Free Republic

THERE IS one man who can save the Republican Party, and his name is Mitt Romney. Seriously. Seven years after Romney crashed and burned in the 2008 Republican primary and three years after he beat a weak GOP presidential field before losing to President Obama, he is still the party’s best hope of winning back the White House.

With the baseball playoffs and Monday Night Football to compete with, even free pizza and soda couldn’t entice more than a handful of students to the Tulane University Political Science Department’s viewing party for the final presidential debate. And, as appears to be the case with the vast majority of Americans, most came with their minds pretty well made up.

New York Times editorial page editor Andrew Rosenthal, better known as James Taranto’s punching bag at Opinion Journal, has a new blog at nytimes.com, “The Loyal Opposition.” On Tuesday Rosenthal posted the provocatively titled “Herman Cain and the ‘Liberal Media,’” where he broadcasts his alarm at how “quickly the right wing jumps on an issue almost in unison,” blames Republicans for injecting racial fears into modern-day politics with Willie Horton, and even claiming the phrase "community organizer" is racist when applied to Obama.

Sometimes, media bias is all about the headline . . . The New York Times has a decent piece this morning detailing the background that led to the approval by the Obama admin of more than a half-billion in loan guarantees to the soon-to-go-kaput Solyndra solar firm. The article paints a picture of an Obama admin that was eager to get the money out the door, was heavily lobbied by Solyndra and its major player who was a big Obama donor. But check out the headline: "In Rush to Assist Solyndra, U.S. Missed Warning Signs." What do you mean, "U.S.",...

Executive Editor Bill Keller and Washington bureau chief Dean Baquet were interviewed at the National Press Club Monday night by Marvin Kalb for “New York Times Behind the Scenes,” which aired on C-Span. As reported Monday night by Keach Hagey of Politico, when Kalb asked what Keller thought of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who has launched a New York edition of the Wall Street Journal, Keller impishly replied “Who?” before saying he thought Murdoch’s greatest impact in the United States comes through Fox News. After hesitantly giving Murdoch credit for investing in journalism, albeit tabloid-style journalism, Keller criticized Murdoch’s “most...