The Republican Party, Ari Fleischer said earlier this year, is one presidential election away from unity and success. I disagree–there is much work to be done before then, and not necessarily in Fleischer’s preferred fashion. However, since leadership is probably
It is remarkable that President Barack Obama should prove so inept in international negotiation after winning a tough negotiation fight with his domestic rivals. Yet domestic opposition has always focused his attention more than foreign enemies; indeed, there is enthusiasm
So says my friend Ed Morrissey, and he’s largely right. But it is worth pointing out why that strategy feels inadequate to many conservatives: we were told the same thing in 2012, when the candidate did not really run on
The White House and its press corps have come to a consensus that the recent shutdown/debt limit debate was a “manufactured crisis”–the implication being that it was manufactured by Republicans. That is untrue–first because President Barack Obama and the Democrats
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) claimed on Friday that the fight to defund Obamacare had been a plus for the GOP, in part because it prevented Republicans from having to give in on the sequester. That fight is not yet over,
President Barack Obama attacked “bloggers” like me today, blaming us for the recent crisis and imploring the rest of the nation to find a way to responsible compromise. Instead of rejecting outright what he was saying, I paused to consider
President Barack Obama has said repeatedly that he hopes the “fever” of Republican opposition will “break,” as if checks-and-balances were a disease rather than the essence of the American Constitution. Ron Fournier of the National Journal–who in the past has
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is supposedly one of President Barack Obama’s best foreign friends. He epitomizes Obama’s ideal of an Islamist leader who adapts his politics to the needs of the global economy and the modern state–a model
National Public Radio has been cheerleading for President Barack Obama throughout the shutdown, and exulted in his political win the morning after Congress passed legislation to end the confrontation. But Morning Edition host Renee Montagne went even further in her
And by “devil,” I mean Eric Boehlert, who turned out to be right about Obama’s intransigence after all: adorable…..Breitbart’s @joelpollak dreaming out loud abt Obamacare “concessions” GOP is totally gonna win from WH; http://t.co/bJajDh4VzX — Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) October 1,
In the spirit of the President’s recent stance against negotiation over Obamacare and the debt ceiling, I propose that the same principle should apply to issues of equal importance. The security of America’s borders is one such issue. Accordingly, there
A specific provision in the draft of the Senate bill to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling, obtained exclusively by Breitbart News, provides for $174,000 to be provided to the widow of the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg
Philip Klein of the Washington Examiner is one of the most brilliant conservative commentators around, and his column today, “GOP can learn from Democrats on advancing their agenda,” is a worthy read. However, while I agree that Republicans can learn, I
The Senate’s deal on ending the shutdown and raising the debt ceiling may have saved the country from further crisis. It may also have saved John Boehner’s speakership. House conservatives seem to have accepted that the deal, while bad, is
Former Weather Underground terrorist Bill Ayers tells Salon.com today that Andrew Breitbart and Tucker Carlson are not “all that bright.” His evidence: they believe(d) in “small government.” His argument: Somalia has a small government, too. It takes a special kind
On Monday, Ross Douthat of the New York Times mocked the Tea Party as the “Kurtz Republicans,” comparing them to the villain of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. On Wednesday, however, Douthat acknowledged that the Tea Party actually had some good
As the Down Jones Industrial Average broke through 150 points up on the day–after half an hour of trading–National Public Radio’s hourly news broadcast was still stuck on yesterday’s mainstream media narrative, informing listeners that a congressional deal on the
Some House Republicans seem to have settled on Ted Cruz and the Tea Party as the scapegoats for the party’s apparent capitulation in the budget and debt ceiling fights. Robert Costa of National Review Online relates that members of the Republican
President Barack Obama and the media have been hoping for weeks that the stock market would crash to teach those extremist Tea Party Republicans a lesson about imposing fiscal discipline on the nation. Here was NBC’s Chuck Todd yesterday: Tomorrow,
Former Bush speechwriter and Daily Beast contributing editor David Frum echoed much of D.C. and elite liberal opinion when he suggested on Tuesday that it would be a “blessing” for Republicans if the Tea Party left the party. “[I]t’s not
In basic negotiation, there is an idea called a ZOPA–a Zone of Possible Agreement, describing the range of deals that might be acceptable to all sides. If there is no ZOPA, negotiation might be a waste of time. Greg Sargent,
Col. Alan West, the veteran, stalwart Tea Party conservative and former congressman from Florida, staked out an anti-free trade position earlier today at Breitbart. On many issues, I agree with Col. West, but on trade I cannot. Though additional authority
The House has yet to vote on Republican leaders’ proposed bill for ending the government shutdown and the debt ceiling fight. The GOP, having entered aiming to defund Obamacare and reach some agreement on major budget changes, now merely hopes
President Barack Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid seem hell-bent on forcing Republicans to choose default. By pre-emptively rejecting House Republicans’ minor modifications to the proposed Senate deal on the shutdown and the debt ceiling, the White House and
President Barack Obama is eager to life sanctions against Iran. The Hill reports that a senior administration official says that sanctions will be lifted “quickly” if Iran meets western concerns about its nuclear program. There is, actually, a case for lifting
