September 2011

Should we care that Chris Christie is fat?

The radical Islamist preacher Anwar al-Awlaki, a leader in al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula  (AQAP), was killed in north Yemen today. Awlaki served as a key conduit for foreign fighters into Yemen and is believed to have directed several recent attacks against the United States. The death of the…

A recent Gallup survey shows that, among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, Herman Cain has the highest net favorability rating of anyone in the current GOP presidential field. Cain’s net favorability rating among those who are familiar with him is +62 points (77 percent hold a…

Reuters reports on new rumors that former Arkansas governor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is considering getting into the race:

Politico reports that Warren Buffett’s idea of tax reform is apparently quite different from President Obama’s. Buffett says he would raise taxes on those with “very high incomes that are taxed very low,” but not on those making annual salaries of $50 million.

The Associated Press reports: 

Anwar al Awlaki has reportedly been killed in an airstrike in Yemen, bringing an end to the life of one of al Qaeda’s most effective recruiters. Awlaki had an especially strong appeal in the West, where an unknown (but surely significant) number of recruits joined al Qaeda’s jihad after viewing his…

Rasmussen's latest poll: 

If you're in Washington, D.C. on Monday, October 3, e21 and the Manhattan Institute are sponsoring a can't-miss event with Peter Thiel, one of America's foremost tech entrepreneurs:

Mitt Romney and Ron Paul both trail President Barack Obama by one percentage point in Florida, according to Public Policy Polling. In a survey released today, PPP found that in hypothetical general election matchups, Obama edges out Romney 46-45 and Paul 45-44. Rick Perry, meanwhile, would be 7…

ABC News points to a new Mitt Romney ad that focuses on former Mexican president Vicente Fox's praise for Texas's policy of providing in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants who attend state universities and colleges.

The New York Times reports:

Steve Hayes, with A. B. Stoddard and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

Jim DeMint: "Venture socialism: Obama agenda is about shoveling cash to cronies"

After a well-received debate performance last week, Herman Cain surprised everybody by finishing atop the Florida straw poll. This week, he's finally seeing traction in the polls, and now serious people are starting to take him seriously. It's far past time for us to take a closer look at Cain, who…

In the New Jersey Star Ledger's version of the "Christie reconsidering presidential run" story contains a new detail:

In an interview this evening with a local NBC affiliate in Orlando, President Obama claimed that America has "gotten a little soft."

iWatchNews: Solyndra and "Bundlers on the inside"

Via Ramesh Ponnuru's twitter feed, comes this ABC News article where the White House finally admits that Obamacare raised the cost insurance premiums:

The International Business Times reports that a Christian pastor in Iran may be executed as early as Friday for the "crime" of being a Christian convert:

Earlier this year, Wesley J. Smith reported in THE WEEKLY STANDARD on the drive among environmentalists to make "ecocide" an international crime:

Your chart of the day:

Rick Perry has been catching some flak for calling Social Security a Ponzi scheme. Some conservative purists defended the former frontrunner for “telling it like it is.” Maybe. But Perry’s 10th Amendment solution — which he slightly backed away from at the Fox/Google debate — could be even more…

Sean Trende surveys the 2012 political landscape: 

Over at Forbes, Frank Miniter argues that "'Fast And Furious' Just Might Be President Obama's Watergate":

Despite the growing Solyndra scandal, yesterday the Department of Energy approved $1 billion in new loans to green energy companies -- including a $737 million loan guarantee to a company known as SolarReserve:

A stunning poll from SurveyUSA shows businessman Herman Cain parlaying his straw poll victory in Florida into a dead heat with Mitt Romney:

Well, sort of. Before I get to Krugman, a little relevant context.

Taipei, Republic of China —Aircraft carriers are the cause of apprehension here in Taiwan. The concern is that, in the event of any future hostile action taken by China against Taiwan, U.S. carriers would be taken out by China’s increasingly capable arsenal of anti-ship missiles—and that the…

Fred Barnes, with Juan Williams and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News: 

Talking Points Memo: "FBI Arrests Man For Plotting To Attack Capitol, Pentagon With C-4 Loaded Remote Controlled Planes"

New York Times: "As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe"

A new national Fox News poll of Republicans shows Texas governor Rick Perry falling behind former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney in the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Romney leads Perry 23% to 19%. Perry has dropped 10 points since last polled the GOP race in late August, and Romney…

A new Public Policy Polling survey shows Mitt Romney with a six-point lead, at 30 percent, among Florida primary voters. Rick Perry is in second with 24 percent--the first time the Texas governor has not lead in a PPP poll in a Southern state since he entered the race.

In his speech yesterday at the Hoover Institution on health care reform, Paul Ryan said the real problem in health care is “runaway inflation” and that the Republican party needs “to coalesce around a complete reform agenda” focused on bringing down costs. This is exactly the opposite of the…

An instructive name pops up somewhere between Chris Christie's speech/answer at the Reagan Library this week and Bill Kristol's reaction here. That name is Dwight D. Eisenhower.

The Wall Street Journal reports today that the Department of Energy has approved loan guarantees for two solar energy projects:

"Well, I don't play golf," says Rick Perry. "So, this is my golf."

The polling firm American Research Group has a new survey of Iowa Republican voters, showing Mitt Romney leading with 21 percent, Michele Bachmann receiving 15 percent of support, and Rick Perry with 14 percent. A full 15 percent of those polled are undecided. ARG polled 600 likely Republican…

The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) new media policy rightfully has journalists up in arms:

Chris Christie gave an impressive speech at the Reagan Library last night. But by far the most interesting moment was an exchange from the question and answer session.

A new CNN poll shows Americans are divided on the question of creating of an independent Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, with 41 percent opposed, 40 percent in favor, and 19 percent with no opinion. When the question was asked in 2003, Americans supported the creation of a Palestinian…

CNN reports that Florida is likely to move up its Republican presidential primary to January 31:

In his health care speech at the Hoover Institution, Paul Ryan not only laid out his plans “to confront health care inflation head-on” but also discussed President Obama’s approach to dealing with rising health costs, which mostly amounts to price controls imposed by an ominous, unelected,…

Ever try loading a page from the Washington Post, only to be left in wireless limbo? Apparently you are not alone, says Post ombudsman Patrick B. Pexton. He quotes Ashish Agrawal, a senior development manager for technology at the paper, who explains, "Post Web pages are, in the tech vernacular,…

John Podhoretz calls Chris Christie's speech last night at the Ronald Reagan Library a "brilliant performance." And one questioner last night said, "I've been listening to you tonight. You're a very powerful and eloquent speaker. You know how to tell the American people what they need to hear." The…

Bill Kristol, with Mara Liasson and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

Wall Street Journal: "The Truth About Who Fights for Us"

Over the last few days, Joan Walsh of Salon and Melissa Harris-Perry of the Nation have been debating if and when a white liberal is being racist for souring on Barack Obama. 

During a major speech today at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, Paul Ryan laid out his vision of health care reform, saying, “Choice and competition are critical to controlling costs…[and] improving quality….And yet, across the federal landscape, choice and competition are undermined…

New Jersey governor Chris Christie delivered the following address this evening at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California:

Fox News: "Sources: Christie Definitely a 'No' for 2012"

Well, I suppose we should give Governor Perdue credit for thinking outside the box:

Ted Leonsis, the owner of the NHL's Washington Capitals, the NBA's Washington Wizards, the WNBA's Washington Mystics, and the Verizon Center in downtown Washington, D.C., has had enough of President Obama's class warfare rhetoric. Here's Leonsis's take, from his personal blog: 

Via GOP 12, NJ.com reports:

A new poll from Fairleigh Dickinson University finds that New Jersey governor Chris Christie has a 54 percent job approval rating in his state, with 36 percent disapproving. These numbers are better for Christie than when the pollster last asked the question in May of this year. Then, only 44…

The Financial Times conducts an interview with Coca-Cola CEO Muhtar Kent: 

Ford has pulled a TV ad that took shots at companies that benefited from federal government's auto bailout "in response to White House questions," reports Daniel Howes at the Detroit News. "Ford pulled the ad after individuals inside the White House questioned whether the copy was publicly…

In 1961, or so we are told, Arch West came upon his first fried tortilla chip. Three years later, the company he worked for, Frito-Lay, rolled out Doritos. West died last week in Dallas at the age of 97. But what he gave us, for better and for worse, will be around for a very long time. For no…

ABC News reports that during an interview with David Muir yesterday concerning President Obama’s $447 billion jobs bill, “Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner didn’t dispute a Harvard economist’s estimate that each job in the White House’s jobs plan would cost $200,000, but said” — mysteriously…

President Barack Obama will be in Colorado, a state he won in 2008, to pitch his American Jobs Act to a crowd at a Denver high school. The Denver Post, meanwhile, will be greeting Obama with a front-page story on Colorado's unemployed:

On September 25, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia made world headlines by proclaiming the right of his female subjects to nominate and compete as candidates in municipal elections. The king also pledged to appoint women to the country’s 150-member, unelected “shura council,” or executive consultative…

Can Rick Santorum, one of this year's long-shot candidates for president, make a bid for a win in the Iowa caucuses next year? According to ABC News, that's exactly what the former senator from Pennsylvania is trying to do:

Steve Hayes, with A. B. Stoddard and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

Despite the repeated attempts to wish away the Solyndra scandal, it appears to be getting bigger. Today, the Los Angeles Times informs us key White House personnel raised concerns the Department of Energy loan program that gave Solyndra $535 million was poorly conceived and managed long before the…

In addition to its main results, which John McCormack reported earlier, the latest CNN poll asked all respondents (not screening for likely or registered voters) whether a given candidate “has the personality and leadership qualities a President should have.” In that vein, here’s how President…

Bloomberg: "Senate Votes to Avoid Shutdown, Provide Disaster Funds"

Los Angeles Times: "White House lawyers could try to speed up or slow down the process of seeking to have the Supreme Court decide on the constitutionality of the president's healthcare law."

