Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Conventions
The Republican National Convention starts on Monday in Tampa, Florida. I will be there but I have a very, VERY limited range of assignments, so I am likely to spend most of the four days sitting in my hotel room doing my regular work. My first convention was 1980 in Detroit (Reagan/H.W Bush) 32 years ago. I was not zero years old when I went there as press secretary to Congressman Dan Quayle who was running for Senate from Indiana. One outlet estimated there will be up to 15,000 journalists in Tampa. There will be 2,286 delegates (if everyone shows up).
Three Minutes to Midnight
The national media was clearly tired of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright rants broadcast over and over again on talk radio and shown on FOX News four years ago. The press was only too happy when candidate Barack Obama disavowed the man he said he could never disavow. Well, that's over. Clearly, they were tired of "America's chickens coming home to roost" and the unreverend clergyman's appeals for God to d___n America. Voters, too, seemed to have heard enough of it. Fifty-three percent of the American electorate appears to have endorsed the view of 95% of the media: the Reverend Wright is old news. Let's move on.
Stingy Liberals
There are 366 major metropolitan areas in the United States, and a comprehensive new study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy ranks them on the basis of generosity -- the percentage of income the median household in each city gives to charity. According to the Chronicle, the most generous city in America is Provo, Utah, where residents typically give away 13.9 percent of their discretionary income. Boston, by contrast, ranks No. 358: In New England's leading city, the median household donates just 2.9 percent of its income to charity. Provo's generosity is typical for its region. Of the 10 most generous cities in America, according to the Chronicle's calculations, six are in Utah and Idaho. Boston's tight-fistedness is typical too: Of the 10 stingy cities at the bottom of the list, eight are in New England -- including Springfield (No. 363) and Worcester (No. 364).
Eating America's Seed Corn
As gas prices climb back toward $4 a gallon, the Obama administration -- facing a tough re-election campaign and rising Middle East tensions -- is once again considering tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. For years, administrations have bought and stored oil for emergencies, in fear of a cutoff of imported oil, as happened during the Arab embargo of 1973-74. But since 2009, the U.S. government has declared most federal lands off-limits to new oil and gas exploration -- despite vast recent finds of energy and radically new means to tap it. President Obama also canceled the most vital sections of the Keystone pipeline, a proposed conduit from the Canadian oil fields into the heart of the oil-consuming U.S., while preventing production on existing oil and gas reserves in northern Alaska and offshore. In the midst of a crop-killing drought, we are diverting about 40 percent of our shrinking corn crop to produce high-cost ethanol fuels.
Trapping Season
It's trapping season. The targets are Republicans, whom the Democratic-friendly media (the trappers) hunt in order to smear -- especially the Romney-Ryan ticket -- forcing them off message. The bait in the latest case is the issue of abortion in cases of rape. The hunter's target was Rep. Todd Akin, a Missouri Republican, who is running for the Senate against Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill. Thirty-nine years after Roe v. Wade and subsequent Supreme Court rulings legalizing abortion, one might think a pro-lifer like Todd Akin would be able to see he was walking into a trap when a St. Louis TV reporter asked him whether abortion should be allowed, even in cases of rape. He didn't.
GM Goes From Bad to Worse Despite Obama Bailout
Readers with long memories may recall that Charles E. Wilson, president of General Motors and nominee for secretary of defense, got into trouble when he told a Senate committee, "What is good for the country is good for General Motors, and what's good for General Motors is good for the country." That was in 1953, and Wilson was trying to make the point that General Motors was such a big company -- it sold about half the cars in the U.S. back then -- that its interests were inevitably aligned with those of the country as a whole. Things are different now. General Motors' market share in the U.S. is below 20 percent. It has gone through bankruptcy and exists now thanks to a federal bailout. But Barack Obama seems to think that it's as closely aligned with the national interest as Wilson did.
Why Government Needs a Diet
WASHINGTON -- Because the possibility of effectively supervising government varies inversely with government's size, so does government's lawfulness. This iron law of Leviathan is illustrated by a dispiriting story that begins with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, aka the stimulus, that supposedly temporary response to an economic emergency. Because nothing is as immortal as a temporary government program, the Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW), a creature of the stimulus, was folded into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, aka Obamacare. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), working through CPPW, disbursed money to 31 states and the District of Columbia to fight, among other things, the scourge of soda pop.
