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It's morning again in America.

This past weekend, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Jews who dared to visit one of the religion’s most holy sites, known as the Temple Mount, a “herd of cattle.” Israeli authorities, on the other hand, allow free passage for Muslims to pray at the site Palestinians refer to as the Dome of the Rock. Jews are largely restricted from praying at that site, for fear that their presence alone may enrage Muslims, and that sharing a holy site with Jews may incite them to commit acts of violence. On Friday, the Palestinian President said that the Jewish community does not...

It is hard to overstate the pessimism of the American people right now. The last time as many Americans said the country was on the “right track” as said we were headed in “the wrong direction” – never mind having a positive balance — was June 2009. There have been particularly bad moments in recent years, such as the summer-2011 debt-ceiling fight and the fall-2013 government shutdown, but for most of the past six years, the numbers have been depressingly stable. Twenty-some to 30 percent of Americans feel like things are on the right track; 60-some to 70 percent...

It is the Ten Days of Repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a time for the Jewish people to repent for their sins and ask others for forgiveness for any wrongdoing. In that spirit, please accept my open apology to my fellow Jews. I have truly put you all in danger. On November 6, 2012 I took part in a historic event in of which I am very ashamed. In fact, I am quite embarrassed. I helped put into the White House an imposter and a fervent enemy of the Jewish people. Barack Hussein Obama Maybe my wrongdoing is...

I like Jeb Bush; I like his brother, George. At a personal level – not a political level – they live the sorts of lives that conservatives should want us all to live. Mitt Romney also has lived an honorable and decent life, with hard work and love of family as vital elements of his character. While George H. Bush, John McCain, and Bob Dole are much less likeable, I cannot, as a conservative or a patriot, dismiss out of hand their courage against evil nations in combat or their noble tenacity in combat or after combat injuries. But these...

Warren Buffett is predicting that Hillary Clinton will not only run for president in 2016, but that she will also win the election. 'Hillary is going to run,' said the billionaire investor while speaking at Fortune's Most Powerful Women Summit in Laguna Niguel, California, earlier today. He then went one step further, telling the audience, 'Hillary's going to win.' uffett famously supported both President Barack Obama and Clinton in the 2008 Democratic primary, going to great lengths to let people know how capable and talented he believed both candidates were in a 2007 interview with The New York Times.

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — The presidential election of 2016 is already wrapped up, says Warren Buffett. And the winner is: Hillary Clinton. “Hillary is going to run,” the Berkshire Hathaway CEO said Tuesday at a Fortune magazine conference. He added: “Hillary is going to win.” Buffett was so confident the former secretary of state would win the White House that he said he would bet money on it. The famed investor was less confident, however, about who Clinton would face if she decides to run. “I don’t know,” he said about a potential Republican challenger for Clinton.

In 1920 H.L Mencken wrote prophetically, “As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron.” Like the long tradition of antidemocrats from Plato to Founding Father Fisher Ames, Mencken believed that a democratic leader would reflect the self-interested aims and passions of the necessarily mediocre mass of voters. The disaster of Barack Obama’s administration invites...

A top Secret Service agent who has regularly served on President Obama’s protective detail had his gun stolen out of his car at his house after leaving it there overnight and was never disciplined for it, according to two sources with detailed knowledge of the incident.Internal Secret Service records show that the agency reported that the agent in question lost a semi-automatic handgun in 2009, but he was never punished for it, the two sources said.At the time of the gun theft, the agent was assigned to the Secret Service’s inspection division, which collaborates with the Office of Professional Responsibility...

A few months ago, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal traveled to Washington to introduce a new national health care proposal. While there, he arranged to meet privately with a small group of conservative journalists and policy experts at the offices of the Ethics and Public Policy Center think tank. Some of the experts engaged Jindal in debate about one of the plan's more arcane provisions. The back-and-forth between Jindal and his questioners went deep into the proposal's details, and it was soon clear that Jindal could dive as far into the health care policy weeds as any of the wonkiest wonks....

