Some of my colleagues are declaring Mitt Romney’s presidential hopes dead and buried; some are enthusiastically dancing on his political grave. This is premature. True, the latest video of Romney denouncing nearly half the country as self-pitying mooches seems to confirm the caricature of a heartless plutocrat that Democrats have spent …
Controversies
Video Captures Uncensored Mitt Romney at Fundraiser
In a hidden-camera video captured at a private fundraiser and posted Monday afternoon to the website of Mother Jones, Mitt Romney offers an assessment of Barack Obama’s supporters that is far more withering than any he’s revealed …
Why Akin Matters
We now have Representative Steve King (R., Ostrich) saying that he never heard of a girl getting pregnant because of statutory rape or incest. He thus joins Rep. Todd Akin (R., Clueless) among the ranks of blithering idiots …
Todd Akin Resists Calls to Withdraw from Missouri Senate Race After Rape Comments
Politics is tribal. When a candidate commits a typical gaffe, his opponents attack while his allies mount a defense. That’s just the way it goes. But once in a while, a candidate says something so devastatingly stupid everything …
Another Win For Show-Me-Your-Papers Politics: Romney Paid 13% Taxes
Have you heard the news? Mitt Romney revealed today, after weeks of avoiding the issue, that he has paid at least 13% in taxes in each of the last 10 years. The response from the Obama campaign: “Prove it.”
Just another day of …
Chick-fil-A Meets a First Amendment Buzzsaw in Chicago
Dan Cathy, the CEO of Chick-fil-A, is a self-described Christian businessman, who proudly runs his fast-food chain according to his own vision of Christian principles. His stores close on Sundays, for instance, and the company gives money to nonprofits that support limiting marriage to unions between a man and a woman. A couple of weeks …
What the Bain Attacks Are Really About
We’re in one of those presidential campaign moments where the campaign “debate,” such as it is, is trapped in a hermetic system with an only indirect connection to the future of the country. Is whether Mitt Romney kept a …
The NAACP Boos Romney: A Double Standard and a Breach of Civility
It’s politically fashionable to question the relevance of the 103-year-old National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. But the NAACP is still one of America’s most revered institutions, and deservedly so – …
Obama Welcomes Campaign Season with China Trade Complaint
Maumee, Ohio.
“It’s campaign season, again,” Barack Obama announced Thursday, after emerging in the sweltering summer heat behind hay bales and before a giant American flag draped across the roof of a nearby building. …
House Republicans Cite Holder for Contempt, Seek to Link Obama to ‘Fast and Furious’
In an escalating partisan showdown sparked by a Congressional investigation into a botched gun-trafficking sting, House Republicans voted to hold U.S. Attorney Eric Holder in contempt Wednesday for failing to comply with a …
Where There’s Smoke There’s Louis Freeh
The story of former FBI director Louis Freeh is an odd one. Freeh was openly hostile to Bill Clinton, the President who appointed him, and later trashed Clinton in a book for allegedly selling out an FBI terrorism investigation …
Scandal vs. Scandal: Obama Might Be Glad the Secret Service Is Overshadowing the GSA
For the past week or so, the news media have hyped two government scandals with very different implications. The first is the revelation that some workers at the General Services Administration (GSA) have found a way to turn …
ALEC Scraps Gun-Law, Voter-ID Task Force
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a Washington nonprofit that brings together conservative lawmakers and corporate representatives to craft state-level legislation, announced on Tuesday it is disbanding its Public …