 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Archive
Republicans Join the Battle
The Wall Street Journal, September 1, 2012
- Tampa, Fla.
Two days in, I had no faith in this convention. The hurricane tore apart plans and affected everyone’s mood. Normal chaos became heightened anxiety. On the floor, the delegate seats had too much space between them, which removed the kind of animal density that speakers in big halls ...
America Meets Mr. Romney
The Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2012
- It is good that Joe Biden is going to the Republican National Convention to hold high the flag of his party. People make fun of his gaffes, of his embarrassing verbal forays, but he's no fool and he knows how to take it to the other guy. The speech he is working on, to be given in the heart of downt...
It's the Circumstances, Stupid
The Wall Street Journal, August 18, 2012
- Americans are not ideologues. They think ideology is something squished down on their heads from on high, something imposed on them by big thinkers who create systems we’re all supposed to conform to. Americans are more interested in philosophy, which bubbles up from human beings, from tradition a...
A Nation That Believes Nothing
The Wall Street Journal, August 11, 2012
- It’s been a week marked by mistakes, some new and some continuing.
The pro-Obama super PAC ad that essentially blames Mitt Romney for a woman’s death from cancer is over the line, and if it’s allowed to stand the personal attacks that have marked the presidential campaign will probably get ...
The Life of the Party
The Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2012
- From a friend watching the Olympics: “How about that Michael Phelps? But let’s remember he didn’t win all those medals, someone else did. After all, he and I swam in public pools, built by state employees using tax dollars. He got training from the USOC, and ate food grown by the Department of...
The Dark Night Rises
The Wall Street Journal, July 28, 2012
- At a screening of “The Dark Knight Rises” the other day on Manhattan’s East 86th Street, three cops were posted outside, two in a cruiser and one on a motorcycle. An usher said they’d been coming by since the shooting in Aurora, Colo. She was relieved they were there; we now can add movie us...
A Remedial Communication Class
The Wall Street Journal, July 21, 2012
- Thoughts on three recent failures to communicate:
In the controversy surrounding the uniforms of the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, the problem isn’t China. That the uniforms were made there is merely a deep embarrassment and a missed opportunity. Our textile and manufacturing companies deserved that ...
Ennui the People
The Wall Street Journal, July 14, 2012
- The 2012 presidential election is unusual. It is a crisis election like 1932 or 1980, with the American people knowing we’re at a turning point and knowing that who we pick now really matters. But crisis elections tend to bring drama—a broad sense of excitement and passion. We’re not seeing th...
‘Is That Allowed?’ ‘It Is Here.’
The Wall Street Journal, July 7, 2012
- There’s something Haley Barbour reminded me of called the Gate Rule. The former Mississippi governor said it’s the first thing you should think of when you think about immigration. People are either lined up at the gate trying to get out of a country, or lined up trying to get in.
It says som...
Obama Has a Good Day
The Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2012
- It is a big victory for the White House.
ObamaCare, including the insurance mandate, was upheld. What would have been a political disaster for President Obama has been averted. He has not been humiliated, and the centerpiece of his efforts the past 3½ years has not been rebuked by the Supreme Co...
Once More, With Meaning
The Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2012
- You know what Republicans on the ground think when they look at Mitt Romney?
“Please don’t blow it.” They think President Obama can’t win but Mr. Romney can still lose. So they’re feeling burly but anxious, hopeful yet spooked.
They see Mr. Obama as surrounded by bad indicators—bad...
Who Benefits From the 'Avalanche of Leaks'?
The Wall Street Journal, June 16, 2012
- What is happening with all these breaches of our national security? Why are intelligence professionals talking so much—divulging secret and sensitive information for all the world to see, and for our adversaries to contemplate?
In the past few months we have read that the U.S. penetrated Al Qae...
What’s Changed After Wisconsin
The Wall Street Journal, June 9, 2012
- What happened in Wisconsin signals a shift in political mood and assumption. Public employee unions were beaten back and defeated in a state with a long progressive tradition. The unions and their allies put everything they had into “one of their most aggressive grass-roots campaigns ever,” as t...
The Long Race Has Begun
The Wall Street Journal, June 2, 2012
- And so it begins. We have a Republican nominee in Mitt Romney and a Democratic nominee in Barack Obama.
It is a marathon, not a sprint, but the pace is quickening. In five months we will have chosen a new president or doubled down on the current one.
Superficially both men have some things in ...
Mitt Romney’s Moment
The Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2012
- It’s been a good week for Mitt Romney. The polls are up, he’s just off a two-day swing through Connecticut and New York, where he hauled in big donors and hard money, and he swept the GOP primaries in Kentucky and Arkansas. On Tuesday Texas will put him over the top and make him, formally and of...
The Case for Dick Lugar
The Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2012
- Let’s wade into an argument, and on what may well be the losing side.
The most recent polls suggest Dick Lugar, the senior U.S. senator from Indiana, first elected in 1976, is on track to lose his primary on Tuesday. I hope he doesn’t for a number of reasons but one big one: the Senate needs ...
A Bush League President
The Wall Street Journal, April 28, 2012
- There is every reason to be deeply skeptical of President Obama’s prospects in November.
Republicans feel an understandable anxiety about Mr. Obama’s coming campaign: It will be all slice and dice, divide and conquer, break the country into little pieces and pick up as many as you can. He’l...
America’s Crisis of Character
The Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2012
- People in politics talk about the right track/wrong track numbers as an indicator of public mood. This week Gallup had a poll showing only 24% of Americans feel we’re on the right track as a nation. That’s a historic low. Political professionals tend, understandably, to think it’s all about th...
It’s Over. What Have We Learned?
The Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2012
- So what have we learned? The GOP presidential contest of 2012 is over. Mitt Romney will be the Republican nominee. What do we know now that we didn’t know in 2011, when the campaign began? Or what do we know that we already knew, but now we’ve been reminded?
We learned that primogeniture is s...
Oh, for Some Kennedyesque Grace
The Wall Street Journal, April 6, 2012
- These are things we know after President Obama’s speech Tuesday, in Washington, to a luncheon sponsored by the Associated Press:
The coming election fully occupies his mind. It is his subject matter now, and will be that of his administration. Everything they do between now and November will re...
