Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Lowlife Harry Reid Should Resign
Let's play *Imagine an Alternative Universe*. Suppose that Rep. Paul Ryan had said that Joe Biden had "sullied the religion that he and I share." How many days of the news cycle do you suppose would be dominated by the story? How many Democrats and members of the press would declare that this kind of religious provocation/bigotry rendered Mr. Ryan unfit for high office? Please submit your estimates to my inbox. Now back to the universe we inhabit. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, participating in a unilateral race to the bottom, said just that about Mitt Romney. Highlighting an Internet item, Reid said he agreed that Romney "sullied" the Mormon faith, and that, in Nevada, voters would "understand that he is not the face of Mormonism." That is low, even by Harry Reid, "a little birdie told me Romney paid no taxes for 10 years," standards.
Tribe of Liberty
We like tribalism for the same reason we like to eat fatty foods: We evolved that way. Homo sapiens didn't survive long on the African savannas as rugged individualists. Alone, they couldn't scare away the scarier animals and, for the most part, they couldn't catch or kill the tastier ones. But in groups, humans rose to the top of the food chain thousands of years ago and have been passing down their tribe-loving genes ever since. Customs and practices that ensured the survival of the species were worked out through trial and error and passed from one generation to another. Over time, and with many setbacks, the knowledge accumulated until we hit the critical mass required for modernity.
Election FAQ
Frank J. Fleming answers all your election questions -- even ones you didn't know you wanted to ask.
Marching Orders: A High School Band's Communist Celebration
"Glee meets the Russian Revolution."
Mitt's Take-Home-Pay Message
One of the reasons Mitt Romney and the GOP failed to get a convention bounce was their inability to talk tax cuts, economic growth and jobs. In his 45-minute convention speech, Romney spent 200 words on the economy, with no mention of tax cuts. It was the same for his running mate, Paul Ryan: no mention of tax cuts at the convention. In fact, Romney and Ryan didn't talk tax cuts leading up to the convention, and they didn't in the weeks that followed. This has hurt them in the polls. They haven't connected the dots between President Obama's anemic economy and the Romney-Ryan solution to improve it. *But,* all of a sudden, there may have been an "aha" moment. In a "60 Minutes" interview this past Sunday, Romney *did* mention tax cuts, and take-home pay, too. *Whoa.*
Election Could Mirror 1980 Race
There was only one presidential debate in 1980 between challenger Ronald Reagan and President Jimmy Carter. Just two days before the Oct. 28 debate, Carter was eight points ahead in the Gallup poll. A week after the debate, he lost to Reagan by nearly ten percentage points. Reagan's debate quip, "There you go again," reminded voters of Carter's chronic crabbiness. Even more devastating was Reagan's final, direct question to American voters: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?" No one, it seemed, could muster a "Yes!" Yet there was more to the 1980 campaign than the final game-changing debate rhetoric -- and some of the details are relevant to 2012.
An Attack on Free Speech
RALEIGH, N.C. -- North Carolina is giving Steve Cooksey some choices. He can stop speaking. Or he can get a Ph.D. in nutrition, or a medical degree, or a bachelor's degree in nutrition and then pass an examination after completing a 900-hour clinical internship. Or he can skip this onerous credentialing, keep speaking, and risk prosecution. He has chosen instead to get a lawyer. His case, argued by the libertarians at the Institute for Justice (IJ), will clarify the First Amendment's relevance to an ancient human behavior and a modern technology.
Obama Versus Obama: Part III
Much puzzling behavior by Barack Obama falls into place when we go behind the image that he projects ("Obama 1") to the factual reality of the man's whole life and thrust ("Obama 2"). Obama himself is well aware of the nature and importance of his image. In his own words, "I serve as a blank screen on which people of vastly different political stripes project their own views." An 18th century philosopher put the matter bluntly: "When I speak, I put on a mask. When I act, I am forced to take it off." Many of Barack Obama's actions as President of the United States reflect neither political expediency nor an attempt to promote the best interests of the American people. Take, for example, his bowing low from the waist to foreign leaders.
Who Needs Reform Most: Egypt or America?
NEW YORK -- Prior to leaving Egypt for the United Nations General Assembly, Egypt's Islamist President Mohamed Morsi told The New York Times the United States needs to "fundamentally change" its approach to the Arab world. That includes, he said, showing greater respect for Arab values, as well as helping to build a Palestinian state. Is there an Arab equivalent for the Yiddish word "Chutzpah"? It isn't the policies and attitude of the United States toward the Arab world that need changing. It's the attitude and policies of the Arab world that need to change. For a former leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who still subscribes to the group's radical beliefs, to blame America for problems in the Arab world is like blaming the mirror for what it reflects.
Hey, Media, a $75K Mechanic Pays a Lower Tax Rate Than Romney
If "journalism malpractice" were a crime, Nancy Grace would not be able to keep track of all the trials. ABC news reporter Jonathan Karl recently said: "Mitt Romney ... made $13.7 million last year and paid nearly $2 million in taxes. His effective tax rate -- 14.1 percent. That's a lower rate than an auto mechanic who made $75,000 in pay." Not again.
