Free Republic

DENVER – You're kidding. That was his best shot? An arrogant rehash of lines that had been done over and over again all week at the we-hate-Bush convention? On the night of his life, when so much hung in the balance, he punted? Was he so overconfident that he didn't take it seriously? In the closing act of the Democratic National Convention, it sounded like Barack Obama had used the seeming lone speech writer who made the entire week a monotony of the same phrases coming out of different mouthes. The mantra of Denver was John McCain equals George Bush....

DENVER – He better hit it big tonight. As it turns out, the Barack Obama campaign could come down to one speech in one football stadium in one Rocky Mountain town. For all the sunshine and smiles here in Denver, if we're being honest, it's do or die for the change you can believe in. John McCain has slapped one cheek, Hillary Clinton has slapped the other and if he's not careful, Barack Obama could be down for the count. That sounds nuts, doesn't it? Every talking head in America has this guy walking on water. But the reality is...

Hillary Clinton would have won this election. Joe Biden would have won this election. Bill Richardson would have won this election. Barack Obama just might lose this election. Has anybody noticed that, in this Year of the Democrat, Barack Obama is starting to choke? In a year when voters seem fed up with all things Republican, and poll after poll pitting a hypothetical Democrat against a hypothetical Republican shows the GOP candidate getting slaughtered, Barack Obama is in a dead heat with the oldest and least-inspiring man ever to run for the presidency. Is it time to start recognizing that...

For the last several months, the price of oil has been at record highs. Over those months, the companies that sell oil have made record profits. Barack Obama sees that as evil. The rest of us see it as cause and effect. If you drill, pump and sell oil, and your overhead has remained fairly constant, and the price of your product has skyrocketed on the world market, you flunk Econ 101 if you’re mystified by the boatloads of money you’re making. But you’re top of the class in Pandering 101 if you point to those profits and ignite and...

Let him run for president of Germany. I mean, he's a citizen of the world, after all. If he wants to play act at being president, and he needs some country to lord it over, let him try Germany. Because we sure don't want him here. We don't want a man whose limited experience should give him humility, but whose ego demands supremacy. We don't want a man who thinks that because he has the audacity to speak at the Brandenburg Gate that he should have the authority to do so. In this cult of personality which has developed around...

Is Al Gore nuts? I’m serious. Is it possible that the disappointment of losing the presidential campaign eight years ago destabilized him? If you think about it, since then, he’s been a changed man. First he got fat. He went through a dramatic physical change. He put on a significant amount of weight and grew a beard and got reclusive. Then he lost the weight and found a cause. Manmade global warming. It absolutely became his theme in life. After being largely silent on the issue during eight years as the vice president and a good run in the Senate,...

Not bad for a kid from Cape Girardeau. Rush Hudson Limbaugh III didn’t do so bad passing up the family predilection for law school. Not bad at all. The word leaked yesterday that Rush Limbaugh, one-half of the defining force in A.M. talk radio, has signed a contract for $400 million. He’ll be on the air for another eight years, and he’ll be rolling in dough for every second of it. The richest man in broadcasting has made so much money he’s going to have to change his name to Oprah. And I couldn’t be happier. He deserves it. By...

In a way, it doesn't matter what the Supreme Court decides. Right will still be right, wrong will still be wrong, and freedom will still be freedom. Sometime this morning – it may already have happened by the time you read this – the Supreme Court of the United States will announce whether the Second Amendment is an individual right or a state right. At issue is whether the Bill of Rights empowers the state to organize an army to keep you subdued or whether it guarantees you the right to arm yourself against the oppression of the state. And...

In the latest effort to deconstruct and destroy the United States, the Supreme Court has decided that a foreign terrorist captured on foreign territory trying to kill Americans has just as many constitutional rights as a Wal-Mart shoplifter. The liberals think this is a good thing. That's because they're America-hating idiots. Sorry, Obama, but if the shoe fits, cram it up your backside. In the liberal world view, where the war against terror is no larger than Gitmo and Abu Ghraib, the United States military is a collection of war criminals and puppy killers. Guantanamo Bay – where jihadist murderers...

This week will probably be the end. The six-month Democratic primary season has ended, and Barack Obama is apparently the winner. At some point, even Hillary Clinton will have to acknowledge that. This was one for the record books. For the first time in more than a generation the race was a race and individual states mattered, all over the country. America has taken a long and hard look at the candidates and, if turnout is any indicator, gotten more excited than it has in years. This campaign has been a good thing. Except in the outcome. The Democratic Party...

