On Tuesday’s episode of the “Laura Ingraham Show,” Pat Buchanan dismissed rumors that another candidate — such as Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal or former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — could be selected in a “smoke filled room” by a GOP leadership unhappy with Republican front-runners. (more)
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern was being treated at a hospital in South Dakota after falling and hitting his head on the pavement outside a library bearing his name. (more)
National Rifle Association President David Keene told The Daily Caller on Thursday that he and the NRA think Attorney General Eric Holder should resign immediately. Keene joins 34 members of Congress calling for Holder’s immediate resignation. (more)
Current arguments over the role of the Republican Study Committee should be kept in perspective. Having served as its first full-time executive director (1973-1977), I can help with that. (more)
Whenever gasoline prices go through the roof, we’re treated to the same, never-ending political spat that we went through last week; liberals want to release crude from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to help poor, downtrodden motorists while conservatives scream that the SPR is for supply emergencies only and not for domestic political gestures. (more)
On June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse “America’s public enemy number one.” Forty years later, the momentum to end what subsequently became the war on drugs has never been stronger. (more)
President Obama’s recent troubles with the visit of the controversial rapper Common to the White House may demonstrate bad judgment on the part of the White House, but Obama is hardly the first president to have to navigate the difficult waters of dealing with notorious and mercurial entertainers. (more)
Do Republicans need to grow up — again? (more)
Earlier this week, Chris Bedford, national vice-chairman of Young Americans for Freedom, explained why his organization had chosen to expel Ron Paul from YAF’s national advisory board. Bedford makes repeated reference to the guiding “Sharon Statement” drafted by Williams F. Buckley and other conservative leaders in 1960, and states the case for why its principles cannot be reconciled with Paul’s opposition to aggressive U.S. militarism. (more)
Ronald Reagan was a man of second — and third — acts. But if you want to know about the core of the man, I recommend taking a trip to his alma mater, Eureka College, out on the rolling plains of Illinois. (more)
This week, television news has been filled with graphic images of violence and turmoil as Egyptians who want to toss President Hosni Mubarak out of office have clashed with pro-Mubarak supporters in the streets of Cairo. (more)
The Obama administration’s approach to China is entirely consistent with establishment foreign policy thinking over the last 40 years, with a few brief exceptions, through Republican and Democrat administrations. (more)
There’s no need to make a movie about the Tucson massacre and the media’s reaction to it. It’s already been done. It’s called “Watchmen.” (more)
Comeback kids in politics, as in sports or any other competitive endeavor, are those that truly surprise us. The more the media labels someone a comeback kid before the comeback, or a politician claims to be one, the more likely the characterization, win or lose, will turn out to be untrue. (more)
After this week’s FCC ruling regarding the internet regulations that are euphemistically known as “net neutrality,” I have come to the conclusion that, in the eyes of those on the left, too much government is not enough. Actually, the FCC ruling did not prompt me to come to that conclusion; it merely prompted me to write about it. (more)
PRINCETON, NJ — Of the nine U.S. presidents who have served in the past 50 years, John F. Kennedy continues to earn the highest retrospective job approval rating from Americans, now 85%. Ronald Reagan ranks second, with 74%. While these presidents’ ratings are largely unchanged from 2006, Bill Clinton’s rating has improved, putting him in third place, while Jimmy Carter, at 52%, has dropped from third to sixth. Richard Nixon remains the lowest rated. (more)
LOS ANGELES — Republicans are relishing the coming of a new day on Capitol Hill. But across the country in California, the party of Nixon and Reagan is drifting toward obscurity. (more)
Democrats need to produce evidence of their accusations that conservative groups are using foreign funds for election purposes or “shut up” about the issue, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele said. (more)
Speaking at Duke University last week, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates expressed his concern that maintaining an all-volunteer force costs too much and that too few Americans bear the burdens of war. But is he sending Americans a mixed message that, coming as it does in the midst of the growing U.S. fiscal crisis and two prolonged and controversial wars, risks encouraging solutions to one problem that will make the other problem worse? (more)
Just when political pundits thought we’d seen every campaign trick in the book, this year’s mid-term election cycle once again proves us wrong. Credit (or blame, depending on your viewpoint) for the newest fad in electoral tactics goes to an odd figure: former Virginia Senator George Allen. (more)