Although Indiana governor Mitch Daniels would like to see his New Jersey counterpart run for president, Daniels said today that he doesn't see any signs Chris Christie will change his mind. “I personally didn’t press him, so I have nothing to report,” Daniels said of his meeting last Thursday with…

There's been a lot of speculation about whether Chris Christie will decide to run for president now that Rick Perry is slipping in the polls. This report from former New Jersey Governor Tom Kean might be the most concrete evidence yet that Christie may run:

Princeton professor Paul Krugman, talking about Paul Ryan's budget:

Via Jeffrey Goldberg: "This is the greatest video ever made. I'm completely serious. The greatest. The action sequence begins at about 4:45:"

Public Policy Polling tweets:

Last Friday, I noted that the Obama administration FDA was set to carry out a ban on asthma inhalers over environmental concerns because the propellant in them contains greenhouse gases. I thought that this was notable given that the Obama administration had recently stopped itself from…

Matthew Continetti writes that Mitch Daniels's new book, Keeping the Republic, is unfortunately "a campaign book with no candidate."

Rick Perry has a new ad out today, following up on last Thursday's debate, and hitting Mitt Romney for changing a line in his book about the Massachusetts health care law:

In Newsweek, Eli Lake reports that “Obama Sold Israel Bunker-Buster Bombs.” Actually, as the story notes, it was George W. Bush who ordered the bombs toward the end of his second term. Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert wanted them delivered in 2007, but Bush told him to wait until…

Ben Smith reports that Jewish support of Obama has dipped below 50 percent: 

Associated Press: "Obama Tells Blacks to 'Stop Complainin' and Fight"

Time to declare a moratorium on the high five. That combination salute and handshake has been around for more than 30 years, and is now entering the stage of the perfunctory, perhaps even the otiose. The other evening, watching a White Sox game, I saw a player hit by a pitch replaced by a…

In 1747, eight years before the publication of his pioneering dictionary, Samuel Johnson wrote that his “chief intent” in compiling his great work was “to preserve the purity and ascertain the meaning of the English idiom,” which he characterized as “the exact and pure idea of a grammatical…

NCIS (the title is short for “Naval Criminal Investigative Service”) is almost certainly the most popular television show in the world.

Obamacare’s individual mandate—requiring that all Americans purchase government-approved health insurance beginning in 2014—has always been the law’s most vulnerable provision. It is incredibly unpopular, and not just among conservatives. Polls consistently show that a large majority of the…

"David Brown’s multi-faceted Palmerston,” says a blurb on the back of this volume, “in its archival mastery, scope and insight, outdistances any other.” I thought I detected a note of ambiguity in that verb “outdistances,” and I was right. Brown knows everything it’s humanly possible to know about…

Paul Krugman, of Princeton and the New York Times, was up early last Sunday morning, reflecting, as many of his fellow Americans were, on the tenth anniversary of 9/11. He chose to share his thoughts on the meaning of the day. Here’s his contribution in its entirety, posted at 8:41 a.m., five…

As the country teeters on the edge of recession, two competing visions of government’s role in the economy are being offered in Washington. President Obama again proposes big government programs and Keynesian stimulus. House Republicans have a different idea.

The Obama administration has established a new (even lower) standard for kowtowing to Beijing. In the first instance, the White House has decided against selling Taiwan 66 new F-16s the government in Taipei has been asking for over the last few years. With an aging inventory of Taiwan air force…

Jerusalem

To find a metaphor for the failed Obama presidency, look no further than Solyndra. Before it went bankrupt, the solar panel manufacturer was more than the recipient of a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government. It was the model for the White House effort to put the American economy…

Richmond, Virginia

The word “saint” does not typically conjure up images of a Harvard alumna and New England housewife, but it may begin to do so if Ruth Pakaluk’s story gets around. She was only 41 when cancer claimed her life. Her husband Michael has now collected the letters she wrote throughout her adulthood, and…

It’s come to this: The president touted for his brainpower, idealism, and global esteem has been reduced to leading captive audiences in chants of “Pass this bill,” a measure that Republicans loathe, Democrats regard warily, and Congress is un-likely to approve even in truncated form.

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is a proponent of raising taxes on everyone, criticized President Obama for using theatrics to trumpet his plan to raise taxes on the rich. "The Buffett thing is just theatrics," Bloomberg said this morning on NBC's Meet the Press.

Having watched the debate Thursday night, and having heard the candidates speak and having mingled with them over the subsequent couple of days, 70 percent of the activists attending the Florida Republican gathering this weekend cast a vote of no confidence in the two GOP frontrunners.

Herman Cain won today's Florida Republican party straw poll with 37.1 percent of the vote. Rick Perry came in second at 15.4 percent, with Mitt Romney not far behind in third at 14 percent. Michele Bachmann, who won last month's straw poll in Ames, Iowa, came in last today with only 1.5 percent.…

In the Los Angeles Times, Andrew Malcolm highlights another underreported gaffe by President Obama. During his recent quasi-campaign speech in support of his jobs bill, theatrically set next to a bridge on the Ohio-Kentucky border, Obama said, “We’re the country that built the Intercontinental…

ABC News reports that Rick Perry is emphasizing the importance of today's Florida GOP P5 straw poll in Orlando, Florida, where he made his case in person this morning:

Fearing a monopoly within the vodka industry, Russia's czarist regime tried to control it, with disastrous results. A black market soon emerged with cheaper, "unregulated" vodka that often had the same healthful benefits as turpentine. The Bolsheviks did the same thing and it wasn't pretty. As a…

Willie Sutton separated over 100 banks from $2 million before he was finally incarcerated in 1952. When asked why he robbed banks, he is said to have responded, “Because that’s where the money is.” Apparently, politicians around the world now want to tax the rich, because they believe, or say they…

The former director of the Central Intelligence Agency and Air Force general Michael Hayden is by all accounts a good man and a good officer. He has certainly done yeoman’s work since leaving government in defending controversial Bush administration interrogation and detainee policies. He didn’t…

Politico: "Texas toast? Rick Perry worries GOP"

Rasmussen's latest survey of likely voters in New Hampshire shows Mitt Romney with a 21-point lead over Rick Perry. The poll, which was taken before last night's debate in Orlando, showed Romney with 39 percent of the vote among Republican primary voters in the Granite State, with Perry having 18…

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered the following remarks to U.N. this afternoon, focusing primarily on the Palestinians' statehood bid:

PLO chair Mahmoud Abbas released the prepared text of his U.N. remarks with a curious logo on the top right hand side of the page:

The Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon kicked off today in Washington on the National Mall, under inauspiciously dark rainy skies. In a press release announcing the competition, Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu is quoted as saying, "The Solar Decathlon collegiate teams are showing how…

Remember how Obama recently waived new ozone regulations at the EPA because they were too costly? Well, it seems that the Obama administration would rather make people with Asthma cough up money than let them make a surely inconsequential contribution to depleting the ozone layer:

During his speech at the United Nations today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "the Jewish state of Israel will always protect the rights of all its minorities, including more than 1 million Arab citizens of Israel." 

Lots of interesting e-mails on the boss’s “Yikes.” This one, from a Republican who has held high elective office, is worth noting:

Now that even mainstream outlets have thoroughly debunked the president's second "jobs stimulus" as a set of gimmicks, the president seems to be casting about for a winning issue. President Obama has this week hopped from jobs to the U.N., Israel, the deficit, Libya, and Afghanistan and now, this…

Mitt Romney often assails “career politicians,” contrasting his career in private business with the political career of his chief rival Rick Perry.

As the Obama administration reviews its Afghanistan and Pakistan policy, looking for creative means to challenge extremist funding, the drug trade is increasingly coming into focus.

President Obama arrived in Cincinnati Thursday afternoon to tout his newest bill meant to stimulate the economy with billions of dollars in infrastructure investment for job creation. The Obama team chose the “functionally obsolete” Brent Spence Bridge connecting Kentucky and Ohio, and the still…

Orlando, Florida “Howdy,” Rick Perry says, welcoming the crowd at the Rosen Center Hotel. It's hours before Thursday's debate, and the Texas governor is speaking to activists participating in a “Meet and Greet” pre-debate party organized by the Faith and Freedom Coalition. Perry's the last…

THE WEEKLY STANDARD’s official reaction to last night’s Republican presidential debate: Yikes.

When Mitt Romney answered a question about Romneycare during last night’s GOP debate, it unfortunately sounded like he was defending Obamacare.

During congressional testimony on Thursday, Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency of sponsoring terrorist attacks on an American embassy and coalition forces. The allegations, while startling, are hardly…

Telegraph: "David Cameron: world on brink of new economic crisis"

We’re just a few months away from the start of primary elections, and the Republican race is clearly shaping up as a two-man contest between Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. And, so far, all signs point to Florida being a big deal this cycle, perhaps the decisive battle.

Rick Perry hasn't gotten better.

Orlando, Florida During Thursday night’s debate, Rick Perry was asked the toughest and most substantive foreign policy question of the evening. Moderator Bret Baier wanted to know what Perry would do first, as president, if he received a 3 a.m. phone call “telling [him] that Pakistan had lost…

Washington Post:

Rick Santorum tried to distinguish himself from the rest of the Republican field in tonight's Fox News/Google debate by continuing to take a strong stand on national security issues. Instead of supporting a hasty withdrawal from Iraq, Santorum called for "victory."

During Thursday night's Republican presidential debate, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum all took shots at Rick Perry's record on illegal immigration. Bachmann said that Texas's law allowing in-state tuition for the children of illegal immigrants acted like a "magnet"…

Spectator: "The great euro swindle"

In the Wall Street Journal, Karl Rove previews tonight’s debate, saying that it “presents opportunities and dangers for each candidate.”  Rove writes that Rick Perry “has had two okay-to-mediocre debate performances,” which “is dangerous.”  He says that Perry needs to convey that he would be a good…

President Obama tried to reassure more than 900 rabbis today on a half-hour conference call that he’s a stalwart friend of Israel. In the midst of all the happy talk, though, he inadvertently revealed how he really thinks about the Middle East:

Bill Clinton today blasted Benjamin Netanyahu, blaming the Israeli prime minister for the lack of progress toward peace with the Palestinians.   

