Stephen F. Hayes

Not by his critics but by his closest advisers.

The congressman disputed a story we reported. We stand by it.

"Nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history.”

What does the kooky libertarian see in the authoritarian Putin regime?

Rudy Giuliani's instant meme is even worse than it looked at first.

The former CIA director is no hero.

“You’re betraying your whole life if you don’t say what you think—and you don’t say it honestly and bluntly.”

In January of 2006, Charles Krauthammer wrote an appreciation of his older brother, Marcel, who had died shortly after the New Year. It was a far more personal offering than most of his written work and, despite a full catalogue of essays and columns that influenced the thinking of world leaders,…

Donald Trump is playing a dangerous game with North Korea.

It is disconcerting to watch the president’s eagerness to serve as a character witness to Kim Jong-un.

We stand by our reporting.

Below is a transcript of an interview of House Speaker Paul Ryan by Stephen F. Hayes, editor in chief of THE WEEKLY STANDARD at the TWS Midwest Conservative Summit earlier Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and concision.

“We suffered with Obamacare,” Trump said. “Make no mistake. This is a repeal and replace of Obamacare. Make no mistake about it,” he declared before pausing for a personal boast. “I predicted it a long time ago. I said it’s failing and now it’s obvious that it’s failing. It’s dead—it’s essentially…

It’s fitting that Speaker of the House Paul Ryan announced his retirement during what was a very disturbing week in the White House, even by the chaotic standards that have prevailed under President Trump. Some suggested Ryan’s leaving means the Republican party has now become a Trumpist party. But…

The conventional wisdom on the firing of Rex Tillerson congealed quickly: He was an ineffective secretary of state who played a crucial role in constraining the president’s reckless foreign policy instincts.

It is possible that North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un is suddenly “committed to denuclearization,” as South Korean National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong claimed in comments to the press at the White House Thursday evening.

Bob Corker would like you to know that he’ll stick around Washington a little bit longer, if you want him to. The Tennessee Republican announced his retirement on September 26, 2017, in a short humblebrag celebrating both the power he’d accumulated and the sacrifices he’d made.

I was flying cross-country Tuesday night and didn’t see Donald Trump’s State of the Union Address. The instant reviews were predictably mixed. Trump supporters, even reluctant ones, seemed to like it. His critics hated it. 

Many Republicans and Trump-supporting commentators have embarrassed themselves in recent weeks with their wild-eyed and absurd conspiracy theories about the “deep state.” While the insurrectionist language from some of them might please the InfoWars corner of the conservative movement, it’s deeply…

One fact of the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency is that the policy results have been pretty conservative. For some conservatives, this is enough to sustain a great enthusiasm for Trump and his presidency. For others, like me, the concerns about Trump’s erratic behavior, his casual…

A tweet from President Donald Trump Thursday morning sowed confusion about the White House’s position on a key intelligence program and imperiled the already shaky efforts to renew the federal government’s ability to monitor the communications of terrorists and other threats.

There was a moment at the end of 2017 when, if you squinted hard enough, it seemed as though the Trump presidency might be approaching normal.

There was a moment at the end of 2017 when, if you squinted hard enough, it seemed as though the Trump presidency might be approaching normal.

For two hours on December 19, Paul Ryan loved his job.

Ned Price is not happy.

On the penultimate day of the Obama administration, less than 24 hours before the president would vacate the White House, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper issued a press release meant to put to rest what had been a pesky issue for his office. “Closing the Book on Bin Laden:…

Earlier today, The Weekly Standard published a piece that fell short of our editorial standards. I take full responsibility for our editorial process. We’ve pulled the piece.

Donald Trump was frustrated. Five days earlier, on July 12, 2017, the president had decided for the second time in his young administration that he would certify to Congress Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal he’d promised as a candidate to dismantle. He wasn’t happy with the decision he’d…

Donald Trump was frustrated. Five days earlier, on July 12, 2017, the president had decided for the second time in his young administration that he would certify to Congress Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal he’d promised as a candidate to dismantle. He wasn’t happy with the decision he’d…

Donald Trump provided some much-needed clarity about his plan for Afghanistan in a speech to the nation on Monday. The United States won’t be withdrawing anytime soon. We won’t announce in advance our departure dates. We’re not doing nation-building. Afghan security forces will be the offensive…

Around dinnertime on August 14, President Donald Trump tweeted about the “truly bad people” who played a role in the Charlottesville race riots. Less than 24 hours later he highlighted some “very fine people” who were there, too.

Big news: We are pleased to announce the relaunch of Tuesday Morning Quarterback, the celebrated weekly NFL column by Gregg Easterbrook. Easterbrook will debut on THE WEEKLY STANDARD website next Tuesday, Aug 22.

Donald Trump is an unflinching critic of anything and everything he finds un-American. On Saturday, he flinched.

Two days after the 2016 election, we had this to say about Donald Trump’s stunning victory:

Two days after the 2016 election, we had this to say about Donald Trump’s stunning victory:

Derek Harvey, a top Middle East adviser to President Donald Trump, has been fired from his position at the National Security Council, effective today. Harvey, a longtime intelligence professional with vast experience in the Middle East, was a key player in the Trump administration’s Iran policy…

Anthony Scaramucci has had some difficulty over the course of his first few days as White House communications director, but as he wrapped up his first week on the job he managed to provide an unambiguous answer to one question on the minds of millions of Americans watching the Trump presidency…

President Donald Trump plans to recertify Iranian compliance with the Iran nuclear deal before the congressionally mandated deadline to do so on Monday, according to four sources with knowledge of his thinking on the issue. The decision, which continues to provide Iran sanctions relief for their…

If Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s readout of Donald Trump’s meeting with Vladimir Putin is a preview of the Trump administration’s approach to Russia, it’s going to be a rough three and a half years. In a diplomatic depantsing that will have repercussions far beyond Russia, Tillerson’s comments…

Washington is still trying to make sense of James Comey's congressional testimony yesterday. My immediate reaction is here. A very smart lawyer—a friend of THE WEEKLY STANDARD and no fan of Donald Trump—emails this sharp analysis, which questions the reasons for and legitimacy of the special…

It's not hard to understand why Donald Trump was frustrated with FBI director James Comey. In the weeks before the inauguration and the weeks that followed, Comey repeatedly told Trump that he was not under investigation as part of the FBI's probe into Russian attempts to influence the 2016…

It's not hard to understand why Donald Trump was frustrated with FBI director James Comey. In the weeks before the inauguration and the weeks that followed, Comey repeatedly told Trump that he was not under investigation as part of the FBI's probe into Russian attempts to influence the 2016…

A Donald Trump tweet is the reason we have a special counsel investigation into Russia's attempts to influence the 2016 election and possible collusion between Trump associates and Russians, according to testimony from former FBI Director James Comey.

On April 30, 2012, Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser made a bold prediction: It was possible to envision a world in which al Qaeda's central leadership would "no longer [be] relevant" to the United States and the organization itself would be eliminated. "If the decade before 9/11 was the…

Washington is afire once again with a controversy pitting President Donald Trump against the U.S. intelligence community and the media. The allegations are deadly serious: In an Oval Office meeting, the president disclosed highly classified information from a friendly intelligence service to an…

President Donald Trump fired James Comey just as the FBI director moved to expand and intensify the bureau's counterintelligence investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and the possible collusion of Trump advisers in those efforts.

Editor's note: Former Democratic representative Corrine Brown was convicted by a federal jury on 18 counts in her corruption trial Thursday. The 12-term Floridian's prosecution was related to theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fake charity. Most of the counts were related to mail,…

Syria is a bloody mess. Its cities lie in ruins. Its antiquities have been destroyed. And the Syrian leader continues to kill his own people. The death toll may be as high as a half million people. Some 10 million Syrians have been displaced. Reporters working there have described it as "hell on…

One day in late spring in the early days of the George W. Bush administration, FDA inspectors visited the headquarters of Sargento cheese in Plymouth, Wisconsin—a routine visit as part of the federal government's efforts to ensure the safety of the food we eat. The inspectors took samples of cheese…

I spent most of the last two days reporting out the extraordinary allegations President Donald Trump made against his predecessor, Barack Obama – that Obama had Trump's "wires tapped in Trump Tower." And I've spent many hours over the past several weeks looking into claims about ties between…

The math isn't complicated. If the federal government doesn't reform entitlements soon, the country will face a debt crisis. There is no disputing this. It's inevitable. The only unknown is timing. And the stubborn determination of some leaders in both political parties to ignore runaway…

The math isn’t complicated. If the federal government doesn't reform entitlements soon, the country will face a debt crisis. There is no disputing this. It's inevitable. The only unknown is timing. And the stubborn determination of some leaders in both political parties to ignore runaway…

Michael Flynn's resignation as President Donald Trump's first national security adviser won't end the controversy surrounding the new administration's purported ties to Russia. Depending on which sources you consult, Flynn was either one of Vladimir Putin's stooges or a martyr to the "swamp"—the…

Michael Flynn’s resignation as President Donald Trump's first national security adviser won't end the controversy surrounding the new administration's purported ties to Russia. Depending on which sources you consult, Flynn was either one of Vladimir Putin's stooges or a martyr to the "swamp"—the…

For most of last week, the report on enhanced interrogations produced by Democrats on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence dominated headlines. To the extent that there was a debate at all, it was one-sided. News coverage routinely described the findings as the “Senate torture report,” often…

Less than 24 hours before the official end of the Obama presidency, while White House staffers were pulling pictures off the walls and cleaning out their desks, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) posted without fanfare another installment of the documents captured in Osama…

When President Donald Trump visited the CIA Saturday, he had hoped that CIA Director Mike Pompeo would accompany him. But when Trump arrived at the Langley, Virginia, headquarters of the Agency, he was instead accompanied by Congressman Mike Pompeo.

President Donald J. Trump gave an aggressive, combative inaugural speech today, heavy on the populism and economic nationalism that energized his campaign, and virtually devoid of the themes and principles that have defined the Republican party and the conservative movement at its heart.

There was a time, early in Barack Obama’s presidency, when it was considered outrageous to worry out loud that the new president might treat enemies better than allies, run down friends and elevate foes, show solidarity with anti-American leaders, maybe even release dangerous terrorists or…

It will go down as a classic do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do presidential statement. At a press conference in Berlin on November 17, Barack Obama urged his successor to “stand up" to Vladimir Putin when Russia deviates "from our values and international norms."

On March 28, 2011, Barack Obama stood behind a presidential podium at the National Defense University and addressed the nation. His ostensible topic was Libya, and his ostensible purpose was to explain his decision to intervene there. And over the course of his 27-minute address, he did this.

On March 28, 2011, Barack Obama stood behind a presidential podium at the National Defense University and addressed the nation. His ostensible topic was Libya, and his ostensible purpose was to explain his decision to intervene there. And over the course of his 27-minute address, he did this.

Did Donald Trump just set the stage for World War III?

Vice President-elect Mike Pence will serve as head of Donald Trump's transition to power, replacing New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, according to three sources with knowledge of the plans.

They meant it. There have been five national elections in the past decade. In four of them—2006, 2008, 2010, and 2014—voters gave notice to the politicians who are supposed to lead them. They were different elections and different times, and the results invested power in different political…

I spend a lot of time these days wondering if anyone has ever given more thought to a relatively meaningless vote than I have this year.

In the days since FBI Director James Comey wrote to congressional leaders revealing new information in the Hillary Clinton email investigation, Clinton defenders have been spinning furiously in an attempt to mitigate the potential political damage. They have attacked Comey, blamed a rogue band of…

Virtually everyone around Donald Trump has offered assurances in recent days that the Republican nominee will accept the results of the election on November 8. Then on Wednesday, Trump refused to do so. And with his answer, he lost the debate and ensured, if it wasn't already a certainty, that he…

The continuing revelations about the Patrick Kennedy's efforts to hide or downplay the classified emails on Hillary Clinton's server will be overshadowed for the next two days by the third presidential debate Wednesday in Las Vegas. But this clear and compelling Wall Street Journal editorial offers…

Less than 24 hours after the FBI released documents confirming discussions of a bargain between the FBI and State Department over reclassification of at least one classified Hillary Clinton email, the spokesman for the State Department categorically denied that any such discussions ever happened.

A senior State Department official repeatedly pressed the FBI to change the classification of emails stored on Hillary Clinton's private server, according to FBI interview summaries set to be released in the coming days. Patrick Kennedy, the undersecretary of state for management, discussed…

It had been a long day, and I was famished. I'd flown to New York the previous night, and the plane was delayed three times. I walked into my hotel room at 1:00 a.m. After five hours of sleep, I woke to prepare for my midday speech. Between the event itself and chatting with attendees afterwards, I…

Sensing an opportunity to make big gains in Congress on November 8, top Democrats have stepped up their efforts to link congressional Republicans to the nominee of their party, Donald Trump.

It's going to get worse.

Hempstead, N.Y.

As Barack Obama prepared to enter the final year of his presidency, he sat down for an interview with Olivier Knox to discuss a bold new policy change. He had announced a year earlier that the United States would be ending its decades-long isolation of Cuba and seeking rapprochement with the…

On March 10, 2015, Hillary Clinton told reporters at a rare press conference that she had “absolute confidence that everything that could be in any way connected to work is now in the possession of the State Department."

Donald Trump went to Mexico Wednesday on a risky, last-minute trip in advance of his big policy speech on immigration. He had two goals: to provide a dramatic, newsy preview of his immigration policy speech on Wednesday night, and to look presidential.

As Bill Clinton entered the final year of his presidency, his aides put together a legacy-building trip to South Asia—the first visit to the region by a U.S. president since Jimmy Carter's in 1978. Early drafts of the itinerary featured a notable exclusion: The president would visit India, an…

Eleven weeks before the general election, with polls showing Donald Trump staring at a potential electoral rout, the New York businessman decisively ended speculation that he would "pivot" to end the race a more "presidential" candidate by naming Stephen Bannon, chairman of Breitbart News, as the…

Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus has been increasingly alarmed by the erratic behavior of the party's presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and has communicated his concerns to Trump campaign leadership in a series of tense conversations over the past two weeks, according to…

As the 2016 Republican National Convention began, GOP chairman Reince Priebus spoke with confidence about the coming transformation of presumptive nominee Donald Trump. "He knows the pivot is important," Priebus said. "He has been better and I think he's going to be great moving forward." Priebus…

Philadelphia

Philadelphia

Cleveland

Last week, President Barack Obama’s administration dismissed reports of Iranian support for al Qaeda as the product of fevered minds. Claims of collaboration between the Islamic regime and the terrorist organization are little more than "baseless conspiracy theories," an Obama administration…

Cleveland

Cleveland

Cleveland

Al Qaeda operatives based in Iran worked on chemical and biological weapons, according to a letter written to Osama bin Laden that is described in a new book by a top former U.S. intelligence official.

In Cleveland Monday morning, Boyd Matheson, the former chief of staff to Utah senator Mike Lee, made an interesting pitch to Republicans on the party's platform committee: a shorter, more meaningful GOP platform. Rather than a party platform that takes up tens of thousands of words and attempts to…

Donald Trump praised Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein for his handling of terrorists at a Tuesday campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina.

It's two weeks from the start of the GOP convention in Cleveland, a time in which a traditional party nominee would be consolidating his base of support and seeking to broaden his appeal. So, what's Donald Trump doing? Attacking the GOP-friendly Chamber of Commerce; boasting about the…

Among the many revelations that will emerge from the voluminous majority report of the Benghazi Select Committee when it is released Tuesday is this one: Barack Obama skipped his daily intelligence briefing one day after the Benghazi attacks on September 11, 2012. The president's briefer handed a…

The final majority report of the Benghazi Select Committee is set to be released later Tuesday morning. Representatives Jim Jordan and Mike Pompeo have signed onto the official majority document and authored a supplemental, 51-page "additional views" report of their own.

A veteran al Qaeda fighter, and an expert in document forgery who has decades of experience helping jihadists travel internationally without detection, has gone missing after being released from the detention facility at Guantanamo.

At 2:35 a.m. on June 12, Omar Mateen called 911 from the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. For 30 minutes he'd been on a killing rampage and he wanted the world to know why. He spoke for less than a minute.

In an editorial embarrassing even by the low standards by which the New York Times editorial page ought to be judged, the editorialists at the paper argue this morning that the real blame for Omar Mateen's massacre at a gay nightclub in Orlando lies with…America and Republican politicians.

DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Paul Wolfowitz spent much of the last decade as a foreign-policy intellectual and dean of Johns Hopkins graduate school of international affairs doing two things: studying war and agitating for the ouster of Saddam Hussein. Now Wolfowitz has a prominent seat at The…

In the aftermath of Donald Trump's bigoted attacks on a federal district judge, one Republican leader after another last week condemned the candidate's remarks and then publicly declared their hope that Trump will change.

Donald J. Trump is making "indefensible" and "inexcusable" and "racist" arguments that are "offensive" and "un-American." He must be elected president of the United States.

Yes, it’s a con. In the three weeks since Donald Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee the remains of modern American conservatism have decayed at an alarming rate.

At the end of his opening statement at the traditional postelection presidential press conference, Barack Obama offered this assurance: “I continue to believe we are simply more than just a collection of red and blue states,” he said. “We are the United States.” 

On Thursday, presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump sat down with Fox News anchor Bret Baier for a wide-ranging interview. Baier asked many questions, Trump gave some answers. The entire interview is revealing, in much the way Trump's session with the Washington Post editorial board was…

It was almost as if Donald Trump wanted to give Republican voters one last look at what they would be getting if they chose to nominate him as the head of their party—as if he wanted to show officeholders who would endorse him exactly what they'd have to explain and rationalize over the next six…

After several particularly tumultuous weeks in Donald Trump’s always turbulent presidential campaign—a stretch that included a humiliating loss in a key state and credible reports that his campaign is in "disarray"—Trump's paid advisers and his many media boosters seem to agree on the best bet to…

When we last checked in on Donald Trump’s campaign it was still a rolling embarrassment—a near-daily parade of pettiness, ignorance, and farce that was nonetheless en route to an ever-increasing delegate lead.

In 2014, a former senior interrogator with the CIA's High Value Detainee interrogation program drafted an article on "the ticking time bomb scenario" and interrogating terrorists. The article was approved by the CIA's Publication Review Board but given the time that lapsed in getting approval, it…

Here’s the new line from Donald Trump's cheerleaders in the conservative media: A refusal to support Trump is a de facto endorsement of Hillary Clinton. It's an argument they're making out of necessity, not conviction, trying to use peer pressure to achieve the unanimity their previous exhortations…

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS after launching what his aides touted as an assault on President Bush and his foreign and defense policies, Senator Joseph Biden found himself accepting the president’s thanks. As members of Congress scattered following last Tuesday’s attack—some to their homes, some to Capitol…

Donald Trump walked onto the gilded stage at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Super Tuesday with the air and confidence of a magician.

In the craziest weekend of a crazy campaign year, the 2016 Republican presidential race focused on a question that one might have expected in the 1920s or the 1950s. Does the Republican frontrunner want the support of David Duke, the Ku Klux Klan and white supremacists?

Chris Christie, who ran for president on the sober promise to "tell it like it is" and whose campaign was built around the urgency of entitlement reform and restoring U.S. national security, on Friday endorsed Donald Trump, a national security ignoramus who is running for president adamantly…

Nashua, N.H.

Concord, N.H.

Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines

West Des Moines, IA

When National Review unveiled its “Against Trump" issue on January 21, Jeb Bush celebrated the arrival of reinforcements. "Welcome to the fight, all. Trump is not a conservative," he tweeted.

Do Republicans deserve to lose? Consider the state of play as we write this in late January, just days from the first GOP nominating contests.

North Charleston, S.C.

Sioux Center, Iowa -- Ted Cruz was running a few minutes late for his appearance at Dordt College, having to reply to the latest provocation from Donald Trump without angering the erratic businessman.

"This is a true story." Those words appear onscreen to open 13 Hours, the major motion picture about Benghazi, in theaters on January 15. And with them, director Michael Bay announced that he is taking sides in the long-running debate over the attacks there on September 11, 2012.

Let's begin with the conclusion: Barack Obama is releasing dangerous terrorists against the recommendations of military and intelligence professionals, he's doing so at a time when the threat level from radical Islamists is elevated, and he is lying about it. He is lying about how many jihadists he…

Some passing observations on the Republican debate in Las Vegas:

Ted Cruz is not Rand Paul.

President Barack Obama says his administration will continue releasing terrorists from the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, so long as those released are less dangerous than the jihadists currently fighting against the U.S. and its interests.

Senator Ted Cruz will visit the Heritage Foundation Thursday to deliver a blistering attack on the Obama administration's handling of jihadist terror and the region that produces it.

Law enforcement officials in San Bernardino and Los Angeles may have investigated Syed Farook one week before the shooting on the community development center on December 2, 2015, that left 14 dead and 17 injured, according to a review of police communications immediately following the attacks.

Barack Obama says he wants the truth. On November 21, the New York Times reported allegations that military intelligence officials provided the president with skewed assessments that minimized the threat from ISIS and overstated the success of U.S. efforts against the group. The Times story was an…

In many ways, the reaction to the horrific attacks in Paris has been familiar. There were the expressions of solidarity: flowers at French embassies; social media avatars changed from silly selfies to photos of the French flag snapping defiantly in the wind; buildings across the Western world lit…

Last week in New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton resurrected one of her favorite tales—the story of her unsuccessful effort to join the Marine Corps in the mid-1970s. The account has drawn skepticism over the years, and for good reason. She has offered little to back it up. But it’s the perfect anecdote…

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie slammed Secretary of State John Kerry for remarks the top diplomat made Tuesday about the attacks in Paris and the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January. Kerry contrasted the Paris attacks, which he called “indiscriminate,” with the attacks on the French satire…

If Donald Trump supporters haven’t abandoned him yet, there’s little reason to believe they’ll do so now. But it’s worth laying out a slice of what it is they’re defending, what it is they’re excusing, and what it is they’re encouraging. Let’s review the past 72 hours of crazy with Donald Trump.

At some point, the most obvious explanation is rope-a-dope. 

Overcoming deep personal ambivalence and a battery of attacks from conservative complainers outside Congress, Paul Ryan became the 54th speaker of the House on October 29, 2015. To call this improbable understates the case. Not primarily because Ryan is young (he’s 45) or because Ryan is first a…

One of the most memorable moments from the first Democratic presidential debate was an unexpected one. Bernie Sanders, the Democratic-socialist senator from Vermont who is leading the polls in New Hampshire, took a question about the email scandal that has badly complicated Hillary Clinton’s…

Twenty-five minutes before the start of Thursday’s hearing of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, Charles Woods stood alone behind the witness table, marveling at the chaos around him. A gaggle of still photographers was rehearsing their movements for the arrival of former Secretary of State…

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blamed an internet video for the Benghazi attacks in her conversations with family members of those killed despite having told a foreign leader two days earlier that the video played no role and having emailed daughter Chelsea that a terrorist group had carried…

The Benghazi Select Committee holds an open hearing with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Thursday. Clinton has said she is willing to stay as long as there are questions.

There was never any doubt that Democrats in Washington would launch an aggressive campaign to discredit the House Select Committee on Benghazi. The only question was when they’d do it.

It was the middle of the night in Washington, D.C.—the early morning of September 30, 2015, in Iraq—when a three-star Russian general walked into the U.S. embassy in Baghdad, announced that Russian jets would soon begin airstrikes in Syria, and demanded that the United States stop flying combat…

The House Select Committee on Benghazi will be making public next week new documents that demonstrate Sidney Blumenthal was seeking business in Libya as he was advising then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on U.S. policy in the country. According to a letter from Chairman Trey Gowdy to Elijah…

Earlier this summer, we learned the Pentagon’s inspector general is investigating allegations that the intelligence on ISIS was manipulated. Analysts at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Florida, formally complained to the IG that analysis contradicting the Obama administration’s narrative on ISIS was…

Deep in the transcript of the interview ABC’s David Muir conducted with Hillary Clinton yesterday comes an indirect but very tough shot at the man she worked for and hopes to replace. In the course of answering a question about her mother, Clinton described her mother’s difficult upbringing and…

When Donald Trump botched a question Thursday about General Qassem Suleimani, head of Iran’s Quds Force, it wasn’t the first time. He did the same thing last month during the Fox News debate, but his answer was largely overlooked in the post-debate hysteria over Trump’s answers to questions on a…

In the days before the Fox News debate last week, Donald Trump said he wasn’t looking to attack any of his Republican rivals unless he was attacked. That’s changed, apparently.

Donald Trump says he wants to talk about issues.

To paraphrase Lincoln, if we could first know where Iran is and whither Iran is tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. To evaluate the Iran deal, we need, to the degree possible, to understand the Iranian regime, its nature and its history, its past and present behavior. 

Keene, N.H.

It’s not over. And it’s likely to end badly.

Cleveland 

Des Moines

Ames, Iowa

Ames, Iowa

Waukesha

Milwaukee

When Scott Walker formalizes his presidential run Monday with a long-anticipated announcement, he will have at his side a seasoned veteran of Republican politics and an architect of the modern conservative movement. THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that Walker is expected to name Michael Grebe as…

One week before the June 30 deadline for a nuclear deal with Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made a series of demands about the final terms. Among them: He called for an immediate end to all United Nations Security Council and U.S. economic sanctions on Iran; he said Iranian military…

Fresh off its widely-mocked exclusive on the traffic citations given Marco and Jeannette Rubio – fewer than one per year, combined – the New York Times has an in-depth look at Scott Walker and the wealthy conservatives who backed him throughout his rise to national prominence. It’s a classic of the…

A little more than three hours after the State Department released 848 pages of Hillary Clinton’s emails, the Daily Beast had seen enough to render its judgment: “Sorry GOP. There’s No Smoking Gun In Hillary Clinton’s Benghazi Emails.” The subhead: “Conspiracy-minded conservatives, be warned: The…

After four years of fierce internecine battles and inexplicable delays, the intelligence community last week started the process of releasing more documents captured in the 2011 raid that killed Osama bin Laden. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) posted on its website…

Is Marco Rubio trolling Hillary Clinton?  

Among the emails released by the State Department today was one sent by Hillary Clinton to Jake Sullivan on April 8, 2011. Clinton was forwarding a private intelligence report that Sidney Blumenthal had sent her with the subject line: "UK game playing; new rebel strategists; Egypt moves in."