Liberals Can't Break 200-Year Racism Habit
Democrats spent the first century of this country's existence refusing to treat black people like human beings, and the second refusing to treat them like adults. After fighting the Civil War to continue enslaving black people and then subjecting newly freed black Americans to vicious, humiliating Jim Crow laws and Ku Klux Klan violence, Democrats set about frantically rewriting their own ugly history.
Obama: Industrial Age Solutions to Information Age Challenges
In 2008, voters under 30 preferred Barack Obama over John McCain by a 66 to 32 percent margin. Among older voters, Obama led McCain by 50 to 49 percent. How has Obama paid back the Millennial generation, which provided almost all his margin of victory? With what American Interest superblogger Walter Russell Mead calls "Obama's war on the young." Mead is not a tea party crazy or Ayn Rand zealot. He is a history professor at Bard College and an expert on American foreign policy. He voted for Obama in 2008, and he's not wild about Mitt Romney this year.
Obama, the Great Divider
*"I'm the first one to confess that the spirit that I brought to Washington, that I wanted to see instituted, where we weren't constantly in a political slugfest … I haven't fully accomplished that. Haven't even come close in some cases…. My biggest disappointment is that we haven't changed the tone in Washington as much as I would have liked."* --President Barack Obama on "60 Minutes," Sunday, Sept. 23 It was the commitment at the core of Barack Obama's candidacy, the most important promise he made to the American people: He would unify a divided nation. Again and again, he vowed to repair the political breach. To end the bitter polarization of American life, to do away with "slash-and-burn" politics that "tear us apart instead of bringing us together" -- above all else, that was the hope and the change he offered.
Time to Get Mad
Why aren't you mad as hell yet, America? What will it take? At home, unemployment is stuck above 8 percent. Twenty-three million are out of work. Millions of others have given up looking for jobs. One American in six is on food stamps. Small businesses are terrified of Obamacare. The economy ran out of gas four years ago and the president still thinks the only way to get it going again is to fill up the tank with trillions of dollars of debt and make successful people pay for the tow truck.
Hollywood & Politics
There was a time, as my wife, who is a TCM addict, keeps reminding me when there was no more patriotic place on earth than Hollywood. It wasn't just that such super stars as Jimmy Stewart, Clark Gable and Tyrone Power, enlisted in the military; that others volunteered to entertain the troops through USO shows and appearances at the Hollywood Canteen; while major film directors, such as John Houston, Frank Capra, George Stevens and John Ford, turned their talents to turning out military training and propaganda films. It was also true that Hollywood's moguls, including Louis B. Mayer, Jack Warner and Daryl Zanuck, churned out pro-American, anti-Nazi, movies by the gross. It provided potent punch at the box office, but it also served to keep American morale high even in those early years when we seemed to be losing the war.
Another Reason for Barack Obama to Go Home
Washington -- Now that Governor Mitt Romney has revealed the details of his tax returns, it is high time that Senate Leader Harry Reid reveal the details of his relationship with that cow that was linked to him in a world exclusive right here in this very column last month. Doubtless, I shall be nominated for yet another Pulitzer, but as always I shall chastely demur, insisting, as in the past, that I consider this column a public trust. No award or commendation is required. Fulfilling my public duty as a citizen is in itself reward enough. Last month, I was only very sketchy about Reid's relationship with the cow. No names were included. No trysting places could be exposed. Yet, Reid claimed living, breathing sources had informed him that the Massachusetts governor had failed to file his income taxes. The Senate leader was adamant: no taxes had been paid by the governor over a 10-year period! Well, as with so many other things that the senator says, it was poppycock. So go ahead, senator, tell us all you know about the cow or I shall be compelled to tell all. Even the amusing story about where she got that cute bronze cowbell.
Bias and Spin
Beware: During this heated election season, liberal self-styled 'public interest' organizations might be trying to fool you. Even though they advance larger government, more taxes, pro-abortion policies and the liberal candidates that support them, you can't always tell by their ads. Many of these groups even have neutral our civic oriented sounding names. And because they sound neutral, their messages are often effective at reaching new voters who don't recognize the hidden agendas. And through it all, our children -- the future voters -- are watching.
Faux Cherokee Elizabeth Warren's Faux Law Practice
The Democratic Senate candidate's past is catching up with her.
Phoning It In
During President Barack Obama's whirlwind visit to New York City delivered a speech to the United Nations. In that speech Obama said, "The attacks on our civilians in Benghazi were attacks on America." To keep close tabs on our response to those "attacks on America" Obama played footsie with the gals on The View. And attended a reception. And Tweeted about the nature of the global issue of replacement refs in the NFL. And, for all I know, took a turn as the Naked Cowboy in Times Square.
Making 'Earthquakes' for Romney
After watching the national media's performance since the party conventions, one can only hope that journalism students are out on summer safari or some Third World Peace Corps mission. Anything to avoid this mess of a profession. Sean Hannity is right. The establishment news media are dead. Whatever remains has only one standard. If it helps Obama, it's "news." If it doesn't, reporters should move on; there's nothing worth covering. Our media don't just report "news" unfavorable to Romney. They obsess over it, complete with repetitive and thoroughly unnecessary incantations that Romney's campaign is hopeless. On September 17, perhaps not accidentally after Team Obama started to struggle over their handling of the outrageous and deadly attack on the American consulate in Libya, the hard-left Mother Jones magazine leaked a secret tape of Romney talking to donors.