March 2012

Former network television host Tom Brokaw will be appearing on the Chinese Communist channel later tonight, according to a press release from China Central Television. The Communist channel bears the ironic acronym CCTV, which in other contexts usually stands for “closed-circuit television.”

It’s been more than three years since Barack Obama was elected on a pledge to “transform” America. Two of the industries in his sights were health care and energy. Whether he will get to realize his vision of a government-managed health care system depends now on the Supreme Court, which will…

Did you buy your Mega Millions ticket today?

In light of the bruising that Solicitor General Donald Verrilli took during this week's oral arguments, no one can blame Obamacare's supporters for trying to offer (belatedly) winning answers that the government’s attorney lacked. Two of the early entrants are law professors Akhil Amar and Jeffrey…

Bloomberg's Julianna Goldman reports that G.E.'s CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, is not "rooting for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney in this year’s election." Immelt is head of President Obama's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, as well as an informal economic adviser to the president.

Mark your calendars: Wisconsin's state election board officially announced today that the recall election between Governor Scott Walker and the winner of the Democratic primary will take place on June 5. Polls show the recall race will be tight in battleground Wisconsin. And, as Stephen F. Hayes…

With Mitt Romney leading the delegate race and the rapid coalescing of conservatives around him – Jeb Bush, Mike Lee, Marco Rubio, and Paul Ryan with formal endorsements, and Jim DeMint and Pat Toomey with quasi-endorsements – there is increasing speculation about who the former Massachusetts…

The Massachusetts state Republican party has a new ad highlighting Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren's opposition to the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline. "Keystone Pipeline Means Thousands More Jobs and Cheaper Gas," the text of the ad reads. "Yet, Warren Opposes It." Watch the…

The United Nations reports that over 9,000 have been killed in Syria during the anti-regime uprising that has been going on for the last year. So far, however, President Obama has taken a hands-off approach, relying exclusively on diplomacy and sanctions.

Matt Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon:

The latest web ad from American Crossroads, responding to President Obama's hot mic moment with his Russian counterpart:

Paul Gigot, writing at the Wall Street Journal: 

After Tuesday's oral arguments, in which Justice Kennedy posed pleasantly tough questions to Solicitor General Verrilli, it was hard for conservatives not to get excited about the prospects for an imminent Supreme Court decision striking down the individual mandate.

NBC News reports on its latest poll of likely voters in Wisconsin's Republican primary contest:

The month of April is a big one in the GOP nomination battle, with major states in the Midwest and Northeast up for grabs, and more than 300 delegates at stake.

Gary Schmitt: "General Dempsey retreats."

J.E. Dyer, writing at Hot Air, helps explain the significance of the State Department's refusal yesterday to say that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel:

The boss tells Politico what the stakes are in the 2012 election:

The 2013 budget written by Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin sailed through the House on Thursday afternoon by a vote of 228 to 191. There were 10 Republican defections--up from four last year. Some Republicans who flip-flopped on the Ryan budget said the budget needed to cut more spending. This…

Why do more Americans oppose Obamacare than support it? "Most Americans don't want to be forced to take on insurance," says Dr. Scott Atlas, a radiologist and professor at Stanford University. But, he goes on, the problems are much worse than that and the more one learns about the current quality…

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely Republican voters in Maryland finds Mitt Romney well ahead of his rivals:

Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a habit of shifting positions toward his country’s neighbors, while pursuing the “soft Islamist” political agenda of his Justice and Development party (AKP). Erdogan’s Turkey was a close ally of Assad’s Damascus clique until the Syrian massacres, and…

Nebraska Republican attorney general Jon Bruning, the leading candidate to replace retiring Democratic senator Ben Nelson, has a new TV advertisement running statewide for the next two weeks. In the ad, Bruning touts his work as attorney general in suing the federal government over Obamacare, a…

Former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon currently leads former congressman Chris Shays in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Connecticut, according to a new poll released this week. The poll, commissioned by the McMahon campaign, finds that McMahon is ahead of Shays by 21…

The State Department isn't sure whether Jerusalem is the capital city of the state of Israel. In fact, yesterday, spokesman Victoria Nuland was asked, "What is the capital of Israel?" She would not say.

James Anderson finally is getting his due. In 1796, George Washington hired the Scotsman as a plantation manager. Anderson quickly convinced the outgoing president to build a distillery. By 1798, the five still facility was gurgling forth 10,000 gallons of whiskey and other distilled spirits, which…

The most recent fundraising letter from Barack Obama's reelection campaign:[img nocaption float="center" width="588" height="640" render="<%photoRenderType%>"]17733[/img]

This week has really reminded me of Election Day 2004. Liberals, then, were just plain convinced John Kerry was going to be elected president, so much so Bob Shrum actually called Kerry, “Mr. President.” The left had convinced itself  Bush was unpopular, Kerry had closed the deal, and everything…

The Miami Herald reports: 

At an apparently unscheduled stop at a Boys and Girls Club in Sioux City, Iowa, Vice President told a group of about 75 boys about the 2008 election. "I never intended to get involved in politics and become vice president," Biden reportedly said, according to the pool report. The pool reporter then…

Moderate Republican congressman Steven LaTourette of Ohio has come up with an alternative budget with Democrat Jim Cooper of Tennessee. LaTourette's office is now circulating a "rebuttal memo" around Capitol Hill that challenges some arguments made against it. But the memo doesn't even try to rebut…

"Doomed."

During yesterday’s arguments on the constitutionality of Obamacare’s individual mandate, Justice Stephen Breyer took exception to the states’ argument that the mandate imposes, for the first time in American history, a congressional obligation that private citizens must purchase a product of the…

Not a single Republican voted for final passage on Obamacare in 2010. And Republicans in both Houses have unanimously voted to repeal the deeply government-takeover of the health care sector. But Yuval Levin notes that some moderate House Republicans might vote for an alternative budget that…

There was an amazing exchange today at the State Department press briefing when the press secretary refused to say that Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel. “We are not going to prejudge the outcome of those negotiations, including the final status of Jerusalem,” State Department…

Americans tend to think of Canada as a friendly, clean bastion of European-style socialism, replete with cradle to grave entitlements and a perpetually tepid economy. However, over the last few years Canada has set a pace for economic growth that clearly demonstrates that our current economic…

A new poll from PPP shows Nebraska attorney general Jon Bruning, a Republican, as a clear favorite to replace retiring Democrat senator Ben Nelson in November. Former Democratic senator Bob Kerrey, who is returning to Nebraska to run for his old seat, actually performs worse against Bruning and the…

Mitt Romney is maintaining his advantage in the Wisconsin Republican primary contest, according to a recent poll by Marquette University:

Former president George Herbert Walker Bush will endorse Mitt Romney in Houston Thursday afternoon, the Associated Press reports:

At a hearing today on Capitol Hill, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner blamed members of Congress (before 2008) for the economic troubles:

The Republican presidential primary race in Pennsylvania is tightening, according to the findings of a recently released Franklin and Marshall poll:

Pravda is hitting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney over comments he made about Russia. "Russia is the geopolitical foe," Romney said earlier this week in response to President Obama telling his Russian counterpart to give him "space" so that he could have "more flexibility" after the…

The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), an official mouthpiece of the Iranian regime, reports that "Iran will send monkey into space in early 2012."

Politico reports: 

The boss, Arthur Brooks, and Ed Feulner, writing in today's Wall Street Journal: 

President Obama’s budget cuts defense by $487 billion over the next ten years. Furthermore, the president has not led an effort to avoid an additional $500 billion of cuts under the so-called “sequestration,” which will likely result in what Obama’s secretary of defense predicts will be “smallest…

Yesterday, we endured an esoteric debate over a jurisdictional statute that practically no one expects to actually affect the Supreme Court's review of Obamacare. Today, by contrast, was the argument we've all been waiting for: the challenge to the constitutional merits of Obamacare's individual…

Audio, transcripts, and more for today's arguments on Obamacare at the Supreme Court.

The Obama administration’s attempt at peace talks with the Taliban has been fraught with problems. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported on another: Qatar.

The first flotilla in 2010 ended in a bloodbath on the high seas, when the Israeli navy intercepted Islamists and activists seeking to challenge Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. The second flotilla fizzled, when international lawyers prevented a second round of boats from embarking on another…

The Washington Post editorial board essentially writes that, because Obamacare is good policy (in the editors’ estimation), and because it would involve the economy, it must also be constitutional.  Here is the Post’s argument, in its entirety: 

In a Facebook note published today, Congressman Allen West blasts J Street, or as he calls them, the "Pro-Palestinian Jewish Organization."

A new Rasmussen poll shows Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel has tied incumbent Democratic senator Sherrod Brown with 43 percent support apiece. That's a change from a poll in early February, when Brown held a four-point lead over Mandel in a head-to-head match-up. Here's more from Rasmussen:

Politico reports: 

Roger Kimball remembers Hilton Kramer:

A group of 36 foreign policy advisers to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney have sent an open to letter President Obama concerning the troubling assurances he gave to his Russian counterpart at a meeting yesterday in Seoul, South Korea. The president’s assurances, which were not meant to…

President Obama's explanation today of his private request yesterday, captured on an open microphone, of Russian president Dmitry Medvedev for some "space" and "flexibility" until after November's election, simply compounds the problem. 

Today, President Obama played down his hot mic moment with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev that set-off a firestorm yesterday.