The U.S. government released Wednesday morning an additional 86 documents from the vast collection of documents captured during the 2011 raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The new disclosures bring the total number of documents released to 120 – a tiny fraction of the more…

Hillary Clinton had a very bad day. 

Nashua, N.H.

Miami

Nashua, N.H.

Miami

Iran is an opportunity, not a threat; it’s a potential partner, not an enemy.

Finally, a debate about Iran. Last week, 47 Republican senators released a public letter addressed to the leaders of the Iranian regime. The letter made what might have seemed a self-evident point: If the Obama administration reaches a deal with Iran, Congress will not be bound by parts of the deal…

The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne doesn’t like the Iran open letter released by 47 Republican senators last week. And his column today makes clear that he really doesn’t like my support of that open letter.

We received this email from a 40-year veteran of the federal workforce, who raises serious questions about Hillary Clinton and her emails:

Finally, a debate about Iran. Last week, 47 Republican senators released a public letter addressed to the leaders of the Iranian regime. The letter made what might have seemed a self-evident point: If the Obama administration reaches a deal with Iran, Congress will not be bound by parts of the deal…

In a tweet this morning, NBC News senior political editor Mark Murray writes: “With GOP Senators’ Iran Move, Politics Goes Beyond the Water’s Edge.” 47 Republican Senators sent to the Supreme Leader of Iran reminding him that Congress is not bound by deals that Congress does not approve. The…

Barack Obama wants us all to simmer down about Iran. He wants Senator Bob Menendez, a fellow Democrat, and the donors he represents to butt out of the sanctions debate. He wants Republicans to quit crying wolf about Iran’s nuclear weapons program. He wants the media to stop hyping terror threats.…

It’s still two years before the next president takes the oath of office, but the contest that will determine who raises his right hand that day started in earnest last month for Republicans, with a grassroots gathering in Iowa and a meeting of high-dollar donors in California.

Rand Paul chided Rudy Giuliani for comments the former New York City mayor made about Barack Obama's love for his country. In a television interview with local Louisville station WAVE, Paul said, “it's one thing to disagree on policy” but “it’s a mistake to question people’s motives.”

Meet the real Mitt Romney. The Mitt Romney you thought you knew from 2012, from 2008, from his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, from his run for the Senate against Teddy Kennedy—those versions of Mitt Romney were the constructs of political consultants, artifices designed to win elections but…

Scott Walker has proposed higher education budget reforms and many people in higher education are unhappy.

When House speaker John Boehner invited Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress in the coming weeks, the reaction from the White House was swift. In background interviews with reporters, top Obama administration officials made clear that they considered the invitation itself…

Lt. General Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, blasted the Obama administration’s approach to the War on Terror in a hard-hitting speech to a meeting of intelligence professionals. “The dangers to the U.S. do not arise from the arrogance of American power, but from…

Rancho Mirage, California

Two weeks after taking over Congress in the new year, congressional Republicans adjourned to Hershey, Pennsylvania, for a bicameral retreat to plan the next two years. The meeting came as the GOP enjoys its highest marks in years from an electorate generally skeptical of politics and cynical about…

Senator Rand Paul has an op-ed in Time magazine making the case for normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba as Barack Obama has proposed. It’s a reasonable objective for U.S. policy and there’s a good case to be made that the embargo on Cuba is anachronistic.

After a long day on November 13, 2013, Speaker of the House John Boehner walked down the marble hallways of the Longworth House Office Building to the personal office of Representative Devin Nunes for a drink, a cigarette, and maybe a brief reprieve.

What follows is the document written by Jason Beale -- a pseudonym for a longtime U.S. military and intelligence interrogator with extensive knowledge of the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA on some high-value detainees. Those techniques are scrutinized a forthcoming report,…

The Central Intelligence Agency repeatedly tortured suspected terrorists, regularly lied about it to Congress and the White House, and, for all the pain and trouble this caused the agency and the United States, didn’t end up extracting a single piece of valuable information not readily available by…

The Central Intelligence Agency repeatedly tortured suspected terrorists, regularly lied about it to Congress and the White House, and, for all the pain and trouble this caused the agency and the United States, didn’t end up extracting a single piece of valuable information not readily available by…

What follows is the document written by Jason Beale -- a pseudonym for a longtime U.S. military and intelligence interrogator with extensive knowledge of the enhanced interrogation techniques used by the CIA on some high-value detainees. Those techniques are scrutinized in a forthcoming report…

Yesterday, we asked: Does Chris Christie have Scott Walker’s back?

At long last, the conventional wisdom about the 2014 midterms is here: It’s an election about nothing.

Is New Jersey governor and Republican Governors Association chairman Chris Christie undercutting Wisconsin governor Scott Walker's reelection effort? That's a question a number of influential Wisconsin Republicans have been asking behind the scenes over the past week after an October 16 Associated…

A year before his first inauguration, Barack Obama laid out the objective of his presidency: to renew faith and trust in -activist government and transform the country. In an hourlong interview with the editorial board of the Reno Gazette-Journal on January 16, 2008, Obama said that his campaign…

Every election year, it seems, there’s a race that catches the political set in Washington by surprise. It’s possible that we’ve already seen the 2014 version of this with the defeat of House majority leader Eric Cantor, a result few anticipated and fewer still predicted.

The Republican flirtation with dovish noninterventionism is over. It wasn’t much of a fling.

On September 10, President Barack Obama announced in a prime-time television address that the United States would be going to war—sort of. He explained that terrorists in Iraq and Syria threatened the United States—sort of. He proclaimed that the United States would do everything in its power to…

In the early morning hours of May 2, 2011, an elite team of 25 American military and intelligence professionals landed inside the walls of a compound just outside the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. CIA analysts had painstakingly tracked a courier to the compound and spent months monitoring the…

As the world watches the strengthening of global jihadist movements – from ISIS to al Qaeda to dozens of affiliated and like-minded groups – one of those inside the U.S. government who was most vocal about the growing threats is leaving his position. General Michael Flynn served as head of the…

Moments of clarity often come when you least expect them. In a speech to contributors last week in Seattle, Barack Obama made the case that his presidency has made America better. In most respects, it was precisely the kind of political pablum you’d expect from a president who seems more concerned…

The facts are simple. The IRS systematically targeted conservative and Tea Party groups after their activism proved decisive in the 2010 midterm elections—Obama’s famous “shellacking.” The effects of this targeting were widespread. Some Tea Party groups were neutered in the months before the 2012…

IRS lawyers ought to enjoy themselves this holiday weekend because, as the Washington Examiner's Mark Tapscott reports, "they'll be busier than normal next week." IRS counsel will make two separate appearances next week in court to explain and defend the agency's handling of Lois Lerner's…

As the Obama administration’s case for the Bowe Bergdahl-Taliban prisoner exchange further unraveled last week, the geo-political implications of the deal became clearer. They’re not pretty.

Late in the afternoon of Saturday, May 31, Barack Obama strode confidently to a lectern in the White House Rose Garden flanked by the parents of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, a soldier who had gone missing from his platoon in the mountains of Afghanistan in June 2009.

Mosul, the second largest city in Iraq, fell today to jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), a group with long ties to al Qaeda. Parts of Kirkuk, ninety miles to the southeast, are under ISIS control and the fighting there continues. The implications for Iraq, for the region,…

Did the detainees in Guantanamo Bay know about the transfer of five senior Taliban commanders before members of Congress?

Since 2009, the world has been trying to make sense of America’s foreign and national security policies under Barack Obama. Allies and enemies, historians and scholars, the president’s critics and his supporters—all have struggled to define, or even discern, an Obama Doctrine. So last week, the man…

Since 2009, the world has been trying to make sense of America’s foreign and national security policies under Barack Obama. Allies and enemies, historians and scholars, the president’s critics and his supporters—all have struggled to define, or even discern, an Obama Doctrine. So last week, the man…

While some top Obama administration officials are downplaying threats posed the five senior Taliban officials released from Guantanamo in the prisoner exchange for Bowe Bergdahl, not long ago the administration went to court to prevent one of those men from going free. In a decision on May 31,…

The Obama administration is facing mounting questions about the controversial prisoner swap that freed Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from jihadists in Pakistan in exchange for the transfer and ultimate release of five senior Taliban commanders previously held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. 

Hillary Clinton is right about Benghazi—or at least she's right about one thing. 

The expletives were flying during a ceremony for wounded warriors at the vice president's residence on Memorial Day.

Benghazi, crazy. That’s the association the White House and its allies want to encourage as a House Select Committee begins what should be the most thorough investigation of the Benghazi attacks to date. The White House wants to delegitimize the process before it begins and preemptively discredit…

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed last summer by Judicial Watch, the Obama administration last week released 41 documents related to the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012. An email from the deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, has…

UPDATE: Other news organizations confirm the report below that House speaker John Boehner will announce the formation of a select committee on Benghazi, led by Rep. Trey Gowdy. 

A new Gallup poll of Ukrainians undermines the main rationale for Russia’s aggression towards its neighbor and calls into question the U.S. approach to diplomacy with the Russians, which treats some of the Russian claims as legitimate. The findings of the national survey also cast further doubt on…

In the two days since Jeb Bush’s interesting and provocative interview with Fox News reporter Shannon Bream, many commentators and analysts have parsed his words and offered thoughts on what they mean for a prospective 2016 presidential bid. There’s a good reason for this interest. Bush is a…

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Barack Obama of dramatically weakening the United States' position in the world, drawing a straight line between Obama’s ever-yielding foreign policy and the increasing troubles around the world.

Ted Cruz is not in a fighting mood. The Texas senator is sitting in a booth at the Capital Grille, an upscale restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue, about halfway between the Capitol, where Cruz works, and the White House, where many suspect he’d like to end up. His jacket is off, his light blue tie is…

On February 23, five days before Russia invaded Ukraine, National Security Adviser Susan Rice appeared on Meet the Press and shrugged off suggestions that Russia was preparing any kind of military intervention: “It’s in nobody’s interest to see violence returned and the situation escalate.” A…

Jacksonville, Fla.

Two leading Republicans on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence say that Michael Morell, then acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, gave an account of his role on Benghazi that was often misleading and sometimes deliberately false.

Two leading Republicans on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence say that Michael Morell, former deputy director and twice acting director of the Central Intelligence Agency, provided an account of his role on Benghazi that was often highly misleading and at times deliberately false.

For five years, the Obama administration has touted its success in the war against al Qaeda. In formal addresses, daily press briefings, and campaign speeches top administration officials have celebrated the “decimation” of al Qaeda and predicted its imminent extinction.

President Barack Obama delivered a State of the Union Address on Tuesday that was important less for what he said than for what it says about him.

Months and months ago, when Barack Obama could be bothered to say anything at all about the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, the president promised to bring the perpetrators to justice. That was before White House spokesman Jay Carney dismissed the attacks as something that…

The fallout continues from the New York Times’s failed attempt to change the narrative on the Ben-ghazi attacks. The latest hit comes from an unexpected source—the Washington Post:

To hear it from the New York Times editorial page, the many issues surrounding the attacks in Benghazi are now settled. 

Let’s start by giving David Kirkpatrick credit. Kirkpatrick, the Cairo bureau chief of the New York Times and author of this weekend’s much-discussed piece on Benghazi, provides many new on-the-ground, minute-by-minute details of the attacks and the weeks and months leading up to them. Some of the…

Two former CIA officials who fought in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, were asked to sign additional nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) more than six months after those attacks. The two officials, who will testify Thursday before a subcommittee of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence,…

When South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham threatened last week to place a hold in the Senate on all Obama administration nominations until the president and his advisers cooperate fully with investigations into the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, on September 11, 2012, White House press secretary Jay Carney…

Ted Cruz has sparked a Republican civil war. He has done the bidding of the GOP fringe, in a self-aggrandizing crusade. And while he has enhanced his own position in the conservative fantasyland he seeks to rule, the practical effect of his quixotic campaign to defund Obamacare has been to elevate…

The leaders of the Administrative Review Board that investigated the attacks on US facilities in Benghazi, Libya, appeared before the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee Thursday, and offered testimony that further undermined the already-tattered credibility of their own probe.

On September 3, 2013, CIA director John Brennan sent a letter to House Intelligence Committee chairman Mike Rogers responding to questions about CIA-affiliated personnel who were on the ground during the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya. The letter is below:

One year after the terrorist attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya, the survivors may finally begin to talk.

Is this the beginning of the White House turn?

It’s not hard to imagine the story of Syria and the GOP going something like this:

One question, more than any other, will determine the shape of the national political discussion over the next several months: Will Republican leaders make Obamacare a central part of the coming negotiations over funding the government and raising the debt ceiling?

With the images of slaughter coming out of Syria and fresh evidence that the Assad regime may be using chemical weapons on its own citizens, it’s worth revisiting the case for intervention in Libya that Barack Obama made on March 28, 2011. At the time he spoke, Amnesty International reported that…

Anyone following the news even casually last week surely noticed the long parade of Obama administration officials trotted out before the cameras to insist their boss, the president, has always understood the serious and ongoing threat presented by al Qaeda and its affiliates—emphasis on…

In a May 30, 2013, letter to CIA officers on the ground last fall in Benghazi, Libya, CIA director John Brennan notified survivors of those attacks that congressional oversight committees remain interested in hearing from them.

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has obtained a copy of the letter CIA director John Brennan sent to survivors of the Benghazi terror attack:

The closure of nearly two dozen U.S. embassies over the weekend came after the U.S. government intercepted communications between Ayman al Zawahiri, the leader of al Qaeda, and Nasir al Wuhayshi, the leader of the terror group’s most dangerous affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, according…

On Wednesday, July 17, Senator Mike Lee strode onto the Senate floor and called for Republicans to defund Obamacare. His case was simple. If the White House is calling for a yearlong delay in the implementation of two key elements of the law—the employer mandate and verification of eligibility for…

John Brennan, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, sent a letter to each of the CIA employees who were on the ground during the Benghazi attack on September 11, 2012, inviting them to share information with Congress, according to three sources familiar with the missive. Brennan sent the…

Are we watching the demise of al Qaeda or its rebirth?

Did Mike Enzi open his reelection campaign by making something up?

It’s been one year since the Supreme Court decision that allowed Obama administration officials to begin implementing the Affordable Care Act, and the frequency and volume of reports about the challenges facing those reforms—and the difficulties they are visiting on those who were supposed to…

One might expect Keith Alexander to advocate on behalf of the two programs at the center of our national debate about terrorism and surveillance. He is, after all, the head of the National Security Agency, which runs them. “It’s dozens of terrorist events that these have helped prevent—both here…

In a speech at the National Defense University on May 23, Barack Obama declared an end to the global war on terror. The threat posed by al Qaeda, its affiliates, and those it inspires can be managed, he said. “As we shape our response, we have to recognize that the scale of this threat closely…

Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, added his rather important voice to the growing number of current and former officials who believe the Obama administration should expedite the release of some documents captured during the raid that killed Osama bin…

So, what about the video? The White House last week released nearly 100 pages of emails detailing some of the discussions within the Obama administration that resulted in major revisions to talking points about the Benghazi attacks drafted by the Central Intelligence Agency.

As the investigation into the Obama administration’s handling of the attacks on U.S. facilities in Benghazi intensifies, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are seeking to conduct transcribed interviews with thirteen top State Department officials in the coming weeks in order to learn more. Those named in…

CIA director David Petraeus was surprised when he read the freshly rewritten talking points an aide had emailed him in the early afternoon of Saturday, September 15. One day earlier, analysts with the CIA’s Office of Terrorism Analysis had drafted a set of unclassified talking points policymakers…

The Washington Post editorial board is quite upset with “Republicans and conservative media obsessed” with the “phony” issue of the administration’s misleading public explanation of the nature of the attacks in Benghazi. In a lengthy editorial, the Post makes a haughtier and more condescending…

The White House on Wednesday released 94 pages of emails between top administration and intelligence officials who helped shape the talking points about the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that the CIA would provide to policymakers in both the legislative and executive branches.

CNN’s Jake Tapper has obtained the verbatim text of an email from Ben Rhodes, a top Obama adviser on foreign policy and national security, which I referred to in two recent pieces on the Obama administration’s manipulation of the Benghazi talking points. It's a good scoop. Assuming the email is…

Even as the White House strove last week to move beyond questions about the Benghazi attacks of Tuesday, September 11, 2012, fresh evidence emerged that senior Obama administration officials knowingly misled the country about what had happened in the days following the assaults. The Weekly Standard…

Jay Carney aggressively defended the Obama administration’s handling of the Benghazi attacks and the revision of CIA talking points Friday in an uncharacteristically hostile White House press briefing. But in his attempts to protect himself and his administration colleagues, Carney offered a series…

At a White House press briefing on May 1, Barack Obama spokesman Jay Carney attempted to frame new reporting on the Benghazi attacks as old news by noting that the attacks had taken place "a long time ago." 

A top U.S. diplomat will testify Wednesday that as fighting raged in Benghazi, Libya, in the early morning hours of September 12, 2012, military officials in the region told a second rescue team preparing to deploy from Tripoli to Benghazi not to make the trip.

Law enforcement officials are carefully reexamining any possible role that Katherine Russell Tsarnaeva, the wife of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, played in the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, according to three federal officials with knowledge of the investigation. The intense scrutiny comes as a result…

“In this age of instant reporting and tweets and blogs, there's a temptation to latch on to any bit of information, sometimes to jump to conclusions,” said President Obama, in the late evening of April 19, after Dzokhar Tsarnaev was captured alive in Watertown, Mass. “But when a tragedy like this…

Mark Knoller from CBS News reports this morning that President Obama, in a statement in the Rose Garden, “will stress his budget’s top objective is to boost the economy and create jobs.” To do that, he’ll have to contradict what he previously described as “the consensus among people who know the…

On March 6, Barack Obama invited a dozen Republican senators to dine with him at the Jefferson Hotel in Washington. The group spent virtually all of their time discussing debt, deficits, and spending. Obama picked up the tab. The next day, he hosted House Budget chairman Paul Ryan, along with his…

There will be no grand bargain.

What’s the purpose of Barack Obama’s “charm offensive?” And who is the target?

John Brennan is no Chuck Hagel. That much was clear from the confirmation hearings on Brennan’s nomination to head the CIA. Unlike Hagel, who stumbled and mumbled through his performance, Brennan demonstrated a deep knowledge of his brief and answered (or gamely parried) tough questions with great…

John Brennan, President Obama’s nominee to run the Central Intelligence Agency, is getting renewed scrutiny for a highly questionable claim he made during his confirmation hearings last week. On Tuesday, two Republicans on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Marco Rubio and James Risch,…

From the earliest days of Marco Rubio’s plucky campaign for the U.S. Senate, his diehard supporters spoke of the day that their man would have an opportunity to challenge Barack Obama – his policies, his vision, his rhetoric. They were certain that Rubio was so gifted an orator and possessed such a…

Finally John Warner let Chuck Hagel speak. Warner, having declared that he was discarding his prepared remarks in the interest of sincerity and brevity and then spoken for 15 minutes, turned to Hagel with a friendly warning: “You’re on your own.”

Hillary Clinton’s testimony last week on Benghazi was in many respects a fitting end to the multi-layered scandal that seems unlikely ever to grow beyond scandal childhood, at least in the minds of those responsible for determining what is and is not scandalous in Washington.

On September 21, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke to reporters before a meeting with the Pakistani foreign minister. She addressed the September 11 assault on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya. “What happened was a terrorist attack, and we will not rest until we have tracked down and…

President Barack Obama used his second inaugural address Monday to offer an aggressive, unapologetic defense of activist government and to call for a new spirit of unity even as he seeks to move the country even further left.

In today’s New York Times, David Brooks argues persuasively that Chuck Hagel has been nominated to help Barack Obama dramatically cut defense spending.

What should the United States do about Iran? 

From a left-wing bumper sticker seeking to make its point with an absurdity: "It'll be a great day when the schools have all the money they need and the Pentagon has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber."

At his first press conference after being elected to a second term, President Barack Obama did everything he could to avoid directly answering the difficult questions on the growing scandal about his administration’s handling of the terrorist attacks in Benghazi. But in so doing, the president…

November 6 is not only Election Day, it's also the eight-week anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

A few thoughts on the resignation of David Petraeus as CIA director: Few American leaders had a stronger reputation for integrity and honor, so the reason he cited for his departure – an extramarital affair – comes as a shock to the nation and to those who know him best.

At a speech in Davenport, Iowa, on October 24, with 13 days left in the presidential election, Barack Obama introduced a new closing argument: “Trust matters,” Obama said.

The lead editorials in the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal today offer stinging critiques of the Obama administration’s handling of Benghazi.

At about 3 p.m. on Thursday, October 18, Barack Obama strode into the Manhattan studios of Comedy Central for a taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The two men discussed several issues, including Libya. Stewart noted the exchange between Obama and Mitt Romney on that subject at the debate…

Boca Raton, Fla.

Danville, Ky.

The Obama administration appears to be mounting yet another version of its campaign to push back on claims that it misled on the intelligence related to the attacks in Benghazi on 9/11/12. But the new offensive by the administration, which contradicts many of its earlier claims and simply…

Dave Weigel at Slate corrects me on an entry in my long Benghazi rhetoric timeline today.

Hempstead, N.Y.  

Danville, Kentucky

The Pew poll on the presidential race released Monday has many interesting findings that will be scrutinized, challenged and assessed with less than one month left in the campaign. The survey, taken after last Wednesday’s debate (good for Romney) and mostly after Friday’s jobs report (good for…

After more than two weeks of obfuscation and misdirection from the Obama administration, the American public is coming to understand what the U.S. intelligence community learned in the 48 hours immediately following the September 11 attack on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Among the…

If Mitt Romney campaigns over the next month in the bold, aggressive manner he debated Wednesday night, he will be the next president.

For nine days, the Obama administration made a case that virtually everyone understood was untrue: that the killing of our ambassador and three other Americans in Benghazi, Libya, was a random, spontaneous act of individuals upset about an online video—an unpredictable attack on a well-protected…

At the Washington Post this morning, Glenn Kessler posts a collection of the Obama administration’s evolving statements on Libya and some important reporting of facts surrounding the attacks.

On the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, radical Islamists breached the walls of the U.S. embassy compound in Cairo, tore the American flag to shreds, and replaced it with the black flag preferred by al Qaeda, which reads, “There is No God but God, and Muhammad is his messenger.”

In an appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman, President Barack Obama suggested that most of the country’s debt was accumulated under George W. Bush, pretended that he has offered a solution to these problems, said that he does not know the total U.S. national debt, and claimed that the…

A few random thoughts (and some reporting) on Mitt Romney and the video.

Charlotte, N.C.

The Obama administration continued to claim Sunday that the attacks on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, were not planned or coordinated but spontaneous responses to news of an anti-Islam video that happened to take place on the eleventh anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. It’s a highly dubious…

Mitt Romney is being accused of crass political opportunism for speaking up about the attacks on U.S. interests in Egypt and Libya on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. And not just by his political opponents. By Wednesday evening Reuters, in a straight news piece, reported that Romney’s comments…

If you missed Paul Ryan’s speech at the Republican National Convention last week and tried to play catch-up the next morning, you could be forgiven for concluding that nothing the Wisconsin congressman said was true.

Green Bay, Wisc.

Waukesha, Wisc.

The Republican National Committee is making big changes to the lineup of speakers at the convention next week in Tampa to ensure that broadcast networks cover Ann Romney’s speech. Among the changes most seriously under consideration: moving Marco Rubio to Tuesday night and having Mrs. Romney speak…

Ephraim, Wisc.

Mitt Romney will have many opportunities over the next three months to demonstrate to voters that they should choose him over Barack Obama: his acceptance speech at the Republican convention, the three presidential debates, major policy addresses, and more. But it may be that nothing will speak…

Elm Grove, Wisc. & Washington, D.C.

In an interview on March 22, two weeks before Mitt Romney would win the Wisconsin primary and effectively end the race for the Republican nomination, Milwaukee talk radio host Charlie Sykes asked about his embrace of Paul Ryan’s budget.

There've been many emails in response to our editorial in this week's issue, “Go for the Gold, Mitt!” Two were particularly noteworthy.

Thirteen years ago? Or thirteen years from now?

Why would the president oppose raising taxes when economic growth was 5.6 percent but propose raising taxes when it’s at 1.9 percent? When it’s politically advantageous to be seen as raising taxes on the rich.

When did President Obama change his mind on the wisdom of raising taxes in an economic downturn? And, perhaps more important, if the U.S. economy slipped back into recession, would the president abandon his proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy?

One of the few bright spots in last week’s Supreme Court ruling on President Obama’s health care overhaul was a political one: The opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts argues that Obamacare is constitutional under the taxing powers of Congress. The Obama administration’s advocate before…

Waukesha, Wisc.

Much has been made of Barack Obama’s comment Friday morning that the “private sector is doing fine.” The mockery is well-deserved.

Less than twelve hours after he won the election to recall him from office, Scott Walker made a direct and forceful pitch to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney: go big, and go bold.

Scott Walker won for a simple reason: He did what he promised to do as a candidate and it worked.

Milwaukee, Wisc.

"This is what democracy looks like.” That was the boast of protesters occupying the Wisconsin state capitol 16 months ago as they blocked Republican lawmakers from entering the legislature and celebrated Democratic state senators who had fled the state to avoid a vote on Governor Scott Walker’s…

Barack Obama seems determined to avoid Wisconsin.

Caledonia, Wis.

Shortly after Mitt Romney won the Wisconsin primary and, in effect, the Republican nomination, I asked a prominent Republican strategist whom he thought Romney would choose as his running mate. He answered without hesitation.

An interesting thing happened in the Wisconsin recall primary yesterday: Governor Scott Walker received more votes than Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk combined, the two leading Democrats fighting to challeng him on June 5. Walker won the votes of 626,538 Wisconsinites, despite the fact that he had…

Senator Marco Rubio appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace this weekend and gave viewers a clear understanding why many conservatives see him as a strong candidate to be Mitt Romney’s running mate. Rubio answered Wallace’s questions directly and forcefully, drawing sharp contrasts between…

Did President Obama pick a fight today with the man who could well be the decisive vote in the Supreme Court’s consideration of his health care plan?