Via Politico, the AP reports:

The guitar-playing Michigan congressman, Thaddeus McCotter, has announced he will drop out of the GOP primary and endorse Mitt Romney for president:

Regional reactions to Obama’s U.N. speech yesterday are starting to come in, including some very ugly responses. Here, for instance is a column from Adel Abd al-Rahman, a Palestinian journalist from al-Hayat al-Jadida, an official daily newspaper of the Palestinian Authority, that makes much of the…

The other day, a number of publications reported that Paul Ryan had called Social Security a Ponzi scheme. "Paul Ryan Supports Rick Perry: Social Security Is A Ponzi Scheme," read the Huffington Post headline. The Hill reported: "Social Security fits the technical definition of a Ponzi scheme, Rep.…

On Fox News Sunday, the Wall Street Journal's Paul Gigot said that sources tell him Chris Christie is "very carefully" reconsidering his decision not to run for president. And on Tuesday, John Fund fueled the speculation when he reported that "a top Republican donor to Christie told me he is…

At NRO, Scott Gottlieb writes, “Fresh off its successes in the green-energy patch, the Obama team is turning its investment skills to the life sciences. Last Friday, President Obama announced his intention to increase the federal government’s involvement in the business of…

In the past few years, a growing chorus of media and social science voices has identified a social trend of profound importance - the diminishing value of men in society. On the surface, the data indicates that men are in decline. Last year, women outnumbered men in earning bachelor degrees for the…

I don't think I could possibly overstate how excited liberal 'netroots' are about this clip of Harvard Professor and Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren that's making the rounds. I know Warren has a long history of being fawned over by liberals, but read the comments section at any one…

New York, New York—"Until we have a resolution to see, Daniel, the United Kingdom is not answering that question and you will not evoke another answer, I know, from another authoritative source from the United Kingdom delegation,” Alistair Burt, a member of Parliament and a member of the UK…

Quinnipiac's poll of registered Republicans in Florida shows Rick Perry leading Mitt Romney by 9 points in the primary. With Sarah Palin running, Perry's lead is a few points smaller (28% to 22%), while all other candidates are in the single digits (Palin 8%, Cain 7%, Gingrich 7%, Paul 6%, Bachmann…

Rick Perry picks up the endorsement of Kansas governor Sam Brownback, the Daily Caller reports: 

As Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s prepares to speak at the United Nations, it is tempting to dismiss his anti-American rants as just another propaganda stunt. But what makes his remarks difficult to ignore is that large segments of the Iranian population will buy into them. And that…

A new Suffolk University poll of 400 likely voters shows former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney with a commanding lead in New Hampshire's GOP presidential primary, traditionally the first primary of the campaign season. At 41 percent, Romney is 27 points ahead of his closest rival in the state,…

Washington Post: "Solyndra employees: Company suffered from mismanagement, heavy spending"

Earlier this evening, the House of Representatives voted against a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government past September 30. Forty-eight Republicans broke with their party's leadership and joined 182 Democrats in opposition of the bill. Reuters reports:

Mitt Romney announced today that former Minnesota senator Norm Coleman will be a "special adviser" to his campaign, focusing primarily on foreign policy. "[Coleman's] advice will be critical as I lay out my vision for improving our economy at home and strengthening our partnerships around the…

Phil Klein: "House investigators rip Solyndra execs"

The logo of “the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations” – on their website and on top of their official statements at the U.N. – shows the Palestinian Authority’s claim to a Palestine that stretches throughout the entire historical entity of the former Palestine mandate.

When it rains at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, it pours. It's hard to imagine worse news for the president than the slew of polls today. This morning, Obama's overall favorability rating went underwater in the Real Clear Politics average. Then Gallup noted that for the first time a majority of…

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters, conducted one week after the most recent Republican presidential debate, shows Rick Perry with a 4-point lead (28 to 24 percent) over Mitt Romney. Perry’s lead has dropped by 7 points in the poll (from 11 to 4 points) since his first debate appearance. No…

Since Ron Paul arrived in Washington more than 30 years ago, he has been spreading the same message of personal freedom and limited government, based on the Constitution and Austrian economics. Sound familiar? It should—Paul’s philosophy shares the same foundation that the Tea Party is built from.

Andy Ferguson reviews That Used to Be Us, written by Thomas L. Friedman and Michael Madnelbaum, in today's Wall Street Journal:

In the Hill, former Health and Human Services secretary Mike Leavitt and former HHS deputy secretary Tevi Troy write about the one part of Medicare that has succeeded in controlling costs — Medicare Part D (the prescription drug program), which works a lot like Paul Ryan’s proposed Medicare reforms.

Earlier this morning, I noted that for the first time more Americans had an unfavorable view of the President than a favorable one. Well, here's some more bad news from the latest Gallup poll that's likely to reverberate around the White House:

From Jamie Weinstein's interview with the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford: 

President Obama’s speech to the United Nations, which he delivered this morning in New York, is filled with lots of little surprises. (For instance, “the United Nations helped avert a third World War.” Really?) But the big surprise is that he’s made his address to the General Assembly into a…

Rick Perry has a new ad out today contrasting President Obama's record on jobs and the economy with Perry's own vision for America and its future. It plays like a general election ad. Watch below:

Per Tom Bevan at RealClearPolitics, "There goes the White House's last good talking point: Obama's favorability rating goes under water in RCP Average":

In his recently released deficit plan, President Obama lays out the “Buffett Rule” (named, of course, for Warren Buffett, the famous investor and supporter of Obama). The rule, as Obama defines it, is “that people making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller share of their income in…

Bill Kristol, with A. B. Stoddard and Jonah Goldberg, last night on Fox News:

Hot Air: "Report: At least 200 murders in Mexico now linked to Fast & Furious weapons"

So, it appears that the president has decided to channel the candidacy of Walter Mondale from 1984. Here’s President Obama, on Monday:

Talk radio host Laura Ingraham pressed Congressman Paul Ryan in an interview Tuesday on whether he agreed with Texas governor Rick Perry's claim that Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme." Contrary to some reports, Ryan didn't directly say that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme, but he noted that…

The Iranian minister of foreign affairs, Ali Akbar Salehi, is now scheduled to take part in the conference known as Durban III, according to a well-placed source close to the United Nations. On September 22, the U.N. will "commemorate" the 10th anniversary of Durban I that ended just three days…

The Atlantic: "Chart of the Day: 'Buffett Rule' Wouldn't Bring In Much Revenue"

As the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin writes, the Economic Freedom Network is out with its latest rankings of how countries stack up in securing economic freedom, and the United States has now fallen to 10th place in the world rankings — behind the United Kingdom. Numerically, the U.S. fell off…

Sometimes in politics appearing guilty can have more consequences that actually being guilty (though the two frequently are related). And this latest development in the Solyndra scandal certainly looks bad:

The Senate Budget Committee released this chart, displaying the numbers for Obama's September 2011 budget:

New York, New York—This week, the Palestinians have come to the United Nations, where they hope to gather enough support from the Security Council—or at least the General Assembly—to be recognized as Palestine, a true and independent nation, by the world community. The Palestinians will make the…

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry delivered the following remarks on the U.S., Israel, and Palestinian statehood in New York City earlier today:

Multiple times in recent weeks, President Obama has justified the need for higher taxes by saying that Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his secretary. Of course, this is a preposterous talking point (especially since Buffett owes hefty amounts of back taxes going back nine years). This…

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters shows that, by a margin of 20 percentage points (56 to 36 percent), Americans support the repeal of Obamacare. This marks the first time since the spring of 2010, shortly after Obamacare’s passage, that 3-straight Rasmussen polls have shown at least…

A new survey of 1,000 registered voters has found that 60 percent of respondents say state employees should contribute more to their pension fund, and 60 percent also say they are against raising taxes to pay for state budget shortfalls. The poll was conducted by veteran Democratic pollster Douglas…

According to the Wall Street Journal, "Tickets to Monday’s [fundraising] dinner were $35,800 per person, with $5,000 going to the Obama campaign and the rest going to the Democratic National Committee. That’s the maximum contribution allowed by law."

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has just released a statement on the Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations, blasting President Obama's policies toward Israel for the situation. “What we are watching unfold at the United Nations is an unmitigated diplomatic disaster," Romney…

Steve Hayes, with Juan Williams and Charles Krauthammer, last night on Fox News:

David Brooks: "Obama Rejects Obamaism"

New York Times columnist David Brooks writes: 

Susan Page on USA Today/Gallup's latest poll: 

CBS: 

Phil Klein: "Obama reaches out to liberals with budget plan"

One of the supposed “benefits” for the Palestinians of achieving U.N. recognition of statehood in the West Bank and Gaza would be the possibility for the new "state" to submit itself to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), thereby paving the way for prosecutions of Israeli…

President Barack Obama, in a speech in the Rose Garden this morning, reiterated his belief that taxes must increase on "millionaires and billionaires" in the supercommittee's deficit reduction agreement. "Now, we’re already hearing the usual defenders of these kinds of loopholes saying this is just…

Over at Reason, Tim Cavanaugh observes that the few defenses being mounted for loaning failed solar company Solyndra $535 million in stimulus funds are really, really wanting. "Democrats appear to be backing into a strategy of vilifying the company (previous efforts to blame perfidious China and…

President Obama, whose annual deficit spending has been more than twice as high as any other recent president’s (even as a percentage of the gross domestic product), has now released his new deficit plan. As the Wall Street Journal notes, “It is the president’s fourth package of deficit-reduction…

The Los Angeles Times opened up a new front in the Solyndra scandal on Friday (and there are too many fronts to count at this point), reporting that Steve Spinner, another prominent Obama donor, served as a top official in the Energy Department program that made the half-billion dollar loan to the…

Sabratha, Libya—“Girls were going to school under the Taliban! I know, because I was living in Kabul in 1999.” Youssef, 45, is as insistent on this untruth as this cheerful, equable man gets. A barrel-chested Libyan who spent ten years in Afghanistan under unclear circumstances, followed by eleven…

GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney has earned the endorsement of Arizona congressman and 2012 Senate candidate Jeff Flake. From a Romney press release:

The boss is on his way to New York, but he reports from the train that he had an unusual dream last night, in which a copy of Governor Chris Christie's private schedule for the next three weeks appeared to him. When he woke up, he scribbled down what he remembered:

Speaker of the House John Boehner reiterated his commitment to Israel yesterday, in a speech given at the Jewish National Fund’s 2011 National Conference in Cincinnati. Boehner's speech is particularly timely, considering that the Palestinians will seek statehood at United Nations later this week.…

Bill Kristol and Paul Gigot, along with Evan Bayh and Juan Williams, discussed on Fox News Sunday whether New Jersey Republican governor Chris Christie will jump into the 2012 presidential race:

The debate intensifies around Obama's treatment of Israel. Today, the Emergency Committee for Israel goes behind enemy lines, running a full page advertisement in the New York Times that explains to President Obama what he should do if he wants to stand with Israel this week at the United Nations. 