George W Bush has declared his younger brother Jeb "wants to be president", fuelling speculation that the Bush dynasty may soon launch a fresh bid to retake the White House. Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, is seen as one of the Republican Party's best hopes of defeating Hillary Clinton in 2016 and many party power brokers are eager for him to run. Jeb Bush has said he's still weighing his options but his elder brother is among those urging him to run.

With his frequent trips to the early primary states and recent staff changes, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Tex., is looking increasingly like somebody intending to run for president in 2016 — and it's easy to see why he would be tempted to do so. The next Republican race is going to be wide open, with no clear frontrunner, and the limited polling that exists on 2016 suggests Cruz would be starting out right in the mix with other candidates. If he declines to run and a Republican goes on to win the presidency, the earliest he'd be able to try would...

FOR nearly three decades, I’ve felt conflicted about presidential salutes. After all, my United States Marine Corps instructors drilled into me the idea that “you never salute without a cover” which, in civilian, meant without a hat. My fellow Marines and I were also informed, in no uncertain terms, that we weren’t to salute out of uniform. (I don’t think that presidential blue suits, white shirts and red ties quite qualify.) So whenever I saw a president stepping off a helicopter and bringing hand to brow, my drill instructor’s unambiguous words came back to me with much of their original...

President Obama is supporting the Secret Service in the wake of a deeply troubling incident in which a disturbed man jumped the White House fence, sprinted across the North Lawn, and actually entered the White House Friday evening. The man, 42 year-old Omar Gonzalez, had a folding knife in his pocket and had left 800 rounds of ammunition in his car not far from the White House. Gonzalez had also drawn the attention of authorities at least twice a few weeks ago — once in Virginia, when he was found with a sniper rifle, a sawed-off shotgun, and a map...

Former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman has engaged in discussions with supporters in recent months about pursuing another White House bid — this time as an independent, according to three sources close to Huntsman. The former Utah governor declined to comment for the record. His daughter, MSNBC co-host Abby Huntsman Livingston, who was a surrogate for Huntsman’s campaign in 2012, said in an email that her father is “primarily focused on family and private-sector endeavors.” She added: “He has no plans to run, but in politics never say never. I know there is a lot of pull out there for him...

Cue the 2016 speculations: The former president and CEO of Ford Motors isn’t ruling out a presidential run. Speaking at a radio industry conference in Indianapolis Thursday, former Ford head Alan Mulally kept his options open when he was asked whether he’d consider running for president, ABC News reported.

More evidence surfaced on Friday which proves conclusively that the 2016 presidential race is not upon us. At the very least, the “invisible primary” remains perfectly invisible for now. On Friday, a CNN/ORC poll was released which misled its readers into thinking that the presidential race is on in the Hawkeye State. That survey revealed that the campaign is a rather predictable one on the Democratic side. The state which rejected Clinton in 2008 is now prepared to embrace her. At least, 53 percent of Iowa Democrats are prepared to make that leap. Another 15 percent of Democrats back...

In 2007, Senator Barack Obama made remarks about the War Powers Act and the war in Iraq. He blamed Congress for giving the president the power to wage war that he later abused. “The American people weren’t just failed by a president, they were failed by much of Washington. By a media that too often reported spin instead of facts… And, most of all by Congress, a co-equal branch of government, that voted to give the president the power to wage war that he uses to this day. Without that vote, there would be no war.” But that was back...

A majority of voters believe Barack Obama’s presidency has been a failure, a new poll says. According to a Washington Post/ABC News poll released Tuesday, 52 percent of Americans say Obama’s presidency has been a failure, compared with 42 percent who believe it has been a success. Thirty-nine percent believe strongly that his presidency is a failure, just 3 points below his total success score.

Toward the end of the romantic comedy film The American President, Michael Douglas’s President Shepherd tells the assembled press corps, “Being president of this country is entirely about character.” This 1995 movie was made as a way of rescuing the scurrilous character of Bill Clinton from accusations of womanizing. It’s a pleasant and entertaining film but this line of dialogue, like just about everything else in the picture, is untrue. Being president of this country is somewhat about character — everything in life is — but it is also, very much, about ideas. There have been times over this past...