A final get out the vote call from Mitt Romney's campaign in Wisconsin suggests an unholy alliance of the Santorum campaign, "union bosses," Democrats, and Santorum's "cronies" might be conspiring to extend the GOP contest, and urges Wisconsin voters to stop those efforts by voting for Romney. The…

Mitt Romney wants to eliminate government programs and shutter cabinet agencies. Doing so, he says, is “the critical thing” that needs to be done in order to bring government books back into balance and to begin restoring the promise of America. “Actually eliminating programs is the most important…

In many ways, the story of the 2012 Republican primary has been the inability of Mitt Romney to win over more than a third of self-identified “strong Tea Party supporters” or “very conservative” voters. If he had received the support of those voters, even a slim majority of them, the race would…

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 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…

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…

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.

Milford, Michigan

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…

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

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

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

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

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

Two weeks ago, a top adviser to Newt Gingrich told me that his candidate would stay in the Republican race through the convention, regardless of the outcome in South Carolina. Gingrich reiterated those plans in comments to reporters over the weekend.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie has been perhaps the most visible campaign surrogate for Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, making the case that Romney is the most electable Republican in the race and pushing hard for the man he endorsed after declaring, once again and finally, that he…

After two combative debates in South Carolina that helped change the trajectory of the Republican race, the first of two debates in Florida was relatively low key and seems unlikely to change anything. With good answers and very good luck, Mitt Romney recovered after a tough week that had two…

North Charleston, S.C.

If Jon Huntsman’s presidential campaign had a theme or a defining characteristic—something voters might easily identify with the candidate—it was probably his often-repeated contention that the country was facing a “trust deficit” between its citizens and elected officials. It’s no small irony,…

Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Manchester, N.H.

Concord, N.H.

Manchester, N.H.

There's no question Jon Huntsman has been praised by more Democrats and left leaning commentators than any of the other Republican presidential candidates. But until now, that praise has gone one way. Earlier this week, however, Huntsman's top fundraiser, Ann Herberger, announced her new “hero” was…

Perry, Iowa

It’s started early this time. Nobody in Iowa has cast a vote in the 2012 Republican presidential caucuses. It’s not even 2012. But the quadrennial calls for an end to Iowa’s first-in-the-country caucuses have begun.

Rick Perry’s presidential campaign released a tough new ad Thursday targeting Rick Santorum and his history of supporting earmarks in Congress. Why is Perry attacking a candidate who has been mired in single digits in Iowa despite living there for most of the past several months?

Sioux City, Iowa

Sioux City, Iowa

Sioux City, Iowa 

In recent weeks the White House has been pushing a new argument about the economy: "We didn’t know how bad it was."

On November 30, Newt Gingrich sent out a fundraising letter promising to elevate contemporary political discourse and to lead “the kind of nuanced debate worthy of our national history.” Gingrich wrote: “The people who are standing with this campaign have rejected reality TV politics…”

Is this finally a Mitt Romney that conservatives can love? Or at least support?

Spartanburg, South Carolina

About 24 hours after he recited the oath of office, Barack Obama addressed senior executive branch officials and cabinet secretaries at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The new president promised that his administration would bring a new openness to Washington, with strict ethics…

In late February, New Jersey governor Chris Christie visited Washington to deliver a highly anticipated speech on entitlement reform at the American Enterprise Institute. The lecture was titled “It’s Time to Do the Big Things,” and it was full of the blunt, confrontational talk that has made the…

Orlando, Florida

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

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

Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan has decided for a final time that he will not run for president in 2012, THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned. Ryan, who began seriously considering a bid in late May after Indiana governor Mitch Daniels took himself out of the race, had consulted with top Republicans,…

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker added his voice to a growing chorus of conservative leaders calling on Congressman Paul Ryan to join the Republican presidential race. Walker, one of the country's most popular figures with rank-and-file Republicans, says that Ryan's leadership on the difficult…

As Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan comes to a final decision about running for president, several top national conservatives are encouraging him to join the race. Ryan, who has been seriously but quietly considering a presidential bid for several months, is expected to decide on a run in the next…

Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan is strongly considering a run for president. Ryan, who has been quietly meeting with political strategists to discuss a bid over the past three months, is on vacation in Colorado discussing a prospective run with his family. Ryan’s concerns about the effects of a…

On July 28, the Treasury Department designated six al Qaeda operatives involved in shipping money and men from the Persian Gulf to senior al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The move targets a node of the global terror network that is critical to its overall strength, freezing any of its…

Ames, Iowa

According to the Commerce Department numbers released Friday, the U.S. economy is growing at just 1.3 percent. Maybe. First quarter growth, initially reported as a disappointing 1.9 percent, was revised drastically down to just 0.4 percent. Those numbers are depressing enough. The downward revision…

The debt ceiling deal will pass the Senate early this afternoon. No suspense there. But the vote will be worth watching for another reason: Three Republican Senate sources tell TWS that senators who vote against the deal will be ineligible to serve on the so-called “supercommittee” for deficit…

The White House briefing room is often known as the place where news goes to die. Reporters try hard to get the press secretary to “make news” – or say something useable for their television/radio/print/web stories of the day. They often fail, in part because the job of the press secretary, in many…

This afternoon President Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney endorsed Senate majority leader Harry Reid’s debt ceiling proposal:

At a press conference early last week, Barack Obama used the first question posed to preempt another that he was certain to receive. In the summer of 2009, Obama had explained at some length that raising taxes in an economic downturn was “the last thing you want to do” because doing so would “put…

Shortly after Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell unveiled his “contingency” plan for a debt limit increase, the Associated Press bulletin read: “GOP Leader McConnell proposes giving Obama new power for automatic debt limit increase.”

In a 75-minute meeting Sunday night, President Obama once again demanded that more than $1 trillion in tax increases be part of any deficit reduction package attached to a vote on the debt ceiling. In the session, Obama rejected a Republican proposal to seek $2.5 trillion in spending cuts and…

White House economic adviser Austan Goolsbee on Friday cautioned against overreading a dismal June unemployment report showing just 18,000 jobs added. Don’t “read too much into any one monthly jobs report,” he said.

Lieutenant General John Allen told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that the Afghanistan decision President Obama announced last week was not among the range of options the military provided to the commander in chief. Allen’s testimony directly contradicts claims from senior Obama…

Earlier this month, an aide to Jon Huntsman promised that his candidate would resist the angry tone and name-calling of modern political campaigns. “I think he’ll make it clear where he disagrees when it comes to policy and where he wants to take this country, but for him this is a campaign based…

One of the most interesting lines from the New Hampshire Republican presidential debate last night came from Mitt Romney, during the brief discussion of foreign policy. Romney was asked about Afghanistan and responded that he wanted troops home as soon as possible, so long as doing so was…

After struggling to come up with an explanation that doesn't admit a policy failure, the White House seems to have settled on an answer to questions about what led to the grim unemployment numbers last week: Gas prices. The president said the other day that the latest jobs numbers are a "blip"…

In a speech that calls for a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, a slashing of corporate and income tax rates, and emergency presidential powers to rein in spending, former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty laid out his economic vision for the country in Chicago today.

In May 2010, in the aftermath of the attempted bombing of Times Square by a jihadist with ties to the Pakistani Taliban, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton gave an interview to 60 Minutes and made a startling claim about the government in Pakistan. “I’m not saying that they’re at the highest…

The White House communications operation has expended considerable effort over the past week to portray President Obama as serious about dealing with debt and deficits. Most of their scrambling came after House Budget chairman Paul Ryan presented a 2012 budget blueprint that included significant…

If there is one thing that political strategists, pollsters, and elected officials of both parties have agreed on for decades, it’s that entitlement reform is a sure political loser. Social Security is the “third rail”—touch it and you die. Suggest changes to Medicaid and you don’t care about the…

Supreme Court justice David Prosser has picked up more than 7,381 votes in Waukesha County, a conservative county outside of Milwaukee, as part of the statewide canvass following the election for Supreme Court on Tuesday. The total gives Prosser a comfortable lead as the canvass continues Friday.

Senator Marco Rubio offered his full-throated support Wednesday for the U.S. intervention in Libya and called on President Barack Obama to be clear that regime change is the objective of America’s involvement. In an interview yesterday afternoon, Rubio said that failing to remove Libyan leader…

Scott Walker was finished. 

Sometimes the New York Times is hard to believe--on March 12, for instance.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Wednesday that the Obama administration is “actively considering” imposing a no-fly zone over Libya in response to the ongoing regime-backed attacks on the population there. Although the White House has consistently said that all options are on the table,…

On February 22, several days into the Libyan regime’s campaign of terror, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was asked whether the U.S. was going to stand by while Moammar Qaddafi and his military slaughtered their fellow countrymen.

On February 15, thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of several Libyan cities demanding the departure of the strongman who has ruled the north African nation for more than four decades. The Libyan regime immediately ordered state-backed militias and mercenaries to put down the violence,…

A smart friend writes: "As a federal contractor, I'm prohibited from contributing to candidates or parties in federal elections. Am I breaking the law by funding Democrats via public sector unions when I pay my taxes?"

Andrew Sullivan caught a give-and-take between me and Juan Williams on Fox News on Monday night and raises a fair objection.

Defense secretary Robert Gates says the United States has not had discussions with its NATO partners about how to handle the unfolding crisis in Libya, and he believes that the United States could not quickly enforce a no-fly zone in the country to keep military jets from shooting on the citizens…

John Thune has announced on his Facebook page that he is passing on a run for the presidency.

On Sunday, Mary Bell, president of the Wisconsin Educational Association Council, instructed the teachers in her union to return to the classroom after many of them skipped school for three days last week. The unexpected move energized Republicans in Wisconsin, who took it as a sign that negative…

When Wisconsin governor Scott Walker looked out the window of his office at the Capitol in Madison Wednesday he saw more than 10,000 people gathered to protest his decision to require public employees to contribute more to their pensions and health care. Walker says he’s not surprised that the…

Florida governor Rick Scott has rejected federal funds for high-speed rail connecting Orlando and Tampa, a decision that could send up to $2.4 billion in stimulus money back to the federal government. In a statement, Scott says that the red ink in President Obama’s budget – and the higher taxes the…

House Republican leadership is all in with Budget chairman Paul Ryan and has green-lighted the inclusion of entitlements in the budget he will produce later this spring. The move comes after a lengthy behind-the-scenes debate about the risks of going first on entitlements and against the advice of…

The White House is accusing the Iranian regime of “hypocrisy” for placing a leading opposition figure under house arrest. Mehdi Karroubi, one of the leaders of Iran’s Green Movement after the rigged elections in June 2009, has been placed under house arrest in Tehran and is unable to meet with his…

The old Washington axiom that congressional staffers are often more powerful than their bosses will not apply to Marco Rubio and those who work for him. But, as the tremendous number of resumes submitted to his office suggests, Rubio’s staff will be important. And in a move that brings an end to…

Less than three months after voters across the country expressed their utter disdain for Washington and an overreaching government, Barack Obama’s second State of the Union address, and the mindless symbolism surrounding it, validated their judgment and demonstrated that many in the political…

Perhaps the most powerful moment of President Obama’s moving address yesterday came when he announced that Representative Gabrielle Giffords had opened her eyes for the first time during a visit from some of her colleagues in Congress.  

The Obama administration supports the establishment of a jihad rehabilitation program in Yemen, according to remarks Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made during a town hall in the region. Clinton said the efforts would be modeled after jihad rehabilitation programs in Saudi Arabia supported by…

There has been no shortage of individuals and institutions that have sought to capitalize on the shootings in Tucson. Add Vermont senator Bernie Sanders to that list.

Even before anything at all was known about Jared Lee Loughner, who went on a deadly shooting spree outside a Safeway in Tucson, Arizona, on Saturday, a narrative was beginning to take shape.

David Boaz, at the Cato Institute, objected to my calling former Republican senator Chuck Hagel an “anti-Republican Republican,” last night on Fox.

From Afghanistan, some surprising news: U.S. and coalition forces have arrested a member of Iran’s notorious Qods Force who was simultaneously serving as a Taliban commander. But sophisticated foreign policy observers have said for years that the Taliban and Iran were adversaries, even enemies –…

When Wisconsin voters elected Scott Walker governor in November, they did so in no small measure because of his pledge to kill a stimulus-funded $810 million railroad connecting Milwaukee and Madison. Walker campaigned extensively on ending the project, which he deemed both unnecessary and…

On December 1, Undersecretary of State William Burns appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to brief members of Congress on Iran. He touted the effectiveness of the latest round of sanctions and then listed some “wider actions of the Iranian leadership” that cause concern. He cited the…

A State Department spokesman said today that the Obama administration expected that many detainees released or transferred from Guantanamo Bay would return to jihad. The spokesman, P. J. Crowley, made the comments in response to questions about a new report from the Director of National…

Gitmo is staying open.

On November 12, North Korean scientists took Stanford professor Siegfried Hecker and two colleagues to the Yongbyon nuclear complex. The North Koreans led the Americans to a building that Hecker, former head of the Los Alamos nuclear laboratories, had visited in February 2008. The structure had…

On November 12, North Korean scientists took Stanford professor Siegfried Hecker and two colleagues to the Yongbyon nuclear complex. The North Koreans led the Americans to a building that Hecker, former head of the Los Alamos nuclear laboratories, had visited in February 2008. The structure had…

George W. Bush made some news during a session with a small group of reporters and editors this morning at the Mandarin Hotel in Washington, D.C. Bush, who is touring the country to promote his new book, Decision Points, spoke candidly about a number of issues – past and current.

Ben Smith has a good piece on John Thune’s vulnerabilities as a 2012 presidential candidate. Smith’s post raises the central question: Is Thune too “establishment” for the current political environment?

If the 2010 midterms are, in fact, the wave they seem to be, it will have crested in the Midwest. The numbers in Wisconsin are huge – much bigger than pre-election polls suggested. One of the big winners is Scott Walker, the Republican candidate for governor. With 44 percent reporting, Walker holds…

Much is unknown about this election. But with Republicans poised to make historic gains based on deep unrest about the policies of Barack Obama and other Democrats, one thing is certain: There will be lots of chin-stroking about the anger and hate on the right.

Late on Wednesday, October 20, David Folkenflik, the media reporter for National Public Radio, announced that NPR executives had terminated the contract of Juan Williams, who had worked for NPR for ten years, first as a reporter and for the last two years as a “news analyst.”

On two occasions over the past week, former president Bill Clinton attempted to persuade Democratic congressman Kendrick Meek to drop out of the Florida Senate race and endorse Republican-turned-Independent Florida governor Charlie Crist in the three-way contest. Clinton, who had campaigned for…

Juan Williams, now a former contract news analyst for NPR, was fired Wednesday for publicly taking a controversial position. A statement from NPR CEO Vivian Schiller said:

Vivian Schiller, the CEO of National Public Radio, publicly questioned the sanity of former NPR news analyst Juan Williams one day after dismissing the Fox News contributor for comments inconsistent with NPR’s standards. Schiller said that Williams should have kept his views between himself and…

John McCormack highlights three Wisconsin House races that are ripe for a Democrat-to-Republican flip. In WI-08, Republican Reid Ribble is challenging Democrat Steve Kagen, a doctor whose most notable moment in Washington came when he seems to have invented a confrontation in a White House bathroom…

Senator Russ Feingold, a leading voice for tight regulations on campaigns and elections, has been contacted by the National Football League today for using NFL footage without permission for a new campaign ad.

It’s one month until Election Day and Florida governor Charlie Crist is desperate. When Crist launched his campaign more than a year ago he was leading conservative Marco Rubio by more than 30 points. Now, after having opted to run as an independent to avoid a humiliating defeat in the Republican…

At this point, conventional wisdom suggests that it will be difficult for Republicans to force and win a vote before the midterm elections on extending tax cuts for all Americans. The main obstacle is the Senate, where Republicans would have to get 19 Democratic votes. There are now five Democratic…

With 49 days until the midterm elections, Wisconsin looks increasingly like it will be among the most intensely contested states – between primaries there Tuesday and the November 2 general election.

Menomonee Falls, WI

Not long ago, I took my three-year-old son to the doctor. I was reading to him in the waiting room when an old man and his wife sat on the couch directly opposite ours—the only seats that weren’t occupied on that busy morning. The man introduced himself, and we began chatting. As we spoke, I…

Holland, Ohio

Expect this story from the New York Times to restart the discussion on U.S. policies and strategies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Ben Smith has an interesting piece in Politico on differences between conservatives regarding the Justice Department’s dismissal of the New Black Panther voter intimidation case and the subsequent investigation by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. Conservative heavyweights Abigail Thernstrom and…

Senator John Barrasso, a leading spokesman for congressional Republicans on health care issues, today accused President Barack Obama of "intentionally misleading" the country and Congress by appointing Donald Berwick to run the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services. The White House yesterday…

Many on the center-right have settled on some version of the Peter Robinson/Jennifer Rubin/Daniel Foster/National Review solution for the mess made by General Stanley McChrystal and his staff. In that scenario, McChrystal offers to resign and President Obama, in the interest of winning the war and…

In a phone interview this afternoon, Senator John McCain expanded on his statement from this morning on General Stanley McChrystal and the general's comments to Rolling Stone:

An update to my piece for the magazine this week ("Dereliction of Duty"). In my efforts to simplify budget arcana, I left out some important information.

Conventional wisdom is settling. Tuesday night was a bad night for the establishment, a bad night for Republicans, and a relatively good night for Democrats. The results, we are told, should make strategists and political analysts reevaluate the growing sense that Republicans are poised to do very…

On Saturday, May 1, a crude car bomb composed of gasoline canisters, propane tanks, fertilizer, and fireworks failed to detonate in Times Square. A nearby T-shirt salesman saw the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder-turned-bomb start smoking. New Yorkers are reminded endlessly: If you “See Something, Say…

A very significant piece of reporting from the Associated Press this morning. Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman report that Iran is allowing top al Qaeda leaders based in Iran to leave, "raising the prospect that Iran is loosening its grip on the terror group so it can replenish its ranks, former and…

Two weeks ago, Barack Obama got personal with Senator Mitch McConnell over financial reform regulation. In his weekly radio address on April 17, Obama claimed that McConnell was lying about the bill at the behest of Wall Street:

Chris Cilizza at the Washington Post has an interesting assessment of the presidential prospects of Senator John Thune of South Dakota. Thune has been taking a wait-and-see attitude toward a possible run in 2012, neither ruling it in or out.

Florida Senate candidate Marco Rubio is up with two 15-second ads responding to an attack ad released this afternoon by Florida Governor Charlie Crist.

Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson is preparing to run for the U.S. Senate against incumbent Russ Feingold, according to several sources familiar with Thompson's thinking. Thompson has spent the past several weeks taking the steps any candidate must take in order to run for office -- he's…

Some additional context for today's bill signing. (See Fred Barnes's excellent post on Medicare, here.) Today, Barack Obama signed into law a new entitlement that, he says, will not only provide much-needed benefits to the American people but will put the country on a path to long-term fiscal…

At a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee last fall, Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, asked Attorney General Eric Holder to produce a list of Department of Justice employees who had been involved in representing detainees. Holder said he’d consider the request.

Update: A press release from Pete Hoekstra's office indicates that the House bill has been pulled because of opposition to the provision targeting interrogators.  

Last week, a little more than 24 hours after the FBI warned senators not to disclose the sensitive information that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was cooperating with the FBI, the White House shared the information with the news media.

Last week, a little more than 24 hours after the FBI warned senators not to disclose the sensitive information that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was cooperating with the FBI, the White House shared the information with the news media.

In a letter today to Senator Mitch McConnell, Attorney General Eric Holder defended his decision to have FBI agents read Miranda rights to Christmas bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and to charge him in civilian court.  Holder challenged the claims of some critics that the presence of a lawyer…

In an interview with 60 Minutes last spring, President Obama discussed the handling of captured terrorists and challenged those who claimed the "American system of justice was not up to the task of dealing with these terrorists."

The White House yesterday leaked the news that the Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, had begun cooperating with FBI interrogators last week. The Washington press corps quickly declared victory for the Obama administration and suggested that the news vindicated the decision to read…

In the five weeks since the Christmas Day attack on Flight 253, the Obama administration has come under tremendous scrutiny for its mishandling of al Qaeda operative, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. At first the criticism focused on the many intelligence lapses that allowed Abdulmutallab on the plane.…

Top White House adviser David Axelrod believes the U.S. government properly handled the Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, despite the fact that Abdulmutallab stopped talking to interrogators after having had Miranda rights read to him.  In an appearance on NBC's Meet the Press,…

In a hard-hitting, must-read op-ed that will run in tomorrow's Washington Post, former CIA Director Michael Hayden writes that the decision to Mirandize Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a mistake. "We got it wrong in Detroit on Christmas Day."

During the past week, THE WEEKLY STANDARD surveyed United States Senators on the U.S. government's handling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas Day bomber.  The questions we asked were simple: Does Senator XX believe that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab should have been read his Miranda rights?…

The top Republicans in the Senate are preparing a scathing letter to Attorney General Eric Holder concerning the handling of the Christmas Day bomber, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.  The letter, signed by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and top Republicans on committees with national security…

The two top senators on the Senate Homeland Security Committee have written to Attorney General Eric Holder and White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan to urge the Obama administration to treat Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab as an "unprivileged enemy belligerent" and transfer him to the…

The conservative blogosphere is buzzing this morning about news that President Obama relied on a teleprompter for his remarks to students at the Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia.  And it would surely be funny if he had.  But it doesn't appear that he did.

It has been a month since Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab nearly killed 289 people on Flight 253. In the weeks since the Christmas Day attack, we've learned some very disturbing things about the Obama administration and terrorism.

The Associated Press has a fascinating blow-by-blow account of the interrogation of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab that adds several new details to previous reports on his handling. Overall, however, this news does not change the disturbing picture of the reflexive, law-enforcement-first approach the…

The Washington Post adds itself to the growing chorus of critics of the Obama administration's handling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab after his botched bombing attempt on Christmas Day.  And, in what should be a worrisome sign to the White House, the Post editorial reverses their previous…

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is pressing the Obama administration on questions about the handling of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the Christmas Day bomber, and makes some news in the process.  McConnell notes that several top national security officials offered disturbing testimony…

There is one reason that White House should be thrilled about the Massachusetts Senate race. It crowded out news that came out of the stunning testimony of Obama administration officials Wednesday on the Christmas Day terrorist attack. Four top counterterrorism officials testified before a…

Of all of the memorable moments from the Massachusetts special election, the one that stands out most--and the one with real implications for 2010--did not directly involve either of the two candidates in the race.

On Monday December 28, three days after Umar Farouk -Abdulmutallab tried to bring down Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit, President Barack Obama stepped up to a podium in Honolulu, to make his first statement about the attacks. “This incident, like several that have preceded it,…

What the Obama administration is saying now:

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said today that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab provided "usable, actionable" intelligence upon his capture on Christmas Day.

As a candidate, Barack Obama pledged to meet with leaders of rogue states "without preconditions." He said the foreign policy of the United States had become too aggressive, even domineering, under George W. Bush. We had made too many demands and spent too much time lecturing and too little time…

The White House spin on Yemen continues. Today, a "senior administration official" tells Mike Allen that the administration has been getting tough in Yemen for a year. Throughout this year, the President has urged greater focus on and investment in the fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian…

Dan Pfeiffer, White House Communications Director, took to the official White House blog Wednesday to post a response to critics of Barack Obama and his handling of counterterrorism. Pfeiffer believes that the intelligence failure that led to the failed bombing on Christmas day -- nearly a year…

Bloomberg reports that recently-released British hostage Peter Moore was held, at least for a time, in Iran. CENTCOM commander David Petraeus told reporters in Baghdad: ""Our intelligence assessment is that he certainly has spent part of the time, at the very least, in Iran, part of the time that…

On Sunday the administration told us "the system worked." On Monday, the president said it merely failed to prevent an "isolated extremist." By Tuesday, though, the president acknowledged a "systemic failure" and two administration officials told CNN that this was a conspiracy so vast we were…

With President Barack Obama's year-end deadline to Iran just one day away, the Washington Post's Glenn Kessler reports that the Obama administration is preparing "targeted sanctions" on Iran. But with an asterisk. Ten months after President Obama set a year-end deadline for Iran to engage with…

Last spring, in an interview with 60 Minutes, Barack Obama criticized his predecessor over the detainees at Guantánamo Bay. That wasn't new. What was surprising was one of the arguments the president made. When Steve Kroft pointed out that some of those released had been working to recruit others…

In his Nobel acceptance speech last week, President Obama spoke eloquently on what he called a "just peace"--a peace that is not possible without the recognition of basic human rights. Where human rights are not protected, "peace is a hollow promise," he said.