The solicitor general had an interesting morning. He argued before the Supreme Court's nine justices that Obamacare's individual mandate isn't a "tax"—even though he'll argue tomorrow that the mandate is a "tax." And then the government's top litigator invoked the possibility of incompetent…

Bret Stephens: "Peter Beinart’s False Prophecy: The Crisis of Zionism, his book arguing that the Israeli occupation alienates young American Jews, is sloppy with facts and emotionally contrived."

Deadline.com reports that screen rights for WEEKLY STANDARD senior editor Andy Ferguson's Crazy U: One Dad’s Crash Course in Getting His Kid Into College are being acquired by New Line Cinema. "The film will be developed as a potential star vehicle for Will Ferrell," the website reports.

The next major test for Republican presidential candidates is April 3 in Wisconsin, where GOP voters are not accustomed to having much of a voice in the presidential primary process. But even with Wisconsin looking like an important state – in some ways maybe a decisive one – voters there are more…

The American Press of Louisiana reports:

The Republican National Committee jumps on President Obama's hot mic comments to his Russian counterpart earlier today and cuts this ad: 

Last week, the Obama administration started releasing the $1.3 billion in U.S. military assistance to Egypt that’s been on hold since October. Over the objections of human rights advocates and democracy activists, Hillary Clinton signed a waiver allowing Washington to circumvent recent legislation…

Congressman Mike Turner, a Republican from Ohio, sent a letter to President Obama demanding an “urgent explanation of [his] comments to [Russian] President Medvedev in Seoul this morning,” only hours after a hot microphone caught Obama privately telling Medvedev this morning that he’ll have “more…

Reuel Marc Gerecht, writing in the Wall Street Journal: 

Senior White House advisor David Plouffe — President Obama’s campaign manager in 2008 — told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that, when it comes to dealing with our colossal deficits and debt, “the right approach is the president’s approach.” That approach, Plouffe added, “gets our deficit on a…

Last week, the Club for Growth purchased airtime in Indiana to run advertisements against Dick Lugar, the six-term Republican senator facing a tough primary election against Indiana state treasurer Richard Mourdock. The Club's latest ad, released today, targets Lugar as a big spender and tax…

If one needed a reminder of why President Obama must be defeated in November, he provided it today in Seoul, where the end of his private conversation with Russian president Dmitri Medvedev was picked up by microphones as reporters were let into the room:

President Obama got caught in private conversation with a hot mic today in Seoul, South Korea, telling outgoing Russian president Dmitry Medvedev that Vladimir Putin should give him more "space" and that "[a]fter my election I have more flexibility."

What do you do when the defining event of your presidency is the passage of a massive health care overhaul that bears your name, is wildly unpopular, and was passed into law without receiving a single vote from the opposing party? If you’re President Obama, you don’t abandon your well-worn strategy…

Last week, the New York Times reported that “labor leaders say they will mount their biggest campaign effort, with far more union members than ever before—at least 400,000, they say—knocking on voters’ doors to counter the well-endowed ‘super-PACs’ backing Republicans.”

It’s been a bad few weeks in Afghanistan. The burning of several Korans by U.S. military personnel at the Bagram airbase on February 20 sparked protests and riots. More troubling were several incidents of “green on blue” attacks in which Afghan security personnel turned on their American advisers;…

The common counterfactual as it relates to Hitler is somewhat fantastical: If you could go back in time and kill the Austrian madman before he ascended to Germany’s chancellorship, would you do so? Nay, would you be morally obligated to do so? More interesting, perhaps, is the question that arises…

We recently reached a landmark in the checkered annals of social science: the 47th anniversary of an initially obscure paper that few living Americans have heard of, and fewer read. That epochal document has been known since the summer of 1965 as “the Moynihan Report,” when it was so dubbed by the…

There were surely people at the first showing of The Godfather upon its release on March 15, 1972, who understood that the film they were seeing was the best motion picture made up to that time—and might have foreseen that this would be true to this very day.

The media specialize in spotting political blunders, miscues, and lost battles by Republicans. And reporters and commentators have found a lot of them in the past year. The fight over the debt limit increase, the refusal to reach agreement with President Obama on a “grand bargain” to cut the…

To open a Penelope Lively novel is to accept an invitation to the exhilaration of nuance. That is the kind way of putting it. To be less kind would be to point out that, despite Dame Penelope’s interest in the sweep of history, her internationalism, her dramatic twists and emotionally devastating…

On February 11, as the debate over the Obama administration’s rule forcing religious institutions to provide insurance for contraceptive and aborti-facient drugs to their employees was reaching fever pitch, a prominent American said:

Just about every poll on regulatory issues shows many Americans hold contradictory views. By growing majorities, Americans say they oppose “government regulation” (more than half tell Gallup that government regulates “too much”). However, when pollsters ask about broad areas of regulatory policy,…

Grand strategy is about how states use their military, economic, diplomatic, and soft power resources to gain security and advance their interests in both peace and war. Here, Peter Trubowitz offers a theory of executive choice to explain how American presidents decide between grand strategic…

It’s around, say, 1979, and you’re trying to remember where you saw that article on rising radiation levels in Eastern Europe. It might have been in Foreign Affairs, but, then again, it might have been in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists or even the New Statesman, although that seems less…

Among the scholarly and critical books that continue to crowd the Henry James shelf in university libraries, this new one by Michael Anesko deserves a significant place. Monopolizing the Master tells the story of what happened to Henry James’s legacy after his death in England in 1916 at the age of…

Nobody had the week of March 11 circled on the political calendars last fall. The week after Super Tuesday featured two contests in the Deep South, two on the islands, and a caucus in a state that had already hosted a meaningless, if well-attended, primary. But last week may end up being more…

New York Times columnist Nick Kristof writes:

Rick Santorum’s 22-point margin of victory in yesterday’s Louisiana primary was the 2nd-largest in any GOP primary this year — and was the largest outside of any candidate’s home state. Santorum received 49 percent of the vote in the Bayou State, equaling the combined tallies of Mitt Romney (27…

Rick Santorum is projected to win today's Louisiana Republican presidential primary, according to CNN. Currently, only 4 percent of precincts reporting, and Santorum has 40 percent of the vote, Mitt Romney 30 percent, Newt Gingrich 22 percent, and Ron Paul 5 percent.

Reuters reports that "Iran is providing a broad array of assistance to Syrian President Bashar Assad to help him suppress anti-government protests, from high-tech surveillance technology to guns and ammunition, U.S. and European security officials say."

We may be entering an era of creeping de-globalization. It is one thing to be generous with the perceived foibles of your trading partners when your economy is growing and jobs are plentiful. It is quite another to decide to be tolerant when your economy is struggling, and domestic political…

Louisiana Poll: "Santorum 42, Romney 28, Gingrich 18, Paul 8."

Politico reports that the Club for Growth has bought television airtime in Indianapolis, Fort Wayne, and South Bend, Indiana to run ads against incumbent Republican senator Dick Lugar. The ad buy will be the first outside TV advertising for this race that'll help Lugar's Republican opponent,…

Thomas Buch-Andersen, host of the Danish TV show Detektor, mocked President Obama's political rhetoric in a recent episode. "Obama used a metaphor from boxing to explain Denmark's role in the world," says Buch-Andersen, introducing the segment.

Wendy Long is taking up New York senator Kirsten Gillibrand's challenge. “Senator Gillibrand has said she wants to see more women in politics,” Long said in her speech to the state GOP convention last week, responding to the Democratic incumbent. “I say let’s give her what she’s asking for.”

Alain Juppe, France’s foreign minister, forcefully condemned the coup d’état that overthrew Mali’s president, Amadou Toumani Toure, a few days ago, and called for elections as soon as possible in the context of the restoration of constitutional order.  Elections, the first round of the presidential…

At a campaign event in Coconut Creek, Florida today, Vice President Joe Biden was introduced as . . .  "President Biden." Here's video:

Today’s nomination of Dartmouth president Jim Yong Kim to be president of the World Bank was a narrow escape. There was a chance that President Obama might select a really qualified person: Lawrence Summers, who was often viewed as the lead candidate. But he was obviously unfit: He is a former…

Rick Santorum is pushing back against what he's calling a misinterpreted quotation, in which he's being reported as saying he'd vote for Barack Obama over Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential contest. "I would never vote for Barack Obama over any Republican," Santorum says in a statement, "and to…

In 2011, all but four House Republicans supported the budget authored by Paul Ryan of Wisconsin. But this year, that level of party unity appeared endangered—indeed, even passage of the budget on the floor appeared problematic--when, on Wednesday night, two members of Ryan's own committee who voted…

At the time when President Obama signed Obamacare into law — two years ago today — the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected that Obamacare would cost 3 million people their employer-sponsored health insurance by the end of this decade. Seemingly in commemoration of Obamacare’s anniversary,…

In USA Today, Mitt Romney argues that we need “to abolish” Obamacare, “root and branch,” and replace it with “a free market, federalist approach to making quality, affordable health insurance available to every American.”  He writes, “Each state should be allowed to pursue its own solution in this…

The Republican National Committee is wishing Obamacare--President Obama's signature health care overhaul legislation--a "happy birthday" with this banner, hanging from the RNC office here in Washington:

Matt Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon:

Today, I want to talk about a group of voters in the GOP primary process that I call the “Post Office” Republicans.

