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Mitt Romney showed once again that he is truly a class act. In his announcement that he will not be running for president in 2016, he stated, "I believe that one of our next generation of Republican leaders, one who may not be as well known as I am today, one who has not yet taken their message across the country, one who is just getting started, may well emerge as being better able to defeat the Democrat nominee." This was unusual political humility. But let me highlight this specific phrase: "one who has not yet taken their message across...

Trump appears on MSNBC for a town hall hosted by “Morning Joe.”

In yet another aggressive move that will thrill Trump supporters, late Tuesday morning, Jesse Rodriguez, Senior Producer of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, announced a town hall event with Republican frontrunner Donald Trump that will take place Wednesday night at 8 p.m. The night will be hosted by Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski. The MSNBC town hall will compete directly with CNN’s long-schedule town hall with Trump’s two closest competitors, Sen. Ted Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio.

"The society that puts equality before freedom will end up with neither. The society that puts freedom before equality will end up with a great measure of both." -- Milton Friedman 'If there is ever a fascist takeover in America, it will come not in the form of storm troopers kicking down doors but with lawyers and social workers saying, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" - Jonah GoldbergIn a time where consumers have almost unlimited choices of music, movies, websites and every product you can imagine in the supermarket, socialism is an outdated economic system that...

That headline is technically accurate: Last night's Trump-free Fox News forum pulled in roughly 12-13 million viewers, better than the 11 million or so who watched the Fox Business debate earlier this month, at which The Donald stood center stage.  Trump out, ratings up!  Well, sort of.  The Des Moines debate was still the second-least watched GOP debate of the cycle (maybe third-least, including online live streams), and many Trump fans -- suddenly highly interested in nuance in context -- are pointing out that the lowest-rated one aired on FBN, which has a smaller footprint than Fox News or CNN nationwide.  True enough, although FBN's November debate...

"I can see why THEY gave you this question," says the kid. The version on CNN now cuts out the flub. Scripted questions shared with the candidates ahead of time. So much for the 'town hall'!

Lewandowski’s bluffing, just as Trump bluffed before the September debate in implying that he might not participate unless CNN devoted the proceeds to veterans groups. Stirring a little extra controversy is all part of Trump’s regular debate pre-game. And there’s not a ghost of a chance that Roger Ailes will meet his demand: Not only would he look weak in caving, he would humiliate the network’s new biggest star in doing so. If Fox wants to keep Kelly away from network news, agreeing with Trump that she’s tainted by bias and needs to be kicked off the panel would be...

That Donald Trump is no conservative is a proposition of which this conservative needs no convincing. On this score, the self-styled "conservative" contributors to the recent National Review symposium against Trump are correct.  It is their conservative bona fides that I challenge. For example, Glenn Beck suggests that Trump is no conservative because along with Barack Obama, Trump supported "the stimulus, the auto bailouts, and the bank bailouts." Yet Trump had neither authority nor power to make these ideas materialize.  That distinction is enjoyed by just those politicians who Beck supported. For years, Beck ran cover for George W. Bush, the 43rd president who,...

My reaction to the "Against Trump" issue of National Review: It's about damn time. It's not like contributors and editors of the conservative journal had been ambiguous on their feelings toward the billionaire and current GOP frontrunner. They've clearly had problems with him from the jump. But they'd done so individually. Now, they've spoken collectively in a way few conservative organizations would dare. To them, I quote John McClane form Die Hard in saying, "Welcome to the party, Pal." The appeal of a Donald Trump is obvious: 1) He has his own money, which means he's beholden to no one....

Today on CNN's State of the Nation, Jake Tapper revisited an old question with Donald Trump. He asked him about his faith and specifically about if he had ever asked forgiveness. By my count this is the third time that Trump has been asked the question. At he Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, back in June: Trump, who told CNN earlier that he is both anti-abortion and anti-same-sex marriage, said people are surprised to learn about his Christian faith. "People are so shocked when they find ... out I am Protestant. I am Presbyterian. And I go to church...