With President Barack Obama's year-end deadline to Iran just one day away, the Washington Post's Glenn Kessler reports that the Obama administration is preparing "targeted sanctions" on Iran. But there's an asterisk. Ten months after President Obama set a year-end deadline for Iran to engage with…

Isn't dissent patriotic? It was when Republicans were in charge. Now, though, Republicans are claiming that Democratic leaders are using the tactics of junior high school cliques to keep Republicans from sharing their views on climate change. Ahead of President Barack Obama's trip to Copenhagen,…

A poll conducted by the Tarrance Group over the past two days helps explain why Senator Ben Nelson is nervous about supporting even a modified Harry Reid-version of health care reform. The poll interviewed 500 registered "likely voters" in Nebraska and asked for their views on a range of issues,…

Eamon Javers at Politico writes: President Barack Obama's Nobel Peace Prize speech Thursday is drawing praise from some unlikely quarters - conservative Republicans - who likened Obama's defense of "just wars" to the worldview of his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush. It's already being called…

On Monday, an environmental reporter for Mother Jones magazine reported on Twitter that EPA Administration Lisa Jackson linked the EPA "endangerment" finding to the Climate Change conference in Copenhagen. Kate Sheppard wrote: Lisa Jackson on yesterday's endangerment finding: "We tried to make sure…

The acute pain in my right foot extends from the inside arch over the instep to my ankle. It's a sharp, intense twinge when I walk or just press the accelerator in my car. When I sit, it throbs. When I focus on it, I imagine that inside my shoe my foot is actually pulsating, cartoon-style.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs seems to have a real problem with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Either that or Gibbs is so dim that he doesn't realize that when he misrepresents Afghanistan troop requests at the end of the Bush administration he's trashing Gates -- President Obama's top…

President Obama last night: This vast and diverse citizenry will not always agree on every issue -- nor should we. But I also know that we, as a country, cannot sustain our leadership, nor navigate the momentous challenges of our time, if we allow ourselves to be split asunder by the same rancor…

The Obama administration conducted a 30 minute conference call this afternoon with journalists to preview President Obama's speech on Afghanistan tonight. The final question concerned Iran. The reporter who posed the question informed the senior administration officials briefing the media that Iran…

President Obama told congressional leaders this afternoon that a key message of his speech tonight is that the United States is "on the trajectory of a drawdown" in Afghanistan. Obama opened the meeting with a brief -- ten minute -- preview of his remarks. He then fielded questions, including some…

Attorney General Eric Holder spoke with confidence and authority before the Senate Judiciary Committee last Wednesday when asked how he would prevent another attack like the one committed by Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney unloaded on President Barack Obama and his administration in a radio interview Monday morning, saying that Obama's recent bow before the Japanese Emperor was "fundamentally harmful" to the United States and indicates that Obama "doesn't fully understand or have the…

Lost in the media focus on health care and Asia over the past week is the growing scandal surrounding the shootings at Fort Hood. Within four hours of the shootings, the FBI told Fox News that the terrorism angle was "not being discussed." They continued to downplay terrorism as a motive throughout…

At a joint press appearance with South Korean President Lee Yong-Ho earlier today, President Barack Obama used what the New York Times called a "stern tone" with North Korea. Obama's main objective is to bring an end to the Sisyphean quality of the negotiations. "The thing I want to emphasise is…

Anwar al Awlaki, the radical cleric contacted by Major Nidal Malik Hasan, gave an interview to a "terrorism expert" who spoke on behalf of the Washington Post. (See the story for WaPo disclaimers/cautions.) Awlaki , who issued a statement praising Hasan for his killing spree, says he neither…

On November 4, protesters gathered outside the gates of the U.S. embassy in Tehran to mark the 30th anniversary of the hostage-taking. There were the usual government-backed "Death to America" protests--celebrating the then-young revolutionaries and their enduring fanaticism.

Senate Republicans are stepping up their calls for President Barack Obama to decide -- and decide soon -- on the way forward in Afghanistan. In a letter dated, November 11, 2009 -- Veteran's Day -- ten Republican members of the Armed Services Committee are urging Obama to win the war there. "It has…

As President Barack Obama prepares to make a final decision on Afghanistan, National Security Adviser Jim Jones dismissed and even seemed to mock a request for more troops from General Stanley McChrystal. "You could have 200,000 troops there and the country will swallow them up as it has done in…

Pete Hoekstra, ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, released a statement this morning calling for the heads of all relevant US intelligence agencies to preserve all intelligence related to the case of Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter. Hoekstra made the request after talking…

Sports Illustrated's Peter King, probably the best working NFL writer, blames Ft. Hood and Orlando shootings on "murderous handguns." I will not go quietly into the night on this one. America needs to do something about idiots with handguns. How many more Fort Hoods and Orlandos do there have to be…

Remember the 2004 GOP convention? When delegates from the floor roared "flip-flop" at every mention of John Kerry's name? It's hard to imagine a politician in recent days who had such a well-deserved reputation for waffling. Recall his position on the war supplemental in October 2003: "I actually…

Are any of the Obama administration's numbers about so-called "saved or created" jobs accurate? Yesterday, the Chicago Tribune reported: More than $4.7 million in federal stimulus aid so far has been funneled to schools in North Chicago, and state and federal officials say that money has saved the…

Dr. Eric Novak, a spokesman for "Patients First," a grassroots group opposed to Obamacare, rips the Obama administration on H1N1 and Gitmo. "Vaccinating Guantanamo Detainees ahead of millions of at-risk Americans should serve as a serious warning about the federal government's ability to follow…

On October 18, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel appeared on the Sunday morning talk shows and, in the process of answering questions about Barack Obama's strategy on Afghanistan, accused the Bush administration of failing to ask the most basic questions about that country and our war there.

See if you can tell what's missing from this Associated Press story about the release of an FBI overview of a Dick Cheney interview during the CIA leak case. There are obvious mistakes -- the reporter repeats the myth that Joe Wilson cast doubt on CIA reports about Iraq-Niger uranium claims when he…

Last week, President Obama declared a national emergency because of the H1N1 virus. What had been a matter of concern, was elevated, in the minds of many, to something that is cause for panic. Citizens across the country have spent hours trying to schedule an appointment for a vaccination. Others…

Rahm Emanuel, October 18, 2009: What will the Afghan government do or not do? Where are we on the police training? Who would be better doing the police training? Could that be something the Europeans do? Should we take the military's side? Those are questions that have not been asked. And before…

One day after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell noted the NFL's "high standards" and expressed concern about "divisive" language hurting the league, Rush Limbaugh was dropped from a group of investors looking to buy the St. Louis Rams. Goodell's comments followed similar remarks from DeMaurice Smith,…

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said yesterday that he had concerns about Rush Limbaugh's efforts to become a minority owner of the St. Louis Rams. "I've said many times before we're all held to a high standard here, and I think divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about." In other news,…

When Barack Obama strode on stage to scold Iran for its failure to disclose the existence of a second uranium-enrichment facility in the country, his message was timid and at times almost apologetic. When the tough language came, it was because French president Nicolas Sarkozy had taken the podium.…

The article about Afghanistan policy in today's Washington Post is full of snide, self-confident, anonymous criticism of General Stanley McChrystal, the man Obama chose to lead U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The tone of the criticism is consistent with the arrogance of the Obama White House. But in…

Barack Obama met with General Stanley McChrystal for about 25 minutes this morning in Copenhagen, after McChrystal flew to Denmark from London to meet with the commander-in-chief. A meeting is better than no meeting, to be sure. But the circumstances surrounding this one are revealing. Obama's…

Perhaps the most discussed passage in Barack Obama's Inaugural Address was his peace offering to dictators and leaders of rogue states.

Why would Colorado Public Television broadcast two 9/11 Truth propaganda videos? Good question. Colorado Public Television has enjoyed a fundraising boost after airing "9/11: Blueprint for Truth" and "9/11: Press for Truth." And they had help from 9/11 Truthers -- volunteers from a 9/11 Truther…

President Obama said during his speech today: "For those who question the character and cause of my nation, I ask you to look at the concrete actions we have taken in just nine months." So the goodness of America is found in the Obama administration?

Regular readers of this space know that Michigan Senator Carl Levin is one of the smartest and least intellectually honest members of Congress. (See here, here, here, and here.) His favorite trick is simply to leave out inconvenient arguments, embrace what he likes and completely change the meaning…

"Speech - less," a new book by former White House speechwriter Matthew Latimer, is causing quite a stir. After a brief excerpt of the book was published this month in GQ magazine, cable television and talk radio exploded with discussion of that piece and speculation about the book. Former Bush…

It's not very often that there is agreement between the leadership of the American Civil Liberties Union and officers at the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA jealously guards the nation's most highly classified secrets; the ACLU is a crusader for government transparency. CIA operatives risked…

So Charlie Sheen wants a meeting with Barack Obama. Why? Sheen believes that the US government might have been behind 9/11.

Change you can believe in? In his speech to Congress last night, Barack Obama threw a bone to Republicans on tort reform. Many in this chamber - particularly on the Republican side of the aisle - have long insisted that reforming our medical malpractice laws can help bring down the cost of health…

Is the mainstream media coming around? The Washington Post has an important front-page story this morning, with matter-of-fact reporting on the importance of Khalid Sheikh Mohammad as an intelligence source and the enhanced interrogation techniques that made him talk. The piece is headlined: "How a…

Greg Sargent once again reacts to my critique of his argument without responding to its substance. And, after some throatclearing, accuses me of cherrypicking. Sargent claims that I cherrypicked the IG report "in a comically dishonest way." His evidence? I quoted part of the IG report on Abd al…

Here is Greg Sargent pretending to respond to my post from Tuesday. It's five paragraphs with almost zero substance. And that turns out to be an improvement on his previous commentary about the CIA and interrogations. But we're left without answers to basic questions. What about Sargent's central…

The Washington Post's Greg Sargent is worked up about the fact that "big news orgs" have not declared Dick Cheney a liar for claiming that EITs were effective. (For the record, many people still consider the Washington Post a big news org.) Sargent argues that "the docs themselves don't actually…

Late yesterday afternoon, the CIA public affairs office sent reporters an email with two documents attached. CIA spokesman George Little wrote: "For your information, the attached files are part of today's document release on the CIA interrogation program. Former Vice President Cheney asked that…

That question has been among the most hotly disputed issues at the center of the continuing controversy over the CIA's interrogation of suspected terrorists. The report released Monday from the former CIA Inspector General John Helgerson should end the debate. Throughout his report, Helgerson goes…

Former Vice President Dick Cheney gave THE WEEKLY STANDARD a statement Monday night about the CIA documents and the coming Justice Department investigation: The documents released Monday clearly demonstrate that the individuals subjected to Enhanced Interrogation Techniques provided the bulk of…

Former Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge is in the news these days because a forthcoming memoir apparently makes the claim that he felt pressure from his Bush administration colleagues to raise the terror alert level before the 2004 elections. Sounds like a blockbuster claim.

The program started late, cost $50 million to administer, crashed computers and ran out of money. All to see people spend money now that they would likely have spent later.

Last week, an article in the New York Times laid out the background details of the deal between the White House and the pharmaceutical industry -- or at least its representative in Washington, former congressman Billy Tauzin. In short, the drug companies promised $80 billion in "savings" and the…

Two weeks ago, the GAO added the postal service to its "high-risk" list of government agencies. The report noted that "broad restructuring is needed" in order to avoid catastrophe. The USPS is likely to have a $7 billion net loss this year. The report further noted that without cutting expenses…

The Heritage Foundation's Nina Owcharenko looks at the details of the Senate HELP Committee's work on health care legislation. She reports that the committee voted on a party-line basis to defeat an amendment offered by Senator Tom Coburn that would have ensured health care money went to health…

It wasn't Iraq. It's not Afghanistan - at least for an increasing number of them. And the Global War on Terror doesn't exist anymore.

Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez is resigning his seat. An announcement is expected today.

This analysis, from former Bush administration Asia hand Michael Green, caught my eye as I re-read a recent New York Times article on North Korea and the formerly detained journalists.

Classic Mark Steyn, on the the duties of legislators. A legislator is elected to legislate - so, if he doesn't read the law before he makes it law, he's not doing the only job he has. When you go to see Barbra Streisand, she has an orchestra and a conductor and arrangers and lighting designers and…

Late Friday afternoon, Silvestre Reyes, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, announced that his panel would be undertaking a formal investigation of the CIA. The ostensible subject of the probe is a highly classified program that targeted al Qaeda leaders for assassination and which CIA…

Barack Obama, discussing deficits and the stimulus, in an interview with the Washington Post's Fred Hiatt: "The reason that it hasn't been at the forefront of my agenda is because I walked in when we were about to slip into the Great Depression -- or the next Great Depression. And so I had to start…

Rich Lowry posts what he calls a "shrewd" email on Republican positioning on the economy. It would be a blunder of the highest order for the Republicans to make the case that the economy won't recover if Obama persists with his policies. The credit markets have improved dramatically, the economy…

William Gale, an economist at the liberal Brookings Institution, does not like soak-the-rich proposals to fund health care. He really, really doesn't like it. "Choosing to finance health care reform by taxing the rich is bad economic policy, bad health policy, bad budget policy and poor…

Patrick Leahy, perhaps the most partisan member of the US Senate, scolded Republicans this morning for racist attacks on Sonia Sotomayor. The fact that there weren't any didn't stop him. Rather than focus on what happened during the hearings, he worried about hypothetical attacks during some…

The Stoning of Soraya M. is an intense film. It is a beautiful film. It is a disturbing film. Mostly, though, it is an important film--one that reminds us, powerfully and without apology, what evil looks like, what it feels like, and why it's crucial that we recognize and condemn evil when we see…

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said today that the US government is very concerned about the five Quds Force operatives released from US custody and transferred to Iraq. According to the AP, Kelly "told reporters that the U.S. released the five to the Iraqi government because it was obliged…

The Obama administration has decided to release five Iranian Quds Force operatives held in Iraq for 18 months on suspicions that they facilitated terrorist attacks in Iraq. Stunning.

Representative David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, has vowed to block earmarked projects that bear the name of their congressional sponsors. Perhaps he can call it the "Obey Ban."

The events of the past week in Iran, following the June 12 presidential election there, have been remarkable and hopeful. It's been a moment when one would like a president of the United States--who has, in such moments, a supporting but not an inconsequential role--to rise to the occasion. Barack…

Less than 24 hours after Barack Obama's strongest statement on Iran, three new stories underscore his administration's fundamentally weak approach to the terrorist regime and offer hints as to why he has been so eager to engage the mullahs. First, a Washington Times article by former USA Today…

I'm a day late, but this is important. ABC's Jake Tapper reports that three members of Styx were seen at the White House Monday. He wrote: "Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto -- 3 members of Styx are about to be given a WH tour." Domo Arigato? Seriously? You would think that if Tapper were going to make a…

Former vice president Dick Cheney has signed a deal with Simon & Schuster to publish his memoirs. The book will be published by the house's "Threshold" imprint, run by former Cheney adviser Mary Matalin. The opportunity to work with Matalin again was a significant factor in the decision, says a…

Barack Obama's statement today on Iran was good. His answers to questions that followed were not. Most interesting was his exchange with Chuck Todd of NBC News. Todd asked why Obama has refused to discuss consequences for the behavior of the Iranian regime, given Obama's stated concern about human…

The United States and the international community have been appalled and outraged by the threats, beatings, and imprisonments of the last few days. I strongly condemn these unjust actions, and I join with the American people in mourning each and every innocent life that is lost. I have made it…

Interesting arguments from the White House these days. We see here, reporting that advisers to Barack Obama are frustrated that their man is not getting enough credit for the protests in Iran. The Post reports that "privately Obama advisers are crediting his Cairo speech for inspiring the…

We are told that President Barack Obama has said relatively little over the past 10 days because he does not want to feed perceptions that America is "meddling." Fine. He's being overly cautious, in my view. But let's assume his expressed concerns are genuine.

On two consecutive warm summer days last July, the House Armed Services Committee debated procedures for interrogating war-on-terror detainees. There were sharp exchanges between the lawmakers and during testimony from expert witnesses and disagreement on virtually every aspect of U.S. detention…

The White House released a paper statement from President Obama this afternoon, for the first time calling directly on the Iranian regime to "stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people." Statement from the President on Iran The Iranian government must understand that the world is…

In an interview with the Washington Post's Foreign Policy blog, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, described as Mir Hussein Mousavi's "external spokesman," had some sharp words for President Barack Obama's recent comments about the demonstrations in Tehran. But Makhmalbaf also said some things that could make it…

John Kerry, who lost the 2004 presidential election and despite having been and early and outspoken supporter of Barack Obama was passed over for any of the plum jobs in the new Democratic administration, has taken to the op-ed pages of the New York Times to write about Iran. Not surprisingly, he…

In an interview with CNBC yesterday, President Obama once again went out of his way to downplay the protests on the streets of Iran. "Well, I think first of all, it's important to understand that although there is amazing ferment taking place in Iran, that the difference between Ahmadinejad and…

President Barack Obama said Monday he was "deeply troubled" by the violence in Iran that he's been seeing on television. "I think that the democratic process, free speech, the ability of people to peacefully dissent--all of those are universal values and need to be respected."

Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann Leverett have a new opinion piece up at Politico. "Ahmadinejad won. Get over it." The piece largely recycles arguments from Flynt Leverett's post-election interview with Spiegel online and their troubling New York Times op-ed from three weeks ago that was rather…

Dick Cheney released a statement responded to CIA Director Leon Panetta's suggestion that the former vice president's criticism of Obama administration policies means Cheney is wishing for another attack. "I hope my old friend Leon was misquoted. The important thing is whether the Obama…

Interesting reporting again from Robert A. Worth at the New York Times. The main Iranian opposition on Monday postponed a major rally to challenge the disputed presidential election, as the country's supreme leader called for calm after days of street protests. In an unusual broadcast repeated…

Barack Obama once believed that a nuclear-armed Iran was unacceptable. He no longer says this. Obama's rhetoric on Iran today is noticeably softer than it was during the presidential campaign. That's striking, since he ran first to the left of Hillary Clinton, then to the left of John McCain and…

Ben Smith links to an interview with Flynt Leverett, former National Security Council staff member and an Obama supporter. Says Leverett: "The fact is: Ahmadinejad won." It's worth remembering the rather extraordinary opinion piece that Leverett, together with his wife, Hillary Mann Leverett,…

Mitt Romney today said that the election in Iran was a "fraud" and called on Barack Obama to denounce the Iranian regime. Joe Lieberman did, too, saying: "I would hope that President Obama and members of both parties in Congress will speak out, loudly and clearly, about what is happening in Iran…

The New York Times's Robert Worth, whose work from Iran over the last several days has been terrific, has another article today detailing the extent of the resistance inspired by the election results and providing a reminder of past manipulation. The streets of Iran's capital erupted in the most…

"The administration will deal with the situation we have, not what we wish it to be." That's what a senior Obama administration official told Mark Landler of The New York Times. Of course there is a third, less passive, option. The president could seek to affect that situation. He is the most…

Barack Obama should give another speech. Soon, maybe tomorrow. He should address this one to the people of Iran, whose eagerness for a political voice - a real political voice - is obvious in the photographs and reports from the streets of Tehran in the last 24 hours. President Mahmoud…

A Justice Department spokesman told the Weekly Standard Thursday that the department will not be answering any questions about the number of high-level detainees who have been Mirandized since Barack Obama took office five months ago. "I can't comment on how many people have been Mirandized in…

When 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was captured on March 1, 2003, he was not cooperative. "I'll talk to you guys after I get to New York and see my lawyer," he said, according to former CIA Director George Tenet. Of course, KSM did not get a lawyer until months later, after his…

When 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad was captured on March 1, 2003, he was not cooperative. "I'll talk to you guys after I get to New York and see my lawyer," he said, according to former CIA Director George Tenet.

What struck me most about Barack Obama's speech today in Cairo is what was missing: Iraq. He didn't skip Iraq entirely, but his discussion of it was perfunctory and incomplete. He said: Let me also address the issue of Iraq. Unlike Afghanistan, Iraq was a war of choice that provoked strong…

In an interview with NPR on Monday President Obama said that being direct and honest will be one of the keys to Middle East peace. In interviews he's given previewing his Cairo speech, while he has noted the value of being a good listener, he has also emphasized the importance of straight talk.…

"Iran for president promising transparency, and I meant what I said. And that is why, whenever possible, my administration will make information available to the American people so that they can make informed judgments and hold us accountable."

On April 16, Barack Obama released memos detailing harsh interrogation techniques employed by CIA officers. A former top CIA official told me that the move had "devastated morale" at the Agency. Then, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi brazenly accused CIA officials of lying to her and misleading…

After four months of denials, dissembling and delays, the Obama administration has finally released a Pentagon report on recidivism among former Guantanamo Bay detainees. Yes, it's true that the report was only released after the New York Times reported extensively on its contents last week. And…

This morning, John McCormack noted several outlets highlighting a New Republic piece by Jeffrey Rosen, with the headline: "The Case Against Sotomayor." McCormack ended his post writing: "We eagerly anticipate Rosen's latest take, in which we will surely learn that in reality Sotomayor has a…

The boss, from his Blackberry: "Where policy is made." That's how, in 2005, reported Supreme Court pick Sonia Sotomayor characterized the Court of Appeals, where she now serves. It's undoubtedly even truer, in her eyes, about the Supreme Court. The debate over her confirmation could be an…

Today kicked off the second annual "Ride 2 Recovery" Memorial Challenge ride through Virginia. The riders -- many of them amputees or other wounded warriors -- started today with a ride from Washington, DC, to Manassas. Tomorrow, they ride from Manassas to Fredricksburg. And by week's end they'll…

Well, that settles it. Maureen Dowd thinks Dick Cheney should shut up. Cheney, she writes, is "batty," has "numskull ideas," and "still loves torture."

Four random thoughts about Barack Obama's speech today. *Obama repeatedly complained about "fear-mongering" and a "climate of fear" and unnamed people making unspecified arguments designed to arouse the irrational fears of the American public. The White House doesn't get it. Terrorism is scary.…

Joe Biden is proving impossible to parody. In one of the few funny jokes at the White House correspondents dinner, Wanda Sykes won loud laughter when she joked that terrorists interested in learning America's most important secrets would only have to ask Biden how he's doing. According to an…

The Obama administration has turned down former Vice President Dick Cheney's request for the declassification of two CIA reports on the effectiveness of the Agency's detainee program, THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned. A letter dated May 7, 2009, from the CIA's Information and Privacy Coordinator,…

The Obama administration is confused.

Complaining about media bias gets tiresome. But, come on. Republicans finally challenge Barack Obama on national security and the New York Times thinks it's all politics. "Seeking Cudgel, Republicans Return to National Security Issue." Memo to the Times: Some conservatives are genuinely concerned…

San Antonio, Texas

From page 242 of his book: "After we received written Department of Justice guidance on the interrogation issue, we briefed the chairman and ranking members of our oversight committees. While they were not asked to formally approve the program, as it was conducted under the president's unilateral…

Porter Goss, former CIA Director and past chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, blasted the Obama administration for releasing Justice Department memos on harsh interrogation techniques. "For the first time in my experience we've crossed the red line of properly protecting our national…

Washington Post columnist David Ignatius writes on Obama, the CIA and the memos in today's paper. His column will be the most important you read all day. Ignatius, who is extraordinarily well-sourced at the Agency, writes that the consequences of the release have been swift and damaging: President…

Last night, several news outlets reported that Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair contradicted claims from the White House on enhanced interrogations. Blair, in a letter to his intelligence community colleagues last week, wrote: "High value information came from interrogations in which…

Admiral Dennis Blair, the top intelligence official in the United States, thanks to his nomination by Barack Obama, believes that the coercive interrogation methods outlawed by his boss produced "high-value information" and gave the U.S. government a "deeper understanding of the al Qaeda…

One good indication that something is worth a read is when it's cross-posted at two highly-trafficked sites at the opposite ends of the political spectrum. Such is the case with Adam Baldwin's account of his participation in Ride2Recovery -- the Texas Challenge. (Huffington Post and Andrew…

CNN's Ed Henry asked White House spokesman Robert Gibbs about the claim that the Obama administration "selectively declassified" some of the Justice Department memos in order to avoid disclosing information demonstrating that the interrogations produced valuable intelligence. (See here for…

This is rather extraordinary. The Obama administration -- the self-declared most transparent administration in history -- has released interrogation memos that included descriptions of the valuable intelligence obtained by using coercive techniques. But while Obama advisers thought it appropriate…

North Korea has responded to the nonbinding (i.e. virtually meaningless) UN Resolution Presidential Statement issued yesterday that condemns its April 5 missile launch, calling the statement "brigandish" and threatening to continue its nuclear program. And, in what the Obama administration will…

As bizarre and disturbing as it was to see Barack Obama bow to Saudi King Abdallah, it is certainly true, as White House spokesman Robert Gibbs claimed today, that there are more important issues facing the country. But how odd it is that the White House -- first on background and now on the record…

Let's set aside Stephen Walt's, um, Israel issues for a moment. Is this the quality of thought we should expect from Harvard? "From those conservatives who think it is dangerous for the United States to cooperate with others, no doubt Obama's trip looks like a disaster...Imagine: an American…

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley gets creative. Wow.

In his confirmation hearing last week, Senator Roger Wicker asked Christopher Hill about reporting that showed he defied the wishes of President George W. Bush and the direct instructions of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in order to meet bilaterally with the North Koreans. Hill, now Barack…

From yesterday's press briefing at the most transparent White House in history: Q Following up on that, when did the President decide that Wagoner had to go, and who specifically asked him to go? MR. GIBBS: I'm not going to get into a tick-tock. Q Why not? MR. GIBBS: Because I'm not.

