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February 3, 2010

Obama's Quagmire of Ambiguity By Tony Blankley

Last week, New York Times columnist Bob Herbert wrote: "Who is Barack Obama? Americans are still looking for the answer, and if they don't get it soon -- or if they don't like the answer -- the president's current political problems will look like a walk in the park. ... Mr. Obama is in danger of being perceived as someone whose rhetoric, however skillful, cannot always be trusted. He is creating a credibility gap for himself, and if it widens much more he won't be able to close it."

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February 2, 2010

Off in the New Age By Froma Harrop

Money, spirituality and something else combined last October to set off a ghastly tragedy near Sedona, Ariz. Participants in a "Sweat Lodge" ceremony, run by New Age impresario James Arthur Ray, were overcome with heat. Three died, and 18 were hospitalized. Yavapai County investigators could charge Ray with homicide.

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February 2, 2010

A Results-Free Cell Phone Law By Debra J. Saunders

Last week, an insurance industry report found that bans on using hand-held cell-phones while driving in California, New York, Washington, D.C. and Connecticut did not reduce the number of car crashes. To the contrary, crashes went up in Connecticut and New York, and slightly in California, after the bans took effect.

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February 1, 2010

Obama Impresses 'Educated Class' But Not Terrorists By Michael Barone

Just whom are we trying to impress?

That's a question that occurred to me when, on his second full day in the presidency, Barack Obama announced we would close the Guantanamo detainee facility within one year.

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January 31, 2010

So Much Wasted Green for Climate Change Talks By Debra J. Saunders

It was bad enough last month watching Washington politicians merrily flying off to the U.N. climate change Conference of Parties in Copenhagen (or COP-15 for short), ostensibly to draft a global warming treaty, when all the players knew that no meaningful pact would result and that the only sure outcome was that much energy would be squandered.

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January 31, 2010

Don't Ask, Don't Tell By Susan Estrich

I don't get it.

Since 1993, more than 13,000 soldiers have been discharged from the military under the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy. Countless others are effectively denied access to mental health and other services because they can't tell.

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January 30, 2010

Obama Sees Both Sides Now By Debra J. Saunders

It all looked so easy in August 2008, when Sen. Barack Obama spoke before the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The Democrats were going to win in November, storm Washington with their reforming ways, and because they were so much smarter than everyone else, they'd know how to get the American economy cooking. There was no doubt as the enthusiastic Invesco Field throng cheered and chanted, "Yes, we can."

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January 29, 2010

White House "Panic Week" Yields No Change in Direction By Howard Rich

Barack Obama’s “Panic Week” has come and gone, but did his White House learn anything from the historic repudiation of his leftist agenda? Putting the question another way, has Obama made the necessary course corrections or is he still refusing to hear the message that America is sending him so loudly and clearly?

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January 29, 2010

A Populist Panacea? By Larry J. Sabato

I’ll admit it. I love populism. In my youth I was always drawn to populist candidates. For over eight months I’ve been predicting that 2010 would be the Year of the Populist, and this prediction has come true. Populism is the only approach that makes sense in this angry, miserable time full of resentful voters. A sincere populist identifies with, and advocates for, the needs of ordinary powerless people, who believe they are being screwed by big, impersonal institutions and elites.

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January 29, 2010

Dems Must Swing for the Fences or Lose By Froma Harrop

Is there a patriot in the house? Is there anyone in Washington who regards governing as a means to accomplish anything other than win the sterile game of Democrat versus Republican? Every day, American soldiers risk their lives for their country, but people in Congress won't even risk their jobs to pass legislation essential to the nation's economic future.

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January 28, 2010

The Proof's In The Poll Results Analysis By Scott Rasmussen

You know it’s a strange new world when Gary Langer, the director of polling at ABC, attacks a Democratic polling firm. By the way, the good folks at Public Policy Polling (PPP) took the attack in stride. The firm's Tom Jensen noted that “one of the most amusing things Langer and others in his cohort claim is that polls should not be judged by their accuracy.”

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January 28, 2010

Hope in the Deep Freeze By Joe Conason

On the eve of his first State of the Union Address, Barack Obama confided that he would "rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president." But his proposal to freeze domestic spending is exactly the kind of policy that could result in four years of stagnation -- rewarded by an election defeat at the hands of dispirited and disillusioned voters. If he continues to surrender his mandate, he just might become a mediocre one-term president.

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January 28, 2010

For Democrats, It's Time To Worry By Rhodes Cook

For Democrats, it is officially time to worry. The party's gubernatorial losses in Virginia and New Jersey last fall could be partially explained away as the states' usual off-year swing to the "out" party.

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January 28, 2010

Dems Fall as Fast as Nixon Republicans in 1974 By Michael Barone

Republican Scott Brown's victory in Massachusetts' special Senate election was for Democratic leaders a moment that can be described in two words, of which I will only print the first here, which is "oh."

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January 27, 2010

On the Road to Economic Damascus? By Lawrence Kudlow

Stocks shrugged it off yesterday, but I’d like to commend President Obama for his three-year budget freeze plan. That's right. It gives me good old-fashioned, American patriotic State of the Union pleasure to praise the president when he does good.

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January 27, 2010

Focus on the Family By Susan Estrich

CBS will air an ad during the Super Bowl in which college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam Tebow, discuss her decision not to have an abortion despite doctors’ advice to do so. The news is creating precisely the stir that its sponsor, the Christian conservative group Focus on the Family, was almost certainly hoping for.

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January 27, 2010

Repeal the 17th Amendment By Tony Blankley

As I was preparing to write a column on the ludicrous maligning of the Tea Party movement by liberals, Democrats and the mainstream media (which I hope to write next week, instead), I started thinking about one of the key objectives of the Tea Party people -- the strict enforcement of the 10th Amendment ("The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people").

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January 26, 2010

Pentagon Clueless on Fort Hood Shootings By Debra J. Saunders

Political correctness is alive in the Pentagon. Witness "Protecting the Force: Lessons from Fort Hood," a Department of Defense report released last week on the Nov. 5 shootings that left 13 people dead.

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January 26, 2010

Criticism of 'Avatar' More Interesting Than Film By Froma Harrop

Somewhere between "Avatar's" first billion-dollar gross and its subsequent $841 million take lie my 10 bucks. "Avatar" is about blue-skinned beings who confront Earthlings actively strip mining their natural paradise on the moon Pandora.

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January 25, 2010

Time for a Change at the Fed By Lawrence Kudlow

What exactly did Ben Bernanke promise Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid? That’s the big question right now. Reid reluctantly endorsed Bernanke after a one-on-one meeting. Here’s what Reid said, according to the Las Vegas Sun: “I made it clear that to merit confirmation, Chairman Bernanke must redouble his efforts to ensure families can access the credit they need to buy or keep their home, send their children to college, or start a small business.”

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