The resignation of Florida Education Commissioner Tony Bennett couldn’t have come at a better time. His disgraceful grade-fixing scandal is the perfect symbol of all that’s wrong with the federal education schemes peddled by Bennett and his mentor, former GOP Gov. Jeb Bush: phony academic standards, crony contracts, big-government and big-business collusion masquerading as “reform.” […]

“I think she’s one of the most fascinating women of our time and this world,” confessed Bob Greenblatt, the chairman of NBC, as part of his announcement that his network is making a miniseries about Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, with Diane Lane in the starring role. Words are funny things. For instance, G.K. […]

Being neither a Catholic nor a religious scholar, I’m in no position to offer opinions on the Roman Catholic Church or its doctrine. Yet it seems to me that conservatives might learn a thing or two from Pope Francis when it comes to messaging and tone. The pope, it is widely reported, has “recast the […]

Of the many ironies accompanying President Obama’s reign of error, few are more perplexing to conservatives than the disunity and ineffectuality of the Republican opposition. From the beginning of his first term, Obama has been fulfilling his promise to fundamentally transform America — albeit in a way he didn’t fully disclose when he made the […]

After the Vietnam War, the Pentagon reflected on its wartime policies and military tactics and came to understand that they fanned public distrust in the military, which in turn limited public support of their actions. Our defense leaders grasped that they needed to modify their tactics and policies in order to rebuild public confidence and […]

Why are so many people so desperate to hold onto the idea that America is as racist as it has ever been? The phenomenon is apparent in much of the commentary on the George Zimmerman case. Facts were blithely ignored — the fact that Zimmerman is Hispanic, not white, by current standards; the evidence that […]

It should come as no surprise that the lessons that should be learned from the bankruptcy of Detroit, a city that once stood as the shining example of America’s industrial might, are being ignored by the American political establishment and its allies in the docile press corps. While the death spiral of the Motor City […]

It’s no secret that both political parties are struggling to connect with voters. Strategists dream up marketing plans to increase their party’s appeal to this constituency or that group. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t. But they never establish a deep and lasting connection with voters. That’s because most of what the parties talk […]

Does anyone read anymore? I mean, besides tweets from Anthony Weiner? During his otherwise excellent commentaries on race in America, Bill O’Reilly, host of the No. 1 cable news show, claimed on Tuesday night that the one person who tried to help African-Americans more than any other was … Robert F. Kennedy! No one laughed. […]

Occupy Wall Streeters claimed that they were populists. Their ideological opposites, the Tea Partiers, said they were, too. Both became polarizing. And so far populism, whether on the right or left, does not seem to have made inroads with the traditional Republican and Democrat establishments. Gas has gone up about $2 a gallon since Barack […]

My unsolicited advice to Anthony Weiner is to drop out of the race for mayor of New York City. But since you insist on staying, hold a press conference: My fellow New Yorkers, The New York Times, among others, tells me to quit the race. Here’s my proposition. I’ll resign when the Times poses this […]

Egypt is in turmoil again. Syria is embroiled in civil war. Iran continues building a nuclear device. Militants in Iraq have killed more than 4,000 people so far this year, more than 800 of them in July alone, according to the aptly named Iraq Body Count (www.iraqbodycount.org). And what is Secretary of State John Kerry’s […]

John Pike — the University of California, Davis police lieutenant whom the university fired for pepper spraying Occupy protesters Nov. 18, 2011 — has filed a workers’ compensation claim based on a “psychiatric injury.” UC should change its motto from “Fiat lux” (“Let there be light”) to “Fiat meum” (“Where’s mine?”). The protesters got theirs […]