On October 11, 2006, three days after North Korea detonated a crude nuclear device, George W. Bush held a press conference. He recommitted the United States to a diplomatic course on North Korea, but ruled out a bilateral meeting with representatives from the rogue regime:

Did Christopher Hill, Barack Obama's nominee to serve as Ambassador to Iraq, lie under oath during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday? One exchange he had with Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, deserves considerable scrutiny. Wicker read Hill a passage from the piece I wrote…

Barack Obama will unveil his plan for Afghanistan Friday. Mike Allen reports that the new plan will include 4200 more troops, as well as civilian reinforcements. (See Goldfarb on the politics of the plan here.) Allen writes: The plan is at the heavier end of the spectrum of possibilities the White…

Last night, President Barack Obama expressed confidence in the dollar and declared: "I don't believe that there's a need for a global currency." Normally, that would settle the issue. But in the past 24 hours two of Obama's top economic advisers have signaled an openness to such a new global…

Politico's Josh Gerstein looks at the Obama White House and transparency. He writes: The Obama administration also seems to be in no hurry to release security-related records that might disrupt its own plans. One report on released Guantanamo detainees who allegedly returned to fight was expected…

In a remarkable interview that aired on "60 Minutes" Sunday night, Barack Obama criticized the Bush administration on Guantanamo Bay, suggesting that his predecessors had done a poor job determining which Gitmo prisoners were okay to release and which ones should have remained in detention. "Well,…

In a speech on Saturday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei responded directly to Barack Obama's video mash note from late last week. According to the Associated Press: "Khamenei, wearing a black turban and dark robes, said America was hated around the world for its arrogance, as the…

A former high-ranking German military official says that Iran was behind the joint North Korean-Syrian nuclear facility inside Syria that was destroyed in September 2007. According to the AP story: An Iranian defector told the West that Iran was financing North Korean moves to transform Syria into…

Barack Obama recorded a videotaped message in celebration of Nowruz. Obama spoke directly to the leaders of Iran. So in this season of new beginnings I would like to speak clearly to Iran's leaders. We have serious differences that have grown over time. My administration is now committed to…

At his bizarre town hall last night, President Barack Obama joked that "Washington is in a tizzy" over AIG and the $165 million in bonuses to be paid to its executives. The New York Times yesterday quoted White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel complaining that the whole affair was a "distraction."…

On Tuesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs declared that Barack Obama would be bringing Guantanamo detainees to "swift and certain justice," unlike his predecessor in the White House. On Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder says that some current Gitmo detainees could be released in the…

John McCain met this afternoon with President Obama's nominee to serve as US Ambassador to Iraq, Christopher Hill. A McCain aide described the meeting as "productive" but noted that "questions remain." Although McCain did not sign the letter from five of his senate colleagues today, last week he…

Robert Gibbs was ready for the question. As CNN's Ed Henry asked about criticism of the Obama administration from former Vice President Dick Cheney, Gibbs nodded his head. I knew this was coming. Having anticipated the question, one might have expected Gibbs to have prepared a compelling,…

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's appearance on CNN's "State of the Union with John King" has generated lots of discussion over the past 24 hours. Among the noteworthy things Cheney said was his claim that Barack Obama's decisions on national security policy have made us less safe. KING: You made…

At 12:01 P.M. on January 20, 2009, minutes before Barack Obama was sworn in as president, the first post went up on the Obama White House website. It included a reiteration of a campaign promise Obama repeatedly made: "President Obama has committed to making his administration the most open and…

In an email to Greg Sargent, New York Times editor Doug Jehl explained the paper's decision to skip covering Chas Freeman: We did initially elect not to write a story about the campaign against Mr. Freeman. In deciding how to deploy our reporters, my initial judgment was that this squabble fell…

Last week was a bad week for limited government. President Barack Obama offered a series of proposals that would increase federal spending from 22 percent of GDP to 28 percent. He proposed a health care reserve fund at a cost of $634 billion, and his advisers noted that this would be a mere "down…

There was little question that Barack Obama would reverse George W. Bush's policies on embryonic stem cell research. But many were surprised that he did not do so by executive order upon first taking up residence at the White House. Obama explained his thinking to CNN's John King in an interview…

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown spoke at the US Capitol today. His message on Iran was, well, incomplete: "And our shared message to Iran is simple - we are ready for you to rejoin the world community. But first, you must cease your threats and suspend your nuclear programme. And we will work…

For the first five weeks of Barack Obama's presidency, congressional Republicans sought to avoid direct confrontation with the popular president. (See here.) No longer. At a meeting of the Republican conference this morning, House Minority Leader John Boehner said that his party has an obligation…

The Department of Interior has a basketball court? Why not? The Department of Agriculture has a graduate school.

Christian Brose evaluates Barack Obama's Iraq speech and points to a missed opportunity that struck me as I watched it. Obama only got to give the address he did because he was wrong about the surge. And George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain and others were right. At the risk of heading into…

Some back-of-the-envelop math on Barack Obama's speech last night. Although he acknowledged that we are "a nation at war," in a speech of 6182 words the president used just 468 of them to talk about national security - the military and diplomacy, together - approximately 7 percent. Of course the…

Like Tom Daschle, Charlie Rangel, Timothy Geithner, et. al. Here.

Andy McCarthy has a long post at the Corner suggesting that the Obama administration's decision to send $900 million to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency) in Gaza is, in effect, giving the money to Hamas. It's worth remembering Barack Obama's words from last April, when Jimmy Carter…

Andy McCarthy has a long post at the Corner suggesting that the Obama administration's decision to send $900 million to UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency) in Gaza is, in effect, giving the money to Hamas. It's worth a read. (And while I don't think Andy is a "knuckle-dragger," I…

During the final months of the Bush administration, top U.S. counterterrorism officials engaged in an intense debate about the fate of the Yemenis detained at Guantánamo Bay. There are a lot of them there--nearly 100 out of the total population of 248--and most can be directly tied to al Qaeda's…

An interesting look at the behind-the-scenes wrangling that led to Michael Steele becoming chairman of the Republican Party from Brad Todd. Todd, one of the smartest of a young generation of Republican strategists, describes a sophisticated national campaign to get Steele elected. The core of…

in history? Claudia Rosett reports that the Obama administration appears to be easing -- lifting? -- sanctions on Syria, designated by the State Department as a state sponsor of terror. Trouble is, the most transparent administration in history won't talk about it. (H/T, Andy McCarthy, The Corner)

On January 22, 2009, two days after Barack Obama took the oath of office, the new president issued an executive order requiring that the detainee facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, be closed in one year. With cameras capturing the president affixing his signature to the document, Obama said the…

Rep. Jim Cooper, a conservative Democrat from Tennessee, told a liberal radio network that the Obama White House encouraged him to pick a fight with Nancy Pelosi on the stimulus bill. According to Glenn Thrush at Politico, Cooper said: "Well, I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I actually got…

Simple question: Has the Obama White House had discussion with New Hampshire Governor John Lynch (D) about a successor to Senator Judd Gregg (R) if Obama chooses Gregg as his next Commerce Secretary? White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, at his afternoon briefing: The Obama administration ""has…

Much has been written about Barack Obama's interview with Al Arabiya. One comment the president made has not gotten enough attention. "America was not born as a colonial power, and that the same respect and partnership that America had with the Muslim world as recently as 20 or 30 years ago,…

The New Yorker's Jane Mayer reports on Barack Obama's executive order on interrogations. She writes: Across the Potomac River, at the C.I.A.'s headquarters, in Langley, Virginia, however, there was considerably less jubilation. Top C.I.A. officials have argued for years that so-called "enhanced"…

House minority leader John Boehner started his press conference on January 15 sounding like a teenage girl who had just found out that her boyfriend like totally hooked up with her best friend.

Barack Obama was sworn in Tuesday. He ordered Guantanamo closed on Thursday. And today comes news that the United States plans to send 94 Yemeni detainees from Guantanamo back to Yemen -- a nation with a long history of accommodating terrorists. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh made the…

Former Vice President Dick Cheney disagreed publicly with his boss just four times in the eight years they served together. Yesterday, however, on the first day after the official end of the Bush administration, Cheney disagreed with George W. Bush once more.

I'm with Jonah Goldberg. He writes: I am proud of and excited by the fact that we have inaugurated the first black president of the United States. He wasn't my first choice, but he is nonetheless my president. And if ever there were a wonderful consolation prize in politics, shattering the race…

When I showed up for my interview with Vice President Dick Cheney on January 6, he was standing behind his desk in the West Wing of the White House sipping, as he often does, from a can of Sprite Zero.

Paul Mirengoff raises some interesting questions on Eric Holder's nomination to be Attorney General. At issue: Why has Holder been, as Mirengoff puts it, "less than forthcoming" about his work for Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich in 2004? Several weeks ago, reporters discovered that Holder failed…

On Tuesday, Andrew Breitbart, friend to many here at TWS, launches "Big Hollywood," a website of culture and politics which has "changing Hollywood" as its modest goal. Breitbart, who helped establish the Drudge Report and the Huffington Post, has discarded more good ideas than most of us have had.…

On April 21, 2008, the day before Pennsylvania's Democratic primary, Barack Obama sat at the counter of the Glider Diner in Scranton. Senator Bob Casey Jr., who had endorsed Obama and was traveling with him throughout the state, occupied the next stool. It had all the makings of a great…

"Saddened and sobered"--that was Barack Obama's first response to the corruption charges against Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, charges that include an attempt to sell Obama's old Senate seat to the highest bidder. "Obviously, like the rest of the people of Illinois, I am saddened and sobered…

Very smart column this morning by Karl Rove in the Wall Street Journal. By "smart," of course, I mean that I share his views. Rove writes that while Barack Obama is receiving good grades for his appointments thus far -- Cabinet and top staff -- the president-elect may be creating problems for…

The Obama transition office just sent out this release about its internal "review" of contacts with disgraced Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich: "At the direction of the President-elect, a review of Transition staff contacts with Governor Blagojevich and his office has been conducted and completed…

After pledging not to use TARP funds to bailout the auto industry, the White House indicated this morning that, well, President Bush was open to using TARP funds to bailout the auto industry. Offering significant concessions with no hope of changing decades-long bad behavior... Does Bush think…

Is it Jim Lindgren day on The Blog? For those of you following the contours of the Blago scandal, check out Lindgren's various posts at the Volokh conspiracy. He was the first person (or at least the first person I read) to focus on Valerie Jarrett, the importance of the November 8-12 time period,…

Chicago Bears fans are shoveling snow at Lambeau Field for money. That's a bad sign. (H/T Cheesehead.tv)

From Holman Jenkins in today's Wall Street Journal: Maybe Washington will succeed in forestalling a deep and prolonged recession. Maybe all the money ($8 trillion by one count) being printed to acquire or insure mortgages, student loans, credit card receivables, commercial paper and banking shares…

John Ondrasik, the lead singer of Five for Fighting, has released a second "CD for the Troops" -- a free download for anyone with a military ID. Ondrasik is a great guy and this is a worthy project. Spread the word and send people here.

This is outstanding -- better than I could do if I were trying. A question at Politico's "Arena" about the Obama team and a potential stimulus package elicits this response from Harvard (Harvard!) Professor Stephen Walt: "On economics, Obama is putting the right pegs in the proper holes. But the…

Miami

Rob Portman, former US Trade Representative and OMB Director under George W. Bush, shares his thoughts here. The renewal of the Republican Party starts with an embrace of the core principles of fiscal conservatism, smaller government, traditional values, personal responsibility and ethics, not just…

Las Vegas As she dealt one losing hand after another at Mandalay Bay's $10 blackjack tables early Wednesday evening, Trisha, a chatty dealer from Bloomington, Minnesota, changed the subject from cards to Barack Obama.

Miami -- In an interview after her speech at the Republican Governors' Association meetings here today, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin criticized the Bush administration for exacerbating voter "distrust" by shifting money from the $700 billion bailout from buying bad bank assets to purchasing…

A characteristically thoughtful and provocative column by David Brooks today, this one the coming "fight over the future of conservatism." There are two camps, Brooks argues, the Reformers and the Traditionalists. Traditionalists are the people who believe that conservatives have lost elections…

Phoenix, Arizona

Phoenix, Arizona -- A somber mood here at the Biltmore Hotel in Phoenix, where Republicans, dressed in their best Indian summer cocktail attire, are gathering to hear John McCain concede to Barack Obama. Jim Woolsey was seated below a mounted television in a crowded bar when Fox News projected…

In July 2007, pollsters for the New York Times and CBS News asked respondents to name the issues most important to them as they considered which candidate they would support for president. The top choice for both Republicans and Democrats was national security--Iraq for Democrats, terrorism for…

John McCain leaned far back in a tan first-class seat aboard the blue, white, and gold campaign plane with his name emblazoned on the side. His right foot--in a black loafer with a silver buckle--was resting on the armrest of the seat in front of his, and, though his body was slouched, the crease…

Waukesha, Wisconsin

An interesting take from Windsor Mann in the Examiner today. Why is Obama, who spent the first half of 2008 denouncing the politics of fear, all of the sudden trying to scare voters? The candidate of change changed his mind, I suspect, because he decided it was time to face reality. He recognized a…

I'm not sure, tactically, that it makes sense for the McCain campaign to use the Bill Ayers attacks against Barack Obama. But I do think it's a perfectly legitimate issue and one that has been sidelined by the news media who have refused to ask what I consider to be a pretty obvious question: If…

Hempstead, New York

Hempstead, New York - In a final showdown of an historic election - complete with a perfect storm of voter anger and an economic crisis the likes of which we haven't seen since the Great Depression - John McCain and Barack Obama spent much of their 90-minute debate here looking for a game-changer…

John McCain gave a very interesting interview to CNN's Dana Bash today. The most provocative part, in my view, came when McCain refused to engage on a question about Jeremiah Wright and used his answer instead to intensify his critique of William Ayers at a time when many critics believe he should…

So reports Chris Cillizza at The Fix. My question: Who are those eight percent and what are they smoking?

John McCain had two good days late last week. It had been a while. On Thursday, Sarah Palin performed well enough in her debate with Joe Biden to quiet the critics. And, on Friday, the House of Representatives voted in favor of the federal bailout, which the Senate had passed two days earlier.…

According this post at the the New York Times hockey blog, Sarah Palin was booed loudly as she dropped the puck at the Philadelphia Flyers-New York Rangers game last night. (H/T Powerline.) And then there was this -- some hard core left-wing anger at McCain supporters who had the temerity to march…

Davenport, Iowa

Davenport, Iowa The emerging media narrative on the 2008 presidential campaign is simple, as media narratives always are. Republicans, egged on by the the McCain campaign, are angry. Maybe dangerous. With furrowed brows media big-shots are wondering aloud if John McCain should "tamp down" -- new…

Minneapolis, Minnesota -- The big news of the presidential election came from here yesterday, when John McCain corrected a voter who claimed Barack Obama was a "Arab" at a town hall in Lakeville. Gayle Quinnell, 75, took the microphone from McCain. "I got to ask you a question," she said. "I don't…

We have detailed in this space many times the Bush administration's thank-you-sir-may-I-have-another diplomacy on North Korea. The more provocative and defiant North Korea acts, the more likely a State Department concession or even reward. And so it goes over the last 48 hours. BBC headline two…

Waukesha, Wisconsin -- One of the highlights of the McCain-Palin rally here today came when Scott Southworth, an Iraq War veteran from Mauston, Wisconsin, stood and told McCain that he was personally offended by Barack Obama's suggestion, recently amplified by the McCain campaign, that the US…

Waukesha, Wisconsin -- In response to a broad question about how Barack Obama "got here" -- presumably got his lead -- John McCain didn't name Bill Ayers but spoke of him directly. McCain said "We don't care about an old washed up terrorist and his wife" who said earlier this decade that he wished…

Strongsville, Ohio -- Before a joint rally here this afternoon featuring John McCain and Sarah Palin, the crowd spontaneously broke into chants of "Sa-rah! Sa-rah! Sa-rah!" Lots of random "We Love You Sarah" shouts from the crowd. Many of the women in attendance are sporting large black buttons…

John McCain had a very strong debate tonight. It's too bad for him that it came on a night when Barack Obama was nearly flawless.

John McCain had a very strong debate tonight. It's too bad for him that it came on a night when Barack Obama was nearly flawless.

John McCain had a very strong debate tonight. It's too bad for him that it came on a night when Barack Obama was nearly flawless. The debate began with questions on the economy and for thirty minutes Obama answered those questions with the kind of substance that I suspect anxious voters wanted to…

With the Obama campaign sending out surrogates and spokesman to make the case that Barack Obama's ties to William Ayers are not important, it worth remembering that less than six weeks ago the Obama campaign sent out an email claiming that ties to Ayers were important. In what remains the funniest…

Lots of harrumphing this weekend in the media about Sarah Palin's claim that Barack Obama has been "palling around" with terrorist Williams Ayers. There is this asinine "analysis" from someone named Douglass K. Daniel and fact-check style articles from CNN, The Washington Post and The New York…

Sarah Palin won, though I suspect collegiate debate judges with the American Forensic Association would not have scored it that way.

Do you ever get the sense that if North Korea actually used a nuclear weapon in an offensive attack that Chris Hill and the State Department would still be trying to make a deal? In response to the latest provocation from the North Koreans, Hill and his colleagues are proposing a new "choreography"…

Two days after George W. Bush criticized Syria as a state sponsor of terror in a speech at the United Nations, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem in New York. The meeting was first reported in the Syrian state press which noted that it took place at…

The McCain campaign has a new "web ad" out that mocks Barack Obama for a comment he made yesterday. After weeks of mocking John McCain for his claim that the fundamentals of the American economy are strong, Obama said yesterday: "After this immediate problem, we've got the long-term fundamentals…

When Barack Obama announced his presidential candidacy in Springfield, Illinois, on February 10, 2007, he promised to change the practice of American politics.

Marc Ambinder looks at the exchange last night between Barack Obama and John McCain on Henry Kissinger and Iran. In short, Obama claimed that Kissinger agrees with him -- not McCain -- on whether the US should engage Iran without preconditions. Kissinger responded with a statement last night.…

Marc Ambinder looks at the exchange last night between Barack Obama and John McCain on Henry Kissinger and Iran. In short, Obama claimed that Kissinger agrees with him -- not McCain -- on whether the US should engage Iran without preconditions. Kissinger responded with a statement last night.…

John McCain said several times during last night's debate that Barack Obama simply doesn't understand many of the subjects at the heart of the presidential race. It was quite clear that McCain was trying to paint Obama as naive and risky and he hammered that theme -- Obama "doesn't understand" --…

In the first presidential debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, the two men who would lead America for the next four years, one of the main points of contention was the worldview of a man who shaped U.S. foreign and national security policy three decades ago. And Henry Kissinger is not happy.

IN THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL debate between Barack Obama and John McCain, the two men who would lead America for the next four years, one of the main points of contention was the worldview of a man who shaped U.S. foreign and national security policy three decades ago.

Henry Kissinger believes Barack Obama misstated his views on diplomacy with US adversaries and is not happy about being mischaracterized. He says: "Senator McCain is right. I would not recommend the next President of the United States engage in talks with Iran at the Presidential level. My views on…

Yesterday afternoon, I went to CNN to talk about bailout politics. When I arrived, I was surprised to learn from the other two panelists -- CNN's Gloria Borger and the Washington Post's Dana Milbank -- that a deal on an amended version of the Treasury Department's $700 billion bailout plan was…

File this in the ever-growing "it-would-be-funny-if-it-weren't-so-serious" that characterizes the Bush administration's second-term foreign policy. After North Korea publicly promised earlier this week to restore its nuclear facilities "to their original state," senior US negotiator Chris Hill…

Radley Balko argues that our current mess isn't due to the failures of capitalism, but to a "corporatist socialism" abetted by the fiscal irresponsibility of the same elected officials who now want to "solve" the mess with more government. If any private corporation employed the same accounting…

Jason Furman, a senior economic adviser to Barack Obama, didn't use those exact words. But how else to interpret this comment about the current financial mess that he gave the Washington Post? "This is a major fiscal problem in the short run, but it doesn't alter the long-term fiscal picture."

John McCain said last night on 60 Minutes that he would consider nominating Clinton Administration HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo to chair the Security and Exchange Commission in a McCain administration. This may be the dumbest single thing John McCain has said during the course of the 2008…

Minneapolis

Following up on Bill Kristol's post here, it is simply not the case that the Bush administration "promoted" the "idea that the Iraqi government under Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda plan the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon," as the Post puts it on the front page. Here is David…

THe WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that John McCain spoke to General David Petraeus this afternoon at 1:45. A McCain aide says the two men discussed ways to consolidate the success in Iraq and regain the offensive in Afghanistan. McCain and Petraeus also spoke about the broader war on terror and the…

Seriously, where do they find people like this? A woman named Wendy Doniger, writing at the Washington Post's religion blog, claims that Sarah Palin does not speak for women, has no sympathy for women, and in fact is not a woman. Doniger writes: "It's evident that almost her only qualification in…

At 5:20 A.M. Friday, August 29th, Bill McAllister awoke to the ringing of his home phone. McAllister had turned his BlackBerry off before heading to bed. He usually leaves it on, but "It was a slow news day here," he says with a laugh.

Hilarious exchange just now on CNN. David Gergen was complaining, as David Gergen always does, about partisanship in Washington. If you've worked for Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan and believe in little other than the importance of getting along -- it's probably your most compelling talking point.…

ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg has what might be the smartest take yet on the Sarah Palin pick. Great stuff on McCain's flirtation with Joe Lieberman, on the meaning of the Palin selection, on what it says about McCain, and on what she says about America. The picture of Palin was painted last night:…

Several times today I've heard this justification of the attacks on Sarah Palin's family: She is using her family for political benefit so they are "fair game." An NPR commentator said today that her family became a legitimate subject for scrutiny because they appeared with her on stage when her…

Sarah Palin had to do one thing: She had to show that she belonged. Had she bombed or even stumbled a bit, the media's "unqualified" narrative would have gained currency and the questions about her vetting would have taken on new significance. She didn't. The speech was a masterpiece. She was…

In an interview tonight with Neil Cavuto on Fox, oilman T. Boone Pickens predicted that Sarah Palin will change John McCain's mind on drilling in the Arctic National Widlife Refuge in Alaska. McCain has opposed drilling in ANWR and Palin is the nation's most outspoken advocate of drilling there. "I…

John McCain spoke to staff and advisers working in the campaign War Room at the Minneapolis Hilton this afternoon, and forcefully vowed to fight hard to defend his running mate Sarah Palin against attacks from the media and Democrats. "They're not doing right by our vice president, they're not…

John McCain spoke to staff and advisers working in the campaign War Room at the Minneapolis Hilton this afternoon, and forcefully vowed to fight hard to defend his running mate Sarah Palin against attacks from the media and Democrats. "They're not doing right by our vice president, they're not…

Consider this a public service message. For those of you in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area who are, like me, aggressive carnivores, you cannot get a better meal than the one prepared for you at JD Hoyt's in Minneapolis. I ate there last night with my colleague Matt Labash and we had the best food…

Time's Mark Halperin has posted an advance copy of the cover of US Weekly magazine, the tabloid published by Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner. That cover shows a smiling Sarah Palin, holding her youngest son Trig. The screaming headline: "Babies, Lies and Scandal: John McCain's Vice President." Wenner…

Time's Mark Halperin has posted an advance copy of the cover of US Weekly magazine, the tabloid published by Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner. That cover shows a smiling Sarah Palin, holding her youngest son Trig. The screaming headline: "Babies, Lies and Scandal: John McCain's Vice President." Wenner…

Fred Thompson will forcefully defend the selection of Sarah Palin tonight in a speech Republicans are characterizing as "red meat." He will argue that the feeding frenzy over Palin's is the result of "panic" from the Democrat-friendly mainstream media. "What a breath of fresh air Governor Sarah…

The smearing of Sarah Palin is getting uglier. Time's Mark Halperin has posted an advance copy of the cover of US Weekly magazine, the tabloid published by Rolling Stone's Jann Wenner. That cover shows a smiling Sarah Palin, holding her youngest son Trig. The screaming headline: "Babies, Lies and…

There are many differences, of course. George W. Bush had been targeting Dick Cheney as his runningmate for eight months -- since a November 2007 fundraiser in Texas, well before Bush won the Republican nomination -- and by working closely with Cheney on the vice presidential search, eventually…

Shortly after 1 P.M. on March 5, 2008, John McCain strode into the White House Rose Garden with George W. Bush. McCain wore a dark gray suit and a colorful, striped tie. Bush appeared in a slate blue suit with his trademark light blue tie. The president grinned broadly and seemed relaxed, almost…

George W. Bush will skip the Republican Convention in Minneapolis on Monday in order to focus his attention on Hurricane Gustav, which is making its way toward the Gulf Coast with building intensity. The White House, McCain campaign and convention officials have been meeting and holding conference…

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is skipping the Republican National Convention this week in Minnesota to manage an ongoing budget dispute in Sacramento. Republican officials say Fred Thompson will take his place in the prime-time lineup Monday night and onetime presidential candidate will…

Fantastic tick-tock from ABC's Jan Crawford Greenburg It wasn't until Sunday night that John McCain, after meeting with his four top advisers, finally decided he could not tap independent Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut to be his running mate. One adviser, tasked with taking the temperature of…

TALKING POINTS: GOVERNOR SARAH PALIN Governor Sarah Palin is a tough executive who has demonstrated during her time in office that she is ready to be president. She has brought Republicans and Democrats together within her Administration and has seen approval ratings of over 80 percent. · She has…

"I am absolutely delighted by this selection. Once again, John McCain has shown that he is an independent thinker who paints in bold strokes. Sarah Palin is a conservative reformer with executive experience who will bring a breath of fresh air to Washington. She will be an ideal running mate for…

I just got an email from Bill McAlister, a spokesman for Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. I had emailed him early this morning to ask about whether his boss was in Dayton and whether she had been vetted by the McCain campaign. (I had been told two weeks ago that she had not, which was a surprise given…

IF FRED THOMPSON was the latest entrant in the 2008 Republican primary process, he may well be the earliest in 2012. Not that he will admit it.

