Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Thursday, January 14, 2016
Man of Spiel
If there's one thing conservatives have been looking forward to since President Obama's first State of the Union address, it's his last. [Tuesday] night, that moment finally arrived — and with it, the overwhelming relief that this administration is writing its last chapter in America's history. In this seventh and final installment, the president seemed to take us into a parallel universe where his failed policies on health care, foreign policy, climate change, social change, and the economy were hailed as victorious achievements.
What '13 Hours' Teaches
A new movie that touches upon the election prospects of one female candidate for president debuts this week. Will "13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi" provoke thousands of angry viewers to march on Hillary Clinton's home with torchlights and pitchforks? Doubtful. The film is somewhat oblique. Hillary Clinton's name is not mentioned. The infamous Susan Rice clips blaming the attack on a video do not appear (though the film does mention, slightly mordantly, that "press reports" are citing a video). Yet even for those coming to the question for the first time, the film very clearly conveys filmmaker Michael Bay's outrage that a tiny band of unbelievably brave Americans was left to fight off a company of al-Qaida-linked terrorists for, yes, 13 hours, while the vast land, sea and air resources of the U.S. military were not sent to their rescue.
Donald Trump: Scarier to the 'Establishment' Than Bernie Sanders
To Republicans who are livid, fearful, anxious and/or unhappy about the prospect of a Donald Trump nomination and a Donald Trump presidency, consider this. He claims his wealth allows him to self-fund, putting him in a position to downsize and de-corporatize crony government in a way unrivaled in political history. It takes about $1 billion to run — and win — the presidency, and fundraising normally occupies much of the candidates' time. To get that kind of money, the average candidate spends time courting and currying favor with "special interests." This means unions, environmentalists, corporate welfare-ists and others give money and, in exchange, expect their interests to be at the very least listened to, if not carried out once in office.
Hillary's Problems Grow
This week, three weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton spent valuable time during an appearance on "Face the Nation" swatting down stories that surfaced Friday. Early on Friday morning when most Americans are asleep, save second-story men, the State Department released thousands of Clinton's emails. In one she seemed to be asking her aide, Jake Sullivan, to send her classified information across a "nonsecure" line. That is to say, across her personal server. She was impatient to read the email's contents and could not wait for it to be sent on a secure line. That strikes a lot of those who follow such matters as a clear breach of the law regarding the handling of classified information, or perhaps I should say another clear breach of the law regarding the use of classified information. On "Face the Nation" Clinton termed the growing imbroglio a "non-issue."
Bubble Boy?
Is the president really as isolated from reality as he sounded [Tuesday] night? I could write pages analyzing every misleading and inaccurate comment. But I'll focus on just a few.
Biennial Budgeting Is a Bad Idea
Those who pay just casual attention to the annual federal budget process can see that it's a mess. It's rarely completed on time, and it always seems to get bogged down by partisan bickering and political scheming. When the dust finally does settle, the result is usually a bloated conglomeration of goodies for countless special interests, who most likely had a better grasp of the contents than our elected representatives who voted on it.
Hillary Clinton: Slip Slidin' Away
It's happening again. The "inevitability" of Hillary Clinton's presidential candidacy may not be so inevitable after all. Unlike eight years ago when Barack Obama beat her for the Democratic nomination and ultimately won the office Hillary and her supporters believed she was entitled to, this time her main opponent is not just Sen. Bernie Sanders, a socialist, it is Hillary Clinton herself. Serious media and congressional investigations into Richard Nixon's Watergate crimes did not begin until after his landslide win in 1972. In Hillary Clinton's case, damaging investigations are occurring in the middle of her campaign.
Obama's Failings Among the Reasons for Trump's Rise
Three truths fuel Donald Trump. One, Barack Obama is the Dr. Frankenstein of the supposed Trump monster. If a charismatic, Ivy League-educated, landmark president who entered office with unprecedented goodwill and both houses of Congress on his side could manage to wreck the Democratic Party while turning off 52 percent of the country, then many voters feel that a billionaire New York dealmaker could hardly do worse.
