February 2012

Republican hopes of winning the Senate in 2012 took a major hit Tuesday when Maine senator Olympia Snowe announced her retirement. The late notice gave Republicans in the state, as well as those in Washington, D.C., little time to recruit a viable candidate and build an organization that might…

In the weeks between announcing the nation’s farthest-reaching education agenda and its reception in the Louisiana legislature upon opening March 12, Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal has departed from his usual consensus-building to take on teacher unions.

In Now Lebanon, Hussain Abdul Hussain writes about “the new Arab thinking.” It was not born overnight, explains the Washington-based Arab media correspondent:

Democratic senator Chuck Schumer took to the Senate floor this morning to denounce a conscience bill up for a vote tomorrow, calling it a "contraception ban."

Jonathan Schrag, until today the deputy commissioner of Connecticut's Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP), does not deny that he once said, "One way to push back on e-mails is to freak someone out." He also doesn't seem to deny that it's his voice left on Cynthia David's…

Oh boy. House Republicans should do their best to get Holder in front of a camera whenever they can. He's really his own worst enemy:

A day after losing the overall vote in the Michigan primary, Rick Santorum’s campaign is arguing that Mitt Romney’s three-point margin of victory ought to be viewed as a tie because of the way the state's delegates are divided.

This morning, there was a curious report originating with the Egyptian state press, and then repeated throughout the Western media, that Saif al Adel, a longtime al Qaeda bigwig, had flown from Pakistan to Egypt to turn himself in. The report didn't make much sense, mainly because it offered no…

The Guardian has a fascinating piece on "The Arab world's first ladies of oppression," and how the wives of Arab dictators have served as objects of scorn in the Arab spring: 

Finally someone in the White House decided to spill the beans on the Obama administration's Iran policy: 

The latest Ohio poll of the Republican presidential primary from the University of Cincinnati:

Speaking after his 3-point loss (41 to 38 percent) to Mitt Romney in Michigan, which will net him between 12 and 15 of the 30 delegates in Romney’s native state, Rick Santorum said: 

New York Times: "Romney Claims Victory in Michigan and Arizona"

Mitt Romney won solid victories Tuesday night in Arizona and Michigan, two important swing states. How did he do it, and what does it mean? 

After months and months of campaigning, Mitt Romney is finally sounding like a conservative. It took the strong challenge by Rick Santorum in Romney’s home state of Michigan to produce this transformation. But it worked as Romney overcame a double-digit Santorum lead to win yesterday’s Michigan…

Here's the text of Mitt Romney's victory speech tonight, as prepared for delivery:

Fox News reports: 

As the polls close tonight in Arizona, NBC News immediately calls Arizona for Mitt Romney. No precincts have been counted, but the exit polling must look great for Romney, which is completely consistent with the most recent polls. Rick Santorum has been polling well behind Romney there.

Derek Thompson: "The Collapse of Print Advertising in 1 Graph"

As Bloomberg reported in September of last year, "Sixty percent of employers said they offered medical benefits this year, a decrease from 69 percent in 2010." Yet today, in testimony on Capitol Hill, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said that Obamacare is not the reason…

Via Drudge, the Washington Post reports:

The American Mustache institute earlier today made this surprising announcement:

Nancy Pelosi held a congressional hearing on Monday with a single witness, Georgetown student Sandra Fluke, to testify about the need for Obamacare to mandate that religious institutions provide free contraception and abortifacients under their health insurance plans.

The Associated Press has been attacking the New York Police Department for . . . doing its job. As Bob McManus of the New York Post writes today, "Strip away the emotive rhetoric and what’s left is a series of stories over several weeks that show pretty clearly that the NYPD works very hard to keep…

As Congress continues to debate the Obamacare mandate forcing religious institutions to provide "free" coverage of contraception and abortion-inducing drugs, a new report could put supporters of the mandate on the defensive. It turns out that the Democrats' 1994 health care care bill (i.e.…

The Santorum campaign made a last-minute effort to find votes in Michigan with this robocall, which encourages Michigan Democrats to vote for Rick Santorum (and against Mitt Romney) in today’s primary. Michigan’s open primary system means there’s no party registration requirement and voters can…

Mitt Romney was asked at a press conference in Michigan this morning about his inability to excite "the base" of the Republican party, and he replied:

Much like Fidel Castro, his ideological soulmate, Hugo Chávez is fond of denouncing his critics as “fascists” and “Nazis,” regardless of whether those critics are U.S. lawmakers on Capitol Hill, heads of state in Europe, or opposition presidential candidates in Venezuela. Yet in his militarization…

In this week's issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD I have a long feature on how America's hipster theme park Portland, Oregon, destroyed its infrastructure and jobs base in order to indulge a bizarre obsession with public transportation and other cultural fetishes. Among other things, I noted that the…

A strongly-worded statement from Education Secretary Arne Duncan last week revealed his distaste for federalism, since it undermines his goal of having all states agree to one set of education standards.

PPP reports on its latest Michigan poll, released ahead of today's Republican presidential primary:

A brilliant essay by James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal on why Santorum might well be electable, on populist conservatism, and on a "clarifying sentence" by Clive Crook with commentary by Mickey Kaus and Jeffrey Bell. Here's a taste—but read the whole thing:

The Hill: "TransCanada Corp. to begin construction of Keystone pipeline"

National Journal reports that a fundraiser for Mitt Romney, Christopher Jenny, is inviting donors opposed to "social arch conservative" Rick Santorum to a reception in support of a "Massachusetts moderate" for president:

A few months ago, when President Obama proposed to restrict the deductibility of charitable contributions made by relatively well-off Americans, I asked why Obama is so opposed to having money go directly to the needy, rather than having it first be filtered through the government. Yet last week,…

When Republican senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts makes the case for a bill that would restore the conscience protections that existed prior to Obamacare, he frequently notes that his Democratic predecessor Ted Kennedy shared the same position. But Kennedy's son Patrick, former congressman from…

Army Pfc. Bradley Manning has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, the Associated Press reports. Manning is most famous for allegedly leaking troves of classified documents, including State Department cables and Military files, to WikiLeaks. He was arraigned last week in Ft. Meade, Maryland and…

Via Ed Morrissey, here's a must-watch video of Democratic congresswoman Kathy Hochul getting tripped up at a townhall meeting by a constituent's questions about Obamacare's contraception/abortifacient mandate:

At the Daily Caller, Mickey Kaus took a look at the Americans Elect website and answered their policy questions that the group promises will "shape the Americans Elect process." Kaus concludes the Americans Elect effort may end up hurting Obama:

A new poll from USA Today and Gallup shows President Barack Obama behind both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum in key 2012 swing states. In those states, Santorum beats Obama by 5 points, 50 percent to 45 percent, while Romney edges out Obama by 2 points, 48 percent to 46 percent. A separate, national…

A newly released USA Today/Gallup poll shows that, by a margin of 13 percentage points (53 to 40 percent), swing-state voters want Obamacare to be repealed.  The poll included registered voters in 12 key states:  Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, New…

Since Mitt Romney and Ron Paul continue to make the curious claim that former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum isn’t a fiscal conservative, here’s a quick, pocket-sized overview of spending grade point averages (GPAs) during Santorum’s tenure in the Senate — based on grades awarded by the…

Fred Kagan and Maseh Zarif, writing in today's Wall Street Journal: 

Bob Kagan discusses his latest book, The World America Made, with Meet the Press host David Gregory and New York Times columnist David Brooks: 

Through December and January, Mitt Romney was comfortably ahead in polls in his home state of Michigan. Then Rick Santorum surged into the lead after his February 7 victories in Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado. Romney's advertising and surrogate assault on Santorum over the next couple of weeks,…

Thirty years ago next month, a movie featuring five cute unknown post-teen actors was dumped by its studio into a few theaters in Southern cities with the hope that audiences would be fooled into thinking it was a ribald sex comedy on the order of Porky’s. The trick didn’t work, and the modestly…

Last winter, I was in Paris for a few days and stayed at the epicenter of the old city, right next to Notre Dame, in a place called the Hôtel-Dieu, a large working hospital. Some years back a decision was made to provide rooms on the top floor for patients’ visitors to stay overnight. Then, finding…

In this fascinating book Stephanie Deutsch recounts the story of the extraordinary friendship and philanthropic partnership between Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute, the vocational training school for black teachers that he had established in Alabama in 1881, and Julius…

Idleb Province, Syria

Barack Obama is a careful politician and a disciplined man. But when he’s on the West Coast, perhaps a little tired because of the jet lag, at a fancy fundraiser with his most glamorous and credulous supporters, he tends to let his guard down. The mask slips.

This may come as a shock to many pollsters and much of the press corps, but public opinion is a little more complicated than randomly calling 1,000 Americans, asking them a dubiously worded question about a complex political issue, and reporting the aggregate results.

If there’s one perfectly safe conclusion to draw from nearly a century of public health research, it’s this: Cigarette smoking is really, really bad for your health. An unusually complete, if rather obvious, 2010 Surgeon General’s Report on the topic shows that inhaling tobacco smoke not only…

The aging fops and dandies who edit Esquire magazine—yes, it still comes out, check a newsstand if you don’t believe me—devoted a chunk of their issue this month to Bill Clinton. It was an unusual move. Typically, under the motto “Man at His Best,” the editors concentrate their attention on those…

Reading Andrew Ferguson’s splendid essay this week on Bill Clinton (see page 20), The Scrapbook was especially beguiled by his detailed description of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), that world-class gathering of seminal minds and can-do spirits, dedicated to generating bold ideas and…

A couple of years ago, I was asked to give a talk about “The American Novel Today.” It wasn’t my first choice of topic, frankly, partly because I read as few contemporary novels as possible, partly (here we get into cause and effect) because most of the novels that get noticed today (like most of…

President Obama’s budget for 2013 is pure Obama. How do we know? Paul Ryan, the House Budget Committee chairman, was once asked how to become a budget expert. “You have to read the budget,” he said. To know Obama, it’s similar. You have to read the speeches and look over the budgets. 