Jonathan Martin, who looked dashing in his pink oxford at the Politico party last evening, reports that John McCain told supporters in San Diego that he intends to compete in California. Several of the supporters I spoke to in Beverly Hills on Monday said that McCain promised them the same thing.…

Beverly Hills

I don't make a practice of posting excerpts of press releases from the presidential campaigns, but this is so funny it's worth making an exception. For some reason, the usually smart Obama campaign has decided to fight back against attempts to link their candidate to William Ayers, the Weather…

John McCain is at the Beverly Hilton -- known to locals as the "John Edwards Beverly Hilton" -- raising money from Hollywood Republicans. There are seven people in attendance. Actually, the room can only hold 400 and many people wanting to buy tickets to the less-expensive reception were turned…

Pontiac, Michigan

Now it's John McCain's turn. In talking to Republican sources close to the campaign, it seems clear that the decision has come down to three people: Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty, and Joe Lieberman. The basic dynamic of the McCain selection process has not changed. McCain is most comfortable with…

Very interesting Politico article from Jonathan Martin, Mike Allen and Alexander Burns. In short, they say that Joe Lieberman is a serious contender to be John McCain's running mate. Their reporting is consistent with everything I've been hearing. My basic take: If McCain were making the decision…

Politico's Ben Smith, who has done some terrific reporting on this year's presidential race, has an item up on John McCain and evil. In it Smith suggests McCain is fudging facts -- or at least being careless -- for dramatic effect. The headline on the brief story, which occupied a spot on…

Politico's Jonathan Martin writes that pro-life conservatives are sending strong signals to the McCain campaign that choosing a pro-choice runningmate is unacceptable. Top social conservative leaders in key battleground states are urging John McCain not to pick a running mate who supports abortion…

In aboard his campaign plane this morning, John McCain said that he is open to choosing a pro-choice running mate and named former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge as someone who merits serious consideration despite his support for abortion rights. McCain also criticized Barack Obama's presidential…

IN A WIDE-RANGING INTERVIEW aboard his campaign plane this morning, John McCain said that he is open to choosing a pro-choice running mate and named former Pennsylvania governor Tom Ridge as someone who merits serious consideration despite his support for abortion rights. McCain also criticized…

York, PA -- John McCain addressed that advice to "Washington" today, where House and Senate Republicans, on recess, are pushing aggressively to raise the profile of the energy issue. But of course there is one senator who is taking a very high profile vacation right now: Barack Obama. McCain spent…

Presidential elections are decided by a series of important moments. This may be one of them. Barack Obama put out another statement on the developments in Georgia and moved even closer to where John McCain was at the moment the crisis began. He read it, on vacation in Hawaii, standing in front of…

Los Angeles

Vice President Dick Cheney will be speaking at the Republican National Convention in early September after all, according to four Republican sources. He is scheduled to speak on the opening night of the convention, Monday, September 1, before George W. Bush addresses delegates. The decision to…

Ron Suskind has written another book. It's getting lots of attention. And the main charge is almost certainly false -- which is the same thing that happened the last time Ron Suskind wrote a book. In his new book, Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a document reporting…

This is a stunner. Steve Schmidt, who is now effectively running John McCain's presidential campaign, told Politico's Jonathan Martin and Ben Smith yesterday that "every American should be proud" of Bill Clinton's record on race issues. "Say whatever you want about Bill Clinton," Schmidt said, "but…

John McCain yesterday told George Stephanopolous that he supports the Arizona Civil Rights Initiative, a ballot proposition based on the language of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that will appear before Arizona voters this fall. When Arizona legislators pushed for a similar measure back in 1998, McCain…

On January 23, 2008, during her keynote speech at the glitzy World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Condoleezza Rice made a surprisingly friendly gesture to the Iranian regime. She said, in this final year of the Bush administration, Iran and the United States could move towards a "new, more…

Iranian representatives said today that their country is done cooperating with UN investigators looking into its nuclear program. If past is prologue, the State Department is scrambling to determine what more the U.S. can give to the Islamic Republic.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with her North Korean counterpart today in Singapore as part of "informal" six-party talks, according to this report from Bloomberg. The face-to-face meeting, a first for a Bush administration that once considered North Korea part of the "Axis of Evil," comes…

Barack Obama made a major gaffe yesterday in an interview with ABC's Terry Moran, saying that despite the obvious success of the surge he still would not support it if he were able to cast his vote again. Why? Obama told Moran that he wanted to change "the political debate." Here is the exchange:…

Belleville, Michigan

More evidence in an Associated Press/Yahoo! poll. The passion and interest shown by blocs of voters are important because they affect who will be motivated to vote. For now, the numbers favor Obama: 38 percent of his supporters say the election is exciting compared to 9 percent of McCain's.…

Cannot be true, right? According to this article the U.S. will announce plans in the next month to establish a U.S.-interest section in Tehran. (H/T NRO.) The sourcing on the story is thin, but it feels like a trial balloon. The story does note that William Burns, announced yesterday as the man…

An important shift in the Bush administration's position on Iran in this AP story. The State Department's third-ranking official will meet directly with Iranian nuclear negotiators. The move reverses Condoleezza Rice's pledge not to negotiate directly with Iran until it suspends its uranium…

For some background on the current fighting between John McCain and Barack Obama on the surge and Obama's website, see here. Back in early June I asked Mark Salter about the outdated claims on Obama's website, claims that the surge hadn't worked and that Iraq was in the throes of a "civil war."…

I'm late to this. Andrew Breitbart, author of "Hollywood Interrupted," Drudge Report contributor and founding magnate of the Breitbart-dot-empire, has started a weekly column on Hollywood and politics for The Washington Times. His first column is here. Here is how he describes the life of a…

Earlier this week, Larry Kudlow talked to a McCain adviser who told him McCain was moving away from his advocacy of cap-and-trade policies as a way to fight climate change. ...on deep background, this senior McCain advisor told me I was correct: no cap-and-trade. In other words, this…

Charles Krauthammer is always good. This is one of his best.

Belleville, Michigan-- John McCain took questions this morning after stopping at a diner in Livonia, Michigan. He told reporters that Barack Obama refused to label the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorists and reminded them that Obama was concerned about the U.S. looking too…

California Speaker Pro Tem Dom Perata argues for a $10 billion tax hike by invoking the heroes of World War II. "We've heard so much about the Greatest Generation. Tom Brokaw's book has just unleashed all kinds of paeans to people who were just talking about how wonderful America is thanks to the…

This comment stood out in an AP story about Barack Obama's reaction to Iran's missile tests. Obama said Iran "must suffer threats of economic sanctions with direct diplomacy opening up channels of communication so we avoid provocation, but we give strong incentives for the Iranians to change their…

About the time political reporters were sitting down to lunch on June 24, BlackBerries all over Washington buzzed with an unusual email. The pollsters for John McCain's campaign sent out a memo challenging the findings of a poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times and Bloomberg. Hundreds of polls…

If Representative William Delahunt from Massachusetts had to choose sides in that fight, it seems he would choose al Qaeda over Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. At the end of a televised House Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday, where Addington appeared under subpoena, Delahunt said…

Umm, no. In a post yesterday, I declined to weigh in on Joe Klein's regrettable smear about the supposed "divided loyalties" of Jewish neoconservatives in order to challenge his claim that Iran is not a threat to the U.S. I wrote, in passing, "Klein is usually more sensible than most of the liberal…

Lots of discussion today on what, exactly, Barack Obama's thoughts were on the Heller case and DC gun ban. Back in November, a staffer told the Chicago Tribune that Obama thought the ban was constitutional. The Obama campaign has backed away from that language as "inartful." This past spring, in an…

"Why the rush now to bomb Iran, a country that poses some threat to Israel but none--for the moment--to the United States...unless we go ahead, attack it, and the mullahs unleash Hezbollah terrorists against us?" So writes Joe Klein over at Time's blog. (We'll leave unaddressed his intellectual…

"Appeasement that ends in war is a familiar theme of history." A sobering editorial in the Wall Street Journal.

Matt Lauer was in the middle of paying John McCain a tremendous compliment last Wednesday when the Republican nominee interrupted him.

John McCain's campaign sent out this statement from the candidate this afternoon. "Senator Obama is obviously confused about what the United States Supreme Court decided and what he is calling for. After enthusiastically embracing the Supreme Court decision granting habeas in U.S. civilian courts…

That's the claim of an email I just received from the misnamed Institute for Public Accuracy. The email attacks many of Barack Obama's foreign policy advisers for their alleged militarism and service in the Clinton administration. It's mostly worth ignoring, but a couple of the entries stood out.…

On the Wall Street Journal editorial page this morning, Michael Oren, whose analysis of the Middle East is unfailingly superior, argues that the Israeli truce with Hamas is a dangerous delusion. Weakness, he argues, begets weakness. The roots of this tragedy go back to the summer of 2005 and the…

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that North Korea would be taken off of the U.S. list of state sponsors of terror and will no longer be sanctioned under the Trading with Enemies Act. And what does North Korea have to do to get these long-sought rewards? Basically, do what it had…

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Craig Gilbert reports that MoveOn and AFSCME have teamed up to attack John McCain for supporting a long-term troop presence in Iraq. The ad, which features an actress portraying a mother telling McCain that he "can't have" her son Alex for Iraq, is also airing in…

Abu Qatada, a top al Qaeda operative in Europe, is set to be released tomorrow. Among his other offenses, he was convicted in absentia in Jordan for his role in the Millenium bombing plot in Amman, where his co-conspirators were Aby Zubaydah, al Qaeda's #3, and Abu Musab Zarqawi, the longtime…

In a conference call this morning, John McCain's presidential campaign denounced Barack Obama as "naive" and suggested his election would mean an America far more vulnerable to terrorist attacks after comments the Democratic nominee made yesterday to ABC News. Obama said the response to the 1993…

A characteristically strong column from Andy McCarthy, author of Willful Blindness, on Barack Obama's comments yesterday. This is June 2008. That means it marks the ten-year anniversary of Osama bin Laden's indictment. He was first charged by my old office, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the…

A smart reader writes about Barack Obama's comments on terrorism yesterday. The worst thing about Obama's comment is that he misses the point that even though we put the mastermind of WTC '93 in jail, his uncle was able to pull off a second attack. That's what's wrong with an approach that focuses…

John McCain's spokesman, Tucker Bounds, had this to say after Al Gore's endorsement of Barack Obama today. "At an event meant to show unity, Barack Obama couldn't unify his lofty rhetoric with the inconvenient truth that he voted for the Bush-Cheney energy bill he condemns, has proposed punishing…

Barack Obama said this today about prosecuting terrorists in an interview with ABC News. "And, you know, let's take the example of Guantanamo. What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks -- for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center, we were able to arrest those…

The Washington pundit world divides into roughly two kinds of people: those interested in themselves first, issues second, and other people, if at all, a distant third. The second, much smaller group is made up of people like Tim Russert, who reversed that order.

The Washington pundit world divides into roughly two kinds of people: those interested in themselves first, issues second, and other people, if at all, a distant third. The second, much smaller group is made up of people like Tim Russert, who reversed that order. I don't typically get nervous…

His take on the SCOTUS disaster here.

When you are Jennifer Loven of the Associated Press. George W. Bush yesterday went out of his way yesterday to emphasize his preference for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis. But in this hilarious dispatch Loven explains that when Bush says "diplomacy" he's using code words for…

Looking for someone to support in this weekend's U.S. Open? Rory Sabbatini is your man. Sabbatini teed off today wearing a camouflage golf shirt to honor The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. Sabbatini, who is from South Africa, has raised more than $1 million for charities benefitting U.S. troops and…

Speaking on an Obama campaign conference call this morning, John Kerry said: "Our generals have made it crystal clear that we cannot sustain American forces deployed in Iraq at this level. The fact is that our own military is overstretched. It has reduced American ability to be able to respond to…

There has been some grumbling among Bush administration officials about the reluctance -- and at times the refusal -- of Defense Secretary Robert Gates to advocate administration positions in public. Gates gave a rare interview to CNN this week and John McCain must hope that he goes back into…

The AP has an interesting look at Barack Obama's vice presidential possibilities. One name is missing: Chuck Hagel. Hagel has to be considered at least a possibility. Although he was an active supporter of John McCain in 2000, Hagel has not yet endorsed in the current two-man race. Last week, he…

Ari Fleischer, now a media consultant working for the team, thinks so. "Remember when (Vice President Dick) Cheney was really unpopular in 2004? Bush was asked if he was going to dump him from the ticket. A head coach starts out 0-4; the questions become about firing the coach or benching the…

A fantastic New York Sun editorial, here. Guess who said this? "Our evidence suggests that Baghdad is strengthening a relationship with al-Qaeda that dates back to the mid-1990s, when senior Iraqi intelligence officers established contact with the network in several countries." "We have some…

Allow me to begin with a slightly off-topic public service message: Do not clip your fingernails on airplanes.

JAY ROCKEFELLER, CHAIRMAN of the Senate Intelligence Committee, released (yet another) report written by Democratic staffers claiming the Bush administration politicized intelligence. The "report" is a political document that is already accomplishing its goal: making headlines. I'll leave it to…

Jay Rockefeller, Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, released (yet another) report written by Democratic staffers claiming the Bush administration politicized intelligence. The "report" is a political document that is already accomplishing its goal: making headlines. I'll leave it to…

Mitch McConnell is not going to win the Scott McClellan Award for Unity, Bipartisanship and Comity. Good for McConnell. He's forcing the clerk to read nearly 500 pages of a global warming bill now before the Senate as an objection to the Democrats' stalling on judicial appointees. It's nice to see…

Was the son of a Republican congressman the source of the infamous Austan Goolsbee memo on NAFTA? That is the claim in a pair of articles (here and here) published late last week by the Toronto Star. The existence of the memo, which asserted that Obama's economic adviser had downplayed the…

In response to John McCain's call earlier today for joint town hall appearances, Barack Obama's campaign released a statement from campaign manager David Plouffe. "As Barack Obama has said before, the idea of joint town halls is appealing and one that would allow a great conversation to take place…

I agree with much that has been said/written about John McCain's speech last night. Although he was too critical of George W. Bush and his fellow Republicans and, as always, a bit eager to offer that criticism, the broad strokes of the speech were the right ones. McCain should run as a reform…

A friend on Capitol Hill emails a brief dispatch from the Associated Press reporting that North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il received a gift from a visiting delegation of congressional staff members. North Korea's official news agency says the country's leader has received a gift from the chairman…

Trent Duffy was the deputy White House press secretary under Scott McClellan. Everyone assumed he would take over when McClellan left and that the White House press operations would improve dramatically, or at least as much as they could under an overly cautious Dan Bartlett. But McClellan never…

Shortly before 10 A.M. on October 9, 2006, George W. Bush read a statement from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House. He fixed his face to look resolute. The previous day, in spite of its many promises over many years to discontinue its nuclear program, North Korea had tested a nuclear…

"We weren't interested in a book that was just a defense of the Bush administration." Peter Osnos, founder of PublicAffairs books and publisher of Scott McClellan's new book. More here.

Eagle-eyed TWS reader Jose Antonio points us to the lede of a New York Daily News story about the romance between Congressman Anthony Weiner and Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin. "Rep. Anthony Weiner, a likely 2009 mayoral candidate, is pouring his heart into Hillary Clinton's White House bid -…

Ask fifty Washington reporters for an assessment of Scott McClellan and forty-nine of them will give you some version of this: He's a nice guy who was in way over his head. (Most of them will be tougher in their analysis of his intellect.) Given the imminent release of McClellan's "surprisingly…

There has been lots of buzz this weekend about what the New York Times calls "an unusually blunt and detailed" report on Iran from the International Atomic Energy Agency. Among the findings: Iran's military has produced powerful centrifuges -- the kind that can be used to enrich uranium and speed…

Mark Ambinder is reporting that the White House sought to "get" Jimmy Carter, not Barack Obama, in George W. Bush's speech yesterday. He's wrong. What Ed Gillespie actually said was that the White House anticipated that the passage in question might be interpreted as an attack on Carter, not that…

Reacting to the news that Barack Obama has indicated a willingness to appear with John McCain at town halls over the course of the campaign, Dean Barnett calls Obama "the king of the teleprompter" and further argues that "Obama does poorly at debates, and is a weak extemporaneous speaker." Dean's…

It's not just the Obama campaign's denials that are disingenuous. The New York Times article that includes those misleading comments is designed as something of a corrective to the McCain campaign's supposed distortions. But important nuances appear to have been lost in the partisan salvos,…

If you get your news from NPR, the television networks, the New York Times and the newsweeklies, you could be forgiven if you believe that most of the alleged terrorists the United States is holding (and mistreating) at Guantanamo Bay are of the wrong-place, wrong-time variety. You know, the…

PGA professional John Daly, fresh from a new workout regimen, takes a shot at Bill Clinton in this interview with a local TV reporter. After the reporter acknowledges that he's going to take as many shots as it takes to make him look good, Daly asks: "You playing Clinton golf?"

Following up on this post yesterday, a friend emails: "It's too bad that Laurie Mylroie missed the opportunity to drop her absurd defense of the Blind Sheik and pick up on the fact that the latest Iraqi documents talk explicitly about cooperation between Saddam's Mukhabarat and the Egyptian Islamic…

Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor in New York, is author of the new, much-discussed book Willful Blindness: A Memoir of the Jihad. I'm in the middle of reporting two pieces and haven't yet had a spare minute to read it, but it is my top priority when my current obligations are met (next…

When Nancy Pelosi and congressional Democrats shot down the Colombia Free Trade Agreement earlier this month, I wondered when we'd see mainstream reporters point out their arrogant, go-it-alone foreign policy. Well, Nick Kristof does just that today. Worth reading.

Washington Capitals outshot the Philadelphia Flyers 40-35 tonight, and won 4-2. Game seven -- and the potential extension of the Caps extraordinary season -- is Tuesday at 7pm in Washington.

It's true this blog is dedicated mostly issues of politics and national security. But the Washington Capitals will play a crucial game six this evening against the much-despised Philadelphia Flyers (i.e. Goldfarb's team), and it's just too important to let it pass without comment. The Flyers, like…

Rick Santorum is supporting John McCain and urges other conservatives to do the same.

Four months after the start of the Iraq war, two former senior Clinton administration national security officials took to the pages of the New York Times to demand accountability for the Bush administration's claims about Iraq and terrorism. Or, as they put it in their opening sentence, "Iraq's…

John Dickerson at Slate has an interesting look at John McCain's next campaign tour. (I wrote about that tour and McCain's general election campaign here.) McCain will be visiting places "Republicans fear to tread," as the somewhat overwrought headline puts it. The plans include stops in…

Now that Nancy Pelosi and company have stalled the Colombia Free Trade deal -- after their presidential candidates thoroughly trashed NAFTA -- I'll be eagerly awaiting the coming stories about the Democrats' disregard for U.S. allies and their arrogant, unilateralist foreign policy.

Baghdad

Director of National Intelligence Michael McConnell spoke yesterday at his alma mater, Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. The whole speech is worth a read. Perhaps the most entertaining moment comes when McConnell shares his personal email and that of his assistant with the crowd. In…

Congressional Republicans are looking into possible disciplinary measures for Jim McDermott and Jim Thompson, two House Democrats who traveled to Baghdad on the eve of votes in Congress to approve the Iraq War. The third member, David Bonior, has since retired from Congress. Murthanna al Hanooti…

Last night came the news that Saddam Hussein's regime paid for a high-profile trip taken by three congressional Democrats to Baghdad in the fall of 2002. The visit, by Democratic Representatives David Bonior, Jim Thompson, and Jim McDermott, was brokered by Muthanna al Hanooti, a Michigan resident…

He said: "Those who claim we should withdraw from Iraq in order to fight Al Qaeda more effectively elsewhere are making a dangerous mistake. Whether they were there before is immaterial, al Qaeda is in Iraq now, as it is in the borderlands between Pakistan and Afghanistan, in Somalia, and in…

We have been among the many conservatives critical of the White House and its inexplicable aversion to making a fact-based case on Saddam Hussein's support for jihadist terror. But for years now, instead of arguments to that effect, George W. Bush simply repeats his assertion that Iraq is the…

In the middle of a long and fascinating piece on his regrets about the Iraq War, former New Yorker writer Jeffrey Goldberg, now with the Atlantic Monthly, discusses the new Institute for Defense Analyses report on Iraq and Terrorism. Unlike, virtually every other reporter, he appears to have read…

This ought to be big news. Throughout the early and mid-1990s, Saddam Hussein actively supported an influential terrorist group headed by the man who is now al Qaeda's second-in-command, according to an exhaustive study issued last week by the Pentagon. "Saddam supported groups that either…

In the middle of a long and fascinating piece on his regrets about the Iraq War, former New Yorker writer, Jeffrey Goldberg, now with the Atlantic Monthly, discusses the new Institute for Defense Analyses report on Iraq and Terrorism. Unlike, virtually every other reporter, he appears to have…

Over at The Corner, Michael Leeden responds to my question about when, if ever, the Bush Administration claimed Iraq had an "operational" relationship with al Qaeda. He writes: What about Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations on the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom? That day, with George Tenet…

Twice in recent days, articles in the Washington Post have suggested that Bush Administration officials claimed before the Iraq War that Iraq and al Qaeda had an "operational relationship." Last week, Karen DeYoung made the accusation directly when she wrote: "An examination of more than 600,000…

Baghdad, Iraq Sitting in the U.S. Embassy just blocks from the bombed out headquarters of the former Iraqi Intelligence Service, Vice President Dick Cheney said today that a new Pentagon study issued last week confirms Bush administration claims that Saddam Hussein's Iraq supported a broad range of…

Houston

A new Pentagon report on Iraq and Terrorism has the news media buzzing. An item on the New York Times blog snarks, "Oh, By the Way, There Was No Al Qaeda Link." The ABC News story that previews the full report concludes, "Report Shows No Link Between Saddam and al Qaeda." How, then, to explain this…

As Barack Obama strode to the podium after his triumphant victory in the South Carolina primary last month, the crowd gathered to hear him began to chant. "Race doesn't matter! Race doesn't matter!"

Senator John McCain weighed in on the retirement of Brett Favre this morning. On his campaign plane in San Antonio, Texas, I told McCain about the report. "Did you hear the big news?" I said, deliberately obtuse. "Oh, no!" Several other people in the front of the plane expressed shock upon hearing…

In the days after the New York Times published its non-blockbuster on John McCain and lobbyists, other news outlets followed-up, most of them focusing on one question: Did John McCain do special favors for Lowell "Bud" Paxson? To answer it, reporters largely focused on Paxson's efforts to obtain a…

Shortly after sundown on Wednesday night, the New York Times posted on its website a long story about John McCain, a female lobbyist, and the relationship--professional and perhaps personal--between the two. By midday Friday, executive editor Bill Keller had taken to the paper's website to offer a…

William F. Buckley, Jr, died this morning at his home in Connecticut. Our friends at National Review already have posted some poignant reflections. There will be many, many more. I didn't know him at all before I came to Washington, but I read everything he wrote. And he is one of the chief reasons…

Barack Obama opposed the war in Iraq. Although he later said he was not sure how he would have voted had he been in the Senate, he made this comment as he prepared to keynote the Democratic National Convention in 2004, the purpose of which was to nominate John Kerry, who had voted for the war. It's…

In a very smart piece in today's New York Observer on Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter, Steve Kornacki writes: In the '76 primaries, Carter's Democratic foes at first ignored his trust theme and then-when it was too late-brayed against it, warning that he'd been maddeningly vague about what he'd…

IN A VERY SMART piece in today's New York Observer on Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter, Steve Kornacki writes:

Mike Goldfarb is right that Tom Ridge will be among those John McCain's seriously considers as his runningmate. As Goldfarb notes, Ridge is from the electorally important state of Pennsylvania. McCain not only respects him, but he considers him a friend, and he was happy to have Ridge with him for…

Andy McCarthy has an outstanding deconstruction of the political grandstanding that resulted in this piece from top Democrats involved in intelligence and judiciary oversight. McCarthy points out that Jay Rockefeller, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, not long ago had the…

In a conference call with reporters this morning, Barack Obama foreign policy adviser Richard Danzig admitted that the campaign did not know the backstory of the Obama photo allegedly circulated by Hillary Clinton's campaign. That lack of knowledge did not keep the campaign from denouncing it as…

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Can you imagine spending $29,385 on a football game? That sum, nearly as much as the average Mississippi household earns in a year, is what Massachusetts native Marcel Nadeau paid to take his two sons to the Super Bowl.

David Kirkpatrick covers conservatives for the New York Times and generally does a good job. He was one of four reporters bylined on the John McCain story Thursday. Late yesterday, on the Times website, he offered his own thoughts on the timing of the story issue we explored here. As far as the…

Less than 12 hours after polls closed on Super Tuesday, the press corps covering John McCain gathered in a hangar at Swift Aviation in Phoenix, Arizona, for another press conference. The focus, as it had been for more than a week, was on one question: How will John McCain repair the breach with the…

JOHN MCCAIN AND Barack Obama swept the Chesapeake Primaries, as expected. With his victories last night, McCain further solidified his status as the almost-certain nominee of his party. Obama, meanwhile, has taken a lead among delegates to the Democratic convention and is now arguably the…

On an unseasonably warm winter day in 1974, at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., California governor Ronald Reagan delivered a speech that is often cited today as a founding document of Reagan-style optimism.