A group of Occupy Wall Street protesters recently decided to torment New York Police Department officers tasked with keeping the unruly group out of Union Square in New York City. First, the Occupiers threw a doughnut on a string to the men in blue standing shoulder-to-shoulder, yanking…

New York Times: "John Edwards Denies Prostitute's Claims."

The House Budget Committee has released a new paper showing that the budget written by Chairman Paul Ryan could reach balance sooner than projected by the Congressional Budget Office:

DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz continued for demagogic attacks on Paul Ryan's budget in Florida earlier today. The Palm Beach Post reports:

Senator Jim DeMint told CNN today that he's more than happy with the possibility of Mitt Romney being the GOP nominee:

Investigating Chinese surveillance is a rather lonely job. For all the dissidents yammering about dramatic arrests and torture and harvesting of organs, you can’t really guarantee publication or much of an audience unless you can prove that there are links to America: brand name corporations, scary…

In an interview with the Heritage Foundation, Florida senator Marco Rubio praised the House budget drafted by Congressman Paul Ryan. "Ultimately, I congratulate Paul Ryan," Rubio said. "The Democrats in the Senate aren't going to produce a budget and they can't produce a budget," Rubio added. "And…

This is posted on the official Barack Obama reelection campaign Tumblr page (via Hot Air): 

In an article today in NOW Lebanon, Tony Badran reports that Hillary Clinton “dismissed a number of forward leaning options on Syria” proposed by Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to the White House. “What this means,” writes Badran, “is that Washington, which at one point subcontracted its…

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely GOP primary voters, taken the day after Mitt Romney’s win in Illinois, shows Rick Santorum with a 12-point lead over Romney in Louisiana (43 to 31 percent). If Santorum’s lead holds up, it will continue the trend of Romney winning Democratic-leaning states,…

The following exchange should give Republicans a pretty good indication of whether President Obama would rather have the upcoming election be focused on Obamacare or the economy:

Heritage Action, the political arm of the Heritage Foundation, released the following statement on the House Republican budget:

It's surely not worth trying to contemplate the idea that Joe Biden could be a viable presidential candidate in 2016--despite Politico's long feature this morning saying that the vice president's camp appears somewhat serious about the notion. (Literally, Joe Biden? Give me a break.)

Late night comedian Jimmy Fallon ridiculed Energy Secretary Steven Chu for earlier this week giving himself an A- for how he's handled high gas prices:

John Engler, the former three-term governor of Michigan and current president of the Business Roundtable, calls the House Republican budget proposal a "courageous exercise" and says it has "intriguing ideas" regarding tax and entitlement reforms.

Gallup finds that an overwhelming 57 percent of American adults believe "the U.S. Government Should Approve of the Keystone XL Pipeline."

Via Hot Air, Salena Zito reports: 

Report: “Don’t worry, the British prime minister is fine, I’ve just tucked him up in bed,” said Barack Obama.

Today marks the 2-year anniversary of the Democratically controlled House’s passage of Obamacare (without a single Republican vote). For many of us, that date — March 21, 2010, immediately led our thoughts to two future dates: November 2, 2010 and, especially, November 6, 2012. Here’s what I wrote…

French officials have identified the gunman responsible for the deaths of seven people, including three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse, as a French-Algerian named Mohammad Merah. As with other terrorist attacks, there was early confusion in the press reporting about the…

While the spending side of the House Republican budget plan is getting most of the media attention, the revenue portion of the plan deserves just as much attention for what it achieves—the resumption of a healthy debate over just what tax reform should entail.

President Obama's secretary of energy, Steven Chu, is a smart guy. But in these two clips, from a hearing on the Hill yesterday, Rep. Jim Jordan seems to get the better of the cabinet member:

As Mike Warren noted earlier today, an aide to Mitt Romney compared the general election campaign to an Etch-a-Sketch. "Well, I think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign," Eric Fehrnstrom said on CNN this morning. "Everything changes. It’s almost like an Etch-a-Sketch. You can kind of…

The Club for Growth put out an odd statement in response to Paul Ryan's proposed budget. "Despite containing several important reforms and pro-growth policies, the Ryan Budget falls short in two critical respects," president Chris Chocola said.

Mitt Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told CNN this morning that Boston will "reset" its campaign for the general election. Via Greg Sargent:

Fox News host Bret Baier had a straightforward question last night for Obama advisor David Axelrod: "Why haven't Senate Democrats passed a budget resolution in 1,040 days?" It's the sort of question that's probably not asked enough, especially considering Republicans in the House have passed a…

ABC News reports that former Florida governor Jeb Bush has endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney:

Yesterday, a reporter from the Irish Times responsible for the foreign press pool report of a breakfast with Joe Biden and Irish prime minister Enda Kenny noted that the "[vice president of the United States] seems to have an inexhaustible supply of Irish sayings." But it wasn't just Irish…

While it’s clear that regional variations have played a role thus far in the Republican primaries — with Mitt Romney doing well in the Northeast but not in the South, for example — breaking down the contests along other lines might help shed some additional light on the race. It’s perhaps…

Mitt Romney won a solid victory last night in the Land of Lincoln. Let’s take a close look at how he pulled it off.

Looking back at the day's news, I must admit I'm having trouble maintaining my customary good cheer.

Mitt Romney is close to finishing off his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, talk of a brokered GOP convention in August, and the prospect of a new candidate suddenly entering the contest.

The bipartisan Medicare reform plan proposed by Republican House member Paul Ryan and Oregon senator Ron Wyden is dead. At least, that's the perception Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid may be trying to create.

Fox News projects that Mitt Romney is the winner of the Illinois Republican presidential primary. The call is made with 6.3 percent of precincts reporting, Romney currently has 53.9 percent of the vote, Rick Santorum has 27.7 percent, Ron Paul has 10.7 percent, and Newt Gingrich trails with 6.7…

'Will the real Mitt Romney please stand up?'

In testimony before the House Armed Services Committee today, General John Allen said the mission in Afghanistan remains on track, despite the infamous Quran burnings and last week’s civilian casualty incident. Allen, who will testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday morning,…

At the end of 2008 — the year President Obama was elected —our national debt was $9.986 trillion. It’s now $15.542 trillion and counting — a increase of $5.556 trillion, or 56 percent, in just over three years.  With that staggering — and unparalleled — record of fiscal profligacy in mind, let’s…

The New York Times reports that "A classified war simulation held this month to assess the repercussions of an Israeli attack on Iran forecasts that the strike would lead to a wider regional war, which could draw in the United States and leave hundreds of Americans dead, according to American…

President Barack Obama recently told a Democratic congresswoman that the proudest achievement of his presidency was passing the national health care law in 2010.  

The 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran’s nuclear weapons program lives on in the imagination of some government officials. At the end of a lengthy piece by James Risen in the New York Times this past weekend an anonymous official claims: “That assessment holds up really well.”

Vienna

House Armed Services Committee chairman Buck McKeon praised the Republican budget released earlier today in a statement. "Chairman Ryan has drafted a budget that puts us back on the path to prosperity," says McKeon. "His plan is full of tough choices, but I am pleased he recognizes that our men and…

Paul Ryan explains the Republican budget in an oped in today's Wall Street Journal: 

"[T]he latest version of Ryan’s Path to Prosperity, released today, does far more than defeat a rival who’s decided to forfeit the field," AEI expert Jim Pethokoukis writes. "It presents a bold and sweeping solution to America’s twin problems: too much debt and too little economic growth."

Susan Crown is supporting a more pro-Israel candidate this year. So instead of supporting Barack Obama as she did in 2008, she's fundraising for Mitt Romney. The Washington Post reports:

The Peyton Manning tour has evidently ended in Denver, where he will play for the Broncos, and one almost wishes it could have gone on a little longer. It was a nice relief from that other road show we hear so much about—namely, the presidential campaign.

Alex Burns reports how much more money Mitt Romney's campaign and super PAC spent in Illinois than Rick Santorum's.

This afternoon, Mitt Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul emailed a brief, edited video of rival Rick Santorum speaking in Moline, Illinois today. "I don't care what the unemployment rate's going to be," Santorum says in the five-second clip. "Doesn't matter to me."

Paul Ryan unveils the House Republican budget proposal Tuesday, as Illinois Republican primary voters go to the polls. I dare say the Ryan budget will be much the more consequential of the two events, and that victory or defeat in the intellectual and political battle over Paul Ryan’s budget will…

New York Times: "C-Span Founder to Step Down as Chief Executive."

Vienna

Journalist Nir Rosen defended himself against accusations over the weekend that he’d collaborated with Syrian security services. Rosen, who spent four months in Syria reporting for Al Jazeera International’s English-language website, was implicated in emails published by Al Arabiya. Along with the…

The great majority of Kosovar Albanians take pride in their reputation as the most pro-American Muslims in the world. Their Sunni Islam is conventional and moderate, and spiritual Sufism is a powerful force among the believers. Since 2009, however, a serious effort has been visible in the Balkan…

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters shows that Americans support the repeal of Obamacare by a margin of 17 percentage points — 56 to 39 percent.  The margin of support for repeal is slightly higher among independents — 18 points (57 to 39 percent).   Repeal is supported by a majority of both…

As is becoming increasingly clear, the legislation that was the principal cause of the Democrats’ historic defeat in 2010 isn’t getting any more popular as President Obama heads toward his day of accountability to the American citizenry. Four days before the 2-year anniversary of when Obama signed…

A pair of new polls shows Indiana state treasurer Richard Mourdock within six points of incumbent Republican senator Richard Lugar in the GOP primary race. Politico reports:

Christians United for Israel now has a million members, the group run by Pastor John Hagee announced. "Christians United for Israel (CUFI), the nation’s largest pro-Israel organization, announced Sunday that it had crossed the million member mark," the group noted in a press release. "The…

The latest web ad from the Republican National Committee effectively attacks "Obama's War on Women."