In the conflict between the Obama administration and the Catholic church over mandated contraceptive coverage in health insurance policies, it’s easy to understand the motivations of the church. Catholics object to artificial contraception—and to abortifacients and sterilization, reimbursement for…

A learned friend of rather retro views likes to muse from time to time on the North America that might have been: a balkanized continent without the miniature tribalisms that have plagued the actual Balkans, which, so said a Saki character, “produce more history than they can consume locally.” In…

Obama administration officials touted the visit to the United States last week by Communist first secretary Xi Jinping as “relationship building.” Xi is widely expected to succeed Hu Jintao as general secretary next fall and to run China for the next ten years. So he arrived to an agenda that…

Ynet reports on the possibility of a U.S.-backed "aerial blockade on Syria":

Emmanuel Navon thoughtfully considers Europe, Israel, and the Battle of Valmy:

Arizona governor Jan Brewer endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney this morning on NBC's Meet the Press.

Nate Silver: "The G.O.P.’s Fuzzy Delegate Math"

On March 28, 2011, Barack Obama defended his decision to intervene days earlier with military force in Libya, arguing that for the United States to stand by without responding would have been “a betrayal of who we are.”

The good thing about election campaigns is that they force both parties to do things, or at least to promise to do things they should have done long ago. President Barack Obama is a born-again tax cutter. He wants the top rate of corporate income tax cut from 35 percent to 28 percent, and the…

Washington Post: "Rick Santorum winning more support from Republican women"

The Associated Press reports: 

Mike Warren reviews Act of Valor for the Washington Times: 

Our old friend and Washington Free Beacon editor Matt Continetti is arguing persuasively that Obama's 2012 campaign apparatus is pretty rusty:

This morning, Rasmussen released a new poll showing Mitt Romney regaining his lead in the Michigan primary. This afternoon, Romney communications director Gail Gitcho sent out the following email to reporters:

In a letter sent today to the White House, Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions urges President Obama “to take overdue but necessary action to confront soaring gasoline prices.”

A Rasmussen poll of likely voters in the “four key states” of Ohio, Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina, shows Rick Santorum leading President Obama by 5 percentage points among independents, while Obama leads Mitt Romney by 3 percentage points among that crucial group of voters. The Rasmussen…

With a gallon of regular around $4 and climbing, the White House is paying close attention to the price of gasoline. President Obama and his team are, no doubt, wondering how high it can go before it takes them down.

Republican senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts has a new 60-second radio ad in which he discusses his support for a religious exemption to Obamacare mandates. You can listen to the ad here.

WEEKLY STANDARD contributor Jeffrey Anderson chats with Wall Street Journal about Rick Santorum's record, and makes the case that Santorum was one of the most fiscally conservative Republicans in the Senate. Watch it here:

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, speaking this morning on CNBC:

In order to make sure gays and lesbians are adequately represented on the judicial bench, the state of California is requiring all judges and justices to reveal their sexual orientation. The announcement was made in an internal memo sent to all California judges and justices.

The newest poll of Michigan primary voters from Rasmussen Reports shows Mitt Romney regaining the lead in his home state just days before Michigan's presidential primary. Romney leads his closest rival, Rick Santorum, 40 percent to 34 percent, in a survey taken Thursday evening, one day after CNN's…

The latest Michigan poll of the Republican presidential primary from the American Research Group: 

During Wednesday night’s Republican debate, moderator John King said, “Governor Romney, both Senator Santorum and Speaker Gingrich have said during your tenure as governor, you required Catholic hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims. And Mr. Speaker, you compared the governor…

Tom Maguire: "Politico Sends In The Clowns"

What happened to Rick Santorum on Wednesday night?

A new Quinnipiac poll released today shows that, by a wide (and widening) margin, Americans want Obamacare to be repealed.  By a margin of 13 percentage points (52 to 39 percent), Americans support the repeal of President Obama’s centerpiece legislation.  That represents a swing of 8 points,…

Fifty percent of Americans now telling Barack Obama "no mas."

Thomas L. Friedman of the New York Times is sad that the transitional government in Egypt is putting 16 American citizens on trial for promoting democracy in Egypt. David Ignatius of the Washington Post is worried that the nascent Muslim Brotherhood might stick to its principles in governing Egypt…

Courtesy of a terrifying report in the New York Times, we now have yet another side effect to worry about as a result of our current period of catastrophic anthropogenic climate change:

President Obama traveled today to Miama, Florida to discuss "new sources of American-made energy." Now, given the dramatic recent increase in gas prices, and given the speech's focus on energy, it was practically inevitable that Obama would have to mention the fact that Americans on average are…

A new story in the Miami Herald details some of Republican congressman Connie Mack IV's past financial and legal troubles. Mack, who is running for Senate in Florida, reportedly spent more than he earned and missed a payment to his first wife, Ann, according to divorce proceedings. Mack also…

The National Center for Public Policy Research hosted a “lunch-in” today at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. The target of the protest? “[F]ederal school nutrition guidelines that allegedly forced at least one student to forgo her mother’s home-packed lunch in favor of chicken nuggets,” a press…

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney by 10 percentage points (49 to 39 percent) and leading Rick Santorum by 7 percentage points (48 to 41 percent). The poll was taken yesterday — on George Washington’s Birthday — mostly before the GOP debate. Obama’s…

What do Americans think about the Obamacare contraception mandate? It depends how you ask the question. A new Quinnipiac poll shows, Politico reports, that a majority (54 percent to 38 percent) support the White House's so-called "accommodation" on the Department of Health and Human Services rule.…

When Lindsay Autry began her first day on Top Chef: Texas, she was surprised to see how many of her fellow chefs made it through the audition process—they hadn't. Lindsay then learned all 28 of them would compete on-air until 16 actual contestants were left standing. "Just put your head down and…

The office of Senator Jeff Sessions, ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, sends along this chart, showing that 'America’s Per Capita Government Debt Worse Than Greece,' as well as Ireland, Italy, France, Portugal, and Spain:

Mitt Romney had a good night at the debate in Mesa last night. But after the debate (as well as during) the Romney campaign flooded the press with the kind of emails that make the candidate so hard to love.

The general view about last night's debate is that Rick Santorum didn't do well. Rich Lowry put it best: Santorum spent too much time "explaining why he voted for things he opposed (NCLB, Title X)," got "tangled up in his Senate record," and was in general "too defensive, too insider, too…

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters shows President Obama leading Rick Santorum by 3 percentage points and leading Mitt Romney by 6 percentage points. Obama leads Santorum by the tally of 46 to 43 percent, while he leads Romney by the tally of 47 to 41 percent.

Politico reports: "Rick Santorum’s campaign is airing a negative ad against Mitt Romney in Michigan that wasn’t released to the press, highlighting the former Massachusetts governor’s past positions on abortion, gun rights and more." 

The latest Michigan Republican primary poll from the Detroit Free Press, which doesn't factor in last night's debate:

Sharyl Attkisson: "Second gun used in ICE agent murder linked to ATF undercover operation"

During tonight’s GOP debate, Ron Paul took exception to Rick Santorum’s claim that Paul had finished “in the bottom half of Republicans this year” in ratings published by the American Conservative Union (ACU). Santorum made the comment immediately after having highlighted that the National…

During Wednesday night’s debate in Arizona, Rick Santorum had a chance to answer a recent barrage of criticisms from Mitt Romney on Santorum's record on earmarks. While Santorum may have won the analytical arguments, his opponents may have won the dramatic exchanges.

Here's a transcript of tonight's Republican presidential primary debate in Arizona, courtesy of CNN:

On higher gas prices, the Obama administration says "not our fault!"

When the late Sidney Frank created Grey Goose vodka in 1997, he was clear that this spirit must stand above the rest. Not only would it be made in France (giving it that sophisticated European aura), it would also come in a tall, frosted glass bottle with a long neck—easy to spot on the shelf and…

Berlin

Virginia governor Bob McDonnell issued the following statement this afternoon: 

Rasmussen:

The Obama administration’s recent decree — that, under Obamacare, Americans would no longer be free to offer or to choose new health plans that don’t include complimentary coverage of birth control, morning-after pills and the abortion drug ella — would likely lead a great many people to switch to…

Whatever the press corps may think the upcoming election will be about, one thing remains clear: Americans overwhelmingly support the repeal of President Obama’s centerpiece legislation. According to the latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters, Americans support the repeal of Obamacare by a margin…

President Obama is cutting future defense spending. It is both a conscious choice to divert funds elsewhere, away from the military, and a consequence of last year’s congressional budget agreement, which alone will likely result in an automatic sequestration of at least $500 billion from future…

Liberals and the mainstream media have been denouncing a proposed ultrasound law in Virginia as akin to rape (Jon Stewart and Meghan McCain joined in the demagoguery last night). "[T]he law provides that women seeking an abortion in Virginia will be forcibly penetrated for no medical reason," wrote…

Less than a week before the Michigan primary, the editorial board at the Detroit News has endorsed Mitt Romney, calling him the "best choice" for "leading this nation to prosperity and stability" and saying that he gives "the GOP a fighting chance of defeating President Barack Obama this fall."…

Former Louisiana governor Buddy Roemer is dropping out of the Republican presidential primary race, but will continue to run for president by seeking a third-party nomination. The Chicago Tribune reports:

Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez is seeking a seat on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, the group U.N. Watch reports. The independent watchdog group also says that Pakistan is additionally “slated to run unopposed for seats on the UN’s 47-nation Human Rights Council this year.”

