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From last night's Special Report

Brilliant as always

It’s Iowa minus 32 days, and barring yet another resurrection (or event of similar improbability), it’s Mitt Romney vs. Newt Gingrich. In a match race, here’s the scorecard: Romney has managed to weather the debates unscathed. However, the brittleness he showed when confronted with the kind of informed follow-up questions that Bret Baier tossed his way Tuesday on Fox’s “Special Report” — the kind of scrutiny one doesn’t get in multiplayer debates — suggests that Romney may become increasingly vulnerable as the field narrows. Moreover, Romney has profited from the temporary rise and spontaneous combustion of Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry...

Krauthammer declares Romney ‘most conservative candidate who can win’ thus far Jeff Poor - The Daily Caller 1 hr 21 mins ago Although we’re some 14 months out of the 2012 presidential election, knowing who will be facing President Barack Obama is still up in the air. Texas Gov. Rick Perry’a initial splash upon entering the field of Republican candidates garnered him a lot of attention and a bump in the polls, but some are saying that the luster has worn off. On this weekend’s broadcast of “Inside Washington,” Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer, who admitted he wasn’t sold on...

Charles Krauthammer has kind words for both Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. He thinks it is obvious that she is not going to run, he calls it a "smart" move. Krauthammer believes she definitely has a future in GOP politics. Krauthammer thinks Bachmann is a serious candidate, being a sitting member of Congress and her knowledge of policy.

With a lot of media attention, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin visited the nation’s capital over the weekend to kick off a bus tour, in which she will visit various national landmarks. But some see the trip as a campaign stunt for a possible 2012 presidential campaign. On Monday’s “Special Report,” syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer offered his thoughts on the bus tour, but admitted he wasn’t clear on what was motivating it. “I don’t know – it’s more eccentric than usual, this event,” Krauthammer said. “She says she is going around to highlight ‘the foundation of the country.’ I don’t...

"O'Reilly Factor" producer Jesse Watters caught up with Donald Trump in New Hampshire on Wednesday and asked him what he thought of Charles Krauthammer's personal attacks, the latest one comparing "The Donald" to a "crackpot" "drunk." Mr. Trump shot back at Krauthammer, calling him a "sad fool" who was trying to ride his coattails for publicity. http://nation.foxnews.com/donald-trump/2011/04/28/trump-and-krauthammer-take-personal-attacks-new-level

Unified Field Theory of 2012, Axiom One: The more the Republicans can make the 2012 election like 2010, the better their chances of winning. The 2010 Democratic shellacking had the distinction of being the most ideological election in 30 years. It was driven by one central argument in its several parts: the size and reach of government, spending and debt, and, most fundamentally, the nature of the American social contract. 2010 was a referendum on the Obama experiment in hyper-liberalism. It lost resoundingly. Of course, presidential elections are not arguments in the abstract but arguments with a face. Hence, Axiom...

Krauthammer: "There is Trump, Trump is the Al Sharpton of the Republican Party – provocateur and clown, unserious. I think he’s going to harm the party if he runs for the same reason Sharpton harmed the Democrats"

It was likely not a surprise to "Inside Washington" viewers that most of the usual suspects on the panel Friday saw the crisis in Japan as not being good for the future of nuclear powered electrical plants in this country. What certainly must have raised a couple of eyebrows though was the strongest opposition to any further construction of such facilities coming from lone conservative Charles Krauthammer (video follows with transcript and commentary): CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE VIDEO... CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Look, I think nuclear is dead as a result of this. Look, if Three Mile Island which was a...

Jonathan Martin stirred up a hornet’s nest with his regular hit piece on Sarah Palin. But an answer from the heart came from “Bobby, US ARMY ret” in the comments section at The Right Scoop: "She is “divisive” because the conservative movement is full of cowards who bend over because they are afraid of the left and the media. Why not fight against the smears? Why not fight for the truth? Instead conservatives run and hide and then wonder why even after 8 years of BUSH the country moved to the left!!!!!!! While Governor, her state was one of 2...

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...

When I was growing up, my parents taught me that if you want people to think you’re smart, just shut up. They didn’t encourage me to shut up completely – maybe they should have – but the lesson was: never talk about things you know nothing about and people might think you’re smart..... .....For several years now, the elites have been trying to fool us in believing that two people, one on the left and one on the right, are very smart people. On the left, we have the President and on the right, we have Charles Krauthammer. We are...

Is the idea that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin could be America’s next president laughable? Not only to many on the left, but also to conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer. On Friday’s broadcast of “Inside Washington,” Krauthammer offered several reasons why Palin shouldn’t be considered the presumptive Republican nominee for the 2012 presidential election. “What do you mean if not Sarah Palin in 2012?” Krauthammer said. “Who’s saying she’s going to be the presidential candidate? I don’t even hear her saying it. Her chances of being are smaller than half a dozen other people. If you talk to Republicans, I don’t...

Alternate headline: “Confirmed: Krauthammer’s a RINO.” Seriously, though, he’s making a shrewd point about retail politics, especially given the left’s desperate obsession with “branding” as the source of all of its problems. No matter how expensive ObamaCare gets, no matter how many unintended consequences there are, they’ll never admit that their signature domestic achievement is bad policy. There’ll always be an excuse, be it not enough Obama speeches on the subject or an insufficiently catchy name for the legislation (really!) or, inevitably, the idea that only by making the system more statist via a public option or single-payer will it...

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.

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s decision to run for reelection as a write-in candidate has been greeted by conservative activists as the latest outrage in an ongoing struggle between establishment Republicans and the GOP’s activist base. Murkowski’s move ends the 2010 primary season about where it started: With a Republican legislator, well regarded within the Beltway, effectively bolting the party to look after their own fortunes. In the spring of 2009, it was Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter switching to the Democratic caucus in an ultimately unsuccessful attempt to get reelected. Now, it’s Murkowski making a long-shot effort to win another term...

Obamacare Version 1.0 is dead. The 1,000-page monstrosity that emerged in various editions from Congress was done in by widespread national revulsion not just at its expense and intrusiveness but also at the mendacity with which it is being sold. You don't need a PhD to see that the promise to expand coverage and reduce costs is a crude deception, or that cutting $500 billion from Medicare without affecting care is a fiction. But there is an exit strategy. And a politically clever one, if the Democrats are smart enough to seize it. (1) Forget the public option. Whatever the...