On Immigration, I've Become a Dissident on the Right
Ramesh Ponnuru, a respected editor and writer for National Review, argues in a recent essay that immigration restrictionism "is rapidly becoming a defining issue for American conservatism." It isn't just that Republicans and conservatives increasingly support tighter control of immigration, Ponnuru writes, but something more overarching. Where a candidate stands on immigration is turning into a litmus test for conservative fidelity. That explains why Marco Rubio, despite his unabashedly conservative voting record, finds himself being scorned in some circles as a "moderate" Republican: because he supported a bipartisan bill that would have expanded legal immigration and offered a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
Rubio's Record of Misjudgment
What boxer Sonny Liston's manager said of him (Sonny had his good points, the trouble was his bad points) is true of Marco Rubio. His strengths include intelligence, articulateness and, usually, cheerfulness. His misjudgments involve, in ascending order of importance, the Senate immigration bill of 2013, sugar, Libya and S-590. Together these reveal a recurring penchant for ill-considered undertakings.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Where Is the Republican Establishment?
The establishment features prominently in the GOP presidential race. It is what Donald Trump and Ted Cruz rail against. It is hated by a significant portion of the Republican electorate. It is a ready term of abuse. The establishment is a matter of obsession, but is almost nowhere to be seen, as its initial choice, Jeb Bush, languishes in the polls, and Trump and Cruz rise essentially untouched.
Our Stake in the Union
When he took office, Barack Obama promised hope. And with his final term almost over, Americans finally have it. For most of the country, the last seven years have been a tragic departure from the values that made America a great nation. But as far as the White House is concerned, that isn't cause for concern — but celebration. It means that this president has accomplished exactly what he said he set out to do: fundamentally transform America.
Powerball's Biggest Winner: Government
Ka-ching! Wednesday's Powerball jackpot soared to $1.5 billion as get-rich-quick mania seized America this week. But you don't need to wait for the drawing to know who'll score the royal payoff. The biggest winner of the multistate numbers game is — drumroll, please — Uncle Sam.
Friends of Faith
The fight to defend religious liberty against burdensome Obamacare mandates did not end with the Hobby Lobby case. Previous administrations likely would have gotten the court's message from that case, which granted certain for-profit businesses a religious exemption from the government's coercive contraception mandate. But not this one.
David Brooks Loses It on Ted Cruz
New York Times columnist David Brooks poses as a moderate who never stoops to being crabbily doctrinaire. He is the very model of a PBS/NPR "conservative" — defining conservatism in a very 1950s way, as wearing dreary gray suits and liking Ike and Dick Nixon. Go along, and get along with the liberal elites. But as conservatives know all too well, people who pose as "moderates" — politically and rhetorically — have a way of losing their sweetly temperate nature when conservatives seriously challenge the liberal order of things. David Brooks is clearly not a moderate or temperate man when it comes to Ted Cruz. Just the thought of this man triggers a spontaneous combustion.
The West's Terminal Radical Islam Denial Syndrome
Last year, there were 452 suicide terror attacks across the world. Four hundred and fifty of them were committed by Muslims. Last month, Muslims pledging allegiance to ISIS murdered 14 people in San Bernardino, California. Last week, thousands of Muslims around Europe, from Germany to Sweden to Switzerland, sexually assaulted hundreds of young women on New Year's Eve. Just days ago, a Muslim man shot a Philadelphia cop at point-blank range and declared that he did it in the name of Islam.
Fighting Poverty With Real American Values
A recent forum on fighting poverty, sponsored by the Jack Kemp Foundation and moderated by House Speaker Paul Ryan and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, showed why the Republican Party is America's party of vision. The forum featured six Republican presidential candidates: Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, John Kasich, Mike Huckabee and Marco Rubio. Each responded to questions from Ryan and Scott and weighed in with their ideas for fighting poverty.
Minimum Wage Dishonesty
Michael Hiltzik, a columnist and Los Angeles Times reporter, wrote an article titled "Does a minimum wage raise hurt workers? Economists say: We don't know." Uncertain was his conclusion from a poll conducted by the Initiative on Global Markets, at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business, of 42 nationally ranked economists on the question of whether raising the federal minimum wage to $15 over the next five years would reduce employment opportunities for low-wage workers.
GOP Race Hasn't Stuck to the Script
According to conventional wisdom, the GOP nominates the guy whose turn it is, while the Democrats look for a savior. As Bill Clinton once said, "In every presidential election, Democrats want to fall in love. Republicans just fall in line." George H.W. Bush came in second to Ronald Reagan in 1980. As the sitting vice president, it was Bush's turn for the nomination in 1988, and he got it. Sen. Bob Dole came in second to Bush in 1988, so in 1996 it was his turn. In 2000, there was no obvious line of succession, but George W. Bush came closest as the heir to the Bush dynasty. Sen. John McCain came in second to W. in 2000. In 2008, McCain got the nomination. Mitt Romney: Second in 2008, he got his turn in 2012.