First Read reports: 

Just before the start of the holiday weekend, Rick Santorum gave a thoughtful and wide-ranging interview in Michigan.  Over the course of 25 minutes, he discussed Iran (4:05-6:55), saying, “Israel shouldn’t be leading this. This is a national security issue for the United States...we should be…

An unnamed senior U.S. official responded to a report that Iran is building out the Fordow enrichment plant by describing the facility “as a ‘Potemkin’ plant, a façade that could not operate and was under close watch by the International Atomic Energy Agency,” according to NBC News. That…

Quinnipiac reports on its latest national poll of "Republicans and independent voters leaning Republican":

Big Journalism: "OWS Letter to the Editor in USA Today: We Will Storm Wall Street With Guns"

As the nomination battle on the Republican side drags on, with no ostensible end in sight, I can’t help but ask myself: Who is responsible for the Republican party? What person or group is out there to make sure that the GOP does not shoot itself in the foot before November? Who is there to…

This evening, speaking at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina, White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said that folks getting and spending unemployment checks is a healthy thing . . . because it stimulates the economy:

Rich Lowry: "The Effrontery of Rick Santorum"

The latest poll of the Arizona GOP presidential primary by CNN/Time:

There are fair attacks of Rick Santorum's religious rhetoric, and there are unfair attacks of Rick Santorum's religious rhetoric. You can put this Jon Meacham post at Time in the "unfair and absurd" category: 

Ron Paul is out with a new TV ad criticizing Rick Santorum. The ad will air in Michigan, where Paul's a distant third place in recent primary polls. Watch the it below:

At Politico, David Cantanese reports on how Indiana’s underfunded underdog, state treasurer Richard Mourdock, is getting some help in his challenge of six-term Senate incumbent Dick Lugar in that race’s Republican primary:

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters shows Rick Santorum leading Mitt Romney by 4 percentage points in Romney’s home state of Michigan.  Santorum now leads Romney by the tally of 38 to 34 percent, while Ron Paul has 10 percent support and Newt Gingrich has 9 percent. 

During the four years that Mitt Romney served as governor of Massachusetts, the Cato Institute published two reports that graded the nation’s governors on spending. In the first, Cato gave Romney a “midterm” grade of a D. In the second, it gave him an overall grade of a C.

Ultrasound laws are fairly common in the realm of abortion politics: 22 states already have them on the books.* But the proposed Virginia law--which would require an ultrasound to be performed 24 hours before an abortion and would give the mother the opportunity to view it--has been presented by…

The case of Hamza Kashgari, the 23-year-old ex-columnist for the Saudi Arabian daily newspaper Al-Bilad (The Land), has exposed the convoluted internal situation in the desert kingdom. The controversy began on the birthday of Muhammad, when Kashgari wrote an imaginary dialogue with the Muslim…

Gallup reports: "In the Feb. 15-19 Gallup Daily tracking rolling average, Santorum is ahead of Romney by 36% to 26%, with Newt Gingrich at 13% and Ron Paul at 11%. This marks Santorum's largest lead to date. Santorum had moved to within two points of Romney, 30% to 32%, by the end of last week."

PPP reports on its latest poll of likely Washington caucus voters: 

Caroline May reports that "More than 2,500 evangelical and ministry leaders from a range of denominations have signed a letter to President Obama voicing their opposition to the administration’s new mandate requiring that all health insurance plans contain contraceptive coverage."

NBC reports: "Iran would take pre-emptive action against its enemies if it felt its national interests were endangered, the deputy head of the Islamic Republic's armed forces was quoted by a semi-official news agency as saying Tuesday. . . . Iran announced air defense war games to practice…

Roll Call's Jonathan Strong reports that presidential candidate Ron Paul billed the government and private institutions for the same flights, many times: 

New York Times: "Peter Gleick Admits to Deception in Obtaining Heartland Climate Files"

Politico: "Worry over Mitt Romney sparks talk of Tampa"

The latest Republican presidential primary poll of Texas from University of Texas/Texas Tribune:

PPP reports on its latest poll of the Republican primary race in Arizona:

The Republican Jewish Coalition's latest web ad:

The prospect of Iran achieving nuclear breakout capability is becoming more imminent. Reports this past weekend indicate that Iran has built the infrastructure needed for operating more efficient and advanced centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. The Iranian regime will be able to…

SoonerPoll.com reports on its latest survey of likely Republican voters in Oklahoma:

PPP reports on its latest poll of the Republican primary race in Michigan: 

Mitt Romney is now explicitly arguing that Rick Santorum is not a fiscal conservative. CNN writes, “Mitt Romney unleashed his harshest public attacks to date on his surging rival, Rick Santorum, during a rally in Boise Friday. The former Massachusetts governor told an audience of more than one…

The Hill: "Paul Ryan: Obama contraception ruling reveals ‘paternalistic, arrogant’ attitude"

A growing body of empirical evidence is undermining the claim that racial preferences in college benefit their recipients. Students who are admitted to schools for which they are inadequately prepared in fact learn less than they would in a student body that matches their own academic level. As an…

Last week, Russia and China obstructed the Obama administration’s Syria policy by vetoing an anti-Assad Security Council resolution backed by the Arab League, Britain, France, and the United States. As harmful as this defeat was in its immediate consequences, it may bode even worse for efforts to…

Defending himself against charges of corrupting the youth of Athens, Socrates told a story. Chaerephon, one of Socrates’ friends, once visited the Oracle at Delphi and asked, “Is anyone wiser than Socrates?” The reply was unequivocal: “There is none.” The philosopher was puzzled. All he knew for…

On January 11 in Tehran, two men on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the car carrying Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. Seconds later, the car exploded, killing both Roshan and his driver. The murder was the stuff of spy novels, and would have been a spectacular story regardless of the target. But…

In the fall of 2007 Israel reportedly hacked into Syria’s air defense systems and disabled them, as a prelude to bombing a nuclear facility in the Syrian desert. This vaunted cyber exploit, it turns out, might not merit its spectacular reputation. Last week, the shadowy online activist group known…

There are only two things wrong with Jane Austen’s novels. There aren’t enough of them. And they’re too short.

"We have no plan” and “we are unable to act” have become common refrains among influential Americans who grumble about the decline of U.S. power in the 21st century. On both fronts, they lament, China is doing better. From President Barack Obama to New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to trade…

Throughout the 2012 election cycle Republicans have pined for a bold, conservative reformer—a leader courageous enough to make difficult choices and articulate enough to explain them to a skeptical public. The good news is they have such a candidate. The less good news: Scott Walker isn’t running…

Let’s start with a kind of syllogism. Philosophers write books of philosophy. Emrys Westacott teaches philosophy at Alfred University. Therefore his book, The Virtues of Our Vices, is a book of philosophy. And so, worse luck, it is.

There are moments in Chronicle, a male version of the 1976 horror movie Carrie, that actually manage to evoke the wonder of cinema more surprisingly than any film since the awe-inducing moment in 1991’s Terminator 2 when the bad terminator reconstituted himself before our eyes as he rose from the…

The strategic thinker Eliot Cohen begins this impressive book with a passage that (as he seemingly recognizes) will at first glance strike contemporary readers as laughable, if not ludicrous: “This book .  .  . deals with America’s most durable, and in many ways most effective and important enemy…

The great tragedy of Yiddish literature is that, at the very moment when it was blossoming into modernity in all genres, its writers, audience, and cultural matrix were completely destroyed by the double knockout punch of German and Soviet anti-Semitism.

Late last month, Gallup published a summary of President Obama’s job approval ratings for 2011. The pollster’s findings were stunning: Eighty percent of Democrats approved of the president’s performance through 2011, as did just 12 percent of Repub-licans. The difference between these two…

A year ago, Republican capture of the Senate in the 2012 election was regarded as close to a sure thing. The political direction of the country had shifted in favor of Republicans. Democrats faced the unenviable task of defending 23 seats, Republicans only 10. And 8 of the GOP seats were safely in…

On Saturday, February 4, a national poll from Rasmussen Reports showed Rick Santorum as the only Republican to lead President Obama in a head-to-head matchup. The next morning, a PPP poll showed Santorum suddenly leading Mitt Romney in Minnesota. So the Romney campaign responded with what are…

The United States and Iran have been on a collision course since the Iranian revolution in 1979, when elements of the newly proclaimed Islamic Republic took U.S. diplomats and Tehran embassy personnel hostage. U.S. relations with Iran have been bad ever since. The focus in recent years has been the…

When I think about the American-postcard moments of my life—-Fourth of July fireworks, Veterans’ Day parades, watching American Chopper reruns—there is none so emblematic as the evening I just spent in the flat-screened glow of the Super Bowl, having a few pops and making chitchat with my new…

We moderns like our roads direct, our destinations clear, our paths planned, our routes rational. But we delude ourselves. We presume to know in advance what cannot be known. We bask in the conceit of rational control when such control is not to be had. We’re then disappointed, even angered, when…

With U.S. forces in Mali 

The New York Times reports on the latest protests in Syria: "Hundreds and hundreds of antigovernment protesters braved scattered gunfire from Syrian soldiers to march through a middle-class neighborhood in Damascus on Saturday, the biggest demonstration witnessed close to the heart of the capital…

Even the Los Angeles Times notices that President Obama has gone soft on Iran:

In his latest Weekend Interview, James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal discusses social conservatism and its positive influence on American politics (and on the Republican party) with Jeffrey Bell, author of The Case for Polarized Politics: Why America Needs Social Conservatism. Here's a taste…

Thirty-four lawmakers sent a letter to the White House on Thursday in response to news reports that President Obama had ordered his staff to study the option of reducing America’s nuclear deterrent by 80 percent—down to as few as 300 deployed strategic nuclear warheads. The United States currently…

Xi Jinping, the heir apparent to the leadership of the Chinese Communist regime, came to America to meet the president, dine with the vice president, visit a farm in Iowa—following in the 1959 footsteps of Nikita Khrushchev—and attend a basketball game in Los Angeles. The Iowa visit was designed to…

Yuval Levin: "White House: Freedom is Dangerous and Wrong"

Why did Mike DeWine, Ohio’s Republican attorney general and a former U.S. senator, shift his endorsement from Mitt Romney to Rick Santorum? “When I endorsed Governor Romney, I thought he was the best candidate to beat Barack Obama. As this campaign has played out, it is abundantly clear he is not,…

During a hearing on Thursday, Democratic senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, publicly doubted the Obama administration’s decision to consider transferring five senior Taliban leaders from Guantanamo to Qatar.