The two leading GOP candidates were asked about Afghanistan on the Sunday talk shows yesterday. Both Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum gave pretty good responses and refused to go wobbly on Afghanistan.

Via BuzzFeed, an interesting report on what Barack Obama in 2004, then a Senate candidate, said about the Iranian issue in the Chicago Tribune:

Like Hugo Chávez, Ecuadorean president Rafael Correa has used vast oil wealth to boost his personal popularity and camouflage the effects of his disastrous economic policies while steadily weakening his country’s democratic institutions. Correa has not gone as far as Chávez in his erosion of…

When James Q. Wilson published Bureaucracy in 1989, Daniel Patrick Moynihan toasted it as Wilson’s “summa” and Wilson himself as “our Weber.” Like many pronouncements of Moynihan’s, that tribute was grand, right for the moment​—​but not quite right. What James Q. Wilson had in common with the…

Nicolle Wallace was the onetime consultant to CBS News and media aide to George W. Bush who was assigned to work with Sarah Palin after the Alaska governor was chosen as John McCain’s running mate. It was Wallace who assured the McCain campaign that her dear friend Katie Couric, a committed liberal…

I’m not much of a TV watcher. Other than Top Gear episodes that feature Porsches, I tend towards Iron Chef or reruns of Two Fat Ladies. I lack the commitment ethos required (and invariably tested) by a multi-narrative television series.

In Nigeria, thousands of people have been killed in recent months, and tens of thousands in the last decade. It is a fissiparous country whose conflicts have been exacerbated by the increased influence of radical Islam​—​beginning with attempts to apply Islamic law, then the growth of militias, and…

On the list of the world’s most unnecessary occupations—aromatherapist, golf pro, journalism professor, vice president of the United States​—​that of medical ethicist ranks very high. They are happily employed by pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, and other outposts of the vast medical-industrial…

It’s not easy to lose 63 seats in a House election. Before 2010, the last time it had been done was when Joe DiMaggio was still patrolling center field for the New York Yankees. It’s even harder to pull off such a feat when exit polling shows that Americans were inclined to blame the prior…

Teachers, more than any other feature of a school, determine how well students learn. Parents know it; research confirms it. So it might seem reasonable to expect that securing good teachers would be a well-honed art. Instead, the way we recruit, evaluate, retain, and compensate our more than 3…

Charles Murray’s profound and important new book has, for the most part, been received as merely the latest volley in the inequality debates. Its champions have tended to praise it for shedding light on overlooked aspects of the gap between rich and poor, while its critics have faulted it for…

Here’s to John McCain, leading from the front. Last week, the Arizona senator cut through all the White House doubletalk on the Syrian uprising and demanded a more active U.S. policy, including provision of arms to the Free Syrian Army as well as airpower to slow the assaults of Bashar al-Assad’s…

Judging from his comments over the past two weeks, very little frustrates Barack Obama as much as criticism of the difficult decisions he is facing as president on matters of war and peace. So he’s lashing out.

The battlefield of political prognostication is littered with the remains of once-bold, but quickly forgotten, theories of partisan realignment. No sooner is a “permanent Republican majority” proposed than the predicted majority is overtaken by events, thereby laying the foundation for an “emerging…

There are roads that are as storied as rivers, though the reasons for their notoriety are much more varied. The Silk Road (which was really a collection of roads) stands forever as a conduit, of goods and ideas, between East and West. The Tokaido lives on, in the prints of Hiroshige, as a pastoral…

In the end, the outcome of the Russian presidential election was as predictable as it was depressing. Vladimir Putin won, with an official tally of nearly 64 percent of the vote—more than enough to spare him the dreaded runoff—amid charges of widespread fraud at the ballot box. The question remains…

The idea that China is practicing a new form of capitalism, and may even be “doing capitalism better than America,” is reaching a fever pitch in policy and business circles. Two arguments buttress the claim of “Beijing Consensus-ers.” The first is that there is a “Beijing Model” of authoritarian…

Living in Los Angeles many years ago, I used occasionally to wonder about the people I would see on the sidewalk, at the art museum, in a restaurant. You got accustomed to seeing recognizable faces at random—Vincent Price in a frame shop, Mary Astor at the Motion Picture Home. But what about the…

Jack Kemp, the Republican congressman from Buffalo, met with Ronald Reagan at the Airport Marriott in Los Angeles in early January 1980. Kemp, an enthusiastic supporter of supply-side economics, had authored the Kemp-Roth tax cut to reduce income tax rates by 30 percent across the board. He was…

CNN has projected that Mitt Romney will win Sunday's primary in Puerto Rico, and Romney will most likely receive all 20 of Puerto Rico's delegates. Romney had the support of Puerto Rico's Republican governor, Luis Fortuño, and was expected to win handily.

Mitt Romney has won the Republican primary in Puerto Rico, according to projections from CNN: 

The anniversary of Obamacare's passage is later this week, and the debate over health care and mandates (both regarding Obamacare and Romneycare) continues to carry on. Here's Jeff Jacoby, writing about Mitt Romney's health care plan--and the former Massachusetts governor's commitment to it--in the…

On Friday afternoon, the Obama administration released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to announce it was proceeding as planned with its new federal mandate that abortion pills, sterilization procedures, and contraception must be provided without co-pays under virtually all health care…

Cafe Hawelka, Vienna

Mitt Romney went to Puerto Rico on Friday to make a pitch to voters there. Byron York reports on how the Republican presidential candidate played it:

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely general election voters in the “core four” swing states of Florida, Ohio, Virginia, and North Carolina shows Rick Santorum leading President Obama by 4 percentage points (48 to 44 percent), while Mitt Romney trails Obama by 4 points (46 to 42 percent) — an…

Rasmussen’s polling shows Mitt Romney leading Rick Santorum by 9 percentage points (41 to 32 percent) in Illinois, yet likely primary voters in the Prairie State hold almost identically favorable views of each candidate.  Romney’s net favorability rating is +38 points (68 percent “favorable” to 30…

Another stunning March Madness upset: #15 Lehigh took down "inevitable" #2 Duke this evening, 75 to 70.

It’s better to be lucky than good. So goes the old saw. It’s better still to be both lucky and good, which is what Britain’s new ambassador here in Washington seems to be. Sir Peter Westmacott surely demonstrated just how good he is at what he does by setting up a dream visit for Prime Minister…

At a posh fundraiser in Atlanta, where 40 guests each paid $35,800 to attend, President Obama talked about . . . the weather. As today's White House pool reporter notes: 

The fantastic NCAA upset of #2 Missouri by #15 Norfolk State has big implications:

Max Boot: "The Navy Gets Serious About Gulf Action."

Leon Wieseltier, writing in the New Republic:

Utah congressional candidate Mia Love on "talks economics, politics, and the Tea Party," via Ed Morrissey:

Charles Krauthammer, writing in the Washington Post:

President Obama is in full campaign mode today, attending five fundraisers in two cities, Chicago and Atlanta. The AP reports: 

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is committed to staying in the race, the former speaker of the House told CBS this morning:

The latest Fox Chicago poll of likely Republican voters in Illinois:

Ynetnews.com reports that British PM David Cameron says the UK won't support an Israeli strike of Iran's nuclear at this time:

Talking Points Memo has a good story about President Obama's latest incident of historical illiteracy at a speech where he got both U.S. and world history wrong in the course of lecturing Republicans about being know-nothings. Here’s a sample, from TPM:

Matt Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon:

It is true that Mitt Romney is a weak frontrunner who simply cannot close the deal against two opponents who have both little money and organizational support. (After all, even Bob Dole and John McCain had it in the bag by mid-March.) But one explanation has to do with the primary calendar this…

The Atlantic: "Two Romneys in Two Days on Fox News."

The Obama administration’s fantasyland attempt at talks with the Taliban took another significant blow on Thursday. In a statement released online, Mullah Omar’s organization announced that it “has decided to suspend all talks with Americans taking place in Qatar from today onwards until the…

Berlin

The Energy Information Administration—a federal agency—just released a report titled, "Sales of Fossil Fuels Produced on Federal and Indian Lands, FY 2003 Through FY 2011." The Institute for Energy Research summarizes the report's major findings:

Politico reports that Indiana Senator Dick Lugar can't vote for himself in his election because he's not eligible:

The Washington Post's David Nakamura, today's White House pool reporter, had these odd lines in his last dispatch, just as the president was returning from a speech in Maryland:

Ramesh Ponnuru writes in the latest issue of National Review:

In the biggest prize among November's swing states, the latest Rasmussen poll of likely voters shows Rick Santorum faring slightly better than Mitt Romney versus President Obama. In Florida, Santorum trails Obama by 2 percentage points (45 to 43 percent), while Romney trails Obama by 3 points (46…

Yesterday, Daily Beast blogger Andrew Sullivan declared, without argument, "You can't catch a bus in this city without a billboard from neo-fascist Michael Goldfarb staring you in the face." It was an apparent reference to the Emergency Committee for Israel's billboard campaign asking whether…

Michael Kaplan, a college teacher, has a thoughtful and intriguing explanation of Rick Santorum's views of higher education:

The Obama reelection campaign paid $345,353 for "a 17-minute campaign documentary by Academy Award-winning director Davis Guggenheim, set for release Thursday," the Daily Caller reports. "The price comes out to more than $20,300 per minute."