Bloomberg: "Obama Deficit Plan to Call for $1.5 Trillion in Higher Taxes"

This tenth anniversary of that grim September day when so many innocent people died in the most horrible fashion is a time to mourn their loss, as well as the thousands who have been lost in the past 10 years of the war against global terrorists, and to share in the grief of the loved ones they…

While most Americans spend their Labor Day weekend savoring the last moments of summer vacation, political scientists are normally hard at work at their annual association meeting, held this year in Seattle. This event is usually a rather sedate affair, with scholars debating such recondite…

I haven’t seen The Help; I keep meaning to, but I also keep meaning to get my shoes shined and my receipts filed according to month, and I haven’t done those either. The Help strikes me, a male entering my sixth decade, as a movie to be seen more out of duty than out of desire, and I understand…

Eons ago, in 1989, when Germany was in the midst of its most intense phase of coming to grips with the murder of the European Jews by largely ordinary Germans, Times Books was planning a collection of essays subtitled “Contemporary Writers Make the Holocaust Personal.” The American writers’ task…

Historians will little note nor long remember what President Obama said in his jobs speech to Congress last Thursday night. For one thing, it was painfully obvious that the main job Obama was concerned to save was his own. But some may, after Obama leaves office in January 2013, recall the inspired…

At last week’s Republican debate at the Reagan Library, a long-simmering Texas political feud made its grand entrance onto the national stage. Politico’s John Harris asked GOP presidential frontrunner and Texas governor Rick Perry about his former political adviser Karl Rove’s recent statement that…

A year from now, the presidential election campaign will be in full swing. Obama and the Republican nominee will be touring the country at a feverish pace, trying hard to convince swing voters to go their way. Obviously, we’re still too far out from November 2012 to know what will happen, but we’re…

President Obama did a good job of feinting to the right on national security issues during his first two years in office. Lacking much standing on military policy, he often acceded to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Michael…

Biography is a form of love affair, the more intense because it can never be consummated. Like lovers, biographers rifle through their subjects’ letters and diaries for evidence of the absent one’s activities and affections. They guard their subject’s reputation and become jealous of rivals. They…

Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. The economy is suffering from low growth and high unemployment. Families are struggling with debt. Many are living in homes whose mortgages cost more than the property is worth. All over the world, governments are reeling from the economic and political…

If you want a glimpse of the way Rick Perry operates as an executive and a politician, consider the issue of higher education reform in Texas, which no one in Texas knew was an issue until Perry decided to make it one.

Business leaders often feel obliged to keep a strong public persona and make conspicuous displays of philanthropy to persuade the public to like, or at least respect, them. They aren’t content to let their good works or business prowess speak for themselves—as if creating thousands of jobs and…

Nashua, New Hampshire

Way down in what passes for my soul, I’ve always felt an impatience—a kind of ungenerous demand for efficiency, immediacy, and speed. Add to that the small tremor I’ve always had in my hands, and I may be the worst painter in the world today. 

Obesity is the new global warming, and the battle plan for the crusade against it was published in the August issue of the journal Lancet. Funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and coauthored…

Americans have always prided themselves on being a practical, self-made people, suspicious of newfangled theories in foreign books. Early cultural heroes were worldly-wise figures like Daniel Boone and David Crockett, and bookishness was nearly the end of Ichabod Crane. Ralph Waldo Emerson, for his…

The president, you may remember, gave a speech this past January in the wake of the shooting of Rep. -Gabrielle Giffords on how “only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation.” Some consider the speech to be the finest of his presidency, though…

As Maine is New England’s Texas, France is Europe’s U.S.A. It’s big. It’s ornery. Like us, the French are notably more inward-looking than Europe’s other populous, geographically big, and prosperous states. Despite France’s co-leadership of the European unification project, a new German Marshall…

A CBS News/New York Times poll taken from September 10th-15th (both before and after the most recent debate) shows Rick Perry with a 7-point edge (23 to 16 percent) over Mitt Romney among registered voters who intend to vote in a Republican primary or caucus. Newt Gingrich has moved into a tie with…

On September 17, 1787, George Washington, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and 36 other Constitutional Convention delegates completed four months of labors at Philadelphia’s Independence Hall and signed the glorious document that, upon its ratification, would become the Constitution of the United…

According to the intro to Bar Rescue, a reality series on Spike TV, "last year, more than 5,000 failing bars nationwide closed their doors for good." As a last-ditch effort, some of these bar owners have decided to seek the advice of the show's host, Jon Taffer, one of the country's leading bar and…

One of our great misfortunes is that all of the world’s leaders seem to have a stake in proclaiming that the end of the world is near. President Barack Obama is touring the country telling audiences that unless Congress passes his new jobs bill -- the word “stimulus” is considered too laden with…

Jon Stewart skewers the Obama administration on Solyndra.

Unless Congress passes a law to reduce the long-term federal deficit by more than $1.2 trillion by January 2012, the debt limit deal, agreed upon last month, will result in two major cuts to the military budget.

Elliott Abrams, Eliot Cohen, Eric Edelman, and John Hannah have an op-ed in the Washington Post that responds to "a curious op-ed this week about the Bush administration’s response to the secret al-Kibar nuclear reactor built by Syria and North Korea," which was written by Bob Woodward. The former…

Earlier this week, Tom Donnelly and Gary Schmitt wrote a FoxNews.com column that detailed how cutting defense would be bad for creating jobs:

Miles Kristan, the Madison protester ticketed for disorderly conduct after he allegedly poured beer on the heads of Republican lawmakers, refused to say during an interview with NBC's Milwaukee affiliate whether he is, in fact, the person who did the deed.

Congressman Mike Rogers delivered this coherent, Reaganesque defense of defense this morning at the American Enterprise Institute:

Salon, the online magazine, is looking for a passionate reporter to cover Washington politics. Sounds interesting! Based on this listing from JournalismJobs.com, however, I am urging interested parties to refrain from showing up for the interview carrying a copy of Atlas Shrugged:

Via Hot Air, Michele Bachmann was asked Thursday she would like to apologize for repeating a woman's story that the HPV vaccine caused "mental retardation" in her daughter. CBS reports: 

A couple of weeks ago, a Rasmussen poll showed Rick Perry leading President Obama 44% to 41%. But Rasmussen's latest polling shows a change of fortunes, with Perry trailing Obama 39% to 46%.

A protester in Madison has been ticketed for pouring a beer on the head of a Republican lawmaker Tuesday night. According to a report by NBC's Milwaukee affiliate TMJ-4, "Republican assemblyman Robin Vos and two other Republicans were at the Inn on the Park Tuesday night, when they had beer poured…

President Obama likes to talk about how “millionaires and billionaires” who make over $200,000 a year need “to give back a little bit more.” But by restricting charitable deductions, his proposed jobs bill would incentivize them to give back a little bit less. In today’s Wall Street Journal, former…

Tomorrow, September 17, is Constitution Day. Aside from being a general observance where we honor new American citizens and the adoption of the U.S. Constitution, federal law mandates that “each educational institution that receives Federal funds for a fiscal year shall hold an educational program…

Charles Krauthammer writes that Social Security is, indeed, a Ponzi scheme.  It’s also “the most vital…of all social programs,” and it can easily be saved from collapse — mostly by (gradually) raising the age of eligibility:  “When Franklin Roosevelt created Social Security, choosing 65 as the…

Rick Perry, writing in the Jerusalem Post: 

In a column titled "Democrats Plagued By Ingratitude," Byron York poses these questions:

Former Homeland Security chief and governor of Pennsylvania Tom Ridge will endorse Jon Huntsman for president: 

Steve Hayes, with Mary Katharine Ham and Charles Lane, last night on Fox News:

Washington Post: "U.N. showdown over Palestinian statehood tests limits of U.S. influence"

I couldn’t help but take note of this video:

The Protecting Jobs From Government Interference Act, which simply "prohibit[s] the National Labor Relations Board from ordering any employer to close, relocate, or transfer employment under any circumstance," passed the House of Representatives today, 238-186. Eight Democrats voted for the bill,…

Washington Post: "Marine Sgt. Dakota Meyer receives Medal of Honor"

The boss and forty-one other policy experts have a written letter to the president, urging Obama not to draw down too quickly in Iraq (read Max Boot's editorial here):

The Emergency Committee for Israel recommends President Obama take these five steps, if he's interested in being considered a pro-Israel president:

Ezra Schricker writes this letter to the editor in response to Max Boot’s review “Suicide by Bomb: Misunderstanding a weapon in the terrorists’ arsenal,” which appeared in a recent issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD (Boot's own rejoinder follows): 

According to a new InsiderAdvantage poll, Texas governor Rick Perry has a nine-point lead over his closest rival, Mitt Romney, in Florida. The poll finds that 29 percent of respondents would vote for Perry in a primary election, while 20 percent would vote for Romney. None of the other candidates…

On Monday night, Republican presidential hopefuls met for a debate in Tampa, Florida. Perhaps one of the more incoherent exchanges that evening was when Texas governor Rick Perry attempted to explain his position on the war in Afghanistan.

