Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Romney-Ryan Ticket Puts Entitlement Crisis at Center of Campaign
Romney's choice was not much of a surprise after he told NBC's Chuck Todd on Thursday that he wanted someone with a "vision for the country, that adds something to the political discourse about the direction of the country. I mean, I happen to believe this is a defining election for America, that we're going to be voting for what kind of America we're going to have." This arguably describes some of the others mentioned as possible nominees, but it clearly fits Ryan.
To Stop Mitt, Obama Targets N.C., Florida, Ohio
Our presidential elections, pundits sometimes remind us, are not national contests, but rather contests in 50 states and the District of Columbia. And since most states lean heavily to one party or the other these days, the only real contests are in a dozen or so target states. Once upon a time, most states were in play. In the 1976 contest between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter, 30 states with 396 electoral votes were carried by less than 10 percent of the votes. Three-quarters of voters lived in those states. In 2008, the field of play was much smaller. The candidates' percentage margins were less than 10 percent in only 15 states with 159 electoral votes. Less than one-third of voters lived in those states. In 1976, all of the eight largest states were carried by less than 10 percent. In 2008, only two, Florida and Ohio, were.
It's a Question of Context
Barack Obama claims only that his legislative and foreign policy achievements in his first two years matched those of "any president -- with the possible exceptions of Johnson, FDR and Lincoln" in "modern history." Some Obama enthusiasts are less restrained. They suggest that among presidents, he ranks as the most learned since John Quincy Adams, the most profound since James Madison and the most visionary since Thomas Jefferson. And he is, of course, the most rhetorically gifted politician since Pericles.
Soc Sec Propaganda: The Left's Greatest Triumph
Political propaganda is a powerful thing. When it is married to economic illiteracy, people can be fooled into voting against their own best interests. Yesterday, a bit of economic reality was introduced into the Social Security debate. To wit: "People retiring today are part of the first generation of workers who have paid more in Social Security taxes during their careers than they will receive in benefits after they retire. It's a historic shift that will only get worse for future retirees, according to an analysis by The Associated Press." What debate? One of the most successful bits of propagandizing by leftists has been their ability to convince a majority of Americans that they are better off sending their Social Security payments to that giant federal sinkhole Washington, D.C., instead of putting them into a private account with their own name on it.
From The Comedy Store
Washington D.C. agreed to convert to lower-wattage streetlights to save energy and cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. The environmentalists are forcing the city to convert to dimmer bulbs. So they're screwing members of Congress into the light sockets.
The Loathsome Left
Inasmuch as Obama has suddenly begun referring to the Clinton years as the good old days, I feel it's only fair to do the same. I was not a fan of Clinton, but at least he had enough good sense to allow himself to be reined in by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and the newly elected Republicans in 1994. By balancing the budget, reforming the welfare system and dumping HillaryCare, it even helped Clinton win re-election in '96. Back then, I was no fan of the Democrats, but I merely thought they were all wet on the issues. In the years since, they have mutated like monsters in science fiction movies. They are no longer merely mistaken; rather, they are evil creatures against whom death rays should be employed. For the hopelessly literal-minded, I don't actually mean they should be vaporized. Instead, they should all be evicted from the White House and Congress in November. Of course if that doesn't come to pass, vaporization shouldn't be ruled out.
The Reagan in Romney
While some of my conservative colleagues are criticizing the Romney campaign for one thing or another, I want to make a distinct point that is largely being overlooked: Mitt Romney is the most fiscally conservative Republican standard-bearer since Ronald Reagan. Looking back through his speeches, interviews and programmatic proposals, I see an emphasis on economic freedom, free enterprise, low tax rates, deep federal spending cuts, free trade, and a free-market approach to tough social problems, such as health care, education and poverty. Meaning no disrespect to George W. Bush, John McCain, Robert Dole and George H. W. Bush, not one of these former Republican leaders was the consistent and comprehensive free-market advocate that Romney is.
VP Speculation Reaches Fever Pitch
The field of apparent Republican vice president picks narrows considerably.
Revisiting the DHS Smear of the Tea Party Movement
In the wake of the horrific Sikh temple shootings in Wisconsin, left-wing barrel-scrapers are demanding that talk-radio giant Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives apologize for criticizing a 2009 Department of Homeland Security report that hyped an ominous new wave of violent "rightwing extremism." I don't apologize. I call foul. The media lowlifes who exploit every tragic shooting to silence their law-abiding, First Amendment-exercising enemies are tearing this country apart. "Progressives" have had free rein to libel and slander peaceful, liberty-loving citizens -- while whitewashing the violent plots and criminal behavior of their ideological counterparts. No more.
The Colbert Communist Bandstand
On Aug. 6, that pseudo-conservative satirist Stephen Colbert utterly failed to pretend to play a right-winger on TV. Colbert invited on "legendary" radical-left folk singer Pete Seeger and treated him with deep reverence. "It's an honor to have you on. You are a living legend. You are a giant. It's like having Paul Bunyan or Johnny Appleseed on," he oozed. This is the same sultan of snark that exudes zero reverence for his allegedly Catholic beliefs, calling himself the "Pope of basic cable" as he has rudely joked that Cardinal Timothy Dolan uses Viagra and mocked Pope Benedict for having "the face of an angel ... that got caught in a food dehydrator."
