Free Republic

So the first third of the Republican presidential race is ending. The first third is the introduction: "This is who I am, this is what I want to do, this is why you want to choose me." The campaign is announced, organized, and goes forward in key early states. The second phase is the long slog through the primary states to the convention next August in Tampa, Fla. The third and final is the election proper, in the autumn of 2012. *** The first phase was clouded by an overlay of frustration and dissatisfaction: The best weren't in the game....

The Trouble With Romney I read the New York Post this morning and, reluctantly, the weekly Peggy Noonan column. Noonan is a centrist RINO who thinks she represents mainstream American conservative thinking because she wrote speeches for Ronald Reagan over thirty years ago. You can read her article titled “Obama Can Lose” here: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/obama_can_lose_XyLH4VsgHAHvWQlmzrdGRJ?CMP=OTC-rss&FEEDNAME The traitorous Noonan—who supported, shrilled and voted for Obama in 2008—writes that even if the economy turns around, inflation calms and mid east unrest subsides, Obama will lose in 2012. According this shrill, the only way Obama will win is if the GOP fails to “nominate,...

The State of the Union Address is usually among the most important and least memorable of presidential speeches. The speech itself, in an august setting, is an opportunity for a president to break through in a new way. TV and radio carry it live, and it's hard for the average citizen to avoid seeing at least a piece of it. It's a real chance for a White House to tell the American people "This is where we stand, this is why we are here, this is what we believe in." But most State of the Unions don't measure up. They...

Peggy Noonan has never much cared for Sarah Palin. In 2008, she deemed Palin's presence on the Republican ticket "political bullsh*t," and later noted the former Alaska governor seemed "out of her depth in a shallow pool" during the campaign. Now Palin has riled her again, with her observation on Fox News that Ronald Reagan was "an actor" before becoming president. Needless to say, this isn't sitting well with Noonan, who so eloquently praised Reagan's feet in What I Saw At The Revolution ("It was a beautiful foot, sleek. Such casual elegance and clean lines. But not a big foot,...

'The people have spoken, the bastards." That would be how Democrats in the White House and on Capitol Hill are feeling. The last two years of their leadership have been rebuffed. The question for the Democratic Party: Was it worth it? Was it worth following the president and the speaker in their mad pursuit of liberal legislation the country would not, could not, like? And what will you do now? Which path will you take? The Republicans saw their own establishment firmly, sharply put down. The question for them: What will you do to show yourselves worthy of the bounty?...

And out-of-touch leaders don't see the need to cool things off. It is, obviously, self-referential to quote yourself, but I do it to make a point. I wrote the following on New Year's day, 1994. America 16 years ago was a relatively content nation, though full of political sparks: 10 months later the Republicans would take the House for the first time in 40 years. But beneath all the action was, I thought, a coming unease. Something inside was telling us we were living through "not the placid dawn of a peaceful age but the illusory calm before stern storms."

This week, two points in an emerging pointillist picture of a White House leaking support—not the support of voters, though polls there show steady decline, but in two core constituencies, Washington's Democratic-journalistic establishment, and what might still be called the foreign-policy establishment. From journalist Elizabeth Drew, a veteran and often sympathetic chronicler of Democratic figures, a fiery denunciation of—and warning for—the White House. In a piece in Politico on the firing of White House counsel Greg Craig, Ms. Drew reports that while the president was in Asia last week, "a critical mass of influential people who once held big hopes...

We have entered uncharted territory in the fight over national health care. There’s a new tone in the debate, and it’s ugly. At the moment the Democrats are looking like something they haven’t looked like in years, and that is: desperate. They must know at this point they should not have pushed a national health-care plan. A Democratic operative the other day called it “Hillary’s revenge.” When Mrs. Clinton started losing to Barack Obama in the primaries 18 months ago, she began to give new and sharper emphasis to her health-care plan. Mr. Obama responded by talking about his health-care...