A group of foreign policy experts—including the boss, Lee Smith, Tony Badran, Liz Cheney, and Reuel Marc Gerecht—have written a letter to President Obama urging action on Syria. “[W]e urge you to take the following immediate actions to hasten an end to the Assad regime and the humanitarian…

Former Ohio senator Mike DeWine, a Republican, is shifting his support from Mitt Romney to Rick Santorum. Nearly two weeks before the Ohio primary on March 6, DeWine's change of endorsement came as a surprise to the Romney campaign, BuzzFeed's McKay Coppins reports:

In October, an Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington, D.C. was disclosed by the United States government. And as the means was to be a bomb in a Washington restaurant, it is reasonable to assume Americans dining nearby would have been wounded or killed. In November, a new IAEA…

Mitt Romney, trying to convince Michigan voters that he's the best man for the job:

Taking a page out of Newt Gingrich's playbook, Rick Santorum blasted TV host Charlie Rose this morning, accusing the anchor of exposing his liberal bias:

Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper called the relationship between Iran and al Qaeda a “shotgun marriage” during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday. “Iran has harbored al Qaeda leaders, facilitators, but under house arrest conditions,” Clapper said.

It’s rare to have a governing philosophy that usually hides behind a carefully constructed rhetorical justification be laid bare for all the world to see, but that’s exactly what happened when Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently shared her thoughts about the document that she’s duty-bound to…

This just in from veteran Democratic strategist Bob Shrum: "Catholic leaders are self-righteously trying to infringe on the liberty of all Americans."

Rick Santorum supporter Foster Friess made what some considered an inappropriate joke on cable television yesterday. Today, Friess released this charming apology:

On Tuesday, Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren called Senator Scott Brown an extremist for supporting a bill that restores conscience protections that existed before Obamacare. The moderate Massachusetts Republican hit back hard, writing in an email to supporters that Warren "has…

On February 9, the Spanish supreme court unanimously ruled to disbar Baltasar Garzón, the Spanish judge who famously indicted former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet using the legal doctrine of universal jurisdiction, for ordering illegal wiretaps. The court found that Garzón acted illegally when…

A judge that President Obama nominated for a district court bench “has thrown out a Louisiana law that bans certain sex offenders from Facebook and other social networking sites,” WDSU reports. “U.S. District Judge Brian Jackson ruled Thursday that the prohibition—which took effect in August—was…

Suffolk University reports on its latest poll of Massachusetts voters:

Business Insider: "Ron Paul Is Secretly Taking Over The GOP — And It's Driving People Insane"

Two news stories from this week underscored the most important development in Democratic party politics in the last thirty years. First, from the Washington Free Beacon:

CNN reports:

John Merline: "Obama Budgets Show Weak Recovery Behind Big Deficits"

Members of British intelligence are concerned about the possibility of Iran and al Qaeda teaming up in a plot against the West, perhaps in a joint attack against the 2012 Olympic Games in London.  Their concerns were first voiced in a piece by Sky News on Wednesday and then in other follow-up…

The $489 billion cut to defense budgets engineered by Barack Obama — as well as the played-for-fool Republican accomplices on Capitol Hill — won't just mean less American military power. These cuts have significant consequences for America's allies, as well. 

Last week, food writer Michael Ruhlman had a glorious screed on his blog about the war against fat:

Mitt Romney will not participate in the Republican presidential primary debate on March 1 in Georgia. "Governor Romney will be spending a lot of time campaigning in Georgia and Ohio ahead of Super Tuesday," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul emails. "With eight other states voting on March 6th, we will…

Rick Santorum, who trailed Mitt Romney by 20 points eight days ago, has now taken the lead in Gallup’s national polling.  In the Gallup poll released on February 8, Romney led Santorum by the tally of 37 to 17 percent. In the current Gallup poll, Santorum has moved into the lead — 32 to 31 percent. 

The Richmond Tea Party group is blasting the IRS for allegedly failing to grant tax exempt status to the pro-limited government organization. “The Internal Revenue Service has served Richmond Tea Party (RTP) with unreasonable requests to obtain a tax-exempt status, fitting the pattern of the…

House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday morning that the government should require self-insured religious institutions, such as the Catholic church in Washington, D.C., to directly pay for contraception and abortifacients. 

When the boss called in late yesterday from Columbus, Ohio, where he gave a speech and had a couple meetings, he said he was struck how light support seemed to be for Mitt Romney—and how receptive people seemed to be toward Rick Santorum. Rasmussen's latest poll seems to confirm the boss's general…

Although viewers watch Top Chef in weekly segments, the actual filming is broken into two sections. The Texas episodes were filmed on a succession of days during the summer. After the final four chefs were selected, several months passed until they were reunited last month in British Columbia for…

The Detroit News reports on its latest poll of likely Republican voters in Michigan:

Before I explain why PolitiFact is once again being deliberately misleading, grossly incompetent, or some hellbroth of these distinguishing characteristics, you'll have bear with me. Part of the reason PolitiFact gets away with being so shoddy is that it counts on its readers believing that it can…

Here’s President Obama, at a fundraiser last night in Los Angeles: “[T]he American people, beneath all the pain and hurt and frustration … still want to believe that that change is possible, and there's still that hope there.  … Mario Cuomo once said that campaigning is poetry and governance is…

In the wake of the recent Obamacare decree that Americans should no longer be allowed to choose insurance policies that don’t cover contraception, morning-after pills, and the abortion drug ella — or even policies that charge copays for these items (in exchange for lower premiums) — President…

BuzzFeed: "Is Romney Going To Run Out Of Money?"

Obama's "The Story of Us" ad is a lot of the story of 2008.

The latest Mitt Romney hit on Rick Santorum is headlined, "RICK SANTORUM: BIG LABOR'S FAVORITE SENATOR," and cites Santorum's 1996 vote against a national "right to work" law as primary evidence for its claim. But while Santorum, who represented labor-heavy Pennsylvania, was to the left of some of…

Zeke Miller of BuzzFeed reports:

An interesting bit of information from a recent Pew Poll: 

The Real Clear Politics average of recent polling now shows Rick Santorum having taken the lead in the Republican presidential race.  Santorum’s average level of support across recent polling is 30.8 percent, compared to Mitt Romney’s 29.2 percent.  Newt Gingrich is in third place, with 16.2…

Earlier this week, White House economic adviser Gene Sperling announced his support for changes in the tax structure. “[W]e need a global minimum tax so that people have the assurance that nobody is escaping doing their fair share as part of a race to the bottom or having our tax code actually…

Dennis Ross, late of the Obama White House, has a 943 word op-ed in the New York Times arguing (or rather hoping) that "Iran is Ready to Talk," that diplomacy can work, and so forth. But in the alternate universe of this op-ed, which unfortunately is also the alternate universe of the Obama…

The latest national survey from Rasmussen shows Rick Santorum with a 12-point lead over Mitt Romney among Republican primary voters. Thirty-nine percent of those polled support Santorum while 27 percent support Romney. Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul earned 15 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

During an interview with NBC’s Matt Lauer shortly before the Super Bowl on February 5, President Obama was asked about Iran’s nuclear weapons program and the possibility of an Israeli airstrike. “I don’t think that Israel has made a decision on what they need to do,” Obama said. “I think they, like…

As the liberal website Slate has explained about Obamacare, President Obama's signature legislation "combine[s] an express mandatory insurance requirement with tax penalties . . . for noncompliance." Which is why the Obama "administration’s lawyers have cited . . . the tax . . . power in support of…

Yesterday, I asked Senator Dick Durbin if he thinks Obamacare's contraception/abortifacient mandate still violates the religious liberty of Catholic churches, like the Archdiocese of Washington. Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the Senate, said he didn't know. But Durbin said he did know one…

Mitt Romney is now arguing that Rick Santorum’s record exposes him as one of those Republicans who “act like Democrats” once they get to Washington.  Romney surrogate Tim Pawlenty adds that Santorum “clearly has been part of the big-spending establishment in Congress.” Another Romney surrogate,…

America is going bankrupt, Iran is going nuclear, the Obama administration is going after religious liberty. And Mitt Romney is going after Rick Santorum.

Quinnipiac reports on its latest poll of likely Republican voters in the Ohio primary:

Politico reports on Rick Santorum's newest television ad: a light-hearted, humorous spot featuring a Mitt Romney double firing mud in vain at a cardboard cutout of Santorum. The ad, which doesn't rebut any of Romney's (or his super PAC's) criticisms, says that Romney's "negative attack machine"…

Politico: "Payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits: Congress nears deal"

Sarah Palin recently suggested that a brokered convention could be a good thing for the Republican party. This view seconds the attitude of several commentators, who suspect that the GOP’s position could be enhanced by a battle in Tampa over who will be the next nominee.

