I think William McGurn puts little too much stress on the whole Obama “Life of Julia” slideshow, but he does raise the perfectly reasonable question of why so many middle-class Americans decided that Obama had their back while Romney was indifferent at best. Let’s take a look at . . . . Continue Reading »
I don’t know where to begin. Let’s start with where McCain says: As far as young women are concerned, absolutely, I dont think anybody like me I can state my position on abortion but, other than that, leave the issue alone, when we are in the kind of economic . . . . Continue Reading »
I thought this was a good observation by Charlie Cook: Watching politics for 40 years now, I have seen the two major parties tend to leapfrog each other in terms of political sophistication. This state of the political art, when one party is firing on all eight (or, these days, six or even four) . . . . Continue Reading »
Listen, I’m not against some kind of DREAM Act-type law that deals with several kinds of hard cases when it comes to immigration (though I want to see the details.) I would actually be in favor of such a law, but the postelection Republican focus on “comprehensive” immigration . . . . Continue Reading »
In a way, this piece, The GOP Turnout Myth, by Kimberley Strassell in the Wall Street Journal is very good to read. It makes me happy. I had heard and had been saying that conservatives stayed home and felt terrible about that. They didn’t care? How awful is . . . . Continue Reading »
Jim Geraghty argues that it wasn’t conservative ideals that took a beating in the election. It was the message of hostility, contempt and general weirdness of some of the center-right’s messengers that was the problem. Geraghty cites Romney’s 47% comment, Rush Limbaugh calling . . . . Continue Reading »
The folks at this AEI panel were big on the importance of conservatives listening to rather than just talking at people who are not already on that side. So in that spirit, I’m going to give an example of a Republican politician listening . . . to conservatives..on health care. That . . . . Continue Reading »
Several of the participants at yesterday’s AEI forum focused on the need for Republicans to first “listen” to constituencies they want to win over. That is true of course, but one of our insightful regular commenters (Pseudoplotinus) pointed to the risks of this approach: I found . . . . Continue Reading »
I take the conservative despair at Obama’s reelection as being mostly a good thing. Last week’s butt kicking was a long time coming and a major policy and rhetorical rethink is in order. The good news is that it happening. I’m not sure that I agree with everything last thing said . . . . Continue Reading »
Bret Stephens wants the GOP to “get a grip” and “tone down the abortion extremism.” So let’s do a hypothetical exercise. Imagine that the 2012 Republican nominee believed in the rape, incest and life of the mother exceptions to abortion restrictions. Now let us further . . . . Continue Reading »