Quinnipiac polls former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum's home state:

"Employers ought to embrace this. If you can’t beat them, you might as well join them,” John Challenger told Chicago's local Fox affiliate. “It’s a way of bringing people together. Everybody does it. It's really harmless." No, the jobs consultant isn't talking about an office key party, but rather…

Robert Kagan: "America has made the world freer, safer and wealthier."

Despite reports of Republican devastation in the contraception debate, social conservative themes show surprising signs of hanging around.

The Kremlin television network RT praised the supposed fairness of the Russian election after strongman Vladimir Putin won reelection in the rigged contest. RT's claim was that the election was the most transparent in history:

Reuters reports that the Obama administration will cut off birth control funding for low-income women in Texas because Texas has cut off the state's taxpayer-funding of Planned Parenthood: 

A new poll of likely voters in Texas shows that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum has "a substantial lead." Stephen Dinan reports:

A new regulation from the Justice Department will require “public-access swimming pools across the country to install handicapped-accessible ramps and lifts or face a fine of up to $100,000,” the Hill reports. This regulation could cost “hotels and other organizations  . . . to spend up to $9,000…

It has been a tough week for the president. Just as things were supposed to be getting better for him—as they were for the economy—his support and approval ratings took a severe hit in two important polls. And then there was a survey that indicated that 80 percent of the population does not…

Earlier in the week we noted that Mitt Romney won 9 delegates from Guam, where only 215 people voted. That's impressive efficiency. But it's nothing compared with the work Romney's campaign did in American Samoa last night. Romney won 9 delegates from American Samoa, too. Want to guess how many…

Working to suppress the protesters in Syria, the army there, the New York Times reports, is "gathering confidence":

From the White House, via the pool report:

During the 2008 presidential campaign, then senator Barack Obama said his future administration would enter into talks with Iran and other rogue regimes “without preconditions.” Obama’s approach was widely criticized at the time, including by his chief Democratic rival Senator Hillary Rodham…

With the Alabama and Mississippi primaries now complete, and with the Hawaii caucuses counted, more than half of the states (accounting for 41 percent of the delegates) are now in the books in the Republican presidential race. Through these first 26 states, Mitt Romney has won 52.7 percent (496 of…

With 45 of 45 precincts reporting, Mitt Romney has won the Republican caucuses in Hawaii. Romney received 45 percent of the vote, Rick Santorum 25 percent, Ron Paul 18 percent, and Newt Gingrich 11 percent.

Rick Santorum won two surprise victories last night in the Alabama and Mississippi primaries, and he did so by poaching voters from Newt Gingrich’s coalition. To appreciate this, let’s take a look at some data.

“Senator Santorum is at the desperate end of his campaign,” Mitt Romney told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday. Oops. For weeks, Team Romney and many of its allies have been eager—one might even say desperate—to end this campaign. The Republican primary electorate has been resisting this, and the…

Rick Santorum's victory speech tonight, delivered after being declared the projected winner in Alabama:

Fox News projects Rick Santorum the winner of today's Republican presidential primary in Mississippi. The call is made with 88 percent of the precincts reporting: Rick Santorum has 32.9 percent of the vote, Newt Gingrich 31.5 percent, Mitt Romney 30.2 percent, and Ron Paul 4.4 percent. Santorum is…

NBC News projects Rick Santorum the winner of the Alabama Republican presidential primary. With 30.5 percent of the precincts reporting, Rick Santorum has 34.5 percent of the vote, Newt Gingrich has 29.7 percent, Mitt Romney has 28.2 percent, and Ron Paul trails with 5.3 percent.

Center for American Freedom chairman Michael Goldfarb on Game Change: "John McCain deserved better than to be betrayed by his own top aides, and true to form he has honorably stuck by Gov. Palin even as she's been smeared in the press over and over again by the same self-serving former staffers."

With the fall last weekend of the northern Mali garrison town of Tessalit, and its airstrip, to Tuareg secessionist forces, U.S. counter-terror policy in Africa is dealt a stunning setback. A USAF airlift brought supplies on February 14 to the besieged town, which reportedly was overwhelmed by a…

For friends and admirers of Marilyn Hagerty, the North Dakota columnist whose straightforward review of the new Olive Garden in Grand Forks recently went viral, it’s been exhilarating to watch the blogosphere move in to mock her and come away humbled by the strength and charm of this seasoned…

Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal is moving ahead with education reform--but it isn't without controversy.

A new TV ad from Democrat Bob Kerrey, who is running for his old Nebraska Senate seat, welcomes the former senator home:

Bob Turner, the newly-elected Republican congressman from New York City who replaced Democrat Anthony Weiner, will be running for the GOP nomination to challenge Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat and New York's junior senator. The Associated Press reports:

Summarizing President Obama's accomplishments to date, Jonathan Cohn writes in the New Republic, "Health care reform alone constitutes a major legislative legacy. The Recovery Act launched infrastructure and energy projects that could shape the economy and, by the way, education for a generation.…

Taken at a gas station within walking distance of the White House:

Tom Cotton, a Republican candidate for Congress in Arkansas, has two new television ads running in the state's Fourth Congressional District. The ads highlight Cotton's service in Iraq as an Army Ranger and focus on his pledge to fight for a balanced budget and overturn Obamacare. Watch the ads…

In an interview on CNN, Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated that “we are of the opinion that Iran is a rational actor,” from which he derived his conclusion that “we also know, or we believe we know, that Iran has not decided to make a nuclear weapon.” In making this…

Today is a relatively big day in the GOP nomination battle -- with caucuses in American Samoa and Hawaii and primaries in Alabama and Mississippi. The main story is in the South, though. And although this Southern Super Tuesday has relatively few delegates at stake – just 84 are up for grabs…

A new poll conducted by the New York Times/CBS finds that "a majority of Americans say they would favor using U.S. military action against Iran to prevent the country from acquiring nuclear weapons," CBS reports. Fifty-one percent of Americans favor a targeted military strike aimed at preventing…

WWL-TV reports on its latest poll of Louisiana Republican voters:

On March 2, the Jeddah newspaper Arab News reported that Crown Prince Nayef Bin Abd Al-Aziz, currently the designated successor to King Abdullah Bin Abd Al-Aziz as the absolute ruler of Saudi Arabia, had left for a “vacation” in the United States, via Morocco.

Frank Bruni, writing about the new HBO film Game Change for the New York Times, wonders if Republican presidential candidate John McCain's aides were disloyal, and what that might mean for future political candidates:

The latest New York Times/CBS poll shows President Obama's approval rating hitting an all-time low. One month ago, 50% of Americans approved of his job performance and 43% disapproved. The new NYT/CBS poll shows Obama's approval rating dropping to 41% and his disapproval rating climbing to 47%. 

WFTV in Orlando asked President Obama about gas prices in an interview today. Specifically, President Obama was asked whether he's "doing enough to control gas prices." Here's President Obama's response:

Tomorrow, the Institute for Justice (IJ) will file a lawsuit against perhaps the most hated of all federal agencies—the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

During his interview yesterday with David Gregory on Meet the Press, Rick Santorum shared his thoughts on the economy, Obamacare, and how Republicans can beat President Obama. 

An anti-Occupy Wall Street movement (who call themselves  "Occupy Occupy D.C.") protested bird killing wind turbines today at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. The group gathered "to highlight the threat that wind, a celebrated alternative energy source, poses to the American bird community,"…

How's the great contraception mandate battle of 2012 playing out? If you read the Washington Post's news coverage, the issue is supposedly killing Republicans among female voters. But the newest Washington Post/ABC poll tells a different story.

The Telegraph reports that Chinese spies likely were able to access the Facebook account of NATO chief Adm. James Stavridis:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has a full-time position available for an editorial assistant. Duties will include fact-checking, updating our website, research, and proofreading. Candidates should address a cover letter and résumé to hr@weeklystandard.com.

Perhaps someday we will learn the real extent of Osama bin Laden’s support network inside Pakistan. A truly independent investigation would begin with bin Laden’s ties to various Pakistani military and intelligence officials in the 1980s and walk forward from there. Or, if one prefers,…

The Hill reports that Florida senator Marco Rubio will today be making his first Senate endorsement for Josh Mandel, a Republican challenging Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown:

Two new post-Super Tuesday polls show Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum running neck-and-neck for the lead in the Republican presidential race. An ABC News/Washington Post poll shows Romney leading Santorum by 4 points (33 to 29 percent), while a CBS News/New York Times poll shows Santorum leading…

The New York Times reports that President Barack Obama and New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg recently had a lunch meeting at the White House:

A few days ago, Time crunched the numbers and found that Mitt Romney has—so far—spent $17.14 for every vote he's won. But over the weekend, Romney hit what must surely be the biggest value-play in recent political history.

