Free Republic

In a 2008 debate, Charlie Gibson asked Barack Obama about his support for raising capital gains taxes, given the historical record of government losing net revenue as a result. Obama persevered: "Well, Charlie, what I've said is that I would look at raising the capital gains tax for purposes of fairness." A most revealing window into our President's political core: To impose a tax that actually impoverishes our communal bank account (the U.S. Treasury) is ridiculous. It is nothing but punitive. It benefits no one - not the rich, not the poor, not the government. For Obama, however, it brings...

Almost every Friday, Washington Post columnist and Fox News Channel regular Charles Krauthammer takes on a different role. Krauthammer tapes a program where he is the lone conservative on a panel. The show: The weekend broadcast of the nationally syndicated program “Inside Washington.” During this weekend’s edition, an unyielding Krauthammer went after President Barack Obama and his failure to “change how Washington works” in terms of putting forth a so-called jobs agenda. “[H]e came in on ‘hope and change’ and he said he would change the way Washington works,” Krauthammer said. “And we just heard him in the sound bite...

As he normally does on "Inside Washington," PBS's Mark Shields Friday was waxing moronic about Republican plans to balance the budget. Not pleased by the fictional account on display, syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer challenged his fellow panelist saying, "Democrats have not even produced a budget for 2012. What’s their budget?" (video follows with transcript and commentary): Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/07/03/krauthammer-challenges-shields-where-democrat-budget-whats-their-plan#ixzz1R98RVLOf

A Mark Halperin misstep this is not, but Newsweek magazine columnist Evan Thomas had some pretty strong words for President Barack Obama Friday. On “Inside Washington,” host Gordon Peterson asked his panel to suggest a way to overcome the current impasse and get Congress and the White House moving on a budget deal. Thomas offered up a solution, but also expressed his frustration with Obama. “Yeah, because it’s happened before – Obama has got to be President of the United States,” Thomas said. “He has to be two things. He has to make a public case of how bad is...

FOX News contributor Charles Krauthammer gives his take on what a "Washington establishment elitist" thinks of a potential Sarah Palin run for the presidency. In self-deprecating fashion, Krauthammer says he wears Palin's "hoity-toity" comment as a badge of honor. "She is very smart and adept. Great political instincts and is a star. The problem with her, I think, is that she is not schooled. I don't mean she didn't go to the right schools. I mean when you get into policy, beyond instincts -- I like her political instincts, I like her political overall view of the world -- but...

On Bret Baier FOX News show yesterday Charles Krauthammer revealed that Donald Trump had called him personally and as a result of their conversation Krauthammer is convinced Trump is "absolutely" running for president. It was a surprise, and when my secretary told me, I put on a helmet and a flak jacket as I answered the phone. I expected a tirade, which he had every right to do given what I have been saying about him. In fact, he was courteous but very calm, and he made his case, rather than sort of attacking everything I said about him. Simply,...

Several factors catalyzed the Arab spring. But the Bush Doctrine set the premise. Voices around the world, from Europe to America to Libya, are calling for U.S. intervention to help bring down Moammar Qaddafi. Yet for bringing down Saddam Hussein, the U.S. has been denounced variously for aggression, deception, arrogance, and imperialism. A strange moral inversion, considering that Saddam’s evil was an order of magnitude beyond Qaddafi’s. Qaddafi is a capricious killer; Saddam was systematic. Qaddafi was too unstable and crazy to begin to match the Baathist apparatus: a comprehensive national system of terror, torture, and mass murder, gassing entire...

Voices around the world, from Europe to America to Libya, are calling for U.S. intervention to help bring down Moammar Gadhafi. Yet for bringing down Saddam Hussein, the U.S. has been denounced variously for aggression, deception, arrogance and imperialism. A strange moral inversion, considering that Saddam's evil was an order of magnitude beyond Gadhafi's. Gadhafi is a capricious killer; Saddam was systematic. Gadhafi was too unstable and crazy to begin to match the Baathist apparatus: a comprehensive national system of terror, torture and mass murder, gassing entire villages to create what author Kanan Makiya called a "Republic of Fear." Moreover,...

Hosni Mubarak’s vague address to the Egyptian people on Thursday has led to uncertainty in the country that has some prognosticating the worst. On Thursday’s Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” Charles Krauthammer accused the Egyptian president of being delusional, and said his response will lead to “an explosion.” “That was a shocking speech and what is shocking about it is they had raised the expectation of the crowd in the square,” Krauthammer said. “There was an announcement by the military earlier that their demands would be met, as we saw all of the dancing, and all of a sudden you...

It's a good sign when Europeans are condemning multiculturalism.

Some in the media have credited President Barack Obama for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s decision not to seek reelection and to eventually step aside. And with Obama’s speech on Tuesday evening from the White House, is that the message he was trying to send? On the Tuesday broadcast of Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” network contributor Charles Krauthammer noted the importance of the president being intentionally vague in his response, but also said nothing new was learned from the president’s speech. “There was a lot of studied ambiguity in that,” Krauthammer said. “All kinds of phrases, which can be interpreted...