The Republican Party is dead. That’s what the smart people say. The “brand” has lost its meaning. I don’t know if the party is dead, but I do know it has lost its soul. It has abandoned its traditions and principles, and America seems to be just about done with it. Ironically, those who want to save it are the ones who have killed it. When Arnold Schwarzenegger says he wants to chart the course of the Republican Party, you might as well turn off the lights and go out of business. The Republican Party has lost its purpose by...

It’s not really about gay marriage. It’s about the balance of power. It’s about popular sovereignty. It’s about those very fundamental things that the Founding Fathers understood so well, but which have been omitted from the public consciousness and the school curricula for more than a generation. It’s about who, in our Republic, makes the rules. Yesterday, in California, by a 5-4 vote, a panel of judges redefined marriage. The fundamental relationship of society, a bedrock manifestation of culture and public sensibilities, was changed. And the people had no voice. In fact, the ruling specifically voided a 2000 vote of...

Obama can't win. It's not that complex, really. He just can't win. A candidate who can't win over his own party certainly can't win over the country. The traits and flaws which make him an unacceptable candidate to roughly a third of Democrats will make him an unacceptable candidate to a majority of Americans. And that's how you lose elections. This isn't meant to bash him, it's just meant to be honest and lay the cards on the table. The nagging question from the Clinton camp -- Why can't he close the deal? -- is legitimate and haunting, and it...

Congressmen are like myna birds. If you teach them a phrase, they will repeat it over and over, without the slightest idea what they're saying or what it means. Like “upside down.” Last week a congressman was boasting about a big mortgage bailout plan the Democrats flushed through the House of Representatives. It would put the taxpayers on the hook for the mortgages of people who weren't making their payments. Under the legislation, home lenders would sell their bum mortgages to the federal government at 90 percent of the value of the mortgaged property. That requires the lender to take...

If you're playing basketball and the guy elbows you under the net, it's an accident. The first time. After that, you've got to figure he's doing it on purpose. That's how life is. Once is a fluke, twice is a pattern. When somebody does something over and over, it's pretty hard to believe that it's not on purpose. It's pretty hard to believe that he's not gunning for you. Like the federal government. At this stage, it's pretty hard to believe that its incompetence isn't on purpose. It's pretty hard to avoid the conclusion that somebody has decided to put...

Actually, Barack, there are only two economists I care about. And they are Joe and Betty America as they sit down at the kitchen table to pay the bills. From their standpoint, cutting the gasoline tax is a good idea. From their standpoint, cutting any tax any time for any reason is a good idea. So save the self-righteous lectures about how suspending the gasoline tax for the summer is a bad or simplistic idea. You keep bringing down a household income of a million dollars a year and leave the real world to the rest of us. The idea...

At some point, they will examine this as a colossal failure of both law enforcement and journalism. The raid on the polygamist ranch in Texas. What we've learned thus far is that the rules no longer apply. The police no longer need probable cause and the reporters no longer need attribution and evidence. These people rape children, and 13-year-olds are bearing the children of men old enough to be their grandfathers. That is the story, and it is being repeated over and over without attribution or substantiation. It is accepted as fact – incendiary, provocative fact – without question or...

No, Barack, we're not bitter. We're American. And it's too bad you don't realize that. It's too bad you're gotten into middle-age, gone to the best schools, made yourself a millionaire, been elected to the Senate, and still have no idea how the majority of Americans see their country. It's too bad your nose-in-the-air superiority complex gives you the arrogance to dismiss tens of millions of your fellow citizens as your intellectual and social inferiors. It's too bad your view of this country is based on bigoted stereotype and simplistic generalization. But the fact is, slick, that you're full of...

Barack Obama is a lot of things. He is intelligent, fairly well spoken, accomplished and has run one of the brightest and most successful presidential campaigns in decades. He may be the next president of the United States. But there is one thing he will never be. And that is a unifier. No matter how many times he says it, no matter how many times his surrogates parrot the words, it will never be the case. In fact, even suggesting that it ever could be is one of the most outlandish and preposterous claims ever made. It is one of...

Republicans teach Americans to believe. Democrats teach Americans to hate. The Republican impulse is found in the inherent faith and hope of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. The Democrat impulse is found in the essential envy and anger of Marxism. Like the oil companies. In the face of rising gasoline and diesel costs, Democrats in the Congress want Americans to hate the oil companies. In hearings this week, the CEOs of several oil companies were vilified by Democrats in Congress who used the proceedings as a chance to prance and preen for the television cameras. The gist and thrust...