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

In “Politician-in-Chief,” Steve Hayes writes about President Obama’s frustration with, as Hayes puts it, Republican “criticism of the difficult decisions he is facing as president on matters of war and peace.” In particular, Obama claims that his Republican challengers are simply politicizing the…

Act of Valor, a movie with no major stars made for $12 million, shocked everyone in Hollywood by earning $24.5 million its first weekend. Why? Simple. It advertises itself as “starring active duty Navy SEALs,” and the commercials make it look like a full-length version of one of those action-packed…

I met Andrew Breitbart back in the late ’90s. I had just graduated from college and started working at The Weekly Standard, and my first grown-up trip was to fly out to Los Angeles for a long weekend. I had a touristy list of things to see and do​—​get a drink at the Brown Derby, play basketball at…

Mitt Romney is leading the league in gaffes. We know this because the media are counting. The Week lists his “9 worst clueless-rich-man gaffes.” The Wall Street Journal trumps that with “Romney’s Top 10 Wealth Gaffes.” The Christian Science Monitor refers to the “Mitt Romney gaffe monster.”

Late last week Spanish authorities announced that they’re extraditing Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem, a close associate of former president Hosni Mubarak. Salem is a central figure in the post-Mubarak narrative of the regime’s rampant corruption. He has already been sentenced in absentia to…

John Huston (1906-1987) had the talent and the courage to live as he pleased. Who would not wish to be able to say the same for himself? Who does not feel diminished beside someone who has done as much? Yet one can live as he pleases and still fall well short of the life he might have lived if he…

On the cover of Ian Donaldson’s new biography of Ben Jonson (1572-1637) there is a portrait of the poet and dramatist by the Flemish painter Abraham van Blyenberch showing him regarding the viewer with amused intentness, as if poised to make some choice rejoinder. Here is the man of the theater,…

Mopti, Bamako

After Japan’s tsunami a year ago, about 20,000 people either drowned or were lost along the country’s northeastern coast. The same tidal wave overwhelmed nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi. But no ill-health effects from radiation have been reported to date. 

James Q. Wilson, a longtime teacher in the government department at Harvard, and an all-time political scientist, has died. He was a Californian who went to college at the University of Redlands, got his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago, and then came to Harvard. At the end of his career, he went…

The fear many soon-to-be parents face is the question, “What if?” What if my child is born with a learning disability? What if my hopes for having a “normal” child are shattered? What if I find I can’t love my special needs child as I should? And what if my marriage and faith are broken by the…

If you understood how French president Nicolas Sarkozy found himself holed up in a barroom in Bayonne last Thursday afternoon, it would take you a long way towards figuring out what is going to happen in France’s two-round presidential election, coming up in April and May. Sarkozy, who heads…

Two Christmases ago I received Ron Chernow’s Washington: A Life. I felt both delight and angst. I find our first president endlessly fascinating, and I have enjoyed previous Chernow books. But it is more than 900 pages long; when would I have the time to read it? It sits on a shelf above my desk…

ABC host George Stephanopoulos asked New York senator Chuck Schumer this morning whether Democrats should return Bill Maher's money. Schumer responded by saying "no," because "Bill Maher is a comedian who is on at 11:00 at night but has very little influence on what’s happening here."

The Obama administration is politicizing intelligence on Syria. What does “politicizing intelligence” mean? Using intel, or more often partial intel, to produce an effect in line with White House policies rather than giving a full picture of a particular situation.

Mitt Romney picked up victories in three contests today, Wyoming, Guam, and Northern Mariana. The Associated Press reports:

Rick Santorum is projected by the Associated Press to win today's Republican presidential caucuses in Kansas. So far, with 61.4 percent of precincts are reporting, Santorum has 53 percent of the vote, Mitt Romney has 17 percent, Newt Gingrich has 15.7 percent, and Ron Paul now has 13.4 percent. 

Rasmussen’s polling in Alabama and Mississippi shows Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich each having between 25 and 35 percent support in both states, suggesting true 3-man races in both upcoming GOP primaries. (In Alabama, Gingrich leads with 30 percent support, followed by Santorum at…

On Super Tuesday, Mitt Romney won six of the ten contests, a majority of delegates allocated, and more security in his march to victory at the Republican convention in Tampa. The Romney campaign not only claimed victory Tuesday night, they've since argued that winning the nomination is "an…

President Obama probably took a few minutes off his fundraising tour to hum a few bars of “Everything’s Coming up Roses” when the jobs report was published this morning. The private sector added 233,000 jobs in February, and earlier reports for December and January were revised upward by 61,000.…

Sean Trende simulates the rest of the 2012 Republican presidential primary, and concludes:

Andrew Stiles reports:

MSNBC host Al Sharpton held a rally today, reenacting the famed civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery.  "[I]nstead of protesting Jim Crow segregation and police brutality, he's opposing voter ID laws, right-to-work laws, and the Alabama illegal immigration bill," the Washington Examiner…

Every time trouble has erupted in Iran against the regime—1999, 2003, and, most recently, 2009—university students have been at the forefront of protests. This is partly why Iran’s current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been battling over control of Iran’s biggest institution of higher…

As Washington wrangles over the size of the federal budget in a time of fiscal austerity, Congress is debating whether to hold President Obama to his promise of adequately funding the modernization of America’s nuclear arsenal and infrastructure in exchange for the Senate’s passage of the…

The New York Times reports:

This might be the most horrifying story you'll see all year. From Aimee Green at the Oregonian:

Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an unemployment rate of 8.3 percent for February, which is equal to the rate in January and lower than the rate throughout 2011. Jim Pethokoukis reacts by posting this updated graph that compares the unemployment reality to the promises the Obama…

CBS's Mark Knoller reports: 

Rasmussen reports on its latest Alabama presidential primary poll of likely Republican voters:

President Obama, in a speech earlier this week at AIPAC, signaled a willingness to go back to finding a diplomatic solution with Iran. As Josh Rogin reports, a group of senators issued a joint statement for the president urging him not to back down from pressuring Iran, regardless of other measures…

Matt Continetti, writing at the Washington Free Beacon:

CNN's Piers Morgan mocked filmmaker Davis Guggenheim last night for not including a single criticism of President Obama in his campaign documentary.

New York Times: "President Pushes to Add More Credits for Hybrids"

Rick Santorum, Obamacare, and freedom.

In a Politico op-ed today, Congressman Michael Turner (R, Ohio) criticizes the Obama administration’s lack of transparency on its controversial study of future reductions to America’s nuclear deterrent—including one option that would cut the arsenal by 80 percent, down to as few as 300 deployed…

CNN reports:

Are conservatives ready to coalesce around a presidential candidate? A new poll commissioned by the Committee for Work Families PAC finds that a vast majority of grassroots conservatives want the Republican party to unite around one particular candidate: Rick Santorum.

Ever since President Obama's announced a so-called "accommodation" to Obamacare's new contraception and abortifacient mandate on February 10, Democrats have believed the issue is a surefire winner for them--especially in liberal Massachusetts. In radio ads, op-eds, and interviews, Democratic Senate…

The United Nations Commission on the Status of Women “is expected to pass a resolution condemning Israel's part in the degrading of living conditions for Palestinian women, while failing to mention the mistreatment of women in the ongoing crisis in Syria,” Haaretz reports.

Bill Burton, the former White House deputy press secretary and head of the pro-Obama Super PAC Priorities USA, says the PAC will not return Bill Maher's $1 million donation even though Maher has used misogynistic rhetoric toward women. The Washington Free Beacon has the transcript of Burton's MSNBC…

Barack Obama's campaign has released the trailer for its 17-minute documentary, titled "The Road We've Traveled." The film, which will be available on March 15, stars Vice President Joe Biden, former chief of staff and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel, top advisor David Axelrod, and Massachusetts Senate…

At the Washington Examiner, Tim Carney says the conventional view of Rick Santorum--that he has a problem with women voters--contradicts the facts. Carney says the claim is "rooted in bad math," citing a New York Times blogger who notes that Santorum trailed Romney among women in Arizona by 17…

In embattled Mali, the battle for Tessalit continues. This has become a miniature African Stalingrad (neither condescension nor excessive alarm intended). It appears the rebellious Tuareg who declared independence in January for the northern tier of this West African country are determined to…

A national Gallup poll of adults shows that 50% of Americans believe Barack Obama's presidency has been "a failure," while 44% of Americans say Obama's presidency has been "a success":

Mitt Romney’s campaign sent out a memo yesterday saying, “As the other candidates attempt to ignore the basic principles of math, the only person’s odds of winning they are increasing are Barack Obama’s.”  The memo asserts that “the delegate math just doesn’t add up for anyone but Mitt.” Well,…

The Emergency Committee for Israel blasts President Obama for flip-flopping on Israel in a new web ad released today. "First in 2008, and again this week, he has appeared before crowds of pro-Israel Americans to make promises about his commitment to Israel's security. Each time, he has voided those…

In a letter to White House chief of staff Jack Lew, Concerned Women for America CEO and president Penny Nance urges President Obama and his staff to distance itself from liberal pundit Bill Maher. Maher has a history of making inappropriate comments about female politicians, famously directing them…

President Obama is digging in on the Keystone XL pipeline. He is "personally lobbying Democrats to reject an amendment calling for its construction," Politico reports.

During the decades of international sanctions against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, successive U.S. administrations yearned for regime change. The hope was that longstanding frustration with international isolation and relative deprivation would inspire some unspecified Baathist general to assassinate…

In late January I spoke on the phone with Tom Colicchio, celebrity chef, restaurateur, and star of the hit reality series Top Chef, which just concluded its ninth season.

