The Obama Speech
He delivered a great speech. It will surely energize Democrats. The question is whether people are feeling as rosy as he is about the state of the country — the right track/wrong track numbers suggest...
View ArticleThe Fight-for-$15 Fantasy
Minimum-wage silly season bursts into full bloom tonight, when the DNC features a “Fight for $15” advocate from Michigan. This follows from the party’s platform statement that “the current minimum wage...
View ArticleThe Rise of the ‘Safe Socialists’
I wrote my Politico column yesterday on how Democrats are further left than ever, but couching their program in sobriety, traditional political norms, and even patriotism (and they did even more of...
View ArticleIs It Always Morning Again?
Must we always be optimistic? One constant criticism of Trump’s speech last week in the media was that it wasn’t a “morning again in America” speech, but morning again was 1984, not 1980. Why should...
View ArticleIs Clinton Running as the Conservative?
Jim and a few others have noted, some with wonder, that President Obama let the Republicans off the hook, a little bit, at his DNC speech, rather than trying to hang Trump around their collective neck...
View ArticleThe GOP Needs to Honor GWB
Watching the adulation heaped on Barack Obama last night, I was reminded of the shameful way the GOP — and the conservative movement more broadly — has treated George W. Bush. The last Republican to...
View ArticleCursing the Darkness
The funny thing about all of the Democratic criticisms of the “darkness” of Trump’s speech is that the politically most effective parts of the Democratic convention so far have been the darkest–the...
View ArticleThe DNC Abortion Plank Is Out of Step with the American Public
This summer, the Knights of Columbus commissioned a poll by Marist on abortion attitudes in the United States. The results were released earlier this week, right as the Democratic National Convention...
View ArticleClinton's Qualifications
Obama said last night, “I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman — not me, not Bill — more qualified to serve as President . . .”A friend writes in:Fact Check1. Father of the...
View ArticleAbortion and Arrogance
A reader writes in response to this post: “It is the height of arrogance to presume that you know when life begins, much less state that it is a ‘fact.’” I had quoted Patrick Lee, a professor of...
View Article‘As Everyone Knows’
Ramesh’spost reminded me of the most striking statement I have ever read about abortion. It comes from a little book by Eugene Genovese, the late historian. The book is called Miss Betsey: A Memoir of...
View ArticleTrump Gives Twelve Short Answers in “Ask Me Anything” Q&A, Still Doing Better...
Donald Trump tried to pull some attention off the DNC last night by doing an “Ask Me Anything” Q&A on the news networking website Reddit. The twelve bland responses he gave certainly disappointed...
View ArticleFaraway Countries . . .
The Baltic countries are in a precarious position. They lie under rapacious glare from Moscow (to borrow a phrase from Churchill). For decades, they were ruled by the Kremlin, and brutally. Now they...
View ArticleChuck Schumer: Democrats Will Lose Blue-Collar Whites But Gain in the Suburbs
The Democrats are so cheery, optimistic, and perhaps slightly inebriated here in Philadelphia that it’s easy to forget they are, by most standards, America’s minority party. They need four seats and...
View ArticleSuddenly Chancellor Merkel Is All about Tighter Security
Following a series of violent attacks in Germany – two of which were linked to ISIS – German chancellor Angela Merkel doubled down on her open immigration policy, assuring the German people that “we...
View ArticleA Telling Exchange About 'Islamophobia'
Yesterday I had the privilege to speaking at a National Review Institute-sponsored event on Capitol Hill. The topic was “fact and fiction in fighting ISIS,” and my goal was to give the audience a taste...
View ArticleFather Hamel: An 'Absurd' Killing?
I posted something yesterday on Pope Francis’ disconcerting (there are other adjectives) response to the murder of Father Hamel in Normandy earlier this week, specifically with reference to this...
View ArticleClinton’s Manager Mook: The Big Three Are Florida, Ohio, and North Carolina
“People are helpless and frustrated; there’s a clear set of problems that are only getting worse and no one’s doing anything about it,” said Robby Mook, Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager, at a forum...
View ArticlePoetry
ANTE MERIDIEM for Ivy What I desire in the morning is the music of guitar, its pottery-dull notes knocking knees in the lower strings and in the upper notes a skittering like the black-capped...
View ArticleAssessing a Long, Plodding Sales Pitch From Hillary Clinton
Tonight’s acceptance speech by Hillary Clinton was not particularly enjoyable to listen to for 57 minutes, but it probably did the job. In fact, if she doesn’t get a sizable polling bump out of this...
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