Missouri: The 'Show Me Another G.O.P. Candidate' State
Relying on Todd Akin's sense of decency has not worked. Within hours of his idiotic comments about "legitimate rape," Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS pulled out millions of dollars in funding for the Missouri Senate race. Akin didn't get the hint. Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, withdrew all funding from the Missouri race. Akin still refused to quit. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a major Christian and tea party favorite, immediately called for Akin to withdraw from the race -- nothing. Even Sean Hannity, the most true-blue Republican and defender of all conservatives, pleaded with Akin to withdraw. Still nothing. This guy Akin is more selfish than Eliot Spitzer. After being caught in a prostitution scandal, Spitzer spent two days looking for anyone who would come to his aid. When no one did, he resigned.
Todd Akin Was Never Accused of Rape -- Unlike Bill Clinton
Which is worse, Rep. Todd Akin's, R-Mo., ignorance about human anatomy -- or the way Republicans jump, run and hide when the Democrat-media complex decides they should? Akin is the Republican candidate for a crucial Senate seat in Missouri. In an interview, he said that he believed that pregnancy following an act of rape is "really rare -- if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down." Incredibly dumb. The married father of six, including two daughters, apologized the next day and then recorded an ad apologizing yet again. That, at the very least, should have satisfied his Republican supporters. But, no. Akin's opponent, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., and Democratic PACs spent $1.5 million on behalf of Akin to ensure his Republican primary victory over two other Republicans that experts considered surer bets to beat her. Unfortunately for McCaskill, Akin was leading in the polls before the gaffe. Akin's stupid comments were just what she was hoping for.
Funny, but I Don't Feel Exploited
I must confess, when Nancy Pelosi announced that we Jewish Republicans were being exploited, I sat down and gave it some serious thought. As illegal immigrants and inner city blacks are well aware, there's a lot to be said for claiming to be exploited in this country. But try as hard as I might, I just couldn't see how the GOP was victimizing me. In fact, inasmuch as it's only the Republican Party that has been standing between me and Cap & Trade, another trillion dollar stimulus, the Affordable Health Care Act and four more years of Obama's radically transforming America into a socialist state, I look to the GOP the way that some people look to GOD. It, alone, can provide our nation's salvation.
Obama in High Seas
WASHINGTON -- It has been a very rough patch for Our President, and I do believe it is going to get rougher still. Do not be surprised, as the month goes on and August runs into September, that his campaign budget becomes tighter. President Barack Obama is spending more money than he is raising. It will get worse. A president who mismanages the federal budget the way Obama does cannot be expected to manage his campaign budget much better. Lavish spending, it turns out, is a way of life for the community organizer who became our 44th president. Lavish spending on Campaign 2012 will be looked back on and seen as one of the campaign's greatest weaknesses. He can spend the money, but my guess is he will not be able to raise it.
Roseanne's Rotting Roast
The only thing that will ever convince Comedy Central to stop perpetuating its disgusting celebrity roasts are poor ratings. Taste, decency, talent -- none of these has bearing on this network's decisions. Nor do they care about the damage they're inflicting on youngsters. They care only about the numbers. So the good news is that their Aug. 12 roast of Roseanne Barr flopped, bringing in only 2.6 million viewers. That's almost a million less than their roast of the day- before-yesterday's news, David Hasselhoff. It came in far below the 6.5 million they drew last fall for their wish-you-were-dead roast of Charlie Sheen, but that was just capturing Sheen's lightning of insanity in a bottle.
Which Babies Should Get the Death Sentence?
Americans witnessed a remarkable drama this week when some of our most exalted politicians frantically scrambled to reassure voters that they, too, believed that the United States ought to permit the deliberate killing of at least some innocent human beings. They apparently did so to persuade the public they are caring, compassionate and -- above all -- reasonable people. The drama started when Rep. Todd Akin, the Republican nominee in the U.S. Senate race in Missouri, expressed his view that no innocent human being ought to be deliberately killed. However, that was not the only thing Akin expressed.