At the Daily Beast, Eli Lake reports on a House investigation into whether the Obama administration tried to pressure an Air Force general to change his congressional testimony to help a major campaign donor:

AEI scholar Tom Donnelly delivered the following testimony at a hearing the other day on Capitol Hill: 

We may be witnessing a perfect Washington moment. For most of the workweek, attention has been focused on the collapse of a solar energy company that had received economically dubious–and politically motivated–subsidies of some $500 million. On Sunday, the city’s football franchise, the Redskins,…

The Washington Post reports that the stimulus-backed Department of Energy loan guarantee program, which financed green energy companies like the failed solar energy start-up Solyndra and three projects for the Abengoa corporation, has created far fewer jobs than the Obama administration projected:

Speaking in Virginia yesterday afternoon, Rick Perry admitted that his effort to require young schoolgirls to get vaccinated for HPV was a mistake, saying, “We should have had an opt-in instead of an opt-out.” Perry, who previously had said only that it was a mistake to have issued an executive…

Maryland governor Martin O’Malley said Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry “seceded” from the National Governors Association (NGA), of which O'Malley is a member. The Democratic governor made the tongue-in-cheek remark to reporters in Washington this morning at a breakfast sponsored by the…

Senate majority leader Harry Reid was in full form this morning, taking on the great issue of our day . . . bike paths!

News from Egypt is not good. Six months after the revolution, demonstrators in Tahrir Square are no longer protesting the Mubarak regime, but the military’s own undemocratic governing practices. Meanwhile, the economy is deteriorating and the security situation—in the Sinai and the Nile…

A new Bloomberg poll shows Rick Perry with a four-point lead over Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination for president.

Hot Air: "Harry Reid: We’ve, er, got some other stuff to do before we get around to that jobs bill"

The Obama administration is now pushing a rather dubious defense for handing out $535 million in stimulus funds to the now-bankrupt solar panel manufacturer Solyndra. They're blaming Bush:

Declare the pennies on your eyes: Jan Schakowsky doesn't think you deserve to keep all the money you earn.

In Jeffrey Anderson's post arguing against Pennsylvania's plan to switch from a winner-take-all system and award its electoral votes by congressional district, like Maine and Nebraska do, he writes that the plan would "render Pennsylvania essentially irrelevant in the presidential election."…

Even as problems grow for Solyndra, the solar energy manufacturing firm that got a hefty stimulus-backed loan before going bankrupt earlier this month, the Department of Energy continues to issue large loans to companies. The Los Angeles Times reports on a newly approved loan of $1.2 billion to the…

Check out this Rachel Maddow segment from July 18:

As John McCormack reports, some leading Pennsylvania Republicans are apparently flirting with the idea of changing the state’s method of allocating electoral votes from the usual winner-take-all method—the norm since the American Founding—to a method of allocating one electoral vote for each…

USA Today reports: 

Elizabeth Warren, the Harvard law professor who helped create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, announced this morning she is running for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts. Warren joins six other declared candidates in the Democratic primary race, the winner of which will face incumbent…

During a joint hearing of the Senate and House intelligence committees yesterday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified that the recidivism rate for former Guantanamo detainees has risen to an estimated 27 percent. The total number of “confirmed” and “suspected” recidivists,…

President Obama, speaking today in North Carolina, said that "if you love me, you gotta help me pass this bill!"

The U.N. has quietly released the list of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that will be allowed to attend its “anti-racism” conference on September 22, 2011 in New York. All NGOs that requested credentials to attend the so-called “Durban III” conference were granted permission, except for four…

Yesterday, the Palestinian Liberation Organization's ambassador to the U.S. wouldn't say whether homosexuals would be tolerated in a Palestinian state. At the Jerusalem Post, Benjamin Weinthal points out that the death penalty is the price for being gay in the Gaza strip:

Dan Senor, writing in the Wall Street Journal:

In yesterday's special election for Congress in Nevada, Republican Mark Amodei trounced Democrat Kate Marshall in the Second Congressional District. Amodei received 58 percent of the vote, while Marshall received only 36 percent. The Las Vegas Sun has more:

Democratic senators, Politico reports, are voicing obvious displeasure with aspects of the president's jobs plan. 

Al Qaeda has released a tape commemorating the 10th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. According to the invaluable SITE Intelligence Group, the tape includes a speech given by Osama bin Laden that appears to be the same one found in the terror master’s Abbottabad, Pakistan…

How did Republican Bob Turner pull off an 8-point win (54%-46%) in a district that gave Turner just 39% of the vote in 2010 and went 55% for Obama in 2008? Sure, it helped that the Democratic incumbent Anthony Weiner resigned in disgrace after he accidentally posted a lewd photo of himself,…

I’m in New York, and the hotels are jammed with diplomats and bureaucrats associated with the U.N. General Assembly session, which opened yesterday. Overhearing various conversations at breakfast, I was reminded of John Bolton’s comment that "The secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If…

Telegraph: "Libya could fall into hands of extremists, Nato warns"

The president sure seems excited about his jobs bill, as he runs around the country like it’s a political game-changer. Liberals seem pretty jazzed about it, too. They all appear to think that this is just the tonic the White House needed: an obviously excellent proposal that will reveal…

With 70% of precincts reporting in New York's 9th congressional district, Republican Bob Turner is leading 53% to 47% and his lead is only expected to grow. The AP calls it for Turner:

Two big stories are out tonight on the blossoming scandal involving failed solar panel company and stimulus funds recipient Solyndra. First, the Washington Post reports that the White House pressured the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to speed up the approval process for Solyndra's $535…

While some Republicans have taken an anti-interventionist turn lately, Florida senator and rising GOP star Marco Rubio made the case today for a vigorous U.S. foreign policy that promotes freedom and human rights abroad.

Talking Points Memo: Elizabeth Warren will announce her run for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts--against Scott Brown--tomorrow.

Rick Perry's presidential campaign has just announced the support of Nevada governor Brian Sandoval. “Our nation needs a leader in the White House who understands the role of government and our economy,” Sandoval said in a statement released by Perry's campaign. “Gov. Rick Perry has the strongest…

Bob Woodward’s recent piece in the Washington Post argues that the debacle of the Iraq-WMD case should have made the Bush administration more circumspect about intelligence—and that everyone understood this lesson except the vice president. He offers the Syrian nuclear reactor destroyed by the…

Josh Rogin reports that South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham is "disappointed" with Texas governor Rick Perry's position on the war in Afghanistan.

The plan, which has the support of Pennsylvania's governor and senate majority leader, would have a huge impact on the presidential race if it passes: 

“The fundamental question for you is not how we got here, but where you want the country to go,” said Douglas Elmendorf, director of the Congressional Budget Office, to the members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (or the supercommittee) today. “What role do you and your…

Fred Barnes reviews John J. Miller's The Big Scrum in the Wall Street Journal:

I worked with Bob Woodward when serving as a press officer at the National Security Council during President George W. Bush’s first term, and I believe him to be one of the fairest and the most thorough journalists in Washington. Nonetheless, his recent piece in the Outlook section of the…

Just this morning, White House adviser David Axelrod went on network television and laid down an ultimatum about the president's jobs bill:

In last night's GOP presidential debate Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann lambasted Texas governor Rick Perry for his executive order, which never went into effect, that sixth grade girls should receive a vaccine to prevent HPV, a sexually transmitted disease that causes cervical cancer.…

TWS friend Tom Winkler has posted some wonderful photos from France's remembrance of 9/11 over the weekend on his blog:

Maen Areikat, the Palestinian Liberation Organization's ambassador to the United States, met with reporters in Washington D.C. this morning at a breakfast sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor to talk about the Palestinian bid for statehood next week at the United Nations. But what would a…

Princeton University professor Alan Krueger, recently named by President Obama to be the new chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, is perhaps best known for his claim that raising minimum wage will not reduce employment. But Krueger has had a long, varied career as a labor economist—and a…

A host of liberal politicians and pundits have taken House Republican leader Eric Cantor to task for daring to insist that any disaster spending allocated to pay for the damage done by Hurricane Irene be offset in the budget elsewhere. They view Cantor as injecting politics into the country’s…

Bloomberg: "Obama Team Backed Solyndra Despite Concerns"

If Monday night's GOP presidential debate is any indication, Romneycare may not be the liability it once was for Mitt Romney. The former Bay State governor took fewer punches on the issue than before and seemed to have absorbed most of the blows.

Phil Klein: "GOP debate winner: 'None of the above'"

If a debate more than four months before the first vote is cast can influence the outcome of a presidential nomination race, the debate last night among eight Republicans should aid Mitt Romney’s candidacy. Seldom has there been as clear a winner.

Tonight, Texas governor Rick Perry finally got a taste of what it's really like to really be a front-runner in a GOP presidential race. During his first presidential debate last week, Perry locked horns with Mitt Romney and had to defend his record on job creation and his rhetoric on Social…

At Monday night’s GOP debate in Tampa, Mitt Romney continued to defend the health care law he signed as governor of Massachusetts while insisting that Barack Obama’s signature Obamacare law ought to be repealed. Romney contrasted his “Romneycare” plan with the president’s law as best as he could.

Tonight's CNN/Tea Party Express Republican presidential debate focused primarily on the economy. Only two GOP presidential candidates were given the opportunity to weigh in on Afghanistan (there were no questions on Iraq, Libya, etc.)—former Utah governor and Obama administration diplomat Jon…

Jon Huntsman, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum have taken the stage in Tampa, Florida for the Tea Party Express/CNN debate. Moderator Wolf Blitzer announced that all 8 GOP presidential candidates were on stage. But they aren't . . .…

Jim Cornelison sang the "Star Spangled Banner," yesterday, September 11, 2011, before the Chicago Bears kicked off against the Atlanta Falcons:

Hot on the heels of this morning's announcement of former Minnesota governor and former presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty's endorsement of Mitt Romney, the Perry campaign pulls out the stops to make sure they don't get one-upped ahead of tonight's debate:

President Barack Obama will tout his American Jobs Act at WestStar Precision, a small business run by a donor to the president's inaugural, in Apex, North Carolina on Wednesday, September 14. WestStar’s president, Ervin Portman, is a Democratic county commissioner for Wake County who donated $1,000…

Maggie Haberman reports: "Mike Huckabee rapped Rick Perry for his Social Security comments on Laura Ingraham's radio show, and suggested that Tim Pawlenty lined up behind Mitt Romney because he may be the more 'electable' choice."