The departure of Mitt Romney today from the presidential race, followed shortly by the announcement that Mike Huckabee is staying in, has led to lots of speculation that Huckabee is running to be John McCain's vice president. Indeed, people have been saying that same thing since McCain won New…

The departure of Mitt Romney today from the presidential race, followed shortly by the announcement that Mike Huckabee is staying in, has led to lots of speculation that Huckabee is running to be John McCain's vice president. Indeed, people have been saying that same thing since McCain won New…

JOHN MCCAIN'S SPEECH at CPAC was surprisingly well-received. Aside from a couple small pockets of boos, McCain got a more than polite applause from the crowd. And one of the interesting things to watch, from my vantage point in the second row, was the handful of anti-McCain attendees who gradually…

Dan Balz, the Washington Post's veteran political reporter, must have been sitting in one of the small pockets of anti-McCain CPAC attendees. He writes: "But the reception McCain received at yesterday's annual Conservative Political Action Conference, where he was booed loudly when introduced,…

Dan Balz, the Washington Post's veteran political reporter, must have been sitting in one of the small pockets of anti-McCain CPAC attendees. He writes: "But the reception McCain received at yesterday's annual Conservative Political Action Conference, where he was booed loudly when introduced,…

John McCain's speech at CPAC was surprisingly well-received. Aside from a couple small pockets of boos, McCain got a more than polite applause from the crowd. And one of the interesting things to watch, from my vantage point in the second row, was the handful of anti-McCain attendees who gradually…

John McCain's speech at CPAC was surprisingly well-received. Aside from a couple small pockets of boos, McCain got a more than polite applause from the crowd. And one of the interesting things to watch, from my vantage point in the second row, was the handful of anti-McCain attendees who gradually…

Mitt Romney withdrew from the race for the Republican nomination early this afternoon in an extraordinarily classy speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC. Romney hinted at the concession at the beginning of his speech and, to the chagrin of the strongly…

Mitt Romney withdrew from the race for the Republican nomination early this afternoon in an extraordinarily classy speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, DC. Romney hinted at the concession at the beginning of his speech and, to the chagrin of the strongly…

Politico's Jonathan Martin, who has established himself as the go-to reporter on the Republican race for president, confirms that John McCain is skipping his annual trip to Munich. But then Martin reports: "He's sticking stateside this weekend -- likely in God's Country and in that other place…

Politico's Jonathan Martin, who has established himself as the go-to reporter on the Republican race for president, confirms that John McCain is skipping his annual trip to Munich. But then Martin reports: "He's sticking stateside this weekend -- likely in God's Country and in that other place…

Phoenix, Arizona -- The Charleston Gazette provides a good overview of the deal that sent John McCain's delegates to Mike Huckabee in West Virginia yesterday, a move that blocked Mitt Romney from winning the state. How did it happen? Buddy Roemer. Roemer, the former Governor of Louisiana and a…

Phoenix, Arizona -- The Charleston Gazette provides a good overview of the deal that sent John McCain's delegates to Mike Huckabee in West Virginia yesterday, a move that blocked Mitt Romney from winning the state. How did it happen? Buddy Roemer. Roemer, the former Governor of Louisiana and a…

Phoenix, Arizona -- Conservatives expecting a bouquet of roses from John McCain in the coming days will be disappointed. McCain is scheduled to speak Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, but he is not likely to share with the activists there any major changes…

Phoenix, Arizona -- Conservatives expecting a bouquet of roses from John McCain in the coming days will be disappointed. McCain is scheduled to speak Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, but he is not likely to share with the activists there any major changes…

Phoenix, Arizona -- Conservatives expecting a bouquet of roses from John McCain in the coming days will be disappointed. McCain is scheduled to speak Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, but he is not likely to share with the activists there any major changes…

Phoenix, Arizona -- Conservatives expecting a bouquet of roses from John McCain in the coming days will be disappointed. McCain is scheduled to speak Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC, but he is not likely to share with the activists there any major changes…

Many have wondered about the state of the conservative movement leading up to today, Super Tuesday, February 5, 2008. The previous 24 hours gives us an answer. Meltdown. Yesterday afternoon, Rush Limbaugh argued that a President John McCain would not be any better on Iraq than a President Barack…

Many have wondered about the state of the conservative movement leading up to today, Super Tuesday, February 5, 2008. The previous 24 hours gives us an answer. Meltdown. Yesterday afternoon, Rush Limbaugh argued that a President John McCain would not be any better on Iraq than a President Barack…

Glendale, Arizona

West Palm Beach

Phoenix, Arizona -- About five minutes after the end of the Super Bowl here in Arizona, the television monitors in the press box high above the field shifted from the extraordinary football game that had just ended to politics. According to this Ben Smith item at Politico, this thirty second ad…

Phoenix, Arizona -- About five minutes after the end of the Super Bowl here in Arizona, the television monitors in the press box high above the field shifted from the extraordinary football game that had just ended to politics. According to this Ben Smith item at Politico, this thirty second ad…

Although Mitt Romney yesterday accused John McCain of Nixon-style politics for McCain's criticism of his positions on Iraq, the issue seemed to fade a bit from the discussion today. Before we move on, one final observation. At least twice before the muddled comments Romney made in April 2007 that…

Although Mitt Romney yesterday accused John McCain of Nixon-style politics for McCain's criticism of his positions on Iraq, the issue seemed to fade a bit from the discussion today. Before we move on, one final observation. At least twice before the muddled comments Romney made in April 2007 that…

Campaign Standard friend Jose sends along another example of politics by paraleipsis, the art of saying something by saying that you're not saying it. It comes from John McCain in this article about McCain and Barack Obama. McCain said a debate between the two would be a debate "between victory and…

Campaign Standard friend Jose sends along another example of politics by paraleipsis, the art of saying something by saying that you're not saying it. It comes from John McCain in this article about McCain and Barack Obama. McCain said a debate between the two would be a debate "between victory and…

Interesting. Both Charles Krauthammer and Mort Kondracke think Mitt Romney was talking about withdrawal in that interview with Robin Roberts of ABC last spring. (Brit Hume and Fred Barnes do not.) I post this not to provoke my friends supporting Romney. Rather, I'm throwing it up here because it's…

Interesting. Both Charles Krauthammer and Mort Kondracke think Mitt Romney was talking about withdrawal in that interview with Robin Roberts of ABC last spring. (Brit Hume and Fred Barnes do not.) I post this not to provoke my friends supporting Romney. Rather, I'm throwing it up here because it's…

Here is an interesting exchange from Brit Hume's show last night on the spat between John McCain and Mitt Romney on the surge. Although they qualify their point (as I have), both Mort Kondracke and Charles Krauthammer agree that Mitt Romney was talking about withdrawal when he discussed timetables…

Here is an interesting exchange from Brit Hume's show last night on the spat between John McCain and Mitt Romney on the surge. Although they qualify their point (as I have), both Mort Kondracke and Charles Krauthammer agree that Mitt Romney was talking about withdrawal when he discussed timetables…

Bob Novak did some digging on reports last week that John McCain had privately expressed reservations about nominating a conservative like Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. I wrote on the subject here, and said, in relevant part: John McCain came out early in support of Samuel Alito's nomination…

Bob Novak did some digging on reports last week that John McCain had privately expressed reservations about nominating a conservative like Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court. I wrote on the subject here, and said, in relevant part: John McCain came out early in support of Samuel Alito's nomination…

Richard Starr is even more right than he probably realizes in this post. The book review he cites to describe McCain's "guardian" characteristics puts it this way: "'Guardians' are modern versions of the raiders, warriors, and hunters who once made their livings through sorties into unknown or…

Richard Starr is even more right than he probably realizes in this post. The book review he cites to describe McCain's "guardian" characteristics puts it this way: "'Guardians' are modern versions of the raiders, warriors, and hunters who once made their livings through sorties into unknown or…

THERE WAS GOOD news and bad news for Mitt Romney from the debate last night in California: He probably won, but it's not likely to matter.

Steve Forbes just appeared on Neil Cavuto's show on Fox. He sounded like he will follow his candidate, Rudy Giuliani, and become a McCain supporter, though nothing formal has been announced yet. Asked about Romney's claims that he is a tax cutter, Forbes responded that it depends on the meaning of…

Steve Forbes just appeared on Neil Cavuto's show on Fox. He sounded like he will follow his candidate, Rudy Giuliani, and become a McCain supporter, though nothing formal has been announced yet. Asked about Romney's claims that he is a tax cutter, Forbes responded that it depends on the meaning of…

Miami, Florida

"Leadership doesn't end with a single campaign." That was Rudy Giuliani tonight. Mark Halperin has reported that Rudy Giuliani will endorse McCain as early as Wednesday. I think he's right, but the McCain team would prefer to have Giuliani at the debate in California. They believe Giuliani, who…

"Leadership doesn't end with a single campaign." That was Rudy Giuliani tonight. Mark Halperin has reported that Rudy Giuliani will endorse McCain as early as Wednesday. I think he's right, but the McCain team would prefer to have Giuliani at the debate in California. They believe Giuliani, who…

Interesting report earlier tonight from Fox News Channel's Bill Hemmer. He said that advisers to Mitt Romney told him that their candidate would be going after John McCain on integrity, specifically focusing on McCain's comments last week on Romney and Iraq. We saw this previewed yesterday. "I…

Interesting report earlier tonight from Fox News Channel's Bill Hemmer. He said that advisers to Mitt Romney told him that their candidate would be going after John McCain on integrity, specifically focusing on McCain's comments last week on Romney and Iraq. We saw this previewed yesterday. "I…

With Rudy Giuliani's campaign effectively over, it's worth spending a moment on his unusual demise. The conventional wisdom is that Giuliani's strategy of focusing on Florida was foolish. The truth, as it always seems to be, is a bit more complicated. Giuliani attempted to target New Hampshire,…

With Rudy Giuliani's campaign effectively over, it's worth spending a moment on his unusual demise. The conventional wisdom is that Giuliani's strategy of focusing on Florida was foolish. The truth, as it always seems to be, is a bit more complicated. Giuliani attempted to target New Hampshire,…

Another disagreement between John McCain and Mitt Romney: John Edwards. While they both agree that Edwards is finished, Romney seems happy about it and McCain wishes he'd stick around. Romney, speaking this morning, ripped Edwards - "who I don't think we'll have to listen to too much longer" - for…

Another disagreement between John McCain and Mitt Romney: John Edwards. While they both agree that Edwards is finished, Romney seems happy about it and McCain wishes he'd stick around. Romney, speaking this morning, ripped Edwards - "who I don't think we'll have to listen to too much longer" - for…

Politico's Jonathan Martin writes on Florida ads, following a report from Marc Ambinder that Romney has outspent McCain 8 to 1 on television" "According to Neilsen, [Romney has] run 4,475 ads compared to John McCain's 470 through 1/22. McCain did not run a single ad until January; Romney ran more…

Politico's Jonathan Martin writes on Florida ads, following a report from Marc Ambinder that Romney has outspent McCain 8 to 1 on television" "According to Neilsen, [Romney has] run 4,475 ads compared to John McCain's 470 through 1/22. McCain did not run a single ad until January; Romney ran more…

Tampa, Florida -- After days of intense fingerpointing between the two leading Republican candidates for president, Mitt Romney avoided any direct mention of John McCain during a twenty-minute speech at a rally here this morning. Romney's event at the Tampa Convention Center was held in the same…

Tampa, Florida -- After days of intense fingerpointing between the two leading Republican candidates for president, Mitt Romney avoided any direct mention of John McCain during a twenty-minute speech at a rally here this morning. Romney's event at the Tampa Convention Center was held in the same…

John McCain came out early in support of Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court. He worked behind the scenes to generate more support from his colleagues. He pointed to his 2000 campaign promise to appoint conservative judges as one reason he was pleased with the Alito nomination. He spoke…

John McCain came out early in support of Samuel Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court. He worked behind the scenes to generate more support from his colleagues. He pointed to his 2000 campaign promise to appoint conservative judges as one reason he was pleased with the Alito nomination. He spoke…

Could Rudy Giuliani come in fourth? The New York Times previews the Florida contest here, with an ominous paragraph for Giuliani near the top: Mr. Giuliani, former New York mayor, pledged that he would participate in a Republican presidential debate in California on Wednesday regardless of where he…

Could Rudy Giuliani come in fourth? The New York Times previews the Florida contest here, with an ominous paragraph for Giuliani near the top: Mr. Giuliani, former New York mayor, pledged that he would participate in a Republican presidential debate in California on Wednesday regardless of where he…

Tampa, Florida -- So who will win Florida? Ask twenty people -- half of them will tell you Mitt Romney and the other half will say John McCain. McCain seems to have momentum. All day Monday, reporters and campaign advisers whispered about the latest tracking poll numbers -- some of them done by the…

Tampa, Florida -- So who will win Florida? Ask twenty people -- half of them will tell you Mitt Romney and the other half will say John McCain. McCain seems to have momentum. All day Monday, reporters and campaign advisers whispered about the latest tracking poll numbers -- some of them done by the…

Or is the war over the Iraq War over? At least for a time, it seems. This morning, after a panel discussion in Jacksonville, Florida, I asked John McCain for a response to claims that his criticism of Mitt Romney on Iraq has been "dishonest." He quietly -- and very briefly -- restated his basic…

Or is the war over the Iraq War over? At least for a time, it seems. This morning, after a panel discussion in Jacksonville, Florida, I asked John McCain for a response to claims that his criticism of Mitt Romney on Iraq has been "dishonest." He quietly -- and very briefly -- restated his basic…

Tampa, Florida

St. Petersburg, Florida -- Charlie Crist, the popular Governor of Florida, endorsed Senator John McCain here tonight at the Pinellas County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner. Crist's endorsement had long been considered a major prize and, in recent days, his aides deliberately left open the…

St. Petersburg, Florida -- Charlie Crist, the popular Governor of Florida, endorsed Senator John McCain here tonight at the Pinellas County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner. Crist's endorsement had long been considered a major prize and, in recent days, his aides deliberately left open the…

Tampa, Florida Two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, it was difficult to drive or walk anywhere in Iowa for more than one minute without seeing some evidence of the ongoing political campaign. Today in Tampa, Florida, two days before the increasingly important Florida Republican primary, it is hard…

Tampa, Florida Two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, it was difficult to drive or walk anywhere in Iowa for more than one minute without seeing some evidence of the ongoing political campaign. Today in Tampa, Florida, two days before the increasingly important Florida Republican primary, it is hard…

Boca Raton, Florida This was the nice debate - reminiscent of the earliest debates in this cycle. The debate tonight was pretty low-key considering the stakes of the primary here next Tuesday. I expected that Rudy Giuliani would come out stronger against John McCain. He did not. I thought Giuliani…

Boca Raton, Florida This was the nice debate - reminiscent of the earliest debates in this cycle. The debate tonight was pretty low-key considering the stakes of the primary here next Tuesday. I expected that Rudy Giuliani would come out stronger against John McCain. He did not. I thought Giuliani…

WHEN FRED THOMPSON dropped out of the presidential race Tuesday, he did so in a way that was completely consistent with his candidacy.

Peterborough, New Hampshire

As John McCain looks more and more like the frontrunner (for now) in the Republican presidential race, criticism of his views has intensified. And no one has been more critical of the Arizona senator than his former colleague Rick Santorum. Santorum has taken to talk radio shows in recent days to…

As John McCain looks more and more like the frontrunner (for now) in the Republican presidential race, criticism of his views has intensified. And no one has been more critical of the Arizona senator than his former colleague Rick Santorum. Santorum has taken to talk radio shows in recent days to…

Let's leave aside for the moment whether the attacks launched by Hillary Clinton and her campaign surrogates against Barack Obama are racially insensitive or not, and whether discussion of Obama's past drug use is a subject of legitimate political debate. Because this is hilarious: At a campaign…

Let's leave aside for the moment whether the attacks launched by Hillary Clinton and her campaign surrogates against Barack Obama are racially insensitive or not, and whether discussion of Obama's past drug use is a subject of legitimate political debate. Because this is hilarious: At a campaign…

With a weekend of football to remind us of what is truly important, it's worth a moment to think about those places where America's national pastime and politics overlap. We all remember John Kerry's "Lambert Field" reference in Green Bay, Wisconsin. That gaffe alone was enough to disqualify him…

With a weekend of football to remind us of what is truly important, it's worth a moment to think about those places where America's national pastime and politics overlap. We all remember John Kerry's "Lambert Field" reference in Green Bay, Wisconsin. That gaffe alone was enough to disqualify him…

Clear winner? Fred Thompson. He was commanding, funny, articulate. His rat-a-tat-tat answer deconstructing Mike Huckabee's record was incredibly effective - a good actor can certainly memorize his lines. But Fred was good off the cuff, too. He does, at times, seem uninterested, especially when…

Clear winner? Fred Thompson. He was commanding, funny, articulate. His rat-a-tat-tat answer deconstructing Mike Huckabee's record was incredibly effective - a good actor can certainly memorize his lines. But Fred was good off the cuff, too. He does, at times, seem uninterested, especially when…

Republicans McCain 33 Romney 27 Huckabee 17 Paul 12 Giuliani 6 Thompson 4 Democrats Obama 47 Clinton 25 Edwards 20 Richardson 7

Republicans McCain 33 Romney 27 Huckabee 17 Paul 12 Giuliani 6 Thompson 4 Democrats Obama 47 Clinton 25 Edwards 20 Richardson 7

"There's just only so much you can do against a tidal wave." That was Bill Clinton talking about his wife's chances of winning today's New Hampshire primary. That can't be helpful. In what can only be described as a full meltdown, Clinton teed off on the media, on Barack Obama, on his questioner,…

"There's just only so much you can do against a tidal wave." That was Bill Clinton talking about his wife's chances of winning today's New Hampshire primary. That can't be helpful. In what can only be described as a full meltdown, Clinton teed off on the media, on Barack Obama, on his questioner,…

Nashua, New Hampshire Barack Obama will glide to an overwhelming win here in New Hampshire tomorrow, certainly by double-digits maybe by twenty. He is on such a roll that nothing, even a rather foolish gaffe on his weakest issue (national security), will do very much to slow him down. Like this…

John Edwards will not be the Democratic nominee and he will not be president. We saw one reason even the far-left he has courted so assiduously might have reservations about him. His positions are sometimes, well, absurd. But in a small way they illuminate the differences between Democrats and…

John Edwards will not be the Democratic nominee and he will not be president. We saw one reason even the far-left he has courted so assiduously might have reservations about him. His positions are sometimes, well, absurd. But in a small way they illuminate the differences between Democrats and…

Before last night's debate, I talked briefly to an old friend who lives in New Hampshire. He describes himself as a "movement conservative," and I think that's an accurate description. My friend told me that he was genuinely undecided and would likely make up his mind over the next few days. He…

Before last night's debate, I talked briefly to an old friend who lives in New Hampshire. He describes himself as a "movement conservative," and I think that's an accurate description. My friend told me that he was genuinely undecided and would likely make up his mind over the next few days. He…

This was a helpful debate for the man who probably had the least to gain from it: John McCain. He was funny, spirited and seemed well-informed. Even in the squabbles in the group he seemed like the adult in the room. In what had to be one of the most important moments of the night, Mitt Romney gave…

This was a helpful debate for the man who probably had the least to gain from it: John McCain. He was funny, spirited and seemed well-informed. Even in the squabbles in the group he seemed like the adult in the room. In what had to be one of the most important moments of the night, Mitt Romney gave…

Further muddling his views on George W. Bush's conduct of foreign affairs was Mitt Romney's answer to the first question in tonight's debate. Asked about the Bush Doctrine, Romney said President Bush was not arrogant, was not subject to a bunker mentality, and that we owe him a debt of gratitude…

Further muddling his views on George W. Bush's conduct of foreign affairs was Mitt Romney's answer to the first question in tonight's debate. Asked about the Bush Doctrine, Romney said President Bush was not arrogant, was not subject to a bunker mentality, and that we owe him a debt of gratitude…

Nashua, NH Is there a difference between an "arrogant bunker mentality" in diplomacy and an "our way or the highway" attitude in foreign policy? Mitt Romney thinks so. In late December, two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Mike Huckabee accused the Bush administration of having an "arrogant bunker…

Nashua, NH Is there a difference between an "arrogant bunker mentality" in diplomacy and an "our way or the highway" attitude in foreign policy? Mitt Romney thinks so. In late December, two weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Mike Huckabee accused the Bush administration of having an "arrogant bunker…

Some important thoughts on the caucuses tonight: Voter turnout will be key. So will the youth vote. And the senior bloc. Women could well determine the winner. The on-the-ground organization will be crucial. So will the get-out-the-vote efforts. Blah, blah, blah. Wouldn't it be great if political…

Some important thoughts on the caucuses tonight: Voter turnout will be key. So will the youth vote. And the senior bloc. Women could well determine the winner. The on-the-ground organization will be crucial. So will the get-out-the-vote efforts. Blah, blah, blah. Wouldn't it be great if political…

Kim-Albright-thumb.jpg Because it worked out so well the last time...

Mike Huckabee announced this afternoon that he will not be airing negative ads on Mitt Romney in the closing days of the Republican battle in Iowa. Then, he showed one of those ads to reporters and explained his decision not to air it. (As he spoke, Huckabee was surrounded by placards highlighting…

Mike Huckabee announced this afternoon that he will not be airing negative ads on Mitt Romney in the closing days of the Republican battle in Iowa. Then, he showed one of those ads to reporters and explained his decision not to air it. (As he spoke, Huckabee was surrounded by placards highlighting…

Waterloo, Iowa

Surely one of the most important thing Republican primary voters are evaluating in these final days before they begin casting votes is a candidate's views on the size and scope of government. And on that subject, these voters will want to pay careful attention to the words of Mike Huckabee from…

Surely one of the most important thing Republican primary voters are evaluating in these final days before they begin casting votes is a candidate's views on the size and scope of government. And on that subject, these voters will want to pay careful attention to the words of Mike Huckabee from…

In response to my earlier post, Matt Rhoades, communications director for the Romney campaign, has responded: "Often in this campaign the foreign policy debate has been dominated by Iraq. Events like today remind us that there are other dangerous places in the world, and they are connected to the…

In response to my earlier post, Matt Rhoades, communications director for the Romney campaign, has responded: "Often in this campaign the foreign policy debate has been dominated by Iraq. Events like today remind us that there are other dangerous places in the world, and they are connected to the…

Most of Mitt Romney's statement on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto was the kind of rhetorical fluff one expects from politicians responding to a developing crisis. But then there is this bizarre line: "For those who think Iraq is the sole front in the War on Terror, one must look no further…

Most of Mitt Romney's statement on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto was the kind of rhetorical fluff one expects from politicians responding to a developing crisis. But then there is this bizarre line: "For those who think Iraq is the sole front in the War on Terror, one must look no further…

Perhaps others have called attention to this item from the Des Moines Register's David Yepsen. Bob Dole copied the Register on a letter he wrote to Mike Huckabee criticizing the governor's recent article in Foreign Affairs. The nugget from Dole: "As a veteran, I worry about the future security of…

I got this email from the Huckabee campaign late in the morning of Chirstmas Eve. The text reads: Today and tomorrow, as we celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with friends and family, let us bow our heads and also give thanks for the brave men and women serving overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq…

I got this email from the Huckabee campaign late in the morning of Chirstmas Eve. The text reads: Today and tomorrow, as we celebrate Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with friends and family, let us bow our heads and also give thanks for the brave men and women serving overseas in Afghanistan, Iraq…

Just moments into the third Republican presidential debate, last June 5, CNN's Wolf Blitzer asked former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee about Iraq. "Governor Huckabee, do you have confidence in the government of Iraq, the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, that he's going to do what…

Des Moines, Iowa This New York Times story is getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere. It's a good look at Huckabee in Iowa. A couple of additional details suggest Huckabee's use of Christmas has been even more effective than the article implies. At his speech in Des Moines on Wednesday,…

Des Moines, Iowa This New York Times story is getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere. It's a good look at Huckabee in Iowa. A couple of additional details suggest Huckabee's use of Christmas has been even more effective than the article implies. At his speech in Des Moines on Wednesday,…

Des Moines, Iowa Is Huckabee boxing himself in? Last night, Mike Huckabee accused Mitt Romney of putting his political interests before the interests of his constituents by refusing to grant any pardons during his time as governor. "My opponent says there's something about judgment," he said. "I'll…

Des Moines, Iowa Is Huckabee boxing himself in? Last night, Mike Huckabee accused Mitt Romney of putting his political interests before the interests of his constituents by refusing to grant any pardons during his time as governor. "My opponent says there's something about judgment," he said. "I'll…

Des Moines, Iowa Tom Tancredo endorsed Mitt Romney at a press conference at the Mariott Hotel in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, today. Tancredo said that he met with Romney this morning and that he is convinced the former Massachusetts governor is committed to securing the borders and ending sanctuary…

Des Moines, Iowa Tom Tancredo endorsed Mitt Romney at a press conference at the Mariott Hotel in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, today. Tancredo said that he met with Romney this morning and that he is convinced the former Massachusetts governor is committed to securing the borders and ending sanctuary…

Indianola, Iowa For ten minutes Thursday morning, Lanae Price was a media star. Moments earlier, the homemaker from Winterset, Iowa - a forty-minute drive from the Indianola Country Club - told former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney that she worried about how "so many American politicians cannot…

Indianola, Iowa For ten minutes Thursday morning, Lanae Price was a media star. Moments earlier, the homemaker from Winterset, Iowa - a forty-minute drive from the Indianola Country Club - told former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney that she worried about how "so many American politicians cannot…

West Des Moines, Iowa In a speech he gave at the Center for Strategic and International Studies back in late September, Mike Huckabee briefly described his plan to improve U.S. intelligence. "As president," Huckabee said, "I'd like to beef up our human intelligence capacity, both the operatives who…

West Des Moines, Iowa In a speech he gave at the Center for Strategic and International Studies back in late September, Mike Huckabee briefly described his plan to improve U.S. intelligence. "As president," Huckabee said, "I'd like to beef up our human intelligence capacity, both the operatives who…

At a Mike Huckabee event yesterday afternoon, three sixty-something women, all of them undecided, were discussing the Republican candidates and their possible preferences. The discussion turned to John McCain, torture, and interrogations. Here is a rough transcript of their conversation: Woman…

At a Mike Huckabee event yesterday afternoon, three sixty-something women, all of them undecided, were discussing the Republican candidates and their possible preferences. The discussion turned to John McCain, torture, and interrogations. Here is a rough transcript of their conversation: Woman…

Des Moines, Iowa Kevin Madden, spokesman for Mitt Romney's campaign, has responded to this post on Fred Thompson and campaign finance reform. Thompson accused Romney of flip-flopping on campaign finance reform. "Governor Romney supported McCain-Feingold," Thompson said at a press availability after…

Des Moines, Iowa Kevin Madden, spokesman for Mitt Romney's campaign, has responded to this post on Fred Thompson and campaign finance reform. Thompson accused Romney of flip-flopping on campaign finance reform. "Governor Romney supported McCain-Feingold," Thompson said at a press availability after…

West Des Moines, Iowa

Interesting new numbers from Scott Rasmussen on the Republican race in Iowa. In a poll of likely caucus participants taken earlier this week, Mike Huckabee is at 28 percent, Mitt Romney is at 27 percent, and John McCain is at 14 percent. Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani remain in single digits, tied…

Interesting new numbers from Scott Rasmussen on the Republican race in Iowa. In a poll of likely caucus participants taken earlier this week, Mike Huckabee is at 28 percent, Mitt Romney is at 27 percent, and John McCain is at 14 percent. Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani remain in single digits, tied…

Cedar Rapids, Iowa In an appearance in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that just concluded, Fred Thompson defended his vote in favor of campaign finance reform and took a direct shot at Mitt Romney for flip-flopping on that issue and others: "Governor Romney supported McCain-Feingold. He's changed his position…

Cedar Rapids, Iowa In an appearance in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, that just concluded, Fred Thompson defended his vote in favor of campaign finance reform and took a direct shot at Mitt Romney for flip-flopping on that issue and others: "Governor Romney supported McCain-Feingold. He's changed his position…

Waterloo, Iowa

After Mitt Romney's much-anticipated speech on religion, I wrote that the speech worked not so much because of what Romney said but how he said it: The speech was effective for an altogether unpredictable reason. Romney became emotional as he delivered it. One problem many conservatives have had…

After Mitt Romney's much-anticipated speech on religion, I wrote that the speech worked not so much because of what Romney said but how he said it: The speech was effective for an altogether unpredictable reason. Romney became emotional as he delivered it. One problem many conservatives have had…

A loyal and erudite Campaign Standard reader has figured out what's going on with the Clinton campaign. He writes: "I know you're a big fan of words - if you don't have this one on your list, you should: 'paralipsis,' alternately spelled 'paraleipsis.' It means raising an issue by saying you're not…

A loyal and erudite Campaign Standard reader has figured out what's going on with the Clinton campaign. He writes: "I know you're a big fan of words - if you don't have this one on your list, you should: 'paralipsis,' alternately spelled 'paraleipsis.' It means raising an issue by saying you're not…

Des Moines, Iowa

If there ever has been a sure sign that I am out of step with mainstream Democratic voters, it might have come today. As I watched John Edwards look into the camera and point with that weird thumb-on-the-folded-pointer-finger gesture that only politicians do, I wondered if there has ever been a…

