Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Choose Success
Everybody talks about the middle class being hurt in the Obama economy, but it's really the working poor who are getting crushed. The president boasts that he and four more years of his trickle-down government policies are going to save the middle class' bacon, eggs and jobs. And at the Tuesday night cockfight on Long Island, our presumptive ex-commander in chief accused Mitt Romney of being hypocrite and a liar who wants to help the rich at the expense of the middle class.
Obama Wants More Money
President Obama has declined to outline a second term agenda. He doesn't say what he would do about the fiscal cliff that looms in just a couple of months. He hasn't addressed the glaring challenge of an aging population and entitlement spending that is careening toward insolvency. (On the contrary, he has significantly hastened the emergency by piling on new entitlement spending.) He hasn't proposed policies to improve the economy. He promises nothing more on Iran than to maintain ineffective sanctions. We can glean this much: He'd like to hire 100,000 new teachers and he wants to raise taxes on "millionaires and billionaires." That's a flimsy agenda for a great nation. Does it even make sense? Let's start with the teachers. This may be an old-fashioned idea, but shouldn't states and localities decide how many teachers they need? Isn't it just possible that Bangor, Me. might need fewer teachers and Yuma, Ariz. might need more?
A Few Questions I'd like to See President Obama Answer
I can only scratch the surface here, but the following are a few of the questions I would like to see President Obama answer in a debate. Mr. President, your confidante Valerie Jarrett once said: "There's nobody more self-critical than President Obama. Part of the burden of being so bright is that he sees his error immediately." If that is accurate, sir, why do you feel it took you so long to realize you were shellacked in the first debate, and why did you still bitterly cling to that error days afterward, saying that if people would read the transcript, they'd realize you won? Time's Joe Klein once wrote in his blog post "Too Dumb to Thrive" that America's opposition to Obama's stimulus package "is yet further evidence that Americans are flagrantly ill-informed. ... It is very difficult to thrive in an increasingly competitive world if you're a nation of dodos." Mr. President, do you share your fellow liberals' contempt for the American people, and is that what you meant when you lamented that democracy is messy and that you pine for the power of a Chinese president? Was that your mindset when you whispered to the Russians that you'd be able to be more "flexible" on missile defense after your re-election?
Misleading on Libya
President Obama gave a vigorous defense during this week's presidential debate of his handling of the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya -- but his answer could come back to haunt him. The natural instinct of most Americans is to rally round the president when they feel the country is under attack. But if they believe that the president has tried to mislead them, that support will dissipate quickly. Monday night's presidential debate could be that turning point. In Tuesday's debate, President Obama said that the day after the Benghazi attack -- in which the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans were slaughtered -- he immediately labeled the attack as "an act of terror." When challenged by Gov. Romney on the accuracy of that description, moderator Candy Crowley interjected herself into the debate, validating the president's claims.
The Great Gaffe
WASHINGTON -- Fight night at Hofstra. The two boxers, confined within a ring of spectators -- circling, feinting, taunting, staring each other down -- come several times, by my reckoning, no more than one provocation away from actual fisticuffs, of the kind that on occasion so delightfully break out in the Taiwanese parliament. Think of it: The Secret Service storming the ring, pinning Mitt Romney to the canvas as Candy Crowley administers the 10 count. The actual outcome was somewhat more pedestrian. President Obama gained a narrow victory on points, as borne out by several flash polls. The margin was small, paling in comparison to Romney's 52-point victory in the first debate. At Hofstra, Obama emerged from his previous coma to score enough jabs to outweigh Romney's haymaker, his dazzling takedown of the Obama record when answering a disappointed 2008 Obama voter.
Obama's Economic Spin: A New Pony or Manure?
It was arguably Ronald Reagan's favorite joke. In one version, two kids -- one an optimist, the other a pessimist -- rush downstairs on Christmas morning. The pessimistic kid gets a new bike and weeps that he'll probably break it soon. The optimistic kid is presented with an enormous pile of manure and squeals with delight: "There's got to be a pony in here somewhere!" In fact, the joke took on a life of its own in the Reagan White House. Whenever bad news came in, someone would remark, "There's got to be a pony in there somewhere." Barack Obama, who always wanted to be a liberal version of Ronald Reagan, has his own version of the joke. It's not particularly funny, alas. In Obama's telling, the kid runs downstairs, sees a huge pile of manure and yells, "Yay! Manure! Who needs a pony!" On the stump and in the recent debates, the president has been taking credit for things that are symptoms of a bad economy and touting them as major accomplishments.
