Free Republic

John McCain did America a favor last night and lost the Michigan Primary to Mitt Romney. That was thoughtful of him, because I believe his legislative history on taxation and immigration would make him a potentially detrimental US President. However, I’m bothered by the manner in which he lost last night’s Michigan Primary. John McCain lost because he told people the truth. He explained to Michigan that their political leadership, their unions and their corporate executives had spent the last 30 years trashing the Michigan economy. He told them that they were not going to get back the jobs that...

George W. Bush is a transformative president. Bill Clinton skillfully adapted to circumstances. George W. Bush -- clumsily in the view of his critics, but with confidence self-evident to those who watched his State of the Union with clear eyes -- sets out to transform America and the world. And is succeeding. Consider Social Security, the centerpiece of Bush's domestic policy this year. The conventional wisdom is that change is impossible. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid says he has 45 votes lined up to filibuster any change. But Bush is working to change public opinion. The first polls taken after...

While seeing relatives in Port Limon, Costa Rica in 1999, I stepped into my great aunt's house after a late-morning stroll. "What's for lunch?" I asked. "Liver and onions," she triumphantly announced. Trying to offend neither my dad's sister nor my visiting grandmother, I sat down and ate an oily serving of fried, seasoned organ meat. I soon smilingly accepted a second helping. Calmly, I ignored the bellyaching of my inner food critic who feared that something so greasy could not be so healthy. The GOP Congress seems equally resigned to grit its collective teeth and swallow a massive Medicare...

On now.

For the first time Tuesday, Interior Secretary Gale Norton publicly voiced her support of federal property buyouts for Everglades restoration. Norton said the current impasse over property in a controversial area in Miami-Dade County is posing a hurdle to the overall restoration. At issue is a plan to purchase about 100 homes on the western fringe of an area known as the 8 1/2 square-mile area to clear the way for increased water flows into Everglades National Park and, ultimately, into Florida Bay. The increased flows, known as the Modified Waters Delivery project, must occur before many projects in the...