Five years in, the Iraq war has been a success. Not the success most envisioned, and not as successful as most envisioned, but it has been worth it. Here's an honest assessment. We have gained two things by this war, one of major significance and one of minor significance. The minor success was the deposing of Saddam Hussein. While freeing the Iraqi people of this dictator was desirable, it was of little consequence to the United States or our interests. Saddam made the top-10 list of world despots, but just barely. There is no defending his actions, but there are...

Sorry, Barack, it doesn't wash. Your elderly white grandmother being afraid of black men who pass her on the street is not the moral equivalent of your pastor saying that black people should pray that God will “damn America.” Your claim that you winced when your white grandmother bought into racial stereotypes does not excuse you for spending your entire adult life in the pews of a man who claims that white people in the United States government invented AIDS to “genocide” black people. And the fact that your genealogy is racially diverse doesn't change the fact that since you...

Sorry, Barack, it doesn't wash. Your elderly white grandmother being afraid of black men who pass her on the street is not the moral equivalent of your pastor saying that black people should pray that God will “damn America.” Your claim that you winced when your white grandmother bought into racial stereotypes does not excuse you for spending your entire adult life in the pews of a man who claims that white people in the United States government invented AIDS to “genocide” black people. And the fact that your genealogy is racially diverse doesn't change the fact that since you...

He paid her $4,300. But that particular roll in the hay cost Eliot Spitzer his governorship, his career and possibly the White House and his family. For a 5-foot-5, 105 pound, brunette woman whose real name he probably doesn't even know, he paid an awful lot. It's a horrifying, heart-breaking nightmare. A sick-to-your-stomach feeling of sadness and gloom. Little more than a year after storming into office as the great reformer, Eliot Spitzer is mortally wounded, felled by his own sword and the belief that, somehow, the very laws he vengefully enforced against others didn't apply to him. It started...

Hillary's got bigger balls. Push come to shove, Hillary versus Obama, she's the bigger man. In a knock-down, drag-out fight, toe to toe, she's got more backbone and pure piss and vinegar than he ever thought of having. And that's not a criticism. If we're going to put it in terms of who can take the call at 3 a.m., and it's a call that requires America to stand up on its hind legs and lay the smack down on somebody, you better have Hillary holding the phone. Don't get me wrong. I'm a conservative Republican. I'm not going to...

Should we use ethanol for fuel? Certainly. Should we use corn to make that ethanol? Certainly not. Sure, we want to get over our need for foreign oil. Sure, we want to find a renewable fuel for our vehicles. Sure, ethanol could work just fine. But don’t make it from corn. Here’s what I’m talking about. The president and a bunch of powerful people in Congress have been working over recent years to hold up corn-based ethanol as the answer to our future energy-supply needs. When he talks about it, the president says corn-based ethanol is our only hope of...

When you counsel someone to be compassionate, you make an assumption. It is an assumption of moral superiority. You presume that they are, in fact, not already compassionate. You presume that their position is inherently one that lacks caring and human concern but that your position, on the other hand, is somehow morally superior and enlightened. And that's a pretty arrogant thing to do. Because in presuming that others disagree with you because of some lack of intellect, understanding or humanity on their part, you run the very large risk of doing exactly what you accuse them of doing. You...

I trust baseball more than I trust Congress. And as soon as Congress gets done investigating baseball, I hope baseball returns the favor. A bunch of burly men with Louisville Sluggers turned loose in the halls of Congress might be just what this country needs. But what this country doesn’t need is a committee of blowhard political pukes meddling in baseball. Our country is falling apart and these morons are on national TV worried about a game. This is disgusting. As soon as they figure out how to get a hearing on Britney Spears, they’ll haul her in. What’s most...

Mitt was brilliant. Yesterday, talking to those conservatives, dropping out of the presidential race, he was absolutely brilliant. His speech left himself, the party, the conservative cause, the front runner and the country better off. Amid the broken pieces of his own campaign, he defined the importance of his opponent's campaign and provided a rationale for party unity – including conservative support – that was convincing and unmatched. Oddly, the guy who has stopped running crystalized the weakness of the Democratic candidates and the priority of Republican obligation. It's not about who's the real Republican, he said, it's about who's...

Maybe it's like 1976. Maybe the Republican Party needs to go through a cleansing. Maybe it needs to be torn down so someday it can be built up again. In 1976 the Republican bosses rejected Ronald Reagan. They mocked his conservatism and went with the liberal, Gerald Ford. We were coming out of the Nixon era, a time when about all anyone agreed on was that the Republican president had been a disappointment. The party went with a liberal and a dynamic young guy out of Georgia – who campaigned on a platform of change – got the Democratic nod....