Restore Our Future, the pro-Mitt Romney super PAC, has released a new ad that will air in Michigan, Arizona, and Ohio. The ad portrays Santorum as a "big spender" and a "Washington insider," citing his voting record when he represented Pennsylvania in the Senate. Watch the ad below:

Massachusetts Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren hit Senator Scott Brown today for supporting a bill that would restore conscience protections Americans had prior to the passage of Obamacare. "I am shocked that Senator Brown jumped in to support such an extreme measure,” Warren told the…

In an interview tonight with News Channel 8’s Keith Cate from Tampa, President Obama praised his administration's ability to "[use] the Internet more effectively" so that folks, "If they need a government service, they don’t have to navigate through 50 websites, they can go to one website so on…

Associated Press: "US bishops fight birth control deal"

North Dakota senator Kent Conrad said Tuesay that he hopes President Obama will make further clarifications to his policy regarding 

The Los Angeles Times reports on President Obama's welcoming of Chinese vice president Xi Jinping today:

Mitt Romney's campaign is now targeting GOP rival Rick Santorum as a big-spending Washington insider. On a conference call Tuesday afternoon, former Missouri senator and Romney surrogate Jim Talent criticized Santorum’s support for expanding government spending, including his vote for the Medicare…

Sen. Dick Durbin, the second-ranking Democrat in the U.S. Senate, said Tuesday afternoon that he doesn't know if President Obama's revised contraception mandate violates the religious liberty of self-insured religious institutions, such as some hospitals, universities, and the Catholic church in…

As Lula da Silva’s handpicked successor, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff was widely expected to embrace his policies both at home and abroad. Domestically, she has mostly fulfilled those expectations. In foreign affairs, the story is a bit more complicated.

Both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are out today with new television ads for Michigan markets. Romney's ad, titled "Growing Up," is a positive profile that highlights the former Massachusetts governor's Michigan roots and echoes what Romney wrote in his op-ed in the Detroit News about the auto…

Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning "that [defense] sequestration would pose unacceptable risk":

In an op-ed published last week, former U.N. ambassador John Bolton and Congressman Ed Markey (D, Mass.) criticize President Obama for abandoning the effort to prevent a post-Iran nuclear arms race in the Middle East. Known as the new “gold standard” for nuclear nonproliferation, this effort is…

The Washington Free Beacon reports: 

The New York Times reports on its latest national poll of Republican primary voters:

President Obama’s fourth budget has now been released, which allows for a relatively full accounting of deficit spending during his four years in office. The picture isn’t pretty, but it is revealing. 

Hot Air: "No money for D.C. voucher program in Obama’s gigantic new budget. Meanwhile, White House to boost subsidies for Chevy Volt"

Washington Post blogger Greg Sargent thinks that Barack Obama's mandate that private insurers must provide free contraceptive and abortive drugs could split the GOP. But Sargent notes that two northeastern Republican senators, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Scott Brown of Massachusetts, both…

The New York Times: "In his new budget blueprint, President Obama is proposing to tax dividends of the wealthiest taxpayers as ordinary income subject to their top income-tax rate"

Chinese leaders announced that Vice President Xi Jinping, the Communist Party’s designated successor to Chinese president Hu Jintao, will try to correct “the trust deficit” when he visits Washington this week. Xi told a gathering of Chinese and U.S. officials commemorating the 40th anniversary of…

We all know that there's no such thing as a free lunch, but, according to President Obama, there is such a thing as free birth control. And the mainstream media seem to believe him.

The first GOP presidential poll taken in California in 2012 shows Mitt Romney leading Rick Santorum by just 2 percentage points, which is well within the survey’s 4.6-point margin of error. The poll, taken by SurveyUSA, shows Romney with 33 percent support and Santorum with 31 percent support. Newt…

The New York Times reports that the pro-Mitt Romney super PAC, Restore Our Future, is spending almost $500,000 on new television ads in Michigan. The ads will focus on Romney's GOP rival Newt Gingrich, even though Rick Santorum looks to be a bigger threat to Romney in Michigan's February 28…

Yuval Levin has come up with an even-more-brilliant-than-usual idea. 

A new Pew poll of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters finds Rick Santorum with a slight lead over Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential race, 30 percent to 28 percent. Seventeen percent support Newt Gingrich, and 12 percent support Ron Paul. The poll was conducted between February 8…

Gene Sperling, director of the White House's national economic council, said today at an official meeting that "we need a global minimum tax":

The National Right to Life Committee released a statement on Friday warning that Obamacare's mandate that private insurers cover contraception and the abortifacient drug ella may only be the start of Obamacare's mandatory "free" services. Abortion on demand could be next: 

THE WEEKLY STANDARD received the following letter from Paul Jacobson, Vice President of Corporate Communications at USEC Inc.:

Arid Uka, the 22-year-old Kosovo native who shot and killed two American airmen at the Frankfurt airport in March of last year, was sentenced to life in prison by a German court on Friday. Despite the terminology, however, a “life” sentence in Germany does not in fact mean life, and Uka could be…

PPP reports on its latest poll of Republican voters in Michigan:

Sadanand Dhume considers today's Iranian-backed attacks against Israel officials in Georgia and India, and writes:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD received the following letter from Paul Jacobson, Vice President of Corporate Communications at USEC Inc.:

NARAL-Pro Choice America, formerly known as the National Abortion Rights Action League, is running radio ads in Colorado, Florida, Virginia, and Wisconsin thanking President Barack Obama for requiring private insurers to provide "free" coverage of contraception and abortifacient drugs. The ad…

The latest Public Policy Polling survey shows Rick Santorum leading Mitt Romney by 15 percentage points in the Republican presidential race. In the wake of his upset victory in Colorado and his lopsided wins in Missouri and Minnesota, Santorum now has 38 percent support nationally among usual…

The Wall Street Journal's Janet Adamy reports:

Bill Kristol, with Mara Liasson, Kimberley Strassel, and Evan Bayh, yesterday on Fox News Sunday's Internet-only after show: 

The Jerusalem Post reports: 

Tom Maguire: "Their gist seems to be that the 'less government' crowd is a bunch of hypocrites, but there is a glaring problem with their numbers."

I knew a man who allowed his wife to buy the family car, a fact that always astonished me, and still does. Dealing with car salesmen, if I may say so and still elude the charge of sexism, is man’s work. Only men can be so stupid as to get caught up in the hopeless game of trying to defeat car…

Republicans have been critical of the Obama administration's "preventive care" regulation, both before and after its (meaningless) modification Friday. But have our elected leaders and our candidates made the fundamental point? This regulation isn't some kind of weird bug in the software of…

Martin Taylor, chairman of Syngenta and a former chief executive of Barclays, has written a thought provoking article about the perilous state of the European economy in the Financial Times. He observes that while most of the world is quick to blame bankers, the problem is also that European…

Saturday's lead editorial in the Wall Street Journal discusses the White House's “accommodation” concerning its decree that all new private insurance plans must cover birth control pills, morning-after pills, and the abortion drug ella—and must cover them free of charge. The Journal writes, “Under…

CBS News projects Mitt Romney the winner of today's Republican caucuses in Maine. With 502 precincts reporting (of 600), Romney has received 2,190 votes, or 39 percent. Ron Paul appears to have come in second, with 1,996 votes, or 36 percent of the vote. Rick Santorum has so far received 989 votes,…

In an interview with the New York Times, Sarah Palin had this to say about the possibility of a brokered Republican convention:

The results are in from the CPAC straw poll: Mitt Romney has won. Here's the tally:

Harvard law professor Mary Ann Glendon, Princeton professor Robert George, Notre Dame law professor Carter Snead, Catholic University of America president John Garvey, and EPPC fellow Yuval Levin write a letter on the Obama administration's abortifacient and contraception mandate:

New Haven, Conn.

Happy days are here again, to cite the song favored by Franklin Roosevelt in his successful 1932 campaign for the presidency and the unofficial theme song of the Democratic party ever since. At least, they seem to be here again for President Barack Obama, whose approval ratings have climbed to or…

We just received information about this proposal for the first time this morning; we were not consulted in advance," the United States Council of Catholic Bishops announce in a statement released Friday evening. The bishops say that the "the law and remains a grave moral concern" and is…

On Thursday night, the Democratic party appeared to be in disarray over the Obama administration’s decree that private insurance plans, including those offered by religious organizations, must provide free coverage of contraception, sterilization procedures, and abortifacients.

The Wall Street Journal: "Santorum Gets Spirited Reception at CPAC"

Here are excerpts from Wisconsin governor Scott Walker’s prepared remarks that he’ll deliver tonight at a dinner at CPAC in Washington, D.C. (Walker’s staff insists that the governor frequently deviates from prepared remarks.)

Several years ago, I was having drinks at an Irish bar with an intelligence official. (Al Qaeda is always best discussed while drinking Guinness.) He had brought with him several pages of publicly available statements made by leaders within Shabaab, a terrorist-insurgency organization that now…

Mitt Romney's speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference today was a step in the right direction for the candidate on many levels. He tacitly acknowledged that he wasn't steeped in conservative ideology at the same time he paid homage to it, noting that growing up he would have mistaken…

Here's another interesting finding from the Fox News poll showing Rick Santorum surging nationally: Unlike GOP elites and large elements of the punditocracy, Republican primary voters are not eager to close down the race.

Americans who want to fight breast cancer without funding the nation's largest abortion provider were disappointed last week by the Komen foundation's apparent decision to continue funding Planned Parenthood. Although the Komen foundation may continue funding the nation's largest abortion provider,…

Ramesh Ponnuru notes that Senator Marco Rubio's statement on Obama's adjusted mandate "seems to suggest that this particular battle is over even if the war over Obamacare continues."

