Right Opinion
The best of conservative opinion and commentary, updated daily.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg & Other Catastrophes
I must confess that I was never as big a fan of Sarah Palin as some Republicans. But honesty compels me to confess that much of my antipathy derived from the fact that her voice had the same effect on me that bagpipes and fingernails on a blackboard have on others. So the fact that she threw her support to Newt Gingrich, a serial adulterer and a K Street lobbyist, didn't disillusion me as much as it might have. I realize that because Newt allegedly asked God for His forgiveness, all his tomcatting around is supposed to be off the table. The problem is, I think God should have waited to find out if Newt's ex-wives forgave him because where I come from, they're the ones who were wronged.
From The Comedy Store
Iran cut off oil exports to its six biggest European customers in retaliation for the EU's vow to stop buying oil from Iran. Oil prices soared. Gasoline is so expensive in L.A. that police pulled over a van on the freeway yesterday with fifty legal Americans in it.
OWS Indoctrination Camp for High Schoolers
In Maryland, Montgomery Community College has become the latest institution to offer a class on the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement. "Occupy MoCo!" will be offered to students in grades nine through twelve during the summer of 2012 as part the community college's summer youth program. Four days ago, Elizabeth Homan, Montgomery's Director of Communications, told Fox News the course "does not take a stance on the Occupy movement." Perhaps not now that the college has been caught red-handed.
Lighten Up on Political Correctness
Have we become so hypersensitive that a phrase in use for half a millennia must now be banished from the English lexicon? I'm speaking, of course, of the furor created last week when ESPN's mobile site ran a story headlined "A Chink in the Armor." The idiom is commonly used to describe the vulnerability in an otherwise impenetrable defense. Its etymology goes back to the Middle Ages, when knights in battle wore suits of armor that covered their bodies head to foot. Opponents looked for small openings -- chinks -- through which they might thrust their swords or other weapons.
I Tried to Open a Lemonade Stand
Want to open a business in America? It isn't easy. In Midway, Ga., a 14-year-old girl and her 10-year-old sister sold lemonade from their front yard. Two police officers bought some. But the next day, different officers ordered them to close their stand. Their father went to city hall to try to find out why. The clerk laughed and said she didn't know. Eventually, Police Chief Kelly Morningstar explained, "We were not aware of how the lemonade was made, who made the lemonade and of what the lemonade was made with."
Giving With One Hand and Taking With the Other
So we should all be grateful that President Obama is just now coming out for a corporate tax rate cut? But does anyone really believe he's had a supply-side epiphany? That this is an election year surely wouldn't have anything to do with his apparent change of heart, would it? He's been president for more than three years, and Republicans have been clamoring all that time for a reduction in the world's second-highest corporate tax rate. So don't you think that if Obama truly favored this, it would have happened long ago?
Auto Industry Turnaround Is a Two-Party Success
As the 2012 election season turns full throttle, the president and members of his administration are pointing to their only economic success story -- the government's investment in an ailing, failing auto industry and the subsequent revival of the nation's manufacturing base. Vice President Biden recently stated on a campaign stop that "Osama bin Laden is dead and GM is alive."
The $4 Billion Obamacare Slush Fund for Progressives
If you like how the Obama administration's multibillion-dollar "investments" in bankrupt solar companies have turned out, you'll love the latest federal loan program to nowhere. It's the Obamacare loyalty rewards program for progressives. To appease liberal Democrats pushing for the so-called "public option" (the full frontal government takeover of our health care system), the White House settled for the creation of a $6 billion network of nonprofit "CO-OPs" that will "compete" with private insurers. It's socialized medicine through the side door. House Republicans sliced about $2 billion from the slush fund in last spring's budget deal and proclaimed the program dead. Hardly.
Unintended Consequences: The Problem With Syria
If the past decade taught Americans anything, it is that there is no getting around the law of unintended consequences, especially in foreign policy. No matter how good our intentions might be or how carefully we plan, once we "cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war" we no longer control events, they control us.
HBO's Palin Pollution
Sarah Palin's top aides held a conference call to denounce the forthcoming HBO movie "Game Change," which like any ultraliberal media production, knocks Palin as a mentally imbalanced moron. Reporters are already underlining the Palin aides haven't seen the movie. But isn't that the point? As Pat Buchanan once said about another subject, "Does one need to lift the manhole cover to know what's below?" Did the Clinton team wait to see the movie before begging ABC to kill "Path to 9/11"? Did the Kennedy team wait to see the miniseries "The Kennedys" before getting it demoted to the Reelz channel? The Palin folks can be pretty certain -- especially since the trailer itself announces it's a hit job.