The Pied Piper had an interesting job. He played his flute and rats followed him. They followed him right out of town. He charmed them. That's kind of how this election is going. The Pied Piper is playing and the rats are following. It was a two-part process, really. The piper had to pipe and the rats had to follow. He did something and they did something – essentially, they gave themselves over to him and decided to follow him wherever he went. Like I said, that's just like this election. The Pied Piper is the evening news and the...

I'm voting for Mitt Romney. In two weeks, on Super Tuesday, I'm casting my primary ballot for Mitt Romney. It's been a decision that's taken almost a year, and it's involved several back-and-forths, but this is where I come down. The candidate I want to represent the Republican party in this year's presidential election is Mitt Romney. Let me tell you why. Before I look at him, I want to look at the others. First, Rudy. Great man, outstanding leader, would probably make a fine president. Proven in time of crisis, well spoken under pressure, as smart as they come....

Latinos are now America’s largest minority. I have one question. Why? No, not the numbers. I understand about the birth rate and the immigration. I know that there are 37 million Latinos in America and 36 million blacks and that there are more Latinos than blacks. The numbers are easy. What I don’t understand is why Latinos are a “minority.” Italians aren’t. Germans aren’t. Poles aren’t. Why are Latinos? Why has one group immigrating to this country from a non-English background been partitioned into minority status while others have merely learned the language and the culture and fit in? What’s...

I've never seen a woman dumped as fast and as completely as the press has dumped Hillary Clinton. After 20 years of being the darling of the Fourth Estate, all it took was a few hundred Iowans to end the career of the smartest woman in the country and to deify a guy who three years ago was a less-than-stellar member of the Illinois state legislature. In the days since Barak Obama became the official darling of one-third of Iowa Democrats, seemingly every talking head in the country has fallen in love with him and kicked her to the curb....

Damn Social Security and the thieves who thought it up. That's my attitude. As I make a list of reasons why I hate the government, Social Security has to be near the top. It is, for me, the most recognizable and intrusive tyranny in my life. And that's saying a lot. We sadly live in a day when the strangling grip of government chokes the life and liberty out of working Americans all across this country. We are little more than sharecroppers and slaves in a system of taxation and regulation which dictates everything in our lives – from what...

Of course they destroyed the tapes. What do you think they are, idiots? I'm talking about the CIA waterboarding tapes, the ones that showed various jihad boys coming face to face with their fears. The CIA destroyed the tapes and the Democrats are pretending to be aghast. Here's the background. A bunch of religion-of-peace people flew some planes into some buildings in an effort to show us that we were infidels. This sparked outrage in the Muslim world. Tens of millions of people were deeply outraged that they didn't get chosen to be among the 19 martyrs. So, in an...

Barack Obama needs to address a couple of issues. Specifically, he should tell us what he thinks about God and country. He needs to tell us who God is and what he believes about him, and he needs to tell us what he thinks this country is and what his duty to it is. We need to make sure he's on the same sheet of music we are. These are not politically correct questions. They are questions the news media has unmovingly avoided. But they are fair questions, and they are questions at the very center of Barack Obama's suitability...

Long ago, they caught pickpockets with fish hooks. You'd leave a few in your pocket, walk through a crowd and wait for somebody to squeal. That's what this voucher fight has done – it has helped flush out the pickpockets. You can tell who they are by how loudly they're squealing. And how far they'll go to squeal. Which is illustrated by teachers unions from around the country that have sent in people and money to take away Utahns' privilege to claim a voucher to help pay for private school. In one of the most broad-ranging programs in the country,...

You can tell a man's character by how he acts when he's a guest in someone's home. By that standard, Harry Reid has none. No character, no class, no honor. He came to Brigham Young University this week, a guest of the school, and he acted like a fool. A dishonest, arrogant, manipulative fool. Harry Reid is the Senate majority leader, a Democrat, and he is also a Mormon. A stealth Mormon. The kind who doesn't let it get in the way of his politics. Certainly, that is rude and judgmental to say. But given the nature of his remarks...

Sixty percent of the American children in foster care are black. Let me repeat that. In the United States, of all the children in foster care, 60 percent are black. African-Americans are 60 percent of the foster children and 12 percent of the general population. That’s a 500-percent over representation. In ballpark terms, that means a black child is five times more likely to end up in foster care than the average American child. When you take black children out of the national average, blacks are in the neighborhood of 11 times more likely to be foster children than non-blacks....