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney played up his outsider status today in a speech delivered to CPAC in Washington, D.C.

Late this morning, a senior Obama administration official talked to reporters about the latest tweak to its mandate that private insurers must cover of contraception and abortifacients:

In 2010, the Obama administration's FDA approved a new drug called 'ella' and classified it as a contraceptive. The drug now falls under the Obama administration's mandate of services that private insurers must cover free of charge. But there is a considerable amount of evidence that ella does not…

A new Fox News poll, conducted between Monday and Thursday, shows that Rick Santorum's primary and caucus victories on Tuesday boosted him in the national Republican primary race. Overall, Santorum has moved into second place, at 23 percent, behind Mitt Romney at 33 percent. Newt Gingrich is not…

ABC's Jake Tapper reports that "later today the White House — possibly President Obama himself — will likely announce an attempt to accommodate these religious groups."

There has been an extraordinary backlash to the Obama administration’s recent decree that, under Obamacare, all new private health plans must cover (among many other things) the birth control pill, the morning-after pill, and the abortion drug ella — and must cover them “free of charge” (thereby…

Matt Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon, argues that the election is not just about the economy:

Jake Tapper: "Policy and Politics of Contraception Rule Fiercely Debated Within White House"

Some people were surprised by the Obama administration’s ruling on contraceptive provision by religious institutions. I was not one of those people.

When Heritage Action, the new lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation, scored the votes of House Republicans last year, a furor erupted. Republicans were incensed because their votes on a number of small, nice-sounding issues were counted, often reducing their conservative rating. A classic example…

The Senate Majority Leader was not happy when Republicans tried to attach the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act to the transportation bill. The Huffington Post reports:

On Tuesday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported that Democratic senator Claire McCaskill stood firmly behind the Obama administration's decision that private insurance plans, including those of religiously affiliated institutions, must cover contraception and abortifacients. "I think any religion…

Politico: "Joe Biden, Bill Daley warned of contraceptive backlash"

Considerable attention is being given to Iranian threats to block the Strait of Hormuz, through which a large proportion of the world’s petroleum sails. The U.S Energy Information Administration estimates that “almost 17 million barrels in 2011, up from between 15.5-16.0 million bbl/d in…

By now the Chrysler Super Bowl advertisement has become well known. And not surprisingly it’s gotten political. “Powerful spot,” said David Axelrod. “Extremely well-done,” said Karl Rove, adding:

Sean Trende of RealClearPolitics, who in the past has been skeptical of the likelihood of a brokered Republican convention, now sees the opening for one:

Yesterday I pointed out that "February 7 could prove to have been Super Tuesday if it turns out to be a key inflection point in the campaign."  Two indications, I wrote, of such an inflection point would be "if Santorum now passes Newt Gingrich in national Republican surveys" and if he "continues…

All throughout Top Chef: Texas, Ed Lee has never been rattled. He may have made a few mistakes along the way, but his focus remained unbroken. (He also had little patience for incompetence and was never soft on his fellow chefs. When Sarah Grueneberg needed 9-1-1, Ed was actually annoyed by the…

For several weeks now the Romney campaign has used a visual header for its press releases attacking Newt Gingrich. Here it is:

Rick Warren, the mega-church pastor who delivered the invocation at Barack Obama's presidential inauguration, writes on Twitter:

A new Rasmussen poll of likely voters in Ohio shows Rick Santorum tied with Barack Obama in a hypothetical November match-up at 44 percent. In the Midwestern swing state, which will be critical for a Republican presidential victory in the fall, Mitt Romney falls 4 points behind Obama in that…

Speaking to conservative bloggers this morning prior to his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C., Florida senator Marco Rubio continued to make the case against the Obama administration's mandate that all private insurance plans must cover contraception,…

In response to a statement from a radio host about how poor families are sometimes stuck in bad schools, Vincent Giordano, from the New Jersey Education Association, said, "Life's not always fair and I'm sorry about that." 

Mitt Romney will be in Washington, D.C., for a fundraiser at the JW Marriott tonight. (For interested readers with some cash on hand, it's $1,000 for a ticket to the general reception, $2,500 for a photo opportunity, and $10,000 to attend a “policy roundtable.”) In attendance will undoubtedly be…

Joe Nocera, an op-ed columnist for the New York Times, has an astonishing piece titled, “Poisoned Politics of Keystone XL.” Most of the piece rehashes criticism of President Obama’s decision to reject the Keystone XL pipeline, which is designed to bring oil from the tar sands in Alberta, Canada, to…

ABC News: "Senate Democrats Say Obama ‘Reinforced’ His Stance on Contraception Mandate at Democratic Retreat"

The White House, presumably stung by criticism following its acknowledgment last week that the president hadn't presided over a meeting on Afghanistan and Pakistan in quite a while, today put out a press release trumpeting such a meeting.

New York Times: "Obama Tries to Ease Ire on Contraception Rule"

The Romney campaign just sent out a press release titled "SANTORUM: WASHINGTON’S BEING MANAGED JUST FINE," highlighting a quotation from Rick Santorum's visit with faith leaders today in McKinney, Texas: "There's not a management problem in Washington, D.C., alright?" 

In an address recently delivered to an AIPAC audience in New York, New Jersey governor Chris Christie articulated a responsible view of America’s role in the world, stressing the importance of us standing by our friends and taking action against our adversaries.

Andrew Stiles has the scoop at the Washington Free Beacon:

I've already written at length on the major media's "fact checkers" and, alas, it's a never ending game of whack-a-mole to point out the absurdity of the arguments employed by these self-appointed guardians of veracity.

With St. Louis and Kansas City on opposite ends of the state, and with mostly small(er) towns or rural areas in between, Missouri features a blend of urban, suburban, and rural living somewhat like that of the United States as a whole. Yet as this map from the Los Angeles Times shows, Rick Santorum…

PPP reports on its latest poll of usual Republican voters in North Carolina: 

When Mitt Romney won the Florida primary last Tuesday by 14 percentage points, how many people in America imagined that when Colorado, Missouri, and Minnesota were contested just seven days later, he would fail to win in any of them? But it wasn’t just that Romney lost. In Minnesota and Missouri,…

Rasmussen reports:

Berlin

Was yesterday Super Tuesday? Only three states had contests, and one was a beauty primary commanding no delegates. On the other hand, it was the first day in which there were races in more than one state, more delegates were selected yesterday than on any day of the primary season so far, and about…

The Obama administration keeps spinning its wheels on Syria. Because the White House sees no clear American interest in toppling Bashar al-Assad, it has tasked out Syria policy to others, first Turkey then the Arab League, and pleads for an international chorus condemning the Syrian regime at the…

The Wall Street Journal and New York Times both report that President Obama may be considering a "compromise" on his mandate that religiously affiliated institutions must cover contraception and abortifacients, and both papers suggest that a compromise under consideration is applying Hawaii's…

Charles Robb and Charles Wald write in today's Wall Street Journal:

Michael Barone: "A good night for Rick Santorum"

Last Friday’s jobs report generated a great deal of chatter among politicos, many of whom viewed it as a turning point for the president in his quest for reelection. I discussed some of the technicals of the report over the weekend, but today I want to step back and look at the bigger picture on…

CNN projects Rick Santorum the winner of tonight's Republican caucuses in Colorado. Currently, Santorum is receiving 38 percent of the vote, while rival Mitt Romney is receiving 37 percent. Less than 500 votes separate the two front-runners. Gingrich is at 13 percent, and Paul is at 12 percent. 80…

"We doubled [Romney] up here and in Minnesota," Rick Santorum enthusiastically told his Missouri crowd this evening. Santorum directed his fire at Barack Obama, saying that he does not listen to the American people, and indicating that Romney's positions too closely mirror Obama's own positions.  

Remember the second Florida GOP debate on Thursday night, January 26, in Jacksonville? Mitt Romney came out pummeling Newt Gingrich, Gingrich was ineffectual in response, and Romney sailed on to a decisive victory five days later in Florida. This was soon followed by Romney's easy triumph in Nevada…

Rick Santorum is projected to win the Missouri primary, the first of three GOP contests held Tuesday. At this point, Santorum has garnered 55 percent of the vote, a considerable majority if he holds it.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll of national Republicans suggests a continuing lack of consensus in the GOP primary more than a month after the Iowa caucuses. Mitt Romney earned 29 percent support among Republicans polled, leading Ron Paul with 21 percent. Newt Gingrich received 19 percent of support, and…

Byron York: "Santorum good day could scramble race again"

The Scrapbook is closely watching the fight at Vanderbilt University between the administration and a number of student religious organizations. Last fall, Vanderbilt placed five religious groups on provisional status for being in violation of the university’s nondiscrimination policy, and four of…

Students are riled up at Vanderbilt University, but not in anticipation of a basketball game. 

The Washington Post reports:

If the 2012 presidential election is close, which by all accounts it will be, the outcome will likely be decided by 13 states. Of those 13 states (combining for 162 electoral votes), six (combining for 81 electoral votes) are located at least partially in the Midwest, making that the most important…

Early in my career I worked for the ad agency that invented the modern-day Super Bowl commercial. This year, my partners produced the Sling Baby ad for Doritos, which was one of the Sunday’s most popular spots, according to USA Today’s AdMeter.

Last month, German bank WestLB rolled out a new “Islam-compliant” investment product named the Islamic Strategy Index Certificate. The value of the certificate is based on the value of the WestLB Islamic Deutschland Index, consisting of shares of ten German firms “whose business activities are…

Former Democratic congresswoman Kathy Dahlkemper, a Catholic from Erie, Pennsylvania, cast a crucial vote in favor of Obamacare in 2010. She lost her seat that November in part because of her controversial support of Obamacare. But Dahlkemper said recently that she would have never voted for the…

Today's primary contests include Missouri's "beauty contest" primary, the Minnesota caucuses, and the Colorado caucuses. Polling firm PPP says all three contests look good for Rick Santorum.

