Free Republic

Throughout the 1990s, Turkish foreign policy analysts had an easy job. After all, Turkish foreign policy was predictable. Ankara cooperated enthusiastically with Washington, whether in the Middle East or in the Balkans. Turkey aligned itself with Israel and kept at arms length from Middle Eastern neighbors such as Syria and Iran. In Europe, Ankara traded heavily with the European Union (EU) but did not allow the EU to dictate foreign policy. The European Union's frequent allegations and criticism of human rights abuses in Turkey, especially with regard to Turkey's fight against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK, Partiya Karkaren Kurdistan) terrorists, soured...

Catholics, who make up about 25 percent of the vote, are split between those who actually follow their religion and those who don't. And guess what: Bush gets the vote of practicing Catholics, and Kerry gets the vote of lukewarm "Catholics." Gallup surveyed a randomly selected national sample of 545 self-described Catholic registered voters, age 18 and older. Polls conducted between July 19-21 and July 30-Aug. 1 showed that among all "Catholic" registered voters, Kerry led Bush by 51 percent to 45 percent margin. Before mid-May, Gallup reported, Bush had at least a slight lead among Catholics in every poll....

WASHINGTON — When John Kerry speaks tonight he may promise, again, to cut corporate taxes and increase the size of the military by 40,000 persons. Both ideas are sensible — and tactical. They are supposed to blunt Republican charges that he stands on one side of a vast ideological chasm separating the parties. Democrats make similar, and similarly silly, charges about this election as the hinge on which American and world history will turn. What is strange about politics today is not just that it is so passionate — particularly on the part of Democrats unhinged by their loathing of...