Midsummer Madness
WASHINGTON -- According to the pollsters and the so-called mainstream media, as of the dead of summer, the presidential contest between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney is a dead heat. We also are told this race is all about the "economy" or "jobs" or "middle-class taxes" or "repealing Obamacare." Or not. Supposedly, we're turned off by negative campaign ads, but we also want to know whether Romney really caused the death of an unemployed woman a half-dozen years ago -- as alleged by a Democratic super PAC commercial. And of course, we all are looking forward to poring over every tax return ever filed by Romney and the hidden papers, test scores and college transcripts of young Obama. Or not.
Uncivilized Sport
As an American, I am proud of Olympic Gold medalist Claressa Shields' feat in women's boxing at the Olympics -- but as a woman who has suffered traumatic brain injury, I am deeply concerned that her win will encourage other young women to pursue this dangerous, potentially life-altering sport. There is no question that repeated blows to the head cause changes in the brain -- even when the head is protected by gear meant to soften the blows. The NFL has come under fire recently because of the link between football-incurred concussions and greatly increased risk of Alzheimer's and other cognitive and memory problems.
The Case Against Re-Election
WASHINGTON -- There are two ways to run against Barack Obama: stewardship or ideology. You can run against his record or you can run against his ideas. The stewardship case is pretty straightforward: the worst recovery in U.S. history, 42 consecutive months of 8-plus percent unemployment, declining economic growth -- all achieved at a price of another $5 trillion of accumulated debt. The ideological case is also simple. Just play in toto (and therefore in context) Obama's Roanoke riff telling small business owners: "You didn't build that." Real credit for your success belongs not to you -- you think you did well because of your smarts and sweat? he asked mockingly -- but to government that built the infrastructure without which you would have nothing.
Unfit to Govern
We have reached a point in the 2012 campaign when you long for a referee -- someone with a whistle to call foul and declare that one side has so discredited itself that it must forfeit points or be otherwise disqualified. Nancy Pelosi, the leader who warned that we were losing "500 million jobs a month" without the stimulus bill and who said "God bless them" regarding Occupy Wall Street but condemned the tea party as "AstroTurf," has declared that the Republican Party supports E. coli. True, it's not news when Pelosi mangles the facts. But until her colleagues demote her, she remains the leader of House Democrats. Speaking at a fundraiser, she described the Republican Party as follows: "It's an ideology. We shouldn't have a government role. So reduce the police, the fire, the teachers -- reduce their role." As a mother, she continued, "You could depend on the government for one thing -- it was about, you had to be able to trust the water that our kids drank and the food that they ate. But this is the E. coli club. They do not want to spend money to do that."
If You Like Obama's Failed Policies, Vote for Him
Those who understand that America is now on the wrong track cannot reasonably vote for Obama in November, because he is absolutely unwilling to change, perhaps even ideologically incapable of changing, course. Evidence abounds. First, consider his disastrous economic record and his rejection of any semblance of a course change. He and his economic advisers told us his stimulus would keep unemployment below 8 percent. It didn't. He didn't consider for a second that his policies exacerbated the economic crisis. He blamed Bush and said that if anything, he -- Obama -- hadn't spent enough. He demanded more stimulus packages -- high-speed rail, other infrastructure, American Jobs Act. He continued to grow government in a wide variety of areas; things continued to get worse. No sign of any significant economic recovery; we had the worst recovery in 50 years. No sign of unemployment relief. He didn't change course.
Four Pinocchios
The SuperPAC supporting Barack Obama, PrioritiesUSA Action, has produced an ad showing a man who claims is wife died of cancer because the steel plant at which he worked was closed by Mitt Romney. When he lost his job, Joe Soptic says, he lost his health insurance. "A short time later," he says, his wife got sick, but didn't tell him because they didn't have insurance. By the time he took her to the hospital she was diagnosed with cancer from which she died about two weeks later. The story is true in its facts, but it is a total lie in the effects of Bain Capital closing the plant.
A Test to Aid in the Climate Change Debate
An objective test is needed in the Climate Change debate, and we now have a way to do that. By watching the global temperature via satellite in the next 20-30 years, as we have since 1978, we will have a good idea of what is truly driving the climate. Our nation has always been about confronting challenges for the common good, so this fits right in. But we need the freedom to search for the correct answer, not an agenda driven pre conceived notion. Because of the makeup of the planet, the earths climate system is never in balance, but it is always in search of balance. Most of the land is in the northern hemisphere, most of the ocean is in the southern hemisphere. This creates an imbalance in the earths reaction to the incoming radiation from the sun, which is the source of energy to heat the planet. Combined with changing seasons, the reaction produces large and varied swings in the climate. It is intuitive to see how these can, and in fact should, become quite volatile at times.
Liberals' Secret Weapon: Republicans Who Don't Read
Fifty years from now, everyone will agree that Karl Rove committed treason by revealing the identity of CIA "spy" Valerie Plame, tea partiers shouted the N-word at a black congressman and Duke lacrosse players gang-raped a stripper. Liberals tell whopping lies, and most conservatives can't be bothered to learn history. In the last few days, we've heard both George Will and Charles Krauthammer, otherwise intelligent people, repeating bogus Democratic talking points about how Joe McCarthy allegedly smeared innocents with false allegations.
Mitt, More Gaffes Like This, Please
One of the few things Americans on both sides of the partisan divide can agree on is that this election is shaping up to be vexingly petty. The hunt for gaffes -- some real, many imagined -- has taken over. Romney's recent overseas tour, we are told, produced three: an impolitic, if defensible, statement about Britain's preparations for the Olympics; a statement about the importance of culture in economic development; and when an aide to Romney dressed down a reporter with an inflated sense of entitlement. Not only is that list pathetic in its own right, in the rush to paint Romney's campaign as hapless, the press and partisans glossed over a philosophical insight worthy of a presidential debate.