Suffrage in Somalia
MOGADISHU, Somalia -- There are few success stories here in this tortured country on the eastern coast of Africa. For nearly two decades, this drought-ravaged land and the long-suffering Somali people have been "off the radar" for most Americans. It might still be so if it were not for radical Islamist Somali terrorists -- al-Shabab -- and their financiers, the seagoing pirates who seize merchant vessels plying the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. All of that is about to change.
Barack 'All of the Above' Obama
President Obama fought back against rising oil and retail gas prices in a speech in Florida on Thursday. But it was a curious speech. He started out by mocking Republicans, stating that GOP candidates are licking their chops as gasoline prices rocket up. He said, "They are already dusting off their three-point plans for $2 gas. I'll save you the suspense: Step one is drill, step two is drill, and step three is keep drilling." Very clever. It's kind of what Newt Gingrich said in this week's Arizona debate.
Now We Know Why Not Santorum
Wish I had a nickel for every conservative who confidently predicted that the Arizona debate would, of course, feature obnoxious questions about birth control and the devil aimed at Rick Santorum. As it turned out, CNN's John King did not ask "gotcha" questions and for the most part, conducted a fair and informative debate. The exception, and this may not have been King's fault, was CNN's absurd reality-show-style introductions of the candidates: "Newt Gingrich, the determined challenger," "Mitt Romney, the long-distance runner." Hmm. How about "CNN, the desperate, ratings-starved network"?
Lack of Enthusiasm Isn't Just a GOP Problem
There's no disputing that Republicans are surly these days. With the exception of South Carolina, turnout among GOP voters has been tepid. Hordes of commentators, me included, have argued at length that this apathetic grumpiness reflects a deep dissatisfaction with the Republican field.
Is Censorship the New Pluralism?
Pat Buchanan might have seen the end of the line coming at MSNBC when last month network president Phil Griffin commented on his latest book, "Suicide of a Superpower," by saying, "I don't think the ideas that (Buchanan) put forth are appropriate for the national dialogue, much less on MSNBC." When Buchanan was let go last week after 10 years as a commentator on the network, no one was surprised.
A Few More Reasons to Send Obama Packing
I sometimes think that Republicans are genetically compelled to bring water pistols to a gun fight. While I acknowledge that it's difficult to combat the bully pulpit the Left commands, thanks to a corrupt media, I really am sick and tired of hearing Mitch McConnell referring to "Our friends on the other side of the aisle." Harry Reid is not your friend. Charles Schumer, Patrick Leahy and Dick Durbin, are not your friends. What's more, Barbara Boxer, Patty Murray and Dianne Feinstein, are not going to the prom with you. Get over it.
What's Their Problem With Romney?
As governor of one of the most liberal states in the union, Mitt Romney did something even Ronald Reagan didn't do as governor of California: He balanced the budget without raising taxes. Romney became deeply pro-life as governor of the aforementioned liberal state and vetoed an embryonic stem cell bill. (Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich lobbied President George W. Bush to allow embryonic stem cell research.)
Actor Samuel L. Jackson -- Vote Your Race
What if actor Clint Eastwood gave an interview in which he explained why, in the 2008 presidential election, he voted for John McCain: "I voted for McCain because he was white. 'Cuz that's why other folks vote for other people -- because they look like them. ... That's American politics, pure and simple." No, Eastwood did not say that. But actor Samuel L. Jackson did, in explaining why he voted for President Barack Obama -- "because he was black." Jackson also said his vote had nothing to do with Obama's agenda: "(Obama's) message didn't mean (bleep) to me." If Eastwood had said stuff like this, a cry to boycott his films would come from everybody from the NAACP to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Satan Is Not a Campaign Issue
In 2008, Rick Santorum spoke at Ave Maria University in Florida. There, he tackled the crucial issue of moral decline in America and did so in explicitly religious language. "Satan has his sights on the United States of America," he said. "Satan is attacking the great institutions of America, using those great vices of pride, vanity and sensuality as the root to attack all of the strong plants that has so deeply rooted in the American tradition. "He attacks all of us, and he attacks all of our institutions," he stated.
Santorum's Loose Lips Can Turn Convictions to Controversy
A candidate's strengths can also be his weaknesses. Take the case of Rick Santorum. One of his strengths is perseverance. For more than a year, he made hundreds of appearances in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, with no visible result in the polls. He persevered and ended up finishing first in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. Then, after poor showings in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Florida and Nevada, he finished first in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado on Feb. 7.