Jerusalem—Jeffrey Goldberg reported last week that former defense secretary Robert Gates thinks that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “ungrateful” for all that Washington has done for Israel. The purpose of the story, leaked by senior administration officials, is to blame Netanyahu for…

During last week's GOP presidential debate, Rick Perry spent more time defending his "provocative" rhetoric than emphasizing that he wants to save Social Security. But in a USA Today op-ed, Perry changes his tone. He writes that we need a "frank and honest discussion" about the program, but makes…

The Emergency Committee for Israel's new campaign in New York City, featuring billboards, print ads, a web ad on the New York Times homepage, and a new website—check it out at www.NotProIsrael.com.

The Associated Press reports that, according to Iranian state TV, the mullahs have "stepped up" nuclear operations "after years of delay."

CNN reports the findings of its latest poll: 

Former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out of the race for the GOP presidential nomination last month, has endorsed former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney for president, according to a Romney campaign press release. Here's an excerpt:

New York Times: "Standing Side by Side at Ground Zero, Bush and Obama Mark Crucial Moment"

In a phone call going out to Latino households in New York's 9th congressional district, Democratic state senator Ruben Diaz slams Democratic candidate David Weprin and endorses Republican Bob Turner in Tuesday's special election.

With the former president of Egypt on his back in a courtroom cage pleading for his life, we may be starting to get a clearer idea of who Egyptians will choose to succeed Hosni Mubarak in the upcoming November elections. Friday, July 29, tens of thousands of Islamists filled Tahrir Square,…

On page 251, Dick Cheney admits a mistake. He had shot his friend Harry Whittington in the face, and in the hours that followed, did not put out a statement about the accident. “In retrospect,” he writes, “we should have.”

William McKinley (1843-1901) once wrote that “the march of events rules and overrules human action.” In the case of his presidency, and its untimely end, those words were prophetic.

In 1950, real estate developers looking to satisfy postwar America’s burgeoning demand for housing decided that Assateague Island, a sandy slice of land off the Maryland and Virginia coasts, would make a good place for a new neighborhood. Using federal and state funds, they built a road running…

Sometimes talking with liberals is perplexing. You never know what claim they will make next or what name they will call you. Take David Axelrod’s response to Standard & Poor’s recent credit action: He calls it the “Tea Party downgrade.” Amazingly, he blames the United States’ loss of its AAA bond…

'The simplest question,” Dick Cheney writes in his memoir In My Time, “is the most important one.” He mentions this in the context of asking how many American nukes were aimed at Kiev during the Cold War. For President Obama, with job growth stuck near zero, the simplest question is a domestic one.…

With Paul Ryan out of the race, the last chance of a substantive program emerging from the debates of the Republican wannabes has gone a‑glimmering. Or has it? Dare we hope that some one​—​better still, several​—​of the candidates eager to take on a president whose popularity is suffering from the…

Thanks to the provisions of the Budget Control Act and the subsequent directions of President Obama’s budget director, Jack Lew, the Department of Defense is figuring out how to trim $1 trillion from its current and planned budgets. Perhaps the principal target in the sights is the F-35 Joint…

Mike was from Ohio and rowed crew. Andrew was from China and spoke little English. Jeremy, from Long Island, arrived on campus with a pet snake. Jacob was interested in architecture. Amy had cheerful eyes and long black hair.

There’s a much-talked-about cable series called Torchwood: Miracle Day, in which people suddenly stop dying. Not that it’s heaven: Victims of severe gunshot wounds, stabbings, and other massive trauma suffer excruciating pain but simply cannot die. A convicted killer and pedophile (played by Bill…

As we approach the tenth anniversary of 9/11, we’re pleased to let two men of distinction speak for us. Here’s the president of the United States at the American Legion convention in Minneapolis last week:

Despite the insistence of formalists that music is about nothing but itself, the supreme composers take in and give out as much life as the supreme novelists do. That is as true of the modernists as it is of their generally more revered predecessors—though when it is modern life that the composer…

America’s colleges and universities, like most of the rest of the country, will soon be commemorating the tenth anniversary of 9/11, that preternaturally sunny day in early September a decade ago when 19 al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists commandeered four U.S. commercial air-liners and crashed them…

William Kristol: "The 9/11 Generation."

On Thursday, the president will award Dakota Meyer, a former active duty Marine Corps corporal, the Medal of Honor for his actions while serving as a member of Marine Embedded Training Team 2-8, Regional Corps Advisory Command 3-7, in Kunar Province, Afghanistan, on September 8, 2009 in support of…

On Sunday, the Episcopal Church’s National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. will host “A Call to Compassion” to commemorate 9/11.  President Obama will attend and speak at the concluding “Concert for Hope.”  Patti LaBelle will sing. CNN’s Anderson Cooper will host. After the recent earthquake and the…

Well, this is awkward. Despite $535 million in government loans and the White House touting Solyndra as an example of how the $800 billion stimulus bill was helping create jobs, everyone in the following video is now unemployed:

More readers are writing in to tell us how colleges and universities around the country are commemorating the tenth anniversary of 9/11 (and be sure to read Charlotte Allen's piece on how the country's elite universities are observing the tenth anniversary). Here are those examples:

The president used the occasion of his address to a joint session of Congress to propose $450 billion in spending and tax cuts, 3 percent of GDP, to bring down the 9.1 percent unemployment rate that threatens his reelection chances. Supporters say the proposals—some new, some a continuation of…

This tenth anniversary of that grim September day when so many innocent people died in the most horrible fashion is a time to mourn their loss, as well as the thousands who have been lost in the past 10 years of the war against global terrorists, and to share in the grief of the loved ones they…

Politico: "Eric Cantor: We'll pass some of Obama's jobs proposals"

The AFL-CIO's Richard Trumka, a man not known for his grasp of nuance, just released the following statement to commemorate 9/11:

Here's the first paragraph of the Washington Post's report of Dick Cheney's speech at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) earlier today:  

The Emergency Committee for Israel is going on air in New York's 9th congressional district with a new TV ad hammering President Obama's Israel policy in the run up to Tuesday's special election: 

On Friday, at noon, U.N. negotiators revealed the final text of the Durban III declaration that will be adopted by all heads of state attending the "anti-racism" event in New York on September 22, 2011.

Public Policy Polling's latest survey of North Carolina shows new lows for President Barack Obama. Forty-three percent of those polled approve of the president, while 53 percent disapprove. Obama won the Tar Heel State in 2008 by less than 15,000 votes, and while PPP says North Carolina is still in…

Democratic Assemblyman Dov Hikind announced earlier this week that he was crossing party lines to endorse Republican Bob Turner in the New York special election. Hikind, an Orthodox Jew who has been outspoken against the White Houses's Israel policy, appeared in person with Turner this morning at a…

There's been much analysis this morning about the president's jobs speech to the joint session last night. Is any of it feasible? Where does the president go from here? Of equal interest: What was the true purpose of this speech? You can find the best political analysis right here at the WEEKLY…

First, we had the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, or ARRA. Now, we have the American Jobs Act, or AJA.

It is true that the Christians of the Middle East are a persecuted minority—like all regional minorities, from the Shiites to the Druze and from the Kurds to the Jews. And the Christians are already suffering at the hands of Sunni extremists in Iraq and Egypt. But still, it is impossible to feel…

A new poll from the Siena Research Institute shows Republican Bob Turner, who lost to Anthony Weiner in 2010 with 39% of the vote, leading Democrat David Weprin by 6 points and hitting the magic 50%. In Siena's August 10 poll, Weprin was leading Turner 48% to 42%.

What a difference a month makes. Republican Bob Turner has a six-point lead in the latest Siena poll over Democrat David Weprin in the New York Ninth Congressional District special election. Fifty percent of the likely voters polled said they would vote for Turner in next Tuesday's election, which…

On CNBC this morning, Paul Ryan discussed President Obama's stimulus speech and explained the problem with most of Obama's proposed tax cuts: They're temporary.

President Obama said the following during his jobs speech last night:

At 6:51 a.m., the White House sent out an email with the following subject: "Michigan Governor Rick Snyder Backs American Jobs Act." It was odd, not because Snyder is a Republican, but because the governor's statement was not an endorsement of the president's plan at all. 

I find it truly comforting that some things never change — and two of those things are President Obama’s ideas and rhetoric. Obama’s long-awaited jobs speech offered his usual mix of hyper-partisanship (no longer convincingly masquerading as post-partisanship), class warfare, and thinly veiled…

London—Several days of Middle East discussions in London have not contributed to any sense of optimism about the near, or for that matter medium-range, future on the Israeli-Palestinian front. It did not appear to the officials with whom I spoke that PA president Mahmoud Abbas can be persuaded to…

CNN: "Officials confirm 'credible but unconfirmed' 9/11 threat"

Since Rick Perry has surged to the front of the GOP pack, questions have been raised about his past membership in the Democratic party, which ended in 1989. Ron Paul recently posted a pretty hard-hitting web video blasting Perry for having backed Al Gore in 1988, and Joe Scarborough – MSNBC’s token…

As they filed out of the Capitol Thursday evening, a few Republican House members told THE WEEKLY STANDARD what they thought of President Obama's address to Congress on jobs:

In a speech to a joint session of Congress this evening, President Obama introduced a $450 billion stimulus proposal plan he claimed would get Americans back to work. "There should be nothing controversial about this piece of legislation. Everything in here is the kind of proposal that’s been…

Here’s how bad it’s gotten for President Obama:

President Obama's jobs speech tonight outlined a wish list of $450 billion in infrastructre spending, tax cuts, tax credits and a host of other goodies. Up front the president made a bold promise about the cost of the bill: 

Republican presidential candidate Buddy Roemer has just issued a sharp statement in response to President Obama's jobs speech. "The President’s jobs plan will certainly create jobs – jobs in China," Roemer said. "Another $450 billion government stimulus is not the answer. The President’s…

Here's the full text of President Obama's jobs speech, delivered tonight before a joint session of Congress:

Reuters: Jon Kyl says he'll leave the super committee if it wants to cut defense spending further.