Journo-Tools for Obama
Can we stop calling the hosts of the presidential debates "moderators"? They're left-erators. It's time for the old media godfathers to end the pretense that they're fair and neutral observers of the American political scene. And it's time for the GOP to stop perpetuating these rigged exercises in futility. Last week, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced the names of 2012's chosen referees: CNN's Candy Crowley, PBS's Jim Lehrer and CBS's Bob Schieffer will preside over the three presidential debates; ABC's Martha Raddatz will host the sole vice presidential debate. While the debate panel trumpeted the gender diversity of its picks, the chromosomal diversity is far outweighed by the political uniformity, class conformity and geographical homogeneity of the group.
Who Is Paul Ryan?
I wanted to like Paul Ryan. Before he was nationally known, Rep. Ryan visited me at ABC, and we went to lunch. He was terrific. He was a rare politician, one who actually cared about America's coming debt crisis and the unfairness of entitlements. He even talked about F.A. Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom"! If only more politicians thought that way. But then the housing bubble burst. Ryan voted for TARP. Then he voted for the auto bailout. Who is this guy? I thought he believed in markets! At Fox, when I got my own TV show, I asked him about that.
The Politicization of Violence
If it hasn't completely vanished down the memory hole, you might recall that last week a man walked into the headquarters of the conservative Family Research Council with a backpack full of Chick-fil-A sandwiches and bullets, said something like "I don't like your politics" and then shot the building manager. The suspect, Floyd Lee Corkins (what is with would-be assassins and the three-part names?), had volunteered at a gay community center. "Today's attack is the clearest sign we've seen that labeling pro-marriage groups as 'hateful' must end," proclaimed the head of the National Organization for Marriage, Brian Brown.
A Powerful Movie
Years, and sometimes decades, pass between my visits to movie theaters. But I drove 30 miles to see the movie "2016," based on Dinesh D'Souza's best-selling book, "The Roots of Obama's Rage." Where I live is so politically correct that such a movie would not even be mentioned, much less shown. Every seat in the theater was filled, even though there had been an earlier showing that day, and more showings were scheduled for the rest of the afternoon and evening. I had to sit on a staircase in the balcony, but it was worth it. The audience was riveted. You could barely hear a sound from them, or detect a movement, and certainly not smell popcorn. Yet the movie had no bombast, no violence, no sex and no spectacular visual effects.
Romney's Rape Exception
You know a politician has stepped in it big-time when he feels compelled to produce an ad declaring that "rape is an evil act." The spot, in which Todd Akin apologizes for using "the wrong words in the wrong way," is part of his penance for saying, in an interview with a St. Louis TV station on Sunday, that "legitimate rape" rarely results in pregnancy because "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." Akin, a six-term Republican congressman from Missouri who is running for the Senate, has backed away from that poorly phrased, medically dubious claim, which was condemned by a bipartisan chorus of critics, several of whom said he should withdraw from the race. But he stands firm on his position that rape does not justify abortion, and in this respect he is more logically consistent than many other Republicans who call themselves "pro-life," including the party's presidential nominee.
Educational Lunacy
If I were a Klansman, wanting to sabotage black education, I couldn't find better allies than education establishment liberals and officials in the Obama administration, especially Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who in March 2010 announced that his department was "going to reinvigorate civil rights enforcement." For Duncan, the civil rights issue was that black elementary and high school students are disciplined at a higher rate than whites. His evidence for discrimination is that blacks are three and a half times more likely to be suspended or expelled than their white peers. Duncan and his Obama administration supporters conveniently ignored school "racial discrimination" against whites, who are more than two times as likely to be suspended as Asians and Pacific Islanders.
My Akin Back
It's time for House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to get their arms around the Republican Members of the House and give -- at least some of them -- a Leroy Jethro Gibbs slap to the back of the head. Yesterday was a day that should have featured the Obamas answering questions about the charges of crankiness, stubbornness, and general dysfunction among the White House and Chicago campaign staffs.