An astonishing exchange between Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Senator Jeff Sessions:

Back when Rick Santorum was driving around Iowa in the “Chuck Truck,” the ratio between Mitt Romney’s and Santorum’s respective fundraising hauls was far greater than the ratio between the respective payrolls of the Boston Red Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates. For every $1 that Santorum raised in…

Boston Globe: "Brown’s resurgence in polls has shaken some of party’s confidence in Warren"

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey testified today on Syria. It seems that a large part of the administration’s thinking concerning military intervention touches on the regime’s air defenses.

Josh Rogin reports on the debate over whether the U.S. should intervene in Syria, where strongman Bashar al-Assad is killing and torturing his own citizens. Rogin discusses the views of Senators John McCain and Carl Levin, and then writes this:

President Obama, speaking in North Carolina a short while ago, noticed an audience member had fainted:

Former senator Bob Kerrey, a Democrat from Nebraska, may be regretting his decision to change his mind and run for his old Senate seat, given this latest poll from Rasmussen showing him behind his possible Republican opponents by double digits:

Olympia Snowe’s announcement last week not to seek a fourth term to represent Maine in the U.S. Senate surprised many in her home state and in Washington. Democrats are now hoping to win the Maine seat, just last week considered an easy win for Republicans.

At a Politico breakfast this morning, Los Angeles mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa, the Democratic convention chair, said the Democratic party's platform should include same sex marriage:

The Foreign Policy Initiative is hosting a debate tonight on what to do about Iran. Here are the details: 

The Washington Times reports that Ron Paul has struggled to find success: "With nearly half of the states having voted in the Republican presidential nomination process, Rep. Ron Paul still has yet to win a single state, but he says his message is still catching on in the campaign."

Longtime Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich lost his Democratic congressional primary bid last night in Ohio. The New York Times reports:

Philip Klein: "Don't underestimate Romney's Virginia win"

Michael Barone: "Obama kicks can down road on Iran, entitlements"

Super Tuesday confirmed two trends that had been somewhat evident prior to yesterday. First, while there is an ideological dimension to this contest – with very conservative voters backing Rick Santorum or Newt Gingrich and less conservative voters backing Mitt Romney – there is also a regional…

The Associated Press reports: 

The two leading GOP candidates' speeches last night showcased the real divide in the GOP race. Here's what each of them said, in total, about Obamacare:

Mitt Romney didn’t achieve the knockout punch he wanted on Super Tuesday, but winning five of the 10 contests was no small feat. With his haul of delegates, he continued his march to the Republican presidential nomination.

Virginia

In what appears to have been the closest contest of the night, Mitt Romney was able to prevail over his Republican rivals in Ohio, according to the Associated Press. 

The Associated Press reports that President Barack Obama struggled a little tonight in Democratic presidential primary in Oklahoma:

Via NBC's Chuck Todd:

It's understandable if you who haven't jumped on the Twitter bandwagon, but please know that it's good for one thing. The conversational, off-the-cuff nature of medium is very good at exposing the limits of one's knowledge. Case in point: Here's Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas reacting to Rick…

Rick Santorum is now projected to win the North Dakota Republican presidential contest. This comes for the former Pennsylvania senator in addition to picking up Tennessee and Oklahoma. Republican rival Mitt Romney is projected to win Massachusetts, Virginia, and Vermont, while Newt Gingrich will…

The New York Times reports:

Rick Santorum will win Oklahoma, Fox News projects. And Mitt Romney will win in Massachusetts, the state where he once served as governor. Fox News also says that Tennessee is too close to call at this moment, minutes after the polls closed there. 

Mitt Romney is now projected to win Vermont, according to Fox News. Romney is the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts.

Seventeen minutes after polls closed in Virginia, Fox News is able to project that Mitt Romney has won there. Only Romney and Ron Paul were on the Republican presidential primary ballot today. Fox News just reported that it was "closer than many people expected," and is basing its projection on…

As the polls begin to close on Super Tuesday, Fox News immediately projects that former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich has won the Georgia Republican presidential primary. Fox's projection is based on exit polling.

John Yoo: "Obama's Contraception Mandate Won't Survive Strict Scrutiny"

Pete Hegseth, a 31-year-old veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has announced a bid for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports:

At a hearing today on Capitol Hill, Illinois congressman Peter Roskam had this question for Scott Gottlieb, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute: “Under IPAB, will healthcare providers ability to provide care to patients be affected by reimbursements being cut for particular…

At today's White House press conference, President Obama was not asked a single question about the public policy aspects of Obamacare's new mandate forcing employers, including most religious institutions, to pay for abortion pills and contraception. Rather, he was asked by two different reporters…

How bad is the press’s reporting on Guantanamo? Many examples come to mind, but the most recent one is this Associated Press article by Kimberly Dozier.

President Obama clarified his statement from a speech Sunday Morning at AIPAC that he has Israel’s back at press conference at the White House this afternoon.

At the presidential press conference this afternoon, Barack Obama was asked to weigh in radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh's apology to law school student Sandra Fluke. "Do you believe Rush Limbaugh's apology to the Georgetown student is sufficient and heartfelt? Do you agree with the number of…

At the president's news conference this afternoon, Fox News reporter Ed Henry asked the president about Israel and whether talk of attacking Iran was driving up gas prices. Henry then asked, "Your critics will say on Capitol Hill that you want gas prices go go higher because you have said before…

Senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham issued a joint statement today urging the Obama administration to act on Syria. “[I]f requested by the Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army, the United States should help organize an international effort to protect civilian…

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker asks voters to "help [him] oppose the recall" in his most recent ad of the election cycle. "[Walker] draws a distinction between jobs lost under Gov. Jim Doyle's administration and his efforts to help employers create jobs," the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

Super Tuesday coincides with the 28th consecutive Rasmussen poll showing double-digit support for the repeal of Obamacare. By a margin of 11 percentage points (53 to 42 percent), the poll shows that likely voters from across the political spectrum favor repealing President Obama’s signature…

Allahpundit: "Barbara Bush: Let’s face it, this is the worst campaign ever"

Monday night, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said simply and clearly, "When it comes to Israel's survival, we must always remain the masters of our fate."

Today, the first Tuesday in March, is town meeting day in Vermont, as it has been for more than a century. Town meeting was a tradition in Vermont before there was any officially designated town meeting day. Town meeting was part of Vermont before Vermont was part of the Union.

Mexican presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto asked Vice President Joe Biden for a glass of water today at the Four Seasons Hotel in Mexico City, according to the pool report compiled by Alfredo Corchado of the Dallas Morning News.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has released new summary statistics on the recidivism of former Guantanamo detainees. 167 ex-Gitmo detainees are now either “confirmed” or “suspected” of reengaging in “terrorist or insurgent activities” after their release, according to…

Jonathan Collegio: "Who’s the Biggest ‘Outside Group’ in the 2012 Elections? Big Labor"

In response to the media firestorm surrounding Rush Limbaugh's insulting comments about Democratic activist Sandra Fluke (comments for which Limbaugh apologized), Kirsten Powers writes about the liberal men who have used misogynistic rhetoric without facing the same outrage. Powers notes that "the…

In addition to the rememberances posted here Friday afternoon, several more items have been published on political science professor James Q. Wilson:

With the American economy still struggling to recover and its long-term structural strength in question, policymakers and politicians are focusing on the Federal Reserve. Republican congressman Kevin Brady of Texas, the vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, is proposing new legislation…

Mitt Romney, campaigning in Tennessee today, recited lyrics to "The Ballad of Davy Crockett."

Josh Rogin reports:

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "congratulated" Russian president Vladimir Putin and the Russian people for the strongman's "decisive victory" Sunday night. The message was posted on the Iranian foreign ministry website (and translated using Google Translate).

In the Oval Office this morning, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu made clear that he'd take necessary action to defend his nation. "I think that above and beyond that are two principles, longstanding principles of American policy that you reiterated yesterday in your speech -- that Israel…

The country of Georgia has been sending troops to Afghanistan to support the NATO-led mission since 2004. Over the past year, over 900 Georgian soldiers have been serving in Helmand province, deployed alongside American, British, and Danish troops in one of the most conflict-laden and contested…

Foreign policy expert Dan Senor, writing in the Wall Street Journal: 

According to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll, a whopping four out of five swing-state voters regard Obamacare’s individual mandate as unconstitutional. Somewhat incredibly, more than half of all Democrats nationwide (not just in swing states) agree. And voters in every last one of the 88 counties of…

Ricochet: "Newt Explains the Facts to David Gregory"

Although the definition of Romanticism has been much debated, it is not an exaggeration to claim that the generations spanning the period from the mid-18th through the mid-19th centuries were witness to a transformation in the literary, artistic, and intellectual life of Europe so radical as to be…

Here is a tale of how Hollywood works now, and how the entertainment press covers Hollywood, and why none of it matters.