The Perry campaign blasts out a pretty clean hit on Mitt Romney: 

I care about Social Security (even if I don't expect ever to collect it) and perked up during last night's debate when business entrepreneur Herman Cain offered his opinion on how to fix it: "I believe in the Chilean model, where you give a personal retirement account option so we can move this…

The Israeli press is still trying to figure out what to make of Robert Gates’s parting shot at Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to Jeffrey Goldberg’s column earlier this the week, Gates thinks that Netanyahu is “ungrateful.”

The White House has released the list of those who will be sitting in the first lady's box tonight during President Obama's jobs address in Congress. Among the Obamas' guests will be several business leaders and politicians, including some very close friends of the president, and others from around…

Via Hot Air, I have no idea what the context of this video is, but that doesn't really matter. You should watch it:

Barack Obama has said that raising taxes in a struggling economy is “the last thing you want to do,” but for some Democrats on Capitol Hill raising taxes is a top priority. A proposal from Democratic members of the House Ways and Means Committee obtained by THE WEEKLY STANDARD favors raising top…

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan told reporters this morning that intelligence obtained during the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound showed that the man who plotted 9/11 "was still focused on carrying out attacks against the United States. ... It also revealed to me that he was a…

The president's speech tonight in front of a joint session of Congress is not a campaign speech. It just isn't. Obama will merely present a plan for economic recovery in front of members of both chambers of Congress, because that's what the president of the United States does when the economy…

The Hill reports: 

Rick Santelli took on Tom Friedman this morning in a heated exchange on CNBC, with both ending the discussion by calling the other "idiotic:"

A new study by economists Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Harold Furchtgott-Roth shows that one provision of Obamacare, a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical device manufacturers, could cause significant job losses—over 43,000, according to the report—in the industry. The whole report can be read here, but…

At the U.N. in New York, diplomats have been putting the finishing touches on a new “anti-racism” declaration set to be adopted by over a hundred world leaders at the annual opening of the General Assembly. The declaration will be the culmination of the one-day summit on September 22, known as…

Rick Perry's doubling down on his "Social Security is a Ponzi scheme" rhetoric during last night's debate could be beneficial for him in a Republican primary but hurtful in a general election. And while the Mitt Romney campaign was quick to pounce on the statement with its not-so-subtle "PERRY DOES…

Fifteen minutes into last night’s Republican presidential debate, Michele Bachmann became the first candidate to mention and attack Obamacare. She did so after five other debaters had already spoken, and in response to a question that didn’t explicitly reference the overhaul — thereby immediately…

President Obama recently quashed a proposed new EPA ozone standard. Al Gore went so far as to express his disappointment in Obama publicly yesterday, accusing the president of "not "relying on science." But Perhaps Al Gore should learn to rely more on economics -- the proposed ozone standard would…

According to the Gallup daily tracking poll, President Barack Obama hit his lowest monthly job approval rating last month, including his lowest rating among whites, Hispanics, and blacks. Black support for the president has slipped to an average 84 percent (the second time Gallup is showing this…

Hot Air: "It begins: Romney, Perry clash over jobs"

Rick Perry came into his first GOP presidential debate and did what any frontrunner needs to do: avoid any serious gaffes. He may not have had the strongest answer to every question he was asked, but Perry seemed to fight Romney, at the very least, to a draw when the two went toe-to-toe. But, as…

National Review Online: Gibson CEO will attend Obama's jobs speech tomorrow night.

In 2010, Republican Bob Turner lost to Democrat Anthony Weiner in New York's 9th congressional district 39% to 61%, but the polls showing a close race in next Tuesday's special election between Turner and Democratic Assemblyman David Weprin to fill Weiner's old seat.

Michele Bachmann may not know what part of the Constitution she thinks was violated by Romneycare, but she nevertheless deserves credit for making an excellent point about our constitutional design during Monday’s GOP presidential forum. While many unsuspecting public school students (myself…

House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon just released the following video, "Provide for the Common Defense: The U.S. Military 10 Years After 9/11."

Has the United States been successful in its war against terrorism? Yes, without a doubt. Although Islamic militancy remains a potent force, especially in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent, Washington’s relentless pursuit of armed jihadists has severely damaged the capacity of Sunni radical…

If the president’s Labor Day speech at a General Motors plant in Detroit is any indication, Barack Obama may be hoping to use his administration’s cozy relationship with Big Auto as a boon to his reelection campaign, especially since his efforts to boost the economy and cut unemployment have fallen…

In Muslim-majority Kosovo last week, as the fasting month of Ramadan came to an end and families prepared for the reopening of public schools, the parliamentary Assembly of the Republic rendered its judgment on a controversy that has agitated the country for more than a year: It voted not to permit…

The Washington Times reports that Democrats are supporting more airline ticket taxes to cover more invasive searches:

Yesterday, over at the Washington Post, Greg Sargent accused "Tea Party conservatives" of having a "ridiculous hissy fit over Jimmy Hoffa:"

Charlotte Allen's story this week documents how many of the country's top universities are commemorating the tenth anniversary of the September 11th attacks with postmodern intellectual posturing and Islamic outreach. But we're pleased to note that not all of the nation's universities have lost…

The American Enterprise Institute, the Foreign Policy Initiative, and the Heritage Foundation are holding an event on Capitol Hill tomorrow called "Defense Spending and the Super Committee." The all star lineup includes the boss, Tom Donnelly, Senator Kelly Ayotte, Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator…

When al Qaeda attacked the United States on September 11, the response was swift. Saudi Arabia, home of the Wahhabi ideology that inspired 15 of the 19 hijackers, reacted somewhat more slowly.

On Labor Day, during the GOP presidential forum in South Carolina, Mitt Romney had the following exchange with the host, Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.).  DeMint asked, “As you know, if you’re the nominee, the president is going to say that you implemented Obamacare in Massachusetts. How would you…

Wall Street Journal: "Infrastructure Likely Part of Obama Jobs Push"

It’s often been said that Barack Obama is an audacious leader. But perhaps it's better to consider the possibility that he is just a politician who lacks a sense of irony, at least when it comes to himself. For example, last weekend in Detroit, the president said:          

Lots of words have been and will be written for the tenth anniversary of 9/11, but Wilfred McClay has set a very high standard of courage, clarity, and eloquence with his "Memorializing September 11th." It's in the forthcoming issue of National Affairs, and is now available on their website. Here's…

A major labor union leader, Teamsters president James Hoffa, is not backing down from comments he made shortly before President Barack Obama's Labor Day speech that called on union workers to “take these sons of bitches out,” referring to members of the Tea Party and Republicans. Hoffa tells…

Wall Street Journal: Latest Fast and Furious development -- did ATF sanction dealing grenades to Mexican cartels?

This afternoon, Mitt Romney introduced a “business plan for the American economy” to an audience at McCandless International Trucks in North Las Vegas, Nevada. Speaking to the friendly crowd in a blue blazer and khaki pants, Romney outlined his 59-point jobs and economic plan, including 10…

Mother Jones's latest scoop: 

Michele Bachmann knows that the Constitution prohibits the states from imposing health-insurance mandates.  She just doesn't know what part of the Constitution does this.  But she's open to suggestions. 

Texas congressman Ron Paul is out with a new ad attacking Texas governor Rick Perry for his support of Al Gore in the 1988 presidential election, when Perry was still a registered Democrat. Watch the ad below:

The most interesting moments during yesterday's presidential forum in South Carolina came when the Republican candidates grappled with a thorny question about the United States constitution and human rights. One of the questioners, Professor Robert George of Princeton, wanted to know whether the…

The latest poll from the surprisingly contentious special election in New York's Ninth Congressional District shows Republican Bob Turner with a small lead over Democrat David Weprin. Magellan Strategies, a firm associated with Republican political candidates, surveyed 2,055 likely voters for next…

Politico's Keach Hagey reported last week on what appeared to be, and was later confirmed as, coordination between the not for profit and allegedly non-partisan Center for Public Integrity (CPI) and the environmental activist group Greenpeace. Each organization had produced a report on the chemical…

In her speech to a Tea Party gathering in Indianola, Iowa on Saturday, Sarah Palin criticized what she called "crony capitalism:" 

Mitt Romney offers a glimpse of his economic plan, which he will lay out later today in a speech in Nevada, in an op-ed in today's USA Today. Here's what Romney has to say about taxes and regulations:

For a while now, Obama's been mentioning in speeches that there are free-trade agreements that need to be ratified as away to create jobs and spur growth... while blaming Republicans for the hold up. Today, Mitch McConnell blasts Obama in the Washington Post for his blatant dishonesty on the issue:

Americans are more confident than ever that Obamacare will be repealed, according to the latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters. By a margin of 25 percentage points (54 to 29 percent), Americans now think repeal is “likely” (whether “very” or “somewhat”).

There's been a lot of talk about how the unemployment rate, currently at 9.1 percent, is putting a damper on President Obama's reelection prospects. On Sunday's edition of The Chris Matthews Show, the eponymous host pointed out that "for FDR running for his second term in the Great Depression, the…

WEEKLY STANDARD contributor Ron Radosh, one of the top anti-communist scholars in the country, reports this bombshell about one of America's most popular furniture brands:

The German Marshall Fund has released data from its annual Transatlantic Trends survey. The most striking finding: “there remains a very strong transatlantic difference of opinion over whether war is sometimes necessary to obtain justice, with 75% of U.S. participants  agreeing with that concept…

The most interesting moments in yesterday's presidential forum in South Carolina came when the five participating presidential candidates grappled with a question posed by Princeton professor Robert P. George regarding the 14th amendment, the Supreme Court, and the right to life. The conservative…

An upbeat beginning to the school year in today's Washington Post: The new ABC/Post poll has Obama's overall approval at 43 percent, with 53 percent disapproving. If these numbers hold, it's very unlikely Obama will be reelected.