I’d like to apologize to black people. And Latino people. I’m sorry the Republicans can sometimes be such idiots. If it’s any consolation, sometimes they’re just as stupid to us white people. I’m talking about the debates and the candidates. Last week, a long-scheduled Republican debate was held at a traditionally black college. It was understood that the topics were generally to be those of particular interest to black people. Unfortunately, when it came time for the debate, the four leading GOP candidates were no-shows. Top-tier contestants Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson blew it off, and so did those behind...

For its size, New York gets a disproportionately low number of illegal aliens. Mostly that's because illegal aliens go where they can get jobs, and thanks to suffocating taxes and regulations, there's no work in New York. Sure, the farmers are doing all they can to bring in illegals – it's a lot easier to pay aliens under the table than it is to offer citizens market wages – but still the majority of New York lags behind much of the country when it comes to the social rot resulting from illegal immigration. Fortunately, the governor is trying to change...

We are winning the war. In fact, it is a rout. We have been victorious every day we have fought. It's unfortunate that we don't see that. Tragic that we cannot recognize our good fortune and success. Astounding that we misperceive this war and its purpose and progress. But mark my word, we are winning. To understand that, you must understand the purpose of war and the purpose of the military. You must understand the context of this war and the intent and nature of the enemy we face. We are engaged in a war of national self-defense and, as...

September 11th must elicit resolve, not sorrow. It must be a prod to national strength, not a milestone of national weakness. Mourning has passed, memorialization will linger, grit must predominate. Six years have passed and the day of national trauma is long since gone. It is time to wipe away our tears and speak of something other than our pain. We must avoid turning this date into a maudlin exercise in getting in touch with our feelings. We must insist on not being revictimized every year by politicians and reporters intent on outdoing one another with feigned sincerity. September 11th...

Well, the big fight is on. The District of Columbia has asked the Supreme Court whether the Second Amendment protects my rights, or the rights of my state. Does the Second Amendment guarantee an individual liberty. A federal court decided earlier this year that the Second Amendment gives individuals the right to own a gun. The court cited that as cause for overturning the District of Columbia's toughest-in-the-nation gun laws. Earlier this week, District officials decided to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. People on both sides of the gun debate believe this case -- if the court hears it...

I'm not part of a conspiracy. The oil companies are not writing me checks. I'm just an American speaking my mind. I'm a throwback to when that was acceptable. And I think man-made global warming is a crock. Worse, I think it's a fraud being perpetrated on the developed world by an anarchist cult that wraps itself in liberalism and environmentalism. But global warming isn't about the environment, it is about a new slavery. A slavery that seeks to take away the economic freedom and prosperity of men and nations. A slavey that, like all slaveries, depends on the whip...

Few words have been more popular in recent years than "diversity." And few concepts have been more destructive. Destructive of our social fabric, destructive of our moral well-being, destructive of our ability to make judgements. In schools, non-profits and government programs across the nation, diversity has been held up as a great and noble prize. Some objective to be fought for and given prominence. It has become the top priority in institutions from colleges to corporations. And it has become a philosphy handed down like the word of god from the pulpits of education, business and government. And yet it...

So Double-You turned Scooter loose. He decided that 30 months in the lock-up for lying to an FBI agent and a grand jury was too much. So he cut him loose. Scooter still has a criminal record, he still has to pay a quarter-million-dollar fine, he still has to kiss up to a probation officer for two years. But he doesn't have to go to jail. Let's think about this. First off, Hillary can just sit down and shut up. Nobody with the last name Clinton has any right condemning anyone else for being a liar. Seems like her old...

It's not even about illegal aliens anymore. It's about the relationship between the government and the people. It's about who wears the pants in the family. And right now, the president and a whole bunch of others are confused about that. See, they think they're in charge. They think it's their country. They think they're going to tell us what to do. Well, they've got another think coming. This time they've got a fight on their hands. The background is illegal immigration and the years of treasonously incompetent government which have allowed it to turn into the biggest threat to...

Hey, there was great news out of Washington, D.C. yesterday. The federal government announced that it had posted the entire National Firearms Act Handbook on the Internet. Now, this 10 megabyte document is there for you to read any time you want. Send your Thank You cards to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. On a government website yesterday, we learned – and I quote – “The Handbook is an essential document for understanding and complying with the National Firearms Act.” Well, aren’t we some lucky people. The overseer has decided to post the rules of the plantation right...