So now they have gone and politicized the Super Bowl ads. Have they no shame?

Politico's Glenn Thrush reports: 

Ramesh Ponnuru: "Obama Health Rule an Affront to Religious Groups"

The Washington Free Beacon is now up and running. What is this new outfit? Matthew Continetti, editor in chief of the Free Beacon, explains:

Margie Omero: "Questioning the Question Order in the Latest Horserace Poll"

Highlighting how crucial it is that the eventual Republican presidential nominee be able and willing to put Obamacare front and center in the general election campaign, the latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters shows that independents overwhelmingly support the repeal of President Obama’s…

Campaigns are populated by hacks and trade in cheap shots. But the hacks are usually paid staffers, and the cheap shots are part of their job description. It's sad to see a respected former governor reduced to low-level staff hackery, acting as an attack dog on behalf of a man he once criticized…

One of the most popular Super Bowl advertisements last night was the Chrysler ad featuring Clint Eastwood, titled “Halftime in America.”

Nearly 100,000 public charter school teachers are in danger of losing already earned pension benefits if a proposed IRS rule goes into effect this June. The public comment period on the regulation ends today, with no word from the agency regarding its decision.

On a conference call Monday afternoon, a Mitt Romney campaign surrogate—Tim Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor—criticized Rick Santorum for being part of the “big-spending establishment in Congress and in the influence-peddling industry that surrounds Congress,” and for previously supporting…

This Super Bowl TV ad by Michigan Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra is drawing a lot of attention--and not in a good way:

"Only a small percentage of Planned Parenthood’s expenditures go toward abortion services," the New York Times reported last week in a news story on the Komen-Planned Parenthood controversy. But that claim is very misleading, as Ross Douthat notes in his New York Times column, "The Media's Abortion…

At National Review, Quin Hillyer argues that conservatives should be taking a hard look at Rick Santorum because he's "a true conservative and he can win." In particular, Hillyer argues Santorum's personal appeal is underrated and could prove decisive when it comes to electability:

The latest Rasmussen polling of likely voters shows Rick Santorum faring 8 points better than Mitt Romney in respective head-to-head matchup versus President Obama. Rasmussen shows that Santorum leads Obama by 1 percentage point (45 to 44 percent), while Romney trails Obama by 7 percentage points…

Here's one of the commercials played during last night's Super Bowl, from the Center for Union Facts:

To the Republicans of the states of Missouri, Minnesota, and Colorado:

Last summer I wrote about China's truly astounding penchant for faking Western products. The Chinese will fake everything from toys to entire Apple stores.

Mitt Romney won another decisive victory in Nevada over the weekend, his third out of a total of five contests to date. In what might be a surprise to many, he carried the Silver State caucuses with strong support from conservatives – winning 57 percent of the “somewhat conservative” voters and 48…

The Hill: "Dick Armey: Gingrich campaign turned into 'first-rate vendetta' against Romney"

Rick Santorum had a pretty good week. He finished a distant fourth in the Nevada caucuses, but the turnout was so low--down nearly 25 percent from 2008--that the event became yet another indictment of the front-runner. A Rasmussen poll showed Santorum as the only Republican in the field beating…

On her second deployment to Afghanistan, Capt. Felisa Dyrud, U.S. Air Force Academy Class of 2006, landed in front of live cameras in a Kabul television studio, in full camo fatigues and a chef’s hat, baking an apricot tea ring.

In Gambit, Rex Stout’s 1962 mystery novel, the quirky and housebound detective Nero Wolfe sits before a fireplace on a too-small chair, “tearing sheets out of a book and burning them. The book is the new edition, the third edition, of Webster’s New International Dictionary, Unabridged.” Why? “He…

As troops come home from Iraq and we draw down forces in Afghanistan, there is little reason to breathe the sigh of relief that should accompany the end of conflict. American troops are being drawn down in a region whose political actors include extreme jihadists and Salafists, dangerously armed…

On January 23, 1980, Jimmy Carter gave what turned out to be his final State of the Union address. Ronald Reagan’s victory over Carter that November spared us any more of them. Will Barack Obama’s appearance before Congress on January 24, 2012, be his swan song? 

Has Barack Obama been a good counter-terrorist president? On the left, and even on the right, we usually hear a resounding “yes”: Obama has maintained, sometimes amplified, the programs that really keep us safe (predator drones, expansive use of domestic intercepts, unsavory intelligence liaison…

Many of us who had spent years reporting on China watched with a feeling of slow-motion tragedy the unfolding of events in the Chinese capital in the spring of 1989, when student-led democracy protests started in Beijing and then across the country. Ultimately, it ended two months later in brutal…

For the first time in decades, union power is under serious threat. Indiana is on the verge of becoming the 23rd state to enact a right-to-work law, liberating workers from being forced to join a union. New Hampshire may also adopt some form of right-to-work. Murmurs about a national right-to-work…

What was modernism? Many well-educated people would be hard pressed to answer, even (especially?) if they were exposed to it in college. Of all the topics in the humanities, modernism may be the most ill taught, because it is both too close (having flourished between the 1880s and World War I) and…

Lehigh Acres, Fla. 

The killing of Osama bin Laden was a monumental tactical success in the war against al Qaeda. For millions, bin Laden had come to symbolize American weakness. His mere existence was a reminder that the United States, for all its military might and economic dominance, could not bring to justice a…

A few days ago, after the last presidential debate in South Carolina, I was gauging the reaction of some Real People, as opposed to the Fake People who populate my seedy little racket. I don’t talk to Real People often if I can help it, as they tend to confuse the emerging media narrative with…

Jacksonville, Fla.

To the long list of constituencies at whom President Obama is righteously cheesed off​—​millionaires, billionaires, international terrorists, those sorts of people​—​we may now add the bursars of America’s colleges and universities. He devoted a passage of his State of the Union address last week…

Why are America’s political, media, and intellectual classes engaged in a head-spinning debate over inequality? Beats us. The difference in incomes between rich and poor is neither the most important issue facing the country nor even a pressing one. Certainly the public doesn’t think so. Recent…

I read an essay by a senior editor at the Atlantic recently that began, “I finished up Middle-march two days ago, and had a good debate about it on Twitter.”

Singin’ in the Rain, the best movie musical and perhaps the most sheerly exuberant film ever made, tells the story of a silent film star played by Gene Kelly whose career is upended by the arrival of talking pictures. The movie has one and only one serious scene, when Kelly realizes to his shame…

These days one can sense a palpable fear among Republicans that the 2012 presidential election is slipping through their fingers. Their constellation of concerns includes the (perceived) weaknesses of the two frontrunners, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich; the increasing ferocity of their clash; the…

On February 3, during a rare Friday prayer lecture at Tehran University, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iran would "support and help any nations, any groups fighting against the Zionist regime across the world, and we are not afraid of declaring this." Khamenei continued, “The…

Public Policy Polling surveys Tuesday's caucuses in Minnesota and Colorado and finds good news for Rick Santorum:

Here's Mitt Romney's victory speech, as prepared for delivery, given tonight after he was projected the winner in the Nevada contest:

CNN  reports: 

Rasmussen's latest tracking poll finds Rick Santorum faring better than Newt Gingrich or Mitt Romney against Obama:

There's been a great deal of sound and fury over the jobs report. Here are two thoughts that come to mind.

"It’s the economy, stupid,” was a useful slogan for the 1992 Bill Clinton campaign. Of course, it wasn’t really true. The Clinton campaign was about much more than the economy. It was about “ending welfare as we know it,” for example, and putting government on the side of those who “work hard and…

Last Thursday, Attorney General Eric Holder was called to testify before Congress. His attitude toward  his questioners was by any measure unbecoming of his office. At one point he actually demanded he be “given some credit” for his performance as attorney general. Though, bad as that outburst was,…

On October 1, 2010, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney described the genius of the American idea and lauded its results. “No nation has done more to lift people out of poverty than this nation,” he said in remarks at Benedetto’s, an Italian restaurant in Tampa, Florida. “Our free enterprise…

Since President Obama arrived in the Oval Office three years ago there have been many efforts to explain his foreign and defense policy succinctly. Is there an Obama Doctrine? While many theories have been propounded, the recent State of the Union speech settles the matter.