Rasmussen's latest poll of likely caucus participants: 

Associated Press: "Libyan rebels round up black Africans"

You can watch the Perry-less GOP presidential forum online beginning at 3:00 p.m.

Texas governor Rick Perry won't participate in the presidential forum today in South Carolina, where Senator Jim DeMint, Congressman Steve King, and Princeton professor Robert George are questioning GOP presidential candidates. A Perry spokesman says the governor had to return to Texas because of…

In a recent New York Times column, Frank Bruni reported on the feud between celebrity chefs Anthony Bourdain and Paula Deen. Though it's been simmering for some time now, the tensions boiled over when the star of No Reservations told TV Guide that Deen was "the worst, most dangerous person to…

Once upon a time we had a president who sulked that his relatively uneventful tenure denied him the chance to thrust his way into greatness. In the days after 9/11, the New York Times carried a quotation from a “close friend” about Bill Clinton’s misfortune: “He has said there has to be a defining…

New York

We human beings seem to crave creation myths. The tale of Adam and Eve moved people for millennia, and still seems thrilling and sad, even though we know all about natural selection. And we still talk, however jokingly, about Abner Doubleday as the inventor of baseball. The Doubleday myth sprang…

Tripoli

There have been two major books published this summer on relations between the United States and China: Henry Kissinger’s On China and this one. And while Kissinger himself has had an immense impact on how those relations have unfolded over the past four decades, Aaron L. Friedberg’s volume will …

There was something almost princely in the way Steve Jobs went about selecting the shape and location of the proposed new Apple headquarters, announced in June to the city council of Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. Usually a large project like this—even a small project—develops gradually…

Dear Mitt Romney: Please don’t knock down your $12 million beach house in California and replace it with a new one almost four times its size. At least not while you’re running for president and your campaign has yet to catch fire. We know it gets cramped, but a lot of other people are cramped…

As a rule, the press is the scourge of presidents. They’re expected to endure unending scrutiny, mistrust, and badgering—plus hostility if they’re Republicans—by a hectoring herd of reporters and commentators in the mainstream media. But there’s an exception to the rule: President Obama.

My Western friends got a good laugh out of the shattered nerves in Washington—and all along the eastern seaboard, as far as I can tell—after last week’s earthquake. Just as my New England/Midwestern friends are amused by Washington’s paralysis when it snows, the Californians of my acquaintance were…

The reporter went to the City of Light in the summer of 1925. He found himself in the capital of a nation at the height of its military, economic, and cultural power. The continental empires that had been threats to France—Germany, the Hapsburgs, Russia—were smoldering wrecks. France’s economy…

With Muammar Qaddafi perhaps on his last legs, Libyan rebel leaders are looking for $5 billion to rebuild a country wracked by nearly half a year of civil war. It’s hardly surprising that the first international aid conference is scheduled for Qatar, since no Arab leader has provided more…

So, the vice president goes to China—and if that sounds like the beginning of a bad comedy routine, it’s because our current vice president has made it one. The man is a walking pratfall, a clown of the tongue-tied, stumbling kind, and only the media’s determined effort to shield the Obama…

With Muammar Qaddafi still at large, continued fighting in parts of Libya, and an uncertain future ahead for that country’s long-oppressed people, one hesitates to make too many categorical judgments about the remarkable turn of events there. A few things can be said, however.

Without doubt, the center ring under the big top in Libya is the act of deposing a brutal dictator, Muammar Qaddafi, whose long record of depredation includes the deaths of hundreds of Americans in acts of terrorism great and small. There is a sideshow not to be missed, however. It concerns the…

In the current age of print saturation it’s always a shock to encounter a book billing itself as a “first exposé” on a topic. Yet that’s exactly what Intern Nation is. When between one and two million American students hold internships each year, and the nearest thing to an objective examination an…

Al Gore will never die. Or at least, he doesn’t plan to. 

There is gloom and then there is doom. We Americans have plenty of reason for the former as we say goodbye to summer on this holiday weekend on which I am told the last gin and tonic of the season is consumed by those so inclined. Confidence in the economy is plunging at the fastest rate since the…

The United Nations report on the Mavi Marmara incident, entitled "Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla Incident," is now public and largely exculpates Israel.  All the facts are as Israel contended and as the Commission notes "Israel faces a real threat to…

Seth Mandel: "Obama: I’m Done Working with Congress"

Via Greg Hengler, it's always fun to watch when when one of America's most disingenuous commentators mans up and admits the guy he's been defending for years is kind of an empty suit. Mmm, that's some tasty crow:

Rick Perry has faced criticism from some conservatives opposed to illegal immigration for some of his positions on the issue, but the Texas governor is showing no signs of backing down. In an interview Thursday with conservative talk radio host Mark Levin, Perry defended Texas's law that allows…

With just over a week before the September 13 special election, could Republicans be inching closer to taking over disgraced former Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner’s New York district? According to a poll of 300 likely special election voters in New York’s Ninth Congressional District,…

And the hits just keep on coming. This is not the kind of news that is going to help the Obama administration in the midst of a jobs crisis:

WEEKLY STANDARD contributors Reuel Marc Gerecht and Mark Dubowitz write in today's Washington Post that as in the wake of Libya, President Obama appears to have grown more comfortable projecting American power. As such, "Syria will be his real test. The arguments for supporting Syrian protesters…

From: Mme Safia Farkash

Paul Ryan tells CNN he'd like to see Chris Christie run for president in 2012:

Rick Perry's constitutional views are again sparking controversy. As Ruth Marcus notes, Perry previously called for a constitutional amendment to empower Congress to overturn Supreme Court decisions by two-thirds votes.

As heartening as it is to see Muammar Qaddafi lose his grip on power, our expectations of Libya's future need to take into account this ethnically diverse country’s complicated reality. The biggest problem is Libya's enormous oil reserves.

Libya—Here, west of Tripoli, the revolutionaries are fighting largely without direction from Benghazi's Transitional National Council. I’m traveling with three Sabratha fighters—Rowad, his brother Ahmed, and their cousin Mansur. The goal is to get to the frontline at Adjilat, where they plan to…

CNBC reports: 

New York Times: "U.S. Is Set to Sue a Dozen Big Banks Over Mortgages"

You don't suppose the White House believes this nonsense, do you?

President Obama has united Democrats and Republicans on a single issue: Israel. That's the premise of a new Emergency Committee for Israel ad targeting the special election in New York's 9th Congressional District:

Politico: "W.H. furious over speech delay'"

Well, Obama has done it again. Having rescheduled his super-great-amazing jobs speech for September 8, the president has set himself up to overlap with coverage of the NFL’s opening game. Despite the anticipation with which talking heads await the speech, I think NBC would be quite foolish, from a…

WikiLeaks has long claimed that it is taking measures to protect the men and women whose identities may be exposed in leaked documents for the first time. These people include spies, sources, and the like who never thought their names would appear on the Internet in a leaked State Department…

According to critics, President Obama's frequent television appearances do not boost his numbers—in fact, they either stay the same or get worse. There's also the tendency among some viewers to tune him out entirely. Either way, his supporters have placed an enormous amount of pressure on the…

Solyndra, the stimulus-backed green energy firm filing for bankruptcy, had a fairly cozy relationship with the Obama administration. The company's Fremont, California plant was the setting for a May 2010 speech by President Obama, where he touted the stimulus and its development of green…

A reader with federal government experience emails:

To show the world what a normal, everyday, human-like being he is, Mitt Romney took to Twitter this morning to announce that he had eaten breakfast at Subway:

Rasmussen’s poll of likely voters now shows Rick Perry leading Barack Obama by 3 percentage points (44 to 41 percent). Mitt Romney is within 4 points of Obama (43 to 39 percent), Herman Cain is within 7 (42 to 35 percent), and Michele Bachmann is within 8 (46 to 38 percent). (No other Republican…

On his nightly television show recently, MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell said that Texas governor Rick Perry is not suitable to be president of the United States because of his connection to one man — Pastor John Hagee of San Antonio, Texas.

Wilson Perkins Allen Opinion Research (WPA) has a very interesting analysis of Obama's polling numbers. When it comes to judging how Obama's approval ratings predict his reelction chances, WPA describes issue this way:

A new Rasmussen survey shows President Barack Obama is statistically tied with Rick Perry in a hypothetical 2012 matchup. Perry leads Obama in the survey of 1000 likely voters 44 percent to 41 percent, a first for Perry in the Rasmussen polls, but the 3-point margin of error means the president and…

Time's Michael Scherer reports that, in June, "White House chief of staff Bill Daley arranged a secret retreat for his senior team at Fort McNair ...  Historian Michael Beschloss went along as a guest speaker to help answer the one question on everyone’s mind: How does a U.S. President win…

We previously noted that a petition against the Bashar al-Assad regime's repressive action has been circulating Syria, signed by a leading group of sheikhs. We've obtained the full text and translated, and are here publishing the petition:

General David Petraeus, at his military retirement ceremony, said "that the nation’s leaders, faced with tough budget decisions, should be careful not to cut the military’s budget too deeply in the years ahead," the Washington Post reports.

At his jobs address to a joint session of Congress next Thursday, President Barack Obama might want to skip any mention of his green jobs initiative. The Bay Area's NBC affiliate reports that a high-profile green start-up called Solyndra, which benefited from federal loans from the stimulus…

An op-ed in one of President Obama’s hometown papers, the Chicago Sun-Times, highlights the 4,257 new regulations that his administration currently has in the works (219 of which will cost at least $100 million apiece, annually). The op-ed draws particular attention to one specific regulatory…

Washington Post: "Coincidences don’t happen in presidential politics. Ever."

So, uh, this exists. From the press release: