Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Barack Obama's Mideast Madness
WASHINGTON -- Nine years ago this week, President George W. Bush ordered more than 250,000 troops in a U.S.-led coalition to cross the "berm" on the border of Kuwait and head into Iraq. Weeks later, Saddam Hussein's brutal regime was finished, and the despot was in hiding. It was a stunning victory for the force of American arms and leadership. Though it took until Dec. 13 to find the former dictator hiding in a "spider hole" near his hometown of Tikrit, Saddam eventually was tried by his own people, convicted, inter alia, of crimes against humanity and executed by hanging Dec. 30, 2006. But Saddam's demise and the installation of a democratically elected government didn't quell the vicious insurgency that began shortly after the liberation of Baghdad.
Obamacare: The Reckoning
WASHINGTON -- Obamacare dominated the 2010 midterms, driving its Democratic authors to a historic electoral shellacking. But since then, the issue has slipped quietly underground. Now it's back, summoned to the national stage by the confluence of three disparate events: the release of new Congressional Budget Office cost estimates, the approach of Supreme Court hearings on the law's constitutionality and the issuance of a compulsory contraception mandate.
The Overextended America
WASHINGTON -- We in America today live in a country circumscribed by entitlement policies devised by an America that steadily has been disappearing. Those policies established more than a generation ago cannot possibly, in mathematical or demographic terms, support the America of the present, much less the America of the future. That is the stark reality. We need to reform those policies, or we shall go bankrupt, and raising taxes on the so-called rich will not fix things. Even raising taxes on the middle class will not fix things. Nor will spending a trillion dollars more than we have on hand fix things. Eventually, those trillion-dollar deficits have to be paid off. Facts are facts; the day of reckoning that our hayseed politicians have said was up the road apiece is here. We have to do something now, and we can begin by growing the economy.
Ryan's Budget Kicks the Can at Timorous Democrats
As I listened to House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan describe his latest budget plan in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute this week, I couldn't help thinking how different things will be in Britain when Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne steps out of No. 11 Downing St. with a battered red briefcase holding his budget for the forthcoming year. Ryan's budget will almost surely be passed by the House of Representatives, all but four of whose Republican members voted for his budget last year. But it will not pass in the Senate, whose Democratic majority in defiance of legal requirements did not produce a budget for the last two years and is poised to not pass one again this year.
How to Beat Obama
With President Obama's approval rating hovering at 49 percent according to the latest Rasmussen tracking poll, it is becoming increasingly clear that he is a formidable threat for re-election. Gas prices are through the roof; the economy remains in shambles; the situation in the Middle East has never been so tenuous. And yet nearly half of all Americans think Obama's doing a decent job. Which shows that nearly half of Americans are either dependent on the government or devoid of common sense or both. It gets worse for conservatives. Obama's lead in Virginia has been growing, not shrinking. The latest Quinnipiac poll has Obama beating Romney 50 to 42 percent. In Ohio, it's no better -- the most recent polls have Obama up by 12 points. In Florida, Obama leads Romney by a 46-43 margin.
Political Rope-A-Dope
It's not unreasonable to ask how valuable the variously labeled liberal, Democratic or progressive agenda has been to black Americans and whether blacks should proceed in political lock step with this agenda. According to an American Community Survey, by the U.S. Census Bureau, the top 10 poorest cities with populations more than 250,000 are Detroit, with 33 percent of its residents below the poverty line; Buffalo, N.Y., 30 percent; Cincinnati, 28 percent; Cleveland, 27 percent; Miami, 27 percent; St. Louis, 27 percent; El Paso, Texas, 26 percent; Milwaukee, 26 percent; Philadelphia, 25 percent; and Newark, N.J., 24 percent.
Battle of the Budget Bulge
Yesterday, House Republicans offered Americans their vision for the nation's fiscal future, releasing a budget proposal that attempts to bring runaway deficits and the national debt under control. In a Wall Street Journal editorial, budget author Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) explained the that difference between Republicans and Democrats "revolves around the fundamental nature of American democracy and the social contract," further noting that "no two documents illustrate this choice of two futures better than the president's budget and the one put forward by House Republicans."
Faith-Based Energy Policy
When the summer driving season starts soon, and tension heats up over Iran, gas may reach $5 a gallon. Nothing bothers voters more than paying an extra $20 or $30 every time they fill up. In times like these, they soon might prefer even an oilman in the White House to an ideologue whose opposition to new oil development seems more religious than empirically based. All presidents, of course, usually get the blame or praise when the price of gas skyrockets or plummets, just like they own a bad or good economy, or a successful or failed war.
Notes From the War Zone
In every war, there are big moments and small ones. The same holds true in election years. The biggest event, the Super Bowl as it were, takes place on November 6, but along the way there are any number of incidents that help to determine the eventual outcome. For example, why would any American vote for Obama after he put the kibosh on the Keystone XL pipeline, a project that would have simultaneously provided us with a friendly source of oil and 20,000 jobs? I mean, even if you're one of those environmental zealots who feel that jobs and energy should take a back seat to the comfort and well-being of insects and rodents, wouldn't you be the least bit annoyed that he merely delayed a final decision until 2013 so that you and your kind will continue to donate to his re-election campaign? Doesn't it bug you the least little bit to be played that way? Why don't you folks just stamp SUCKER on your foreheads and be done with it?
