Mike Murphy is a prominent Republican political strategist and media commentator known for advising numerous GOP campaigns. He contributed political commentary and campaign analysis to The Weekly Standard between 1996 and 2004, offering insider perspectives on electoral strategy, conventions, and party dynamics. He has also been a frequent presence on television as a political analyst.
A SURE BET in this campaign is that the media will write a big October comeback story for John Kerry. It is evitable for three reasons. First, the media works in a pack that is happiest when following a simple narrative. Second, from moribund to miracle campaigner is Kerry's tiresome myth turned…
THE NEW YORK CITY CONVENTION was a smashing success. The Bush campaign and the White House should seize upon the convention's lesson and apply it to win this vital election. The lesson is obvious--the campaign is about President Bush and when we focus on making the case for his reelection, he sells…
MY ESSAY berating the Illinois Republican party for enlisting Alan Keyes as their Senate candidate has generated a hefty pile of emails from Keyes's many cyber-fans. Since the letters all ask the same questions or make the same points, I thought a brief response was due. The missives fall into two…
ILLINOIS REPUBLICANS, at one time a canny and crafty lot, have made a stupid error in hiring Alan Keyes to slap together what's left of the party's U.S. Senate nomination and go howling off into battle against Democrat Barack Obama. The Democrat's wunder-candidate will give this race national…
I'VE SPENT the last two evenings sitting back in tranquil northwestern Michigan and interrupting two perfect summer nights to painfully dose myself with several hours of the Democratic National Convention beamed directly from the podium in all its unfiltered glory to my drooping eyes via C-SPAN.…
Gori, Georgia
MUCH OF THE RECENT DEBATE over the Bush administration's Iraq policy has centered on two foolish ideas. The first is that the goal of American foreign policy should be to make certain the United States is "liked" by as many other countries as possible, particularly at that great high school of the…
SAIGON--In our national psyche, the word "Vietnam" remains heavily loaded with meaning, a synonym for failure. But as I travel through Vietnam, witnessing the explosion of free enterprise and the affection for so many things American, a divergent thought keeps recurring: We won, and we won big.…
SOMEWHERE ON CAPITOL HILL a group of long-faced Democrats are having an unhappy meeting about the cost of giving up huge soft money donations to the Democratic party. But there is a bright spot: A voice from the back of the room pipes up, "Well, at least this means I can finally ignore those damn…
MEET ZHOU JlANXIONG. A farmer in China's central Hunan province, Zhou was tortured to death by family planning officials in search of his wife, who was suspected of being pregnant without government permission. Zhou, who was 30 at the time of his death, was hung upside down, beaten with wooden…
DICK WOLF is my new hero. Wolf produces the NBC television series Law & Order. Last week he did something people in Hollywood never do. Wolf stood up against political correctness and bit the hand that feeds him.
GEORGE W. BUSH has gotten off to a strong start, with a formidable cabinet and a firm idea of what he wants to do as president. But conservatives thirsty for change must remember that to use political power, we must maintain that power. Idealists on the right need to be hard-headed and realistic.
Ames, Iowa
In light of the conclusion of the Senate trial of the president, the editors of THE WEEKLY STANDARD asked 22 writers, thinkers, and political actors the following questions: "President William Jefferson Clinton has been impeached and acquitted. What have we learned? What should we do now?"
Memorandum to: Bob Dole