There's something cryptic and elusive about Krauthammer, like the coy Waldo in the famous puzzle. (And don't miss Steve Green on "Krauthammer Correcting Krauthammer." )Charles Krauthammer has long been recognized as one of America’s most astute and authoritative political columnists, acknowledged as a cut above the majority of his scrivening colleagues. And yet there is something cryptic and elusive about him, like the coy Waldo in the famous puzzle. Perhaps he resents being put in boxes and wishes to preserve his independence of judgment, or his unpredictability. Still, one detects a growing tendency to pronounce upon critical affairs without sufficient...

A house divided against itself cannot stand… but it will certainly garner a lot of media attention. As we told you earlier, conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is criticizing Fox News Channel’s “All-Star Panel” for, as he sees it, “slobbering” over President Barack Obama’s speech at this week’s memorial event for those killed in the recent Tucson, Arizona shooting. Fox News is, of course, fighting back. Charles Krauthammer appeared on Bret Baier’s show last night and responded to Limbaugh’s critique: "As one of the three slobberers… I find it interesting that only the ruling class wants a president who is...

It's healthy, even natural, for Americans to feel populist resentment against elites that base their status on inherited wealth and family connections. But it's toxic, misguided and profoundly stupid to focus public hostility on leaders who achieved their positions through education, diligence and ability. Recent sniping between Sarah Palin and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Charles Krauthammer highlights the crucial distinction between rebellious attitudes that attack unfairly arrogated power and privilege and a trendy neo-populism that attacks brains. When Krauthammer dared to suggest that the former Alaska governor looked less than "presidential" while shooting caribou with Kate Gosselin on her hit TLC...

It's Christmas Eve, so let's treat ourselves to something conservative political junkies enjoy: handicapping the 2012 Republican field. On the Fox News Special Report this evening, panelists Stephen Hayes and Charles Krauthammer both singled out Mitch Daniels as a man to watch. Hayes identifed the Indiana gov as perhaps the true Tea Party candidate—someone willing to speak the hard truths about the need for entitlement reform. The ever-interesting Krauthammer found Daniels' lack of charisma appealing--as an antidote to our overdose of hope-and-change. View video after the jump.

Bill O’Reilly recently talked with frequent Fox News guest Charles Krauthammer to handicap potential GOP candidates’ chances in the 2012 presidential election. Krauthammer called Mitt Romney the front-runner” and said Mike Huckabee has established himself as a “major player”…but his most dissected comments will probably be his remarks on one Sarah Palin. Krauthammer compared Palin’s problem to Hillary Clinton’s in the late 1990s – strong support from her core base, virulent opposition from most others. O’Reilly asked if the level of opposition to Palin is the media’s fault, and while Krauthammer said they’ve “contributed enormously” and that “the animus to...

Pulitzer-winning commentator Charles Krauthammer, now a Fox News analyst, says he started out as a Democrat, but then realized the "Great Society" actually hurt the nation. Now his most admired president is Ronald Reagan and he calls himself a psychiatrist in remission. The comments come in Krauthammer's interview with author Burt Prelutsky for Prelutsky's new book, "Portraits of Success: Candid Conversations with 60 Over-Achievers."

The junk man’s revolt marks the point at which a docile public declares that it will tolerate only so much idiocy. Ah, the airport, where modern folk heroes are made. The airport, where that inspired flight attendant did what everyone who’s ever been in the spam-in-a-can crush of a flying aluminum tube — where we collectively pretend that a clutch of peanuts is a meal and a seat cushion is a “flotation device” — has always dreamed of doing: pull the lever, blow the door, explode the chute, grab a beer, slide to the tarmac, and walk through the gates...

We are assured from NPR mouth pieces that Juan Williams was fired for expressing a personal opinion, which is against NPR rules. If those are the rules, they seem to be selectively enforced as this old footage of Nina Totenberg shows. Could it be that Juan Williams was fired for expressing a politically incorrect opinion on a conservative friendly news network while being African American? Could it be that NPR allows its reporters to wish that Republican Senators or their innocent grandkids die a slow, horrible death from AIDS and are now fired? Mind if a conservative should call down...

Figuring out what’s inconsistent with NPR’s editorial standards can be awful difficult. The network terminated the contract for Fox News contributor Juan Williams because of a comment about Muslims, but apparently has yet to take a similar action against Nina Totenberg. From Reason’s Michael Moynihan: Check out this clip, from way back in 1995, of NPR’s Nina Totenberg telling the host of PBS’s Inside Washington that if there was “retributive justice” in the world the (admittedly loathsome) Jesse Helms would “get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it.” Totenberg is still NPR’s legal affairs correspondent.