, according to the Fox News exit poll, while he won women by 52-28 — a 24-point margin! Did women turn against Gingrich because of his personal baggage or the interview […]

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 of […]

President Obama and his radical feminist enforcers have had it in for Catholic medical providers from the get-go. It’s about time all people of faith fought back against this unprecedented encroachment on religious liberty. First, they came for the Catholics. Who’s next? This weekend, Catholic bishops informed parishioners of the recent White House edict forcing […]

With an election approaching and at least some Americans upset about irresponsible spending, the president has finally expressed a political interest in cutting something. He says the Pentagon will spend “only” $525 billion next year. That’s slightly less than the current $531 billion. A cut is good, but this will barely dent the deficit. We […]

There’s been a heap of criticism placed upon President Barack Obama’s domestic policies that have promoted government intrusion and prolonged our fiscal crisis and his foreign policies that have emboldened our enemies. Any criticism of Obama pales in comparison with what might be said about the American people who voted him in to the nation’s […]

Mitt Romney’s sudden surge in Florida reflects a basic fear voters have of nominating former Speaker Newt Gingrich. Despite his obvious brilliance, creative ideas and stimulating turns of phrase, they worry that he will come across as too strident to voters and will cost the Republican Party the presidency. Women, in particular, worry that his […]

For students of American politics, following the way the Mitt Romney campaign played Newt Gingrich in Florida is a lesson to learn and to keep. Romney’s people must have realized that Newt does best when he is positive. His bold ideas, clear vision, revolutionary insights, and extraordinary perspectives resonate with voters and win him millions […]

Once the presidential nomination process is settled — and Lord knows that day can’t come fast enough — Republicans will get back to doing what they do best, getting on Barack Obama’s case. Incredibly, though, they’ll have to do it without one of their most potent arguments. The Republican candidate, after all, can’t effectively attack […]

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 photograph of Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer pointing a finger at President Obama on the tarmac at the Phoenix airport brought out the worst in amateur psychoanalysis from our media elite. No one had an audiotape or videotape of what was said but just the finger-pointing image somehow was definitive evidence of profound disrespect. These […]

The Fitch Ratings agency has downgraded the credit of another five European countries — Belgium, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia, and Spain — citing “the financing risks faced by eurozone sovereign governments in the absence of a credible financial firewall against contagion and self-fulfilling liquidity crises.” In other words, these self-styled fiscal medics plunged headfirst into deadly […]

Today was “one of those days.” I don’t believe I’ve ever seen as much rain fall so hard or for so long as I did today. My wife and I were on our way to Tyler, Texas, to make a couple of purchases and, more importantly, to see Dr. John Hudnall, an ear, nose and […]

Jesse Jackson is right. In response to the face-off in Arizona between President Obama and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer last week, Jackson said, “Even George Wallace did not put his finger in Dr. King’s face.” And it’s true; he didn’t. Similarly, not even Josef Stalin wrote two autobiographies the way Obama has. And even Genghis […]

I’m a 33-year-old nurse in a five-month “friends with benefits” thing with a doctor co-worker. I am only 18 months out of an abusive 10-year relationship and wanted something fun and light. We get along well, but he rarely asks me ahead of time about getting together. I know he has a busy schedule, but […]

Over the last few weeks or so, various elements of the mainstream media have reported that, aside from gay marriage, Romney continues to support much of the gay agenda. He does not talk about his positions on gay issues but if questioned, he invariably comes down on the liberal side. Indeed, Romney has come out […]

The Republican establishment is pulling out all the stops to try to keep Newt Gingrich from becoming the party’s nominee for President of the United States — and some are not letting the facts get in their way. Among the claims going out through the mass media in Florida, on the eve of that state’s […]

In the intense heat of the present, it is easy to forget even the relatively recent past, but it seems to me that this GOP primary season is more acrimonious than the past few, probably because the stakes are so high. When I’ve noted that this is the most important presidential election of our lifetimes, […]

Occupy Oakland is aptly named. When forces occupy a city, they know that occupied turf is not their home. They can maraud, loot, vandalize, abuse the locals, and then leave. They can treat other people’s property as their own. The occupiers don’t have to clean up after themselves. They don’t have to worry about paying […]

The Muslim world is threatened by religious fanaticism. The Western world is threatened by secular fanaticism. Both seek to dominate society and to use state power to do so. Both seek to eliminate the Other — for Islamic fanatics, that means non-Muslim religions and secularism; for secular fanatics, it means Christianity and virtually any public […]

I think the mainstream media and Washington elite think the majority of voters just fell off the turnip truck. But the South Carolina primary and other current voting trends show otherwise. The MSM are working double time to get us to forget about the unprecedented results of the South Carolina primary, but they are a […]

One of the memorable slogans from the Reagan administration was “peace through strength.” Reagan believed a strong defense was a safeguard against enemy attacks and the best hope of victory should America go to war. President Obama is taking the opposite approach. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently announced cuts in defense spending of $487 billion […]