The Line between Good and Evil: Murder in Afghanistan
"The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart." These words, penned in 1973 by then-Soviet dissident and Christian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, brilliantly sum up the human condition after the Fall.
The Glory of Messy Chaos
In 1886, a shipment of $25 watches from a Chicago jeweler was rejected by the addressee in Redwood Falls, Minn. The jeweler offered to sell the undeliverable goods for $12 apiece to a railroad station agent, who could then sell them to other agents, of whom there were more than 20,000. Which is what the agent, 23-year-old Richard Warren Sears, did. Soon his watch business was booming, so he quit working on the railroad, moved to Minneapolis, then quickly to the nation's railroad hub, Chicago, where in 1887 he met Alvah Curtis Roebuck, a watchmaker and printer. Rural life and retailing were about to change.
Send Lizzie Borden to Washington
Any Republican governor of a blue state who manages to balance the budget without raising taxes should be a nominee for Mount Rushmore, to say nothing of president. Mitt Romney was governor of a state so blue, it's North Korea with more Irish people, and he balanced the budget without raising taxes. Even Ronald Reagan raised taxes as governor of California, imposing a $1 billion tax increase his first year in office. It was the largest tax hike by a governor in the nation's history, raising income, corporate, sales and inheritance taxes. Five years later, Reagan raised taxes again by another $1.5 billion.
Gong, Gong, Gong!
I don't know about you, but watching the Republican primary season is making me feel like a judge on the "The Gong Show." I watched or listened to all three candidates after Tuesday night's Illinois primary. I'm still crying. If Mitt, Newt and Rick had given those uninspiring speeches on Chuck Barris' twisted 1970s amateur talent show, the celebrity panelists would have gang-gonged them in 30 seconds.
For Government: No Limits
Are there no limits on government's power, no place where it cannot go? New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a former (thankfully) Republican, but in name only, has decided to limit food donations to city charities, including homeless shelters, because the government is unable to measure the nutritional value of the food.
ObamaCare Still a Disaster -- No Matter How the Supreme Court Decides
"I am a refugee," my anesthesiologist told me after I had awakened from my third surgery in 12 years -- one to repair a muscle tear in my left shoulder and two for the same disc in my lower back. "I am part of the British 'brain drain' of the late '60s. Doctors could not make any money. So I left." Britain's loss, my gain. The same surgery 12 years ago required a two-day stay in a hospital. Last week, after a two-hour surgery, I left the same day as an outpatient.
Parents, Not Government, Should Combat Obesity
Food is in the news. Specifically, the food that Big Government wants you -- or your children--to eat. It started with Michelle Obama's headline grab: in 2010, she launched a new initiative to combat childhood obesity. It's a worthwhile campaign -- childhood obesity is something parents ought to be concerned about, for their children's sakes. According to official reports, one in three children is obese or overweight. And the resulting medical costs of obesity-related medical problems adds up to a nearly $150 billion problem each year.
Voter-ID Laws Protect the Integrity of the Ballot Box
Protecting the integrity of the ballot box is essential to our democracy. Laws requiring voters to show identification at the polls are commonsense measures to prevent fraud and corruption, and ensure that each year's election returns accurately reflect the will of the people. Yet President Obama's administration and political allies are pursuing a dual-track approach to vilify such tools, in a crass political ploy to aid the president's reelection.
Romney Wins
Mitt Romney won Illinois. Romney is now the nominee. Period. The exit polls showed Romney with a double digit lead in the early evening, and the CNN crew had to be careful not to proclaim him the victor prior to the polls closing at 8 PM Eastern. CNN waited until about 8:30 to call the race, but it was never in doubt.
The Federalist Solution
The bleating about broken government and partisanship continues. "Why can't those boobs in Washington agree on anything?" We're constantly told that the way to fix the country is to dethrone the left and right and empower the middle. Americans Elect, No Labels, the Gangs of Six and Fourteen, conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans: Handing things over to these middling mincers and half-a-loafers is supposed to be the answer to all of our problems. It's as if we should just put Nelson Rockefeller's mug on the dollar bill and be done with it.
A Safer Society With Guns
The Colorado Supreme Court put some noses out of joint when it ruled unanimously this month that the University of Colorado's campus gun ban violated a 2003 state law that entitles residents with permits to carry concealed weapons. One of those noses belonged to Abraham Nowels, a University of Colorado student who wrote to the Denver Post: "We're in the middle of midterms right now, and I can't think of anything I'd rather be focusing on than which of my fellow over-stressed, binge-drinking peers is carrying a concealed weapon into class with me." The Post agreed, pleading in an editorial for "legislators with enough gumption" to change the state's concealed-carry law and "give colleges the power they need to keep students safe."