Rich Danker is a conservative political strategist and writer who contributed commentary on Republican politics, elections, and public policy to The Weekly Standard between 2015 and 2018. His articles for the magazine analyzed GOP electoral dynamics, including early assessments of Donald Trump's political viability, and covered figures in technology and politics. He has been involved in conservative policy circles and political campaigns.
Jeff, who died suddenly at age 74 on Saturday evening, was primed to be on the vanguard. Starting in the mid-1970s, he turbocharged the policy agenda that culminated with Reagan’s landslide election and a mandate for massive tax cuts. But Reagan (“The only great man I ever worked for, though I…
Did Donald Trump just win the biggest arbitrage bet in history? Having been elected leader of the free world, it sure seems like he did. What was Trump’s presidential campaign strategy, after all, if not an arbitrage play on the value of media coverage found in the difference between media exposure…
The quixotic Lindsey Graham for President campaign never really left the station. Although he turned in a lively performance at several of the undercard debates and was a favorite of reporters to cover on the trail, Graham failed to not just excite but to even draw interest from voters in his White…
Retail politics has always been a cornerstone of running for president in the early states. How many New Hampshire diners visited, how many Iowa farm animals petted, and the list of South Carolina pastor endorsements are among the ways campaigns tally their performance leading into the caucuses and…
On a fall afternoon in 2010, the unlikely trio of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, then-Newark Mayor Cory Booker, and Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg took the stage of the Oprah show to declare their plan to remake American urban education. The scene, which turned ecstatic with the…
The summer of Trump rolls into autumn. Now the GOP frontrunner, that swashbuckling renegade presidential candidate will take the stage Wednesday afternoon at a rally behind the U.S. Capitol to protest the Iran nuclear pact. Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, and Glenn Beck will be there too, but it’s Trump who…
Donald Trump is finally running for president, and the polls tell us he’s no joke—contrary to what his GOP rivals would like to believe. Last week’s Suffolk University survey has him second in New Hampshire, trailing Jeb Bush 14 to 11 percent. It wasn’t a fluke, as a national Fox News poll taken…
What if the economy goes off a cliff and the government does nothing to stop it? That’s the question James Grant considers in the aftermath of the underwhelming stimulus era. And it’s no hypothetical: In 1921, the American economy was in free-fall; every important sector from automobiles to…
Lindsey Graham is no one’s idea of a hot presidential candidate. Pulling in 1 percent support in the mid-February CNN/ORC International poll of prospective Republican nominees, he’s at the very bottom, alongside Carly Fiorina and Bobby Jindal. But South Carolina’s senior senator has an edge that…