Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Death of Democracy in Egypt - and Silence in Washington
The Brotherhood consolidates power and the U.S. administration turns a blind eye.
Cool Is All That Remains
Have you noticed how often the president's supporters talk about the "likeability" factor in politics these days? No longer do we hear that presidential candidates must convey "the vision thing" or "gravitas" or credibility as commander in chief. Not that those criteria were precisely calibrated. Four years ago, many commentators were assuring us that Joe Biden brought gravitas to the Obama ticket, which is a little like saying that helium provides ballast, but at least they thought a certain policy weight was important -- even if their perception was ludicrous. This year, however, we are told that voters cast their ballots based mostly upon which candidate they'd prefer to "have a beer with." If that truly were the most important qualification in the minds of most voters, we might as well abandon the Electoral College, chuck the Constitution with its complicated rules and just select presidents by liking them on Facebook.
Obama Hasn't Been Divisive? You Can't Be Serious
I was on Sean Hannity's show the other night, and the question was whether Obama's statement denying his divisiveness is defensible. It's not. Obama said, "I don't think you or anybody who's been watching the campaign would say that in any way we have tried to divide the country. We've always tried to bring the country together." If this weren't such a serious subject, his statement would be laughable. Let's just say it's ludicrous -- and disingenuous. A Gallup poll showed that at the end of Obama's second year in office, 81 percent of Democrats approved, while 13 percent of Republicans did. This represents a 68 percent gap, the widest of any president in his second year since such polls have been conducted.
Reactionary Democrats
What goes around seems to come around, such as an accusation Democrats are perennially thrilled to hurl at Republicans -- those fogies and Neanderthals, those reactionaries, those cave dwellers. What must we do with these change-hating fossils? is the recurring Democratic 'plaint. Drag 'em into modern times, kicking and screaming? Oh, boy, does it ever come around! The shrieks and protests that fill American air space at the moment, the splutterings about change and whatever was good for Grandpa being good enough for me -- where do you hear it, on the right? Not for a minute. You hear it all on the left of the political spectrum -- the reactionary, status-quo-loving left.
The Pro-Life Movement Must Disavow Akin Comment
Rep. Todd Akin has, unwittingly to be sure, harmed the pro-life movement, his senatorial race in Missouri, the Republican Party, and therefore quite possibly the nation. Every person who speaks or writes for the public will make an occasional faux pas, and sooner or later, will write or say something inappropriate. The game of "gotcha" that the media play -- especially with regard to Republicans and conservatives -- is what makes so many politicians sound robotic when they speak. But Congressman Akin said something that cries out for condemnation and retraction -- and necessitates an explanation.
'Issues' or America?
There are some very serious issues at stake in this year's election -- so many that some people may not be able to see the forest for the trees. Individual issues are the trees, but the forest is the future of America as we have known it. The America that has flourished for more than two centuries is being quietly but steadily dismantled by the Obama administration, during the process of dealing with particular issues. For example, the merits or demerits of President Obama's recent executive order, suspending legal liability for young people who are here illegally, presumably as a result of being brought here as children by their parents, can be debated pro and con. But such a debate overlooks the much more fundamental undermining of the whole American system of Constitutional government.
A Debate About Debates
Dictionary.com defines a "debate" as: "A formal contest in which the affirmative and negative sides of a proposition are advocated by opposing speakers." That is not what will take place during three exchanges between President Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, or the one vice-presidential exchange between Joe Biden and Paul Ryan. The selection of liberal "moderators" for these sessions by the nonpartisan Commission on Presidential Debates is, as Joe Biden might say, a 20th-century model for the 20th century.
Romney-Ryan Forces Americans to Finally Face Looming Fiscal Doom
We do not know who will win the White House in November. But we do know that American politics has crossed the Rubicon on spending and entitlements, and these issues will at long last complete the journey from a forbidden third rail to a central element of national politics. Even if Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan lose this year's battle to Barack Obama, they will win the war on the challenge of our generation. Congressman Paul Ryan is best known for his budget, the Ryan Roadmap, which ties together the two sides of our fiscal-crisis coin: First, the major entitlements of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will soon be bankrupt and unable to provide for millions of beneficiaries. And second, our growing $16 trillion debt will result in an unprecedented economic disaster if not balanced and then paid off.
The PC Insanity Surrounding the Nidal Hasan Trial
One could be forgiven for thinking that political correctness is only one step away from complete insanity. Last Friday, a military appeals court halted the murder case against Maj. Nidal Hasan indefinitely. Why? Because Hasan refuses to shave a beard he grew beginning in June to express his allegiance to Islamo-fascism. According to CNN, U.S. Army Col. Gregory Gross, the military judge presiding over the case, "had previously held that Hassan's beard disrupts the court proceedings and held him in contempt of court five times, the Army said in a news release." The case is on hold in order to "sort out issues" surrounding the judge's threat to have Hasan forcibly shaved.
