Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Mitt Romney, Big-Government Man
President Obama tanked in the last debate. Good. Now maybe people will listen when Mitt Romney says things like, "The genius of America is the free enterprise system, and freedom, and the fact that people can go out there and start a business. ... The private market and individual responsibility always work best." They do. But then Romney responded to Obama by essentially saying: I want big government, too! We who hope for smaller government as a way to expand liberty and create prosperity are disturbed by what we heard last week. The GOP candidate painted himself as a big government man.
Quit Blaming Bush
"Now Gov. Romney believes that with even bigger tax cuts for the wealthy, and fewer regulations on Wall Street, all of us will prosper. In other words, he'd double down on the same trickle-down policies that led to the crisis in the first place." -- President Obama in an ad released Sept. 27. This is Obama's core message. In one way or another, he says it all the time. It's his kicker on the stump. You cannot watch an interview with the president or one of his subalterns without hearing it. And yet, I don't think I've ever heard a TV interviewer, host or pundit ask, "What are you talking about?"
Out of Gas in the Golden State
Leftist environmental policies are hurting the little guy the most.
Michigan Unions' Election Day Pushback
Ballot measure would protect public-worker jobs
It's Important to Understand Why Romney Won
Understanding why Mitt Romney so decisively won the first presidential debate is as important as the fact that he did. Why? Because once we know the reasons, almost everything about President Barack Obama and this election becomes clear. First, Obama lost because he, like virtually the entire left, lives in a left-wing bubble. Left-wing academics live in this bubble. There is no greater uniformity of thought than at our universities; their much-ballyhooed commitment to diversity is about race and ethnicity, not about ideas.
'Big Government Liberals' at Work
The big government liberalism that Republicans denounce and Democrats, in election years especially, portray as deep compassion, is again on national display, looking fossilized. Big government liberalism tsks-tsks at any social/cultural/economic problem it sees as curable through government regulation, and, where regulation exists already, more of it, as much as the old wagon will hold. Big government liberalism, from its Olympian perches in the media and the academy, can't envision a set of perplexities irremediable by law, regulation or court order. Observe how well it works out.
Obama Would Double Down in a Second Term
Do you know what's scarier than the possibility that President Obama could be re-elected? It's that in a second term, he would double down on his failed policies. Don't take my word for it; he's admitted it on the campaign stump. In a speech to his fellow cultural icons in Hollywood, he said, "Everything we fought for in 2008 is on the line here in 2012. And I need your help to finish what we started. ... We've come too far to turn back now." Note that Obama did not say this: "My agenda obviously isn't working, so I have decided to make major adjustments. Rest assured that my wholesale failure to get the economy moving again, to create jobs, to reform entitlements and to reduce deficits and debts will not be repeated in a second term.
8.1 Percent, 7.8 Percent -- Whatever
To the millions of Americans unable to find work, to college graduates who can't get a job and are living with their parents, to the underemployed who are working at jobs far below their skill set and experience, and to those who have given up looking for work altogether, a 7.8 percent unemployment rate is meaningless. The economy stinks. And try as they might -- and they are trying mightily to rescue a man they sold to voters four years ago as a political messiah -- major media can't seem to transform a failing president into a success. "Fall in jobless rate strips Romney of an argument" was the gleeful headline in the Washington Post recently. No it doesn't.
Phony in Chief
When President Barack Obama and others on the left are not busy admonishing the rest of us to be "civil" in our discussions of political issues, they are busy letting loose insults, accusations and smears against those who dare to disagree with them. Like so many people who have been beaten in a verbal encounter, and who can think of clever things to say the next day, after it is all over, President Obama, after his clear loss in his debate with Mitt Romney, called Governor Romney a "phony." Innumerable facts, however, show that it is our Commander in Chief who is Phony in Chief. A classic example was his speech to a predominantly black audience at Hampton University on June 5, 2007. That date is important, as we shall see.
The Obama Mandate: The Gravest Threat to Religious Freedom in 226 Years
A liberal reporter speaking at a conference in Georgetown recently dismissed conservative alarms about the Obama administration's mandate that forces religious institutions -- like Catholic Hospitals and Evangelical colleges -- to provide coverage for drugs and procedures that can abortions and that effect sterilizations. "What about the anti-Catholic Bible riots in Philadelphia in the 1840s," she asked. Those led to scores of people actually being killed. Those Bible riots were deplorable, a blot on American history. But they were not the acts of the federal government. They were lawless violence, not a deliberate policy of oppression.
What's the Real Race Issue Here?