Obama Campaign Co-Chair Eva Longoria Gets Schooled
Liberal celebrities want all of the adoration that social media engagement has to offer -- but none of the accountability that *actual* engagement requires. For the Hollywood elite, it's "do as they say, not as they tweet." But actress and outspoken Obama campaign co-chair Eva Longoria learned a hard lesson this week on Twitter: Conservatives online are mad as hell and aren't taking it anymore. On Tuesday night after the second presidential debate, Longoria shared a "retweet" from one of her 4.4-plus million followers on the micro-blogging network. "I have no idea why any woman/minority can vote for Romney," the message read. "You have to be stupid to vote for such a racist/misogynistic tw*t." (I'm editing the vulgarity for family newspapers, but the tweet's foul reference to a woman's reproductive organs was neither censored nor disavowed by Longoria on her Twitter timeline.)
Candy Crowley Self-Destructs
Just how badly did CNN's Candy Crowley destroy her first (and hopefully last) attempt as a presidential debate moderator? More than 65 million people saw that she is to debate moderation as CNN is to "news." Barack Obama made a fatal mistake when he lied, claiming he'd labeled the Libya attack as an act of terrorism. The look on Romney's face said it all: Mr. President, here comes checkmate. Then Crowley leapt to Obama's defense, declared a lie a truth, changed the subject, and Obama was free. It was a travesty.
Be Inspired
HELMAND PROVINCE, Afghanistan -- "Don't either of them even know we're still fighting over here?" That question was posed by one of the U.S. Marines with whom we have been keeping company in southwestern Afghanistan. His query followed this week's presidential debate at Hofstra University, during which the word "Afghanistan" was uttered only once during the 90-minute exchange between the two men bidding to be commander in chief. Last year when we were in this part of Helmand province, there were four Marine battalions providing security and mentoring Afghan soldiers and police. Now there is just one -- 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment -- the last Fleet Marine Force unit in which I served. I admit to bias in favor of these young Marines, with whom I share a special bond.
Media Abetting Obama's Benghazi Lies
Definitions and timelines distract from the bigger, devastating picture.
Why Libya Matters
During the second presidential debate, moderator-turned-Obama-advocate Candy Crowley helped President Obama make the case for why he'd been a true leader on the murder of our ambassador and three other brave Americans in Benghazi, Libya. Obama was asked a simple question: "We were sitting around, talking about Libya, and we were reading and became aware of reports that the State Department refused extra security for our embassy in Benghazi, Libya, prior to the attacks that killed four Americans. Who was it that denied enhanced security and why?" President Obama jumped into a memorized sermon about how much he cared about our ambassadorial staff, how the buck stopped with him, and most of all, how Mitt Romney had turned "national security into a political issue." Nowhere did he explain why our ambassador was given no real security in Benghazi; nowhere did he explain why, for weeks on end, spokespeople for the administration, including Obama, insisted that the attacks in Libya had been caused by a YouTube video.
Obama-Biden: Playing the Liar Card
Within the first few minutes of the second presidential debate, Obama said "not true" more times than Lance Armstrong, Mark McGwire and Baghdad Bob -- combined. Sure beats talking about the economy. President Obama scored a big victory over Mitt Romney with this week's cover story in Time magazine: "Who is Telling the Truth?" How is this a victory for Obama? The silliness of sending out surrogates to call Romney a "liar" has become a Big Media Issue in 2012. Breaking news: Almost all politicians obfuscate, sometimes shading or altering positions as political winds shift and even completely changing positions. Sometimes they admit changing positions (Obama on gay marriage). Sometimes they change while denying any change (Romney initially asserting that RomneyCare could and should be a "model" the federal government "can learn from").