Unlikely Bedfellows on Immigration Reform
MIchael Bloomberg, the independent mayor of New York City, is no one's idea of a hardline Republican conservative. Media titan Rupert Murdoch, whose empire includes Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, is no one's idea of a squishy Republican moderate. And Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, a lifelong Democrat, is no one's idea of a Republican at all. It isn't every day that three men with such disparate ideological profiles find common cause, let alone on a high-profile issue that has been roiling American politics for years. But there they were at Boston's Seaport Hotel one evening last week, jointly making a nonpartisan case that reforming the nation's dysfunctional immigration system is essential for economic revival. Without the growth fueled by immigrants -- especially foreign-born entrepreneurs -- the United States is unlikely to retain its preeminent position in the world. In Bloomberg's vivid phrase, America is "committing economic suicide" by making it too hard for ambitious foreigners to enter the US and unleash their drive and ingenuity.
Romney and Ryan Turn the Tables on Obama
Mitt Romney's selection of Paul Ryan was supposed to be a problem for the Republicans. So said a chorus of chortling Democrats. So said a gaggle of anonymous seasoned Republican operatives. All of which was echoed gleefully by mainstream media. The problem, these purveyors of the conventional wisdom all said, was Medicare -- to be more specific, the future changes in Medicare set out in the budget resolutions Ryan fashioned as House Budget Committee chairman and persuaded almost all House and Senate Republicans to vote for. But while Democrats licked their chops at the prospect of scaring old ladies that they'd be sent downhill in wheelchairs, the Medicare issue seems to be working in the other direction.
Batman & Bat Ears
For years now, I have tried to envision just how bizarre a world run entirely by liberals would be, but, with each passing day, I realize how limited I am by an imagination that can never totally encompass the extent of their lunacy. For instance, the U.S. Navy has decided that the new class of carriers will be outfitted without urinals. This, the Navy insists, will improve "sailors' quality of life." I have no doubt that their next order of business will be to produce toilet seats that are impossible to raise, thus ensuring that female gobs will never again suffer the indignity of having to lower a toilet seat.
Apocalypse Not
Sometimes the news is that something was not newsworthy. The United Nation's Rio+20 conference -- 50,000 participants from 188 nations -- occurred in June, without consequences. A generation has passed since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, which begat other conferences and protocols (e.g., Kyoto). And, by now, apocalypse fatigue -- boredom from being repeatedly told the end is nigh.
Dems Believe Nothing Beats Something
By now there is no doubt many Americans have experienced an all-too-familiar scenario at the checkout counter of innumerable businesses around the nation. In short, the last two generations of Americans "educated" in our public school system are utterly incapable of doing basic math equations in their collective heads. I bring this up because an appalling lack of mathematical skills accrues mightily to progressives and their ongoing "free lunch" mantra that resonates with people who can't imagine -- literally can't imagine -- that the wealthiest nation in the history of the planet could go broke. Or more accurately, is already broke. One of the latest and most predictable bumper stickers Democrats are promoting is that Republicans "will end Medicare as we know it." A lot of Americans believe this crap, blissfully unaware that mathematical reality will end Medicare as we know it. It is simply unsustainable in its present form.
Iran's Khamenei and Israel's Casus Belli
There are precedents for what Iran's "Supreme Leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has just done. Khamenei is the top in Tehran who is threatening to wipe Israel off the map. Khamenei said "the fake Zionist (regime) will disappear from the landscape of geography." He said this to a meeting of Iran-Iraq war veterans. That 1980s war claimed millions of lives and was fought for what? Both Saddam Hussein of Iraq and the mullahs of Iran showed a complete disregard for human lives in that pointless brutal and inconclusive decade-long struggle.
Chasing the News
At the rate at which events take place, there is simply no way to cover everything, even if you wrote a column every day instead of three a week. Still, I do my level best to stay on top of things. For instance, in spite of all the alleged gaffes the left-wing press accused Mitt Romney of having made during his time abroad, I thought he was terrific. First, he gave the Brits an honest answer when he was asked about the Olympics. Who would have ever guessed that the folks who stood up to the Nazi blitz would fall completely apart over an honest assessment of the Games?
Obama's GM 'Success Story' Headed for Bankruptcy
Automaker CEO suggests hiking gas prices to "encourage" buyers to off-set his company's financial woes.
Romney's Present, Ryan's Future
WASHINGTON -- Vice presidential picks are always judged by their effect on the coming election. They rarely have any. This time could be different. The Democrats' Mediscare barrage is already in full swing. Paul Ryan, it seems, is determined to dispossess grandma, then toss her over a cliff. If the charge is not successfully countered, goodbye Florida. Republicans have a twofold answer. First, hammer home that their plan affects no one over 55, let alone 65. Second, go on offense. Point out that President Obama cuts Medicare by $700 billion to finance Obamacare.