 There is a real chance that our next president will be Donald Trump.            I am not happy about that I've found a media niche as a hardcore conservative who outlets call to get the right wing view of why he's terrible (Well, at least media outlets without Don Lemon).  Yet it's foolish not to face the potential reality we are sort of just hoping he goes away thanks to flaws that never seem to actually hurt him.  We are not taking seriously the Donald Trump we actually face, as opposed to the one we wish we were facing.  Exactly 25...

And with Anderson Cooper's help, he flogs the conspiracy strawman You don’t think someone has this backward, do you? The president of the United States is determined to shove gun control down the throats of a nation that decidedly does not want it, and the president is very frustrated with the people for disagreeing with him. I’ve had enough of your insolence! CNN thought it would be a good idea to host a town hall, with an audience consisting of partisans on both sides of the issue, so Obama could calmly explain his position and “bridge the gap.” Yeah. That...

Today Guy Benson wrote that Ted Cruz lied about his positions last night on the legalization of illegals. Here’s what he wrote: Cruz now indignantly claims that the black-and-white evidence in these two clips is “not accurate.” Some of the Texas Senator’s defenders say that his pro-legalization amendment was merely a strategic move designed to prove a point (that Democrats were insistent upon citizenship, not legalization, because they were hunting for votes), or to help torpedo the broader legislation. But that’s not what Ted Cruz said at the time. He told journalist Byron York that his amendment was a good...

You have to feel sorry for Ted Cruz. Donald Trump has hogged so much airtime with his cynical demagoguery that the senator from Texas has had a hard time capturing the attention of Republican voters. That is surprising, because when it comes to cynical demagoguery, this is the first time Cruz has ever lost out to anyone. His patented formula is a mix of repellent ingredients: misrepresentation of facts, baseless smears, exaggerated sincerity and pretended solidarity with the average person. If Cruz tells you it's raining, you can leave your umbrella at home. Most candidates need a full-length speech or...

Donald Trump is like a contagion who infects everyone around him. Once you've kissed, you can never wipe his saliva off your face. Consider the venerable (in its own view) NBC. This year, the network fired Trump, only to find it is Trump Lite. On June 16, when Trump was announcing his candidacy for the White House, the billionaire reality-TV star faulted Mexico for sending problem people to the United States. Quoth Trump: "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists." Those comments were stupid and racist -- and they should have caused Trump to tank in the polls and...

GOP Presidential candidate and front-runner Donald J. Trump spoke and answered questions at a town hall event at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC on Friday, November 20, 2015. https://youtu.be/2PLGt9otVik

Live stream kept going out on me so heres the full replay if you missed some of it. GOP Presidential candidate and front-runner Donald J. Trump spoke and answered questions at a town hall event at Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC on Friday, November 20, 2015. youtube.com/watch?v=FMnfI1a0evE

resident Obama's reaction to the horrible terrorist attacks in Paris has been strange - and disturbing. Instead of rallying the country and calling for the United States to lead the fight to wipe out the Islamic State, what did he do first? He took pot shots at Republicans for their reluctance to open our borders to thousands of Syrian refugees. He even said some Republicans were helping ISIS recruit new fighters by suggesting that the United States should give preference to Christian refugees over Muslims. We're stuck with Obama and his failed leadership for another 13 months. Meanwhile, we'll have...

Scheduled for Oct 26, 2015 Donald Trump Town Hall in Atkinson, New Hampshire on Monday, October 26, 2015 Donald Trump, Matt Lauer and production crews for NBC’s “Today” show are descending on the small Granite State town of Atkinson for a nationally televised town hall event this morning, and local Republicans say if the big-haired real estate mogul can make the jump from bombast to policy, he could take their state’s first-in-the-nation primary.

ARE YOU crazy about Barack Obama? Do you fervently hope the next president of the United States will be as similar to the current president as possible? Then Donald Trump may be the candidate for you. Of all the candidates running for president, the one who most resembles the incumbent is not Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders or Martin O'Malley. To be sure, the Democrats' policy views largely overlap with Obama's. But when it comes to attitude and self-image, it's Obama and Trump who are birds of a feather. Everyone knows about Donald Trump's bottomless narcissism; this is a man...