Twice Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren have faced off in televised debates, and twice the Massachusetts Senate candidates traded blows over Warren's claim to American Indian ancestry within seconds of the opening bell. The Republican incumbent and his Democratic challenger have launched dueling campaign ads calling even more attention to the issue, and there has even been a mini-kerfuffle over the low-rent antics of a few Brown staff members, who were filmed war-whooping and tomahawk-chopping at a campaign event in Dorchester. Plainly the question of Warren's Cherokee heritage isn't going away any time soon. I'll be surprised if she and Brown don't sink their teeth into it again when they meet for Debate No. 3 in Springfield on Wednesday.
Uncertain Future for Western Influence in Eastern Europe
Election results in the Republic of Georgia stoke fears of rising Russian sway over its old stomping grounds.
Romney's Debate Win Opens Cracks in Obama Firewall
Wednesday night's presidential debate in which Mitt Romney shellacked Barack Obama attracted the biggest audience since the debate between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan seven days before the 1980 election. About 70 million Americans watched, a little more than half the 131 million voter turnout in 2008. That's an estimate, because the ratings companies don't count those watching on C-SPAN, PBS or the Internet. Did the debates matter? The first state polls, conducted by Rasmussen and We Ask America on Thursday night, suggest the answer is yes. Rasmussen reported that Romney was down 1 point in Ohio. We Ask America had him up 1 there.
Back Off, Kristol!
I keep hearing a lot of moaning at the bar from the right wing; most notably from Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard. It seems like every time I see this guy, whom I refer to as "The Wincer" because he always looks like he thinks he's about to be slugged, he's going off on Mitt Romney. No matter what Romney says or does, Kristol and a few of his fellow ivory tower pinheads can't wait to dissect it, as if they're performing the world's longest autopsy. I'll admit that Romney doesn't always say things in the best way possible, and that his attempts at humor often bring the term "lead balloon" to mind. But he's entitled to goof occasionally. Heck, he's been on the campaign trail for what must seem like an eternity to him, and a bit longer than that to me. But the bone I'd pick with Kristol is that until the debates, Romney isn't going to have a chance to go toe-to-toe with Obama. Every single thing Obama says will be filtered through the media until it shines like gold. Everything out of Romney's mouth is going to be slathered with mud. That's no excuse for conservatives to pile on, as though jockeying for an invitation to MSNBC's Christmas bash.
The Left-Wing Laundromat
One often hears that those who fall for liberal claptrap have been brainwashed by their teachers, the media and the Hollywood elite. The trouble with that is it's based on the presumption that these guttersnipes have brains to begin with, when there's no evidence at all of that being the case. For instance, California, the largest and possibly the most liberal state in the Union, is like a giant laboratory for a mad man. Once it's proven by the likes of Jerry Brown, Gavin Newsome and their cronies in Sacramento, that something absolutely, positively, doesn't work here, a number of the other 49 states can't wait to try it out.
From The Comedy Store
Denver University hosted a presidential debate Wednesday night that lasted ninety minutes. Afterwards President Obama got back to his Denver hotel room at precisely nine-forty-five Mountain Time. He knew it because Mitt Romney had just cleaned his clock.
The Big Debate -- REE-act
The pundiferous universe was acting as if the laws of political physics had been repealed as it tried to make sense of Barack Obama's abysmal performance in his debate with Mitt Romney Wednesday night. Why didn't Obama respond? Why didn't Obama mention the 47 percent? Or Bain Capital. Or that dog-on-the-roof-of-the-car thing? Why, at a minimum, didn't Obama challenge Romney on the facts?
A Media Meltdown of Epic Proportions
The New York Times and Obama campaign exchange talking points.
A Debate Rout of Herculean Proportions
I am elated to report to you something you surely already know: Mitt Romney trounced President Obama in their first debate. The rout was so decisive that even the liberal media cannot spin it the other way. There is no need to grade this on a curve. Romney did very well in absolute, not relative, terms. He didn't just do well compared with Obama's poor performance; he really shone, in every category. He proved himself to be very knowledgeable on policy and business, quick on his feet and able to deliver zingers as graciously as possible under the circumstances. Obama, on the other hand, didn't just get edged out by a man who performed slightly better on a given night; he turned in a very poor performance. It wasn't just an off night for him. It showed that he isn't conversant with the essential details of the major issues at stake in this campaign and affecting our nation.
Obama's Rocky Mountain Low
You know that Gov. Romney won Wednesday night's rumble in the Rockies. That's because Al Gore was out quick blaming the president's lackluster performance on -- what else? -- climate change. And if you have any doubts who won, you have only to consult MSNBC's Amen Corner. Chris Matthews normally feels a tingle go up his leg when President Obama speaks. Last night, he felt something else go down his leg. Fortunately, it didn't show. But the lamentations on the left were loud. MSNBC's panel sounded like the Wailing Wall. Well, at least they got that much of Jerusalem right.