Geert Wilders, the big-gesture Dutch politician who has made a career out of outspoken enthusiasms and denunciations in a country which is careful of its speech, has begun to take on water. In the June 2010 election, the Freedom party, which Wilders created five years earlier, was the third-biggest…

Last week Germany reclaimed its status as the leading power in Europe. In the two years since it became apparent that Greece was, essentially, bankrupt, there have been dozens of emergency meetings of the countries that use the common European currency, the euro. Most of the euro-using states…

Purity has no place in a crisis. The 2008 TARP bailout was a clumsy, ugly, and rather shameful creation, but by signaling that Uncle Sam was in the room (with his printing press not far behind), it headed off the final descent into a panic that would have brought the banks, and, with them, the…

On the last weekend of January, priests in Catholic churches across America read extraordinary letters to their congregations. The missives informed the laity that President Obama and his administration had launched an assault on the church. In Virginia, Catholics heard from Bishop Paul Loverde,…

An appropriate accompaniment to this season’s return of Mad Men is Jane Maas’s entertaining and rueful memoir of what it was like to be an advertising woman in the 1960s and ’70s. Maas, a star copywriter who became a creative director and president of an agency, is best known for being the “mother”…

As British troops reached Washington on August 24, 1814, Dolley Madison was emptying the President’s House. As she packed up the silver and drapery, the object she most wanted to rescue was causing trouble: Gilbert Stuart’s full-length portrait of George Washington. So firmly was this fastened to…

"Dollars damn me,” Herman Melville confessed to Nathaniel Hawthorne in June 1851, when he was contemplating the finishing touches on Moby-Dick; or, The Whale. “What I feel most moved to write, that is banned,—it will not pay. Yet, altogether, write the other way I cannot. So the product is a final…

We Americans—so the rough sketch of our archetypal character has it—are a people of rugged individualism, ambition, and, above all, unfettered, unrepentant movement. Summing up the 19th century in America, Frederick Jackson Turner wrote that “movement has been its dominant fact.” But movement was…

Stephen Greenblatt’s book on the influence of Lucretius is clever and curious—and notable for the ambition expressed in its title. Written as a scholar’s lecture but with a writer’s finesse in its many useful asides and pleasing digressions, his account of the Roman poet-

Some fear America is about to go protectionist. Others fear it won’t. Where you stand on this issue depends on where you sit. Sit in the chair of the CEO of a major exporter, and you fear protectionism and the ever-rising spiral of retaliations. Sit in the chair of the president of a trade union,…

Last April’s wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, ubiquitously covered from Westminster Abbey by every medium from satellite to iPhone, served up a reminder that even we in this constitutional republic, where all are equal, can always be counted on to get caught up with the lives of those…

Can the Giants front-four get to Brady and—as the fastidious football locution puts it—disrupt his timing? That is to say...pound him into wet, pink pulp.

Grayson Schmitz is never at a loss for words. According to the New York-based catering chef, "Whatever is in my head I say." So I couldn't resist asking her what went through her mind during the last episode of Top Chef: Texas when the special guest judge turned out to be the one and only Pee-wee…

A new poll from PPP shows Mitt Romney with a commanding lead heading into Saturday's caucuses in Nevada. Romney has 50 percent support there, according to the poll of likely caucusgoers. His numbers double those of Newt Gingrich, who only receives 25 percent support, with Ron Paul and Rick Santorum…

A number of news outlets reported today that the Susan G. Komen breast cancer charity reversed its decision to end funding from Planned Parenthood. "Komen apologizes for 'recent decisions,' pledges to continue funding Planned Parenthood," read the headline at the Dallas News. But the actual…

Lawrence Kaplan takes the Obama administration to task for prematurely declaring that “the tide of war is receding.” Here's a taste:

Newt Gingrich was hardly a perfect speaker of the House, but he did not resign in “disgrace” as has been repeatedly claimed by Mitt Romney. I say this as a former member of Congress who was part of both the “coup attempt” against him and the subsequent successful effort to remove him as speaker…

Today’s jobs report is all good news for the country, and bad news for Republicans who are hoping that a failing economy is all they need in order to unseat President Obama. The economy added 243,000 jobs in January, 257,000 in the private sector, driving the unemployment rate down to a three-year…

At the Herzliya security conference outside Tel Aviv yesterday, former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy suggested that we "Look at Syria and see it as the Achilles heel of Iran." There is "enormous opportunity" in Syria, said Levy. "We should have a main interest in ensuring that the Iranian interest is…

Yuval Levin & Ramesh Ponnuru: "Romney vs. Obamacare"

Ross Douthat: "Government and Its Rivals"

If you weren't able to watch today's congressional hearings with Attorney General Eric Holder on the Fast and Furious scandal, here's a taste of what it was like. Two American law enforcement agents are dead, and despite bearing a significant measure of responsibility, the Justice Department has…

In response to Mitt Romney's remarks about the poor yesterday, Senator Jim DeMint told Roll Call's David Drucker that Romney needs to change his message: 

Eric Holder is currently getting grilled on Capitol Hill over the Fast and Furious gun running scandal. But the family of slain border patrol agent Brian Terry isn't waiting around for the Attorney General to come clean about the role the government played in Terry's death:

Last spring, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards went on CNN and claimed that if Congress cut off funding to Planned Parenthood "millions of women are going to lose access, not to abortion services, to basic family planning, you know, mammograms." But as pro-life activist Lila Rose…

Now this has to be a big relief to Eli, Butch, Gronk, Victor, and the rest of those studs. Not to mention Belichick and Coughlin. Shoot, even the commish has got to feel like a big weight has been lifted off his shoulders. Big Sis Napolitano, herself, has done a walkthrough of the stadium where…

Ever since the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision in January 2010, Stephen Colbert has been satirizing campaign finance laws on his Comedy Central show. In one particularly newsworthy bit this past September, Colbert formed his own 501c(4) non-profit company, which does not require donor…

Rasmussen’s latest polling of likely voters shows President Obama leading Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum by slender and nearly identical margins. Obama leads Romney by 1 point (46 to 45 percent) and Santorum by 2 points (46 to 44 percent).  The President also leads Newt Gingrich by 8 points (49 to…

Last year, Russia imported 55,000 live cattle to help beef up its dairy herd, which has been in serious decline since, well, since collectivization efforts first began under Stalin. As Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post points out,

In President Obama’s first budget, entitled (with no apparent sense of irony) “A New Era of Responsibility,” he projected that the federal budget deficit in 2012 would be a rather hefty $581 billion (see summary table S-1). Fast-forwarding three years, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now…

The Bipartisan Policy Center has released a new report on "Iran’s continued progress towards nuclear weapons capability." It's titled, "Meeting the Challenge: Stopping the Clock." Here's what it's about:

Associated Press: "House votes to keep pay freezes for federal workers in place"

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta announced a new timeline for American combat operations in Afghanistan—or did he? He said, “Hopefully, by mid- to the latter part of 2013, we’ll be able to make, you know, to make a transition from a combat role to a training advice, and assist role…” Pressed once,…

In a statement released this evening, Buck McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, blasts the Obama administration's decision to drawdown combat forces in Afghanistan early. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced the new plan earlier today.

Real Clear Politics: "Dem Congressman: West 'Not Representative Of African-American Community'"

Earlier today, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced that the “The United States and NATO will seek to end their combat mission in Afghanistan next year and shift to a role of providing support and training to Afghan security forces,” the Washington Post reported. In other words, America will…

There's a very curious op-ed in The Los Angeles Times today by Rosa Brooks, who is identified as "a professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center and a fellow at the New America Foundation." She has a curious and disagreeable premise:

According to the Associated Press, Governor Mitch Daniels just signed legislation making Indiana a right-to-work state:

On Wednesday, January 25, a team of 150 officers from the State Investigation and Protection Agency of Bosnia-Herzegovina (SIPA) arrested Nusret Imamovic, leader of the main Wahhabi Islamist cell in the country, and his brother Eldin Imamovic.

As Military.com reported yesterday,

Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric, and his wife Suzy, the former editor of the Harvard Business Review, kick off their new management column for Reuters with a piece titled “Ron Paul and the pink slip that could decide the election.”

John McCormack already wrote a blog post below about Mitt Romney's unfortunate comment that he's "not concerned about the very poor," astutely noting that the candidate's remark "isn't merely tone-deaf, it's also un-conservative."

A pro-Rick Santorum super PAC, Red White & Blue Fund, is running a new ad in Missouri that has a pretty straightforward message for Show Me State conservatives:

A week ago in the pages of THE WEEKLY STANDARD, I wrote about the special congressional election in Oregon's first congressional district. The Republican candidate, businessman Rob Cornilles, appeared to have forced Democrats into making millions in ad buys, suggesting it was close race. However,…

Fresh off his big win in Florida Tuesday night, Mitt Romney made the most stunningly stupid remark of his campaign. 

In Missouri, where the next Republican primary will take place (next Tuesday), a new poll by PPP shows Rick Santorum leading Mitt Romney by 11 percentage points — 45 to 34 percent — while Ron Paul has 13 percent support.  Newt Gingrich isn’t on the ballot in Missouri, so the Show Me State offers a…

On January 29, Israel’s cabinet approved new “housing benefits” for “national priority areas.” The exact application of these benefits to communities in the West Bank is unclear, to me at least, but the cabinet statement says, “The decision is designed to encourage positive migration to the…

Herzliya, Israel

Phil Klein: " Romney aces Florida test"

Mitt Romney won a decisive victory last night in Florida, carrying 46 percent of the vote. Let’s take a close look at how he did it.

Here’s how many votes the respective Republican presidential candidates got in Florida for every $1,000 that they or their super PACs spent on TV advertising in the state (according to ad figures published by the Washington Post as of Friday): 

With his comfortable win in Florida, Mitt Romney has now raised his winning percentage in this year’s Republican primaries or caucuses to .500 (with a record of 2-2).

I wonder if three features of the race as it stands today aren't being a bit neglected:

Mitt Romney’s challenges aren’t over yet. Sorry to say that after his impressive defeat of Newt Gingrich in the Florida presidential primary. He’s improved as a candidate, but he needs to get better before facing President Obama (assuming he captures the GOP nomination).

Orlando, Fla.

Mitt Romney delivered the following remarks following his victory in tonight's Floriday primary:

Just seconds after polls closed in the western Panhandle, Fox News, ABC News, CNN, CBS News, NBC News, and others projected that Mitt Romney is the winner of the Florida primary. According to the New York Times, with 47 percent of precincts reporting, Romney currently leads Newt Gingrich in the…

Polls in the eastern part of Florida closed at 7 p.m. Eastern, and with over 11 percent of precincts reporting, Mitt Romney is receiving 51 percent of the vote,  with Newt Gingrich at 29 percent and Rick Santorum at 12 percent.

Washington Examiner: "Holder's fantastical claim about 'Fast and Furious'"