If there ever has been a sure sign that I am out of step with mainstream Democratic voters, it might have come today. As I watched John Edwards look into the camera and point with that weird thumb-on-the-folded-pointer-finger gesture that only politicians do, I wondered if there has ever been a…

Fred Thompson scored a clean win in this debate. He was funny (joking with Mitt Romney about taxes and acting); he was stern (rebuking the lame narrator for her show-of-hands question); he was serious (talking about entitlements); and he was presidential (this race is about national security). He…

Fred Thompson scored a clean win in this debate. He was funny (joking with Mitt Romney about taxes and acting); he was stern (rebuking the lame narrator for her show-of-hands question); he was serious (talking about entitlements); and he was presidential (this race is about national security). He…

With attention focused on Iowa today, we find these new polls on Republicans in New Hampshire. If there was any question the GOP race was wide open, this should answer it, not because of who is leading, but because of who is in second place. The new poll from Suffolk University shows a "surging"…

With attention focused on Iowa today, we find these new polls on Republicans in New Hampshire. If there was any question the GOP race was wide open, this should answer it, not because of who is leading, but because of who is in second place. The new poll from Suffolk University shows a "surging"…

Surrender Is Not an Option

Des Moines, Iowa

Another reaction to the Romney speech this morning. Katon Dawson, the charismatic chairman of the South Carolina Republican party, welcomed Romney's thoughts on religion and urged others to continue talking about their faith: The Republican Party has a proud tradition of being inclusive, and our…

Another reaction to the Romney speech this morning. Katon Dawson, the charismatic chairman of the South Carolina Republican party, welcomed Romney's thoughts on religion and urged others to continue talking about their faith: The Republican Party has a proud tradition of being inclusive, and our…

Des Moines, Iowa There had been a lot of talk about the major risk Mitt Romney was taking by delivering this morning's speech on religion. The front page of the Des Moines Register features an article - above the fold, top right - with this headline: "Romney takes risk with talk on faith." The…

Des Moines, Iowa There had been a lot of talk about the major risk Mitt Romney was taking by delivering this morning's speech on religion. The front page of the Des Moines Register features an article - above the fold, top right - with this headline: "Romney takes risk with talk on faith." The…

Grinnell, Iowa Interesting post on Hillary Clinton from Rich Lowry over at The Corner. He writes: Extraordinary. She's lost some altitude nationally, and a little ground in Iowa where it's always been a pretty close race, so nothing seems to suggest a need to break the glass - as in 'break the…

Grinnell, Iowa Interesting post on Hillary Clinton from Rich Lowry over at The Corner. He writes: Extraordinary. She's lost some altitude nationally, and a little ground in Iowa where it's always been a pretty close race, so nothing seems to suggest a need to break the glass - as in 'break the…

In the Democratic debate from Des Moines on NPR this afternoon, former Senator Mike Gravel said that Iran's support for terrorism was both justified and understandable. Gravel said that such support is appropriate because voters in the region have elected members of Hamas and Hezbollah and because…

In the Democratic debate from Des Moines on NPR this afternoon, former Senator Mike Gravel said that Iran's support for terrorism was both justified and understandable. Gravel said that such support is appropriate because voters in the region have elected members of Hamas and Hezbollah and because…

Mark Steyn captures the feelings of many current and former Fred Thompson enthusiasts in this post over at The Corner: I wrote about the Republican and Democrat presidential candidates last weekend, and got a lot of mail from Fredheads and others demanding to know why I hadn't mentioned Senator…

Mark Steyn captures the feelings of many current and former Fred Thompson enthusiasts in this post over at The Corner: I wrote about the Republican and Democrat presidential candidates last weekend, and got a lot of mail from Fredheads and others demanding to know why I hadn't mentioned Senator…

Rudy Giuliani is probably the strongest debater of the group, but he botched the question on gun control that was directed to him. The question asked why someone who supports the 2nd Amendment would say what Giuliani said in 2000: "Anyone wanting to own a gun should have to pass a written exam."…

Rudy Giuliani is probably the strongest debater of the group, but he botched the question on gun control that was directed to him. The question asked why someone who supports the 2nd Amendment would say what Giuliani said in 2000: "Anyone wanting to own a gun should have to pass a written exam."…

According to this article, posted at the Drudge Report, YouTube suspended the account of an Egyptian "anti-torture" activist whose videos included Egyptian police violence against anti-government protesters: Wael Abbas said close to 100 images he had sent to YouTube were no longer accessible,…

Interesting comments from Rudy Giuliani to ABC News. In an interview with ABC's Jake Tapper, who has a knack of getting people to say things that are more revealing than his subjects probably intend, Giuliani defended the performance of former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik. "You know, people are…

Interesting comments from Rudy Giuliani to ABC News. In an interview with ABC's Jake Tapper, who has a knack of getting people to say things that are more revealing than his subjects probably intend, Giuliani defended the performance of former NYPD commissioner Bernard Kerik. "You know, people are…

At a concert in Kansas City in June, a singer from the popular Los Angeles-based multicultural band Ozomatli fired up the crowd the way he knew best. The band was created at a pro-labor rally in the 1990s, and one band member is fond of wearing a "Dumb and Dumber" T-shirt featuring pictures of…

Dead Certain

Is all of the talk about the White House and UFOs unique to the 2008 presidential elections? Hardly. Ufologists have been inserting themselves into the American political scene for decades. And one website - www.presidentialufo.com - is devoted to the subject. Although you would think that they…

Is all of the talk about the White House and UFOs unique to the 2008 presidential elections? Hardly. Ufologists have been inserting themselves into the American political scene for decades. And one website - www.presidentialufo.com - is devoted to the subject. Although you would think that they…

What is Condoleezza Rice thinking? Last week, the Secretary of State turned to former President Jimmy Carter for advice on Middle East, which, to put it in terms that Rice, an avid NFL fan might understand, is like asking Rex Grossman how to play quarterback. Or it would be if Grossman had publicly…

Dearborn, Mich.

Voters in Louisiana go to the polls tomorrow to choose their next governor. There is little question that U.S. congressman Bobby Jindal will win the most votes; he did back in 2003, and every poll taken in recent months shows him well in front of the others running. But Louisiana has a unique…

Voters in Louisiana go to the polls tomorrow to choose their next governor. There is little question that U.S. congressman Bobby Jindal will win the most votes; he did back in 2003, and every poll taken in recent months shows him well in front of the others running. But Louisiana has a unique…

Winnfield, Louisiana

Dearborn, Michigan Moments ago, as Senator John McCain walked through the lobby of the Hyatt Regency here, some 100 (mostly young) supporters yelled as if they were seeing the Rolling Stones for the first time. Although many of them were probably only 10 years old when McCain ran for president in…

Dearborn, Michigan Moments ago, as Senator John McCain walked through the lobby of the Hyatt Regency here, some 100 (mostly young) supporters yelled as if they were seeing the Rolling Stones for the first time. Although many of them were probably only 10 years old when McCain ran for president in…

Fred Thompson's campaign is set to announce today that former Virginia senator George Allen, former Michigan Senator Spencer Abraham, and former State Department official Elizabeth Cheney will serve as the three national co-chairs of Thompson's presidential effort. Howard Baker, the former…

Fred Thompson's campaign is set to announce today that former Virginia senator George Allen, former Michigan Senator Spencer Abraham, and former State Department official Elizabeth Cheney will serve as the three national co-chairs of Thompson's presidential effort. Howard Baker, the former…

David Holden is a savvy guy. He doesn't consider himself a political junkie, but he has been closely following the presidential campaign as it unfolds around him. Holden runs Hair Biz, a salon at 4 N. Main Street in Concord, New Hampshire. Hillary Clinton's campaign office is two blocks up, and his…

"YOU CAN ALWAYS tell when the Republicans are getting restless, because the Vice President's motorcade pulls into the Capitol, and Darth Vader emerges," Hillary Clinton said at a town hall meeting in New York, according to a report by Politico's Ben Smith.

Tempers flared as a horde of journalists jostled its way through the headquarters of Granite State Manufacturing last week. "Where are you from?" demanded a cameraman with a shaved head toting an unwieldy television camera on his shoulder. His question was directed at a tanned TV news reporter with…

On March 11, Fred Thompson told Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday that he was giving "serious consideration" to joining the race for president. Within a month he had made his decision: He would run.

Concord, NH

Buy Cheney: The Untold Story of America's Most Powerful and Controversial Vice President, by Stephen F. Hayes.

Before Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Scooter Libby earlier this month, he was flooded with letters from more than 100 friends and colleagues urging leniency for Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff. Such letters are common at the end of trials. High-profile defendants and anonymous…

In early March, only a handful of Fred Thompson's good friends knew that he was even thinking about a bid for president. Three months later, according to several polls, Thompson is in second place nationally, trailing frontrunner Rudy Giuliani. He spends his days raising money and assembling an…

FRED THOMPSON IS adding more big-name policy talent as his testing-the-waters committee continues to grow into a real presidential campaign. Among the new additions: Mark Esper, national security adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist; Joel Shin, a top policy staffer on Bush-Cheney…

THE THIRD-RANKING REPUBLICAN in the House of Representatives will support Fred Thompson for president. Adam Putnam, who represents Floridians in the suburbs and exurbs of Tampa and is a key player among conservatives in the House, will join the growing Thompson operation in a leadership position in…

On a recent episode of Law & Order, a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom is the victim of a homicide. After returning from the war, he'd struggled with severe mental problems, while a bureaucratic snafu had left him without adequate disability benefits and finally homeless. He is found dead in a…

FRED THOMPSON IS RUNNING for the Republican presidential nomination. In a conference call Monday, Thompson addressed a group of more than 100 supporters and fundraisers whom the campaign has dubbed First Day Founders. He told them that he would be setting up an organization that will allow him to…

As the ten declared Republican presidential candidates traveled to Columbia, South Carolina, last Tuesday to participate in a nationally televised GOP debate, Fred Thompson stayed home. While the announced candidates put on suits, smiled, and fielded questions about Iraq, taxes, and terrorism,…

AS REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL candidates gather tonight in Simi Valley, California, for the first of several debates, one potential candidate will be missing: Fred Thompson. The former senator from Tennessee, still mulling a run, will instead appear alone tomorrow at the Lincoln Day dinner of the…

A strange thing happened a few weeks back when I went to the Café Promenade at the Mayflower Hotel for an off-the-record interview with an unpaid adviser to the non-campaign of unannounced presidential candidate Fred Thompson.

SIXTY-THREE REPUBLICAN members of the House of Representatives showed up at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, DC, on Wednesday afternoon to hear from Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee Senator and potential presidential candidate. Thompson spoke and took questions for a little more than an hour.

According to a report released September 8 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Saddam Hussein "was resistant to cooperating with al Qaeda or any other Islamist groups." It's an odd claim. Saddam Hussein's regime has a long and well-documented history of cooperating with Islamists,…

THE LAST QUESTION to General Bill Caldwell at his briefing last Thursday on the death of Abu Musab al Zarqawi came from New York Times reporter Richard Oppel, who wanted to know about Abu al-Masri, an Egyptian whom many expect to replace Zarqawi as the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

PORTER GOSS'S TENURE as director of central intelligence began with a public spat between the new reform-minded CIA leadership and an intransigent bureaucracy. Now, 18 months later, it is ending in a cloud of confusion. Goss is gone and so are his agents of change. Two of the CIA officials at the…

ON APRIL 19, 2006, security personnel from the Central Intelligence Agency escorted a senior CIA official from her office, withdrew her Top Secret clearance, and terminated her employment. The CIA did not name the officer. She was fired after she "acknowledged having unauthorized discussions with…

REPRESENTATIVE John Murtha, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, appeared on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, March 19, to evaluate the war in Iraq on its third anniversary. Murtha, a decorated veteran and longtime hawk, has become a leading spokesman for his party on the war. And on the show, he spoke of…

THE NEW YORK TIMES today joined the debate about Iraqi documents with a front-page news article and an op-ed by Peter Bergen. It's been nearly two weeks since the first documents were released, but a belated acknowledgement of the news is better than nothing. One might have expected such a longtime…

SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq. An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi…

SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE on Sunday contradicted claims from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence that documents captured in postwar Iraq and now being posted on the Internet will not contain anything new or significant.

On February 16, President George W. Bush assembled a small group of congressional Republicans for a briefing on Iraq. Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley were there, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad participated via teleconference from Baghdad. As the…

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has created a website where it will post documents captured in postwar Afghanistan and Iraq. The website is hosted by the Foreign Military Studies Office Joint Reserve Intelligence Center at Fort Leavenworth and will be updated continuously…

The Bush administration has decided to release most of the documents captured in post-war Afghanistan and Iraq. The details of the document release are still being worked out, according to officials with knowledge of the discussions. Those details are critical. At issue are things like the…

IN LATE APRIL 2003, some two weeks after the world watched jubilant Iraqis and U.S. Marines topple the tall statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad's Firdos Square, a small group of American officials began the thankless and dangerous task of recreating the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The team,…

FOR MORE than a year, THE WEEKLY STANDARD has sought the release of documents captured in Iraq and Afghanistan. We have pressured Pentagon officials, cajoled intelligence analysts, listened to would-be whistleblowers, interviewed Iraqis and filed numerous Freedom of Information Act requests with…

IN A BREATHLESS front-page, above-the-fold article in today's Washington Post, Walter Pincus reports that a former senior CIA official named Paul Pillar accuses the Bush administration of "misusing" intelligence to take the country to war in Iraq. According to the Post account, Pillar uses a…

THE SENATE SELECT INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE meets at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday for an open hearing on worldwide threats. Among the attendees will be director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and DIA director Michael Maples.

AT HIS CONFIRMATION HEARING FOR the new post of director of national intelligence, John Negroponte pledged to keep open lines of communication with Congress. He also explained that his experience as the first U.S. ambassador to Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein would help him meet the…

MORE THAN TWO MONTHS AGO, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra requested 40 documents captured in postwar Iraq as he sought better understand the activities of the Iraqi regime in the months and years before the U.S. invasion in March 2003. On Friday afternoon, the Office of the…

THE FORMER IRAQI REGIME OF Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq. The existence and character…

Baghdad

FOR THE SECOND TIME IN recent weeks the Department of Defense has denied a request from The Weekly Standard to release unclassified documents recovered in postwar Iraq. These documents apparently reveal, in some detail, activities of Saddam Hussein's regime in the years before the war. This second…

FINALLY. For much of the past week, the White House has been engaged in an aggressive effort to defend the case for war in Iraq. Thus far, it has mainly pointed out the obvious: In the months and years before the invasion, many of those who now accuse the White House of misleading the country to…

WHEN SENATOR CARL LEVIN REQUESTED the partial declassification of a Defense Intelligence Agency report in mid-October, the response was swift: He had it in his hands in eight days, reports the New York Times.

The invaluable Tom Maguire has an interesting post deconstructing Jay Rockefeller's October 9, 2002, speech explaining why he voted to authorize the Iraq War. Rockefeller is now - and was then - the Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Here's another take on Rockefeller's speech.…

WHEN SENATE MINORITY LEADER HARRY Reid abruptly took the Senate into closed session last Tuesday, he sought to portray the move as a desperate, last-ditch attempt to force intransigent Senate Republicans to complete the second phase of an investigation into the use of intelligence before the Iraq…

ON SUNDAY, the New York Times and the Washington Post ran stories based on excerpts of a newly declassified Defense Intelligence Agency document provided by Senator Carl Levin, the number two Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee. The stories concerned the interrogation of Ibn Shaykh al…

DOES SENATOR CARL LEVIN believe that Saddam Hussein had nukes?

AFTER A 22-MONTH investigation into the compromising of CIA operative Valerie Plame, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald handed down a five-count indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff,

LAST TUESDAY, Senate Democrats fired the opening shot in the coming battle over prewar intelligence on Iraq when Minority Leader Harry Reid took the Senate into a closed session. The offensive began in earnest this weekend with a New York Times article:

FOR FOUR YEARS, A slow-motion war between the CIA and the Bush administration has been unfolding over America's airwaves and on its front pages. A principal weapon in this war has been the deliberate leaking of information to the media.

ON JUNE12, 2003, when he first published a story about the matter, Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus became the second journalist to have been used by Ambassador Joseph Wilson to peddle bogus information about his February 2002 trip to Niger.

FOR TWO YEARS, THE political class in Washington has followed with intense interest the story of Joseph Wilson and the events that led to the compromising of his wife's identity and undercover status as a CIA operative. The rest of the country seems to have responded with a collective yawn. That…

I GOT AN EMAIL FROM my friend Mike Luke last week. His real name is Mike Lukaszewicz and, though he lives in Los Angeles, we stay in touch throughout the year. We correspond almost daily during football season, when the two of us, along with a handful of other friends from Wisconsin, email back and…

Senator Joe Biden took to the Senate floor yesterday to respond to the president's speech earlier in the day. Biden spoke of the "many fundamental mistakes this administration has made over the past four years." The first? According to Biden: "This administration took our eye of the ball in…

The president gets a solid "B" for his remarks on the War on Terror today. There's much to like about the speech. First the basics: Two months ago, the Bush Administration was publicly considering a move from the Global War on Terror (GWOT) to the Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism (GSAVE).…

WITH ALL THE ATTENTION FOCUSED on the aftermath of Katrina and the coming destruction of Rita, a small gathering on a perfect early fall day in Washington went largely unnoticed. That's understandable, but too bad.

AHMED HIKMAT SHAKIR IS A shadowy figure who provided logistical assistance to one, maybe two, of the 9/11 hijackers. Years before, he had received a phone call from the Jersey City, New Jersey, safehouse of the plotters who would soon, in February 1993, park a truck bomb in the basement of the…

AMONG THE MANY unresolved issues of the former Iraqi regime's support for terrorism, few are more potentially important than the activities throughout the mid to late 1990s of Iraqi military officials and chemical weapons specialists in Sudan.

AS THE WAR with Saddam's Iraq approached, a small group of terrorists in Kurdish-controlled Iraq garnered a significant amount of news coverage. Senior-level Bush administration officials had claimed that this group, Ansar al Islam, represented a key link between Saddam's regime and al Qaeda. There…

ON MARCH 7, 2004, Ahmed Chalabi, the controversial head of the Iraqi National Congress, appeared on 60 Minutes. Lesley Stahl grilled him about claims that the INC provided bad prewar intelligence on weapons of mass destruction to the U.S. government--something virtually no one these days disputes.…

"In August 1998, the detainee traveled to Pakistan with a member of Iraqi Intelligence for the purpose of blowing up the Pakistan, United States and British embassies with chemical mortars."

"THERE IS NO EVIDENCE that Saddam Hussein was connected in any way to al Qaeda."

FEW PEOPLE have been more critical of the Iraq war than Senator Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia.

WHEN UNITED NATIONS SECRETARY GENERAL Kofi Annan quipped several years ago that he could "do business" with Saddam Hussein, he meant it figuratively. In light of the substantive charges coming out of the ever-expanding Oil-for-Food scandal, the throwaway line seems revealing or at least ironic.

IT WAS ONLY 7:15 a.m. on October 26, 2003, and Paul Wolfowitz was already thinking about Saddam Hussein. The deputy secretary of defense had been awake for just over an hour when he and two civilian Pentagon advisers walked into a large office for a briefing on electricity.

AFTER A LONG AND DISTINGUISHED career as a lawyer, an arms negotiator, a think tanker, and a diplomat, John Bolton may see his nomination to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations hinge on whether or not he was mean in Kyrgyzstan in 1994.

ON MARCH 2, 2005, Al Kamen, who writes the scoop-heavy "Inside the Loop" column in the Washington Post, addressed the "rumors" and "news reports" that Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz would soon be put forward by George W. Bush as president of the World Bank.

ON SEPTEMBER 21, 2004, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former secretary general of the United Nations and now chairman of an outfit called the Egyptian National Human Rights Council, sat for an interview with Mihwar television in Egypt. He spoke in Arabic and, according to a translation provided by the…

TODAY SENATOR JOE BIDEN, vice chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a leading Democratic foreign policy voice in that body, voiced strong support for Paul Wolfowitz as President George W. Bush's choice to head the World Bank.

"IT'S A DEMOCRATIC ELECTRIC shock," proclaimed Karam Gabr, an editor of Rose al-Yousuf, a weekly political magazine in Egypt. The jolt came in a speech given by Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak on February 26.

Milwaukee

ON JUNE 28, 2004, a front-page article by Washington Post correspondent Robin Wright declared the Bush Doctrine dead, or at least on life-support. "The occupation of Iraq has increasingly undermined, and in some cases discredited, the core tenets of President Bush's foreign policy," she wrote,…

Oswiecim, Poland

SAMIR VINCENT WAS VISITING BAGHDAD when Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990. He had not lived in his native Iraq for some three decades, having left in 1958 for the United States and a track-and-field career that would later land him in the Boston College Athletic Hall…

Kabul, Afghanistan

AT SOME POINT in the near future I will become a bratwurst. I owe this startling realization to Naomi Judd. The singer-actress-philosopher sat down with Larry King recently to promote Naomi's Breakthrough Guide: 20 Choices to Transform Your Life. Not content to mimic the mawkish language of the…

ON FRIDAY, November 5, 2004, Patrick Murray had a blunt warning for a top career official in the CIA's clandestine service: No more leaks. Murray, who has a reputation as a no-nonsense manager, had come to the agency from Capitol Hill as a top aide to Porter Goss, the former chairman of the House…

MICHAEL SCHEUER, head of the CIA's bin Laden unit and until recently a senior analyst, said something remarkable last week on Hardball with Chris Matthews.

ON NOVEMBER 5, 2004, a top aide to new CIA Director Porter Goss warned the associate deputy director of counterintelligence about unauthorized leaks to the media. It was an admonition that might be considered unnecessary: secrecy is a hallmark of the agency and, in any case, such leaks are often…

"WE'D RATHER be last than wrong." So said Dan Rather anchoring election night coverage for CBS. He was apparently serious. That he could say this with a straight face only weeks after presenting the world with forged documents to bring down the president should cement his reputation as the least…

Wauwatosa, Wisconsin

IN THEIR FORMAL STATEMENTS reacting to the new videotape from Osama bin Laden, both President Bush and John Kerry were statesmanlike. Each man called for Americans to unite against terror and vowed to defeat bin Laden and al Qaeda.

Canton, Ohio

SENATOR CARL LEVIN, the Senate's fiercest and most partisan critic of the Bush administration, released a "report" Thursday challenging the administration's claim that Iraq had a relationship with al Qaeda. The report was produced by the Democratic staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee, with…

IN A CONFERENCE CALL with reporters Monday, Susan Rice was asked about Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Rice is a senior foreign policy adviser to John Kerry's presidential campaign who is often mentioned as a possible National Security Adviser in a Kerry White House. Her comments on Zarqawi make that a…

JOHN EDWARDS believes that words matter. Especially for those who would lead the nation during a time of war. He's right.

ON NOVEMBER 3, we may look back at October 7 as a very good day--even a turning point--for the Bush campaign. This was the day that news reports, one after another, reminded us that we have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Most of the accounts I saw included side-by-side…

"MR. VICE PRESIDENT, we were attacked but we weren't attacked by Saddam Hussein."

THE KERRY CAMPAIGN continued its attempt to dissociate the Iraq war from the broader war on terror on Monday. In a conference call with reporters, senior Kerry advisers Joe Lockhart and Susan Rice previewed the questions John Edwards will ask Dick Cheney during the debate this evening. Expect the…

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION argues that the Iraq war was the central front in the war on terror. Not long ago, John Kerry agreed. He called Saddam Hussein a terrorist. He worried about Iraq passing weapons to terrorists. His running mate prominently cited Iraq's terrorist connections as a chief reason…

LAST WEDNESDAY, CBS News's 60 Minutes II aired a report that strongly challenged George W. Bush's service in the National Guard. It's a story that has been explored dozens of times in the past five years. Two things in the 60 Minutes II story made it fresh--or, in newsroom parlance, gave it a peg.…

"There was no terrorism in Iraq before we went to war." --Stephanie Cutter, chief spokesman, John Kerry for President Los Angeles Times, September 9, 2004 IN THE LAST FEW DAYS, John Kerry's campaign has challenged Bush administration claims of an Iraq-al Qaeda connection. The effort has been…

Update 6:05 p.m.: Late Tuesday afternoon, NBC News and CBS News requested that that the Democratic National Committee pull the campaign video in question. The DNC, through a spokesman, says that the matter is under consideration.

IN A WEEK dedicated to Republican speechifying about why John Kerry should not be the next president of the United States, the most persuasive words came from a Democrat. And I don't mean Zell Miller's invigorating speech on Wednesday.

DOCUMENTS CITED Wednesday by 60 Minutes in a widely-publicized expose of George W. Bush's National Guard Service are very likely forgeries, according to several experts on document authenticity and typography. The documents--four memos from Killian to himself or his files written in 1972 and…

Green Bay

New York

As reporters focus on upcoming speeches from Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush, many delegates in New York City are buzzing about a Senate race that could mean the end of Tom Daschle's political career. Daschle is facing John Thune, a well-spoken former member of the House,…

IN A PROFILE that aired over the first two mornings of the Republican National Convention, ABC News reporter Claire Shipman asked Vice President Dick Cheney about his alleged distaste for retail politicking. Shipman read a comment from a reporter who covered Cheney. The vice president, this…

"THERE WAS NO QUESTION in our minds that there was a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda."

Boston

According to previews of John Edwards's much-anticipated speech tonight, the junior senator from North Carolina will attempt to establish his foreign policy bona fides. At the center of the address, naturally, will be Iraq. The issue will be a tricky one for Edwards. Along with Senator Joseph…

IN THE FLOOD OF COMMENT that greeted the Senate Intelligence Committee's 511-page report on pre-Iraq war intelligence, no one remarked upon this sentence from the document about the Iraq-al Qaeda connection: "Any indication of a relationship between these two hostile elements could carry great…

THE FINAL REPORT of the September 11 Commission, to be released tomorrow, cites many examples of "friendly contacts" between Iraq and al Qaeda, while concluding that those contacts do not appear to have resulted in a "collaborative operational relationship" for "carrying out attacks against the…