To More and More Women, Romney Is the Safer Choice
An interesting story from last winter: An email friend who lives in an affluent suburb far from Washington, a staunch Republican, was watching one of the Republican debates with his wife, a staunch Democrat. He was surprised by her response to Mitt Romney. "He's a grown-up. He's someone who is reliable," he told me she said. "People will feel safe if he is in charge." I've been thinking about that email in the wake of the first presidential debate on Oct. 3 and the vice presidential debate last week. (This is written on deadline before the Oct. 16 Long Island, N.Y., debate.) There's obviously been a surge toward Romney. He was trailing in just about every national poll conducted before Oct. 3. He has been leading in most conducted since.
Obama at Hofstra: Relatively Alert, Ergo Big Winner
The best question at the second presidential debate came from Michael Jones, an African-American who said: "Mr. President, I voted for you in 2008. What have you done or accomplished to earn my vote in 2012? I'm not that optimistic, as I was in 2008. Most things I need for everyday living are very expensive." To which Obama said: "Are you my half-brother?" Actually, all Obama could say was that he had ended the war in Iraq (while pointlessly escalating the war in Afghanistan) and that Osama bin Laden is dead (and so is our ambassador). Both of which must be a great comfort to Mr. Jones as he tries to pay his bills every month.
The Second Debate
In form, President Obama came back strongly in Tuesday's debate with Mitt Romney, but substantively he continues to lag behind the Republican candidate. That's because the president has a record to defend and it isn't a good one. Television being what it is, the president looked and sounded good, but the air seems to have gone out of his messianic balloon as voters focus more on facts and less on spin. If promises mean anything -- and they don't to most politicians -- Romney hit the president where it hurts: on his failure to live up to most of his promises.
A Bright and Shining Libyan Lie
Almost everything we have been told about Libya over the last two years is untrue. A free Libya was supposed to be proof of President Obama's enlightened reset Middle East policy. When insurgency broke out there, the United States joined France and Great Britain in bombing Muammar Gadhafi out of power -- and supposedly empowering a democratic Arab Spring. Not a single American life was lost. Libyans, like most in the Arab World, were supposed to appreciate the new enlightened American foreign policy. Obama's June 2009 Cairo speech had praised Islam and apologized for the West. A new "lead from behind" multilateralism was said to have superseded George W. Bush's neo-imperialist interventions of the past.
The First Freedom
WASHINGTON -- I am grateful to George Washington University professor of Law, Jonathan Turley, for pointing out that a growing number of world leaders find the First Amendment's right of free speech to be an inconvenience. He cites, for instance, U. N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's warning that "when some people use this freedom of expression to provoke or humiliate some others' values and beliefs, then this cannot be protected." Turley makes the valuable -- and if you think about it, obvious -- observation that free speech becomes intolerable not when it is used recklessly but when one person or a group of people object to its use, especially when they object violently.
What Would Hippocrates Do?
If Hippocrates, the "Father of Western Medicine" were alive today, would he favor Question 2, the Massachusetts ballot initiative to authorize doctor-prescribed suicide? Presumably not: The celebrated code of medical ethics that bears his name, which physicians for centuries took an oath to uphold, flatly forbids assisted suicide. "I will not give a lethal drug to anyone if I am asked," the Hippocratic Oath avows, "nor will I advise such a plan." Some things never change, and one of them is the beguiling idea that doctors should be able to help patients kill themselves when incurable disease makes their lives unbearable. The advocates of Question 2 speak feelingly of the anguish of the terminally ill, suffering from awful symptoms that will only grow worse, and desperate to avoid the agonies to come. Not all of those agonies involve physical pain: Even worse for many people is the loss of autonomy, the mortifying collapse of bowel and bladder control, the intense unwillingness to be a burden to others, the existential despair of just waiting for death.
The World According to Obama
Mark Alexander is traveling this week. Enjoy this week's guest column from Burt Prelutsky.
The Fed's Mission Creep
DALLAS -- In the 1920s, in the wee small hours of the mornings, employees at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas sang while they worked. One, Jack Culpepper, went into vaudeville, where he teamed up with a dance partner named Ginger. They married and performed as "Ginger and Pepper." But show business marriages are perishable, so Ginger Rogers found another dance partner, Fred Astaire. Richard Fisher, president of the Dallas Fed, who calls the legendary dance team "Fed and Ginger," defends the Fed as an institution as vigorously as he questions its current policy. He prefers policies more suited to the Fed as it was before it acquired the burden -- and temptation -- of the dual mandate. Hence his praise for legislation by another Texan, Republican Rep. Kevin Brady.