And under the influence of the cradlelike rocking of the train, your carefully crafted persona begins to slip away. The superego dissolves as your mind begins to wander aimlessly over your cares and your dreams; or better yet, it drifts into an ambient hypnosis, where even cares and dreams recede…

Doomsayers have denounced consumer debt for decades. But today, for the first time since the 1930s, consumer chickens have come home to roost, with a debt crisis in the housing markets and a looming student loan debt disaster. Debtor Nation digs through a century of trade publications and…

Maybe the murder of an American journalist in Syria last week will focus the American president’s mind. Marie Colvin was killed, along with a French photojournalist, when troops loyal to -President Bashar al-Assad shelled the opposition’s makeshift press center in Homs. This city on the western…

I keep expecting America’s trendsetters to get over Portland, Oregon, but the odes to the City of Roses just keep on coming. The Portland tourism board could compile an impressive anthology of the New York Times’s recent coverage of the city, most of which couldn’t be more fawning if it were…

Born in Dallas on February 7, 1953, my sister Janie was a healthy baby, smart and fun to be around, the last of the three children in our family. She was Exhibit A in support of Carl Sandburg’s famous aphorism that a baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.

In Lucking Out, one learns that its author is a man of humble origins. He was born, he reports, into a drab working-class family in Baltimore: “socially corner-pocketed,” as he puts it in one of the many phrases he avails himself of that have more flair than precision, “and Beauty deprived.” He…

After three years of the Obama presidency, the economy is growing, but only slowly (1.7 percent in 2011). And Obama is threatened with the prospect of fewer Americans holding jobs on Election Day in November than were employed on the day he was inaugurated in 2009. At the moment, he’s roughly one…

Milford, Michigan

Late in 2003, Charles Krauthammer coined the phrase “Bush Derangement Syndrome” to describe the rage of the left at our 43rd president, a loathing so intense that when the president was reelected his anguished opponents needed grief therapy simply to cope. This morphed in time into Palin…

After a lifetime of political good fortune in Indiana, Senator Richard Lugar can’t catch a break. He is facing what Politico calls his “toughest reelection campaign in decades,” and with the May 8 GOP primary looming, he desperately needs to repair relations with party conservatives.

The forlorn and increasingly desperate climate campaign achieved a new level of ineptitude last week when what had looked like a minor embarrassment for one of its critics​—​the Chicago-based Heartland Institute​—​turned out to be a full-fledged catastrophe for itself. A moment’s reflection on the…

To the Republicans of the states of Arizona, Michigan, Washington, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia:

President Obama’s speech this morning to the AIPAC Policy Conference put the best spin possible on his record, and he had a good story to tell. Military and intelligence cooperation is excellent, and American diplomatic support for an isolated Israel was repeatedly (though not always, as he…

A new documentary, titled "Daylight: The Story of Obama and Israel," released today by the Emergency Committee for Israel:

Kim Strassel had an excellent piece in Friday’s Wall Street Journal about another issue — in addition to Obamacare — that President Obama has gift-wrapped for the Republican party and for the wider cause of limited government.  She writes,

CNN reports:

Speaking at the University of Miami on February 23, Obama again revealed his remarkable gift for oratory. He denied any responsibility for the rising gas prices and instead took the credit for dramatically increased domestic oil production. This took real artifice. Even as a candidate Obama…

There’s been scant reporting on the Michigan Republican party’s curious—some allege unscrupulous—clarification of the rules regarding the state’s two at-large delegates to the national convention. The folks at Right Michigan, a conservative blog, have a thorough explanation of the story. Here’s a…

As BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski reports, USA Today published a health care op-ed by Mitt Romney on July 30, 2009 — just days before the start of the August recess that quickly became the August uprising against Obamacare. In his op-ed, Romney seems to encourage President Obama to move in a slower…

Don’t feel embarrassed if you can’t figure out where the American economy is headed. I don't. After all, Federal Reserve Board chairman Ben Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee last week that the economy is sending “somewhat different signals” about growth. The good news is that the…

Washington Free Beacon: "Veteran of the Charlie Sheen media campaign joins Team Obama"

Some tributes today to James Q. Wilson, in addition to the boss’s from earlier today:

President Obama recently said that he’d buy a Chevy Volt in five years, after he concludes his second term in the White House:

Rasmussen reports on its latest Georgia Republican presidential primary poll: 

As President Barack Obama is set to address the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Sunday, policymakers around the world will be paying close attention to how he phrases his administration’s policy toward Iran’s nuclear development. In recent days…

PPP reports on its latest North Carolina Republican presidential primary poll: 

The estimable George Will is almost ready to hoist the white flag on the 2012 presidential election. Neither Mitt Romney nor Rick Santorum, he writes in his column for this Sunday (an advance copy of which was obtained by Politico), “seems likely to be elected.” And while conservatives, Will…

The latest Rasmussen poll of likely general-election voters shows Rick Santorum trailing President Obama by 3 percentage points, which is within the margin of error, while Mitt Romney trails Obama by 6 points. Obama leads Santorum by the tally of 46 to 43 percent.  He leads Romney by the tally of…

James Q. Wilson, perhaps the best political scientist of the past half-century, has died. I took his course as an undergraduate, was a teaching assistant for him as a graduate student, and he served on my dissertation committee. We stayed in touch over the years, though I think I was too…

President Obama recently sat down to talk with ESPN’s Bill Simmons, and the two had the following exchange:

Politico: "Newt Gingrich: Fire Steven Chu over gas price remarks"

It has been said that there is very little difference between the policy preferences of the three leading Republican presidential candidates. This may well be true. But there is a big difference between what the candidates think this election is about. 

I woke up this morning to about ten emails from journalist friends asking if our mutual friend, Andrew Breitbart, was really dead. “Really” was the operative word. Some meant it in the traditional sense: Is it possible for the human inferno that Breitbart resembled to have actually been…

Are Mitt Romney supporters in the Michigan Republican party changing the rules after the game? That’s what Rick Santorum's campaign is alleging after the Michigan GOP announced it would be awarding both of the state’s at-large delegates to Romney as a result of Tuesday’s primary.

I suspect many of Andrew Breitbart's friends thinking today about how they’ll remember Andrew will picture him charging through the lobby of a hotel followed by opponents hoping to trip him up, supporters cheering on the confrontation, or journalists taking it all in. Some will recall seeing him…

James Lileks: "The Toll"

Austin chef Paul Qui remembers his parents' reaction years ago when he told them he was going to be a chef. "Really?" was their response. "Having Asian parents, they sort of expect you to be a doctor or a lawyer," he said in a phone interview this afternoon. But over the years his mother and father…

A number of recent articles make the case that the administration’s Syria policy is incoherent. Elliott Abrams says it’s worse than that: The White House’s position on Syria is duplicitous. Abrams looks at a series of recent interviews Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has given to the press about…

The latest Tennessee presidential primary poll:

Following the vote on the Blunt-Nelson amendment that would allow Americans to opt out of Obamacare's health benefits mandates for moral or religious reasons, Senate majority leader Harry Reid said the vote showed Republicans are beholden to an "extreme ideological" faction.

The anti-Occupy Wall Street movement—or Occupy Occupy D.C., as they call themselves—held a rally today at Freedom Plaza to call for a “Cease Fire in Obama's War on Nature.” In particular, the rally goers in favor of freedom came out today to protest “the Obama Administration's new policy to kill…

Rick Santorum reportedly raised $9 million in February. That’s almost ten times what he raised in the entire fourth quarter of 2011 ($917,000), twice what he raised in January ($4.5 million), and 40 percent more than Mitt Romney raised in January ($6.2 million). The Santorum campaign reports that…

Is the GOP presidential race effectively over? It could turn out that Mitt Romney’s narrow victory in Michigan, and the understandable (if misplaced) concern of lots of Republicans that the continued primary contest is doing damage to the chances of defeating President Obama in the fall, will…

The Senate has just voted down, 51 to 48, the Blunt-Nelson amendment, which would have restored the conscience protections that Americans had before Obamacare was passed. The vote came in response to the Obamacare mandate that employers, including religious institutions, provide insurance plans…

I'm as shocked as everyone else to hear about the death of Andrew Breitbart this morning. I didn't know Breitbart well, but I knew him well enough to like him a great deal. 

The most recent national Republican primary poll from Rasmussen Reports shows Mitt Romney leading with 40 percent, 16 points ahead of his closest rival Rick Santorum, who is at 24 percent. According to the poll, taken after Romney's victories in the Michigan and Arizona primaries on Tuesday, Newt…

Andrew Breitbart died suddenly last night, much, much too young. He was a good and loyal friend, a happy and exuberant warrior, and a talented and dynamic force on behalf of causes he believed in, and the country he loved. May his memory be a blessing.

Fred Barnes, writing in the Wall Street Journal: 

Readers of the New York Times had a shock this morning: A full-page ad on page A9 from the Emergency Committee for Israel documenting the anti-Israel views of the Center for American Progress and Media Matters--and then asking why various Jewish communal philanthropies and business groups are…

As his 80th birthday approaches, TWS contributor and friend (and my teacher) Harvey Mansfield is profiled in the Harvard Crimson. It's a perceptive and fair article, and provides further evidence for the hopeful view that today's students are surprisingly open-minded and intelligent despite—or…

Ross Douthat: "What Mitt Lost While He Won"

Today, the Senate will vote on the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act--an amendment that would restore conscience protections that existed before the passage of Obamacare. The measure was taken up in response to Obamacare's new regulations that insurance policies, including policies purchased by…

Democrats stormed the Senate floor today, warning that the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act, which is up for a vote on Thursday, would lead to employers and insurers denying all sorts of vital health care coverage--mammograms, blood transfusions, etc. Here's a memo being circulated around…

Earlier today, a reporter in Ohio said the following to Mitt Romney: 

Sean Trende: "Odds of a Brokered Convention Are Increasing"