Free Republic

This week saw a showdown between the man whose most significant achievement before 2008 was that he very nearly got the asbestos removed from the Altgeld Gardens tenements in Chicago and the third-longest-ruling head of Egypt since the Pharaoh Ramses, whose reign lasted 67 years. The Egyptian, an 82-year-old with terminal cancer, easily bested the community organizer, the man elected by people who quite clearly confused the last presidential election with an American idol contest. While many who elected the American president probably do not yet realize it, it is lucky for them that he lost the showdown, for had...

Monday's ruling by federal Judge Roger Vinson that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act -- a k a ObamaCare -- is unconstitutional is a signal event in modern American history. For the first time since FDR browbeat the Supreme Court into accepting most of his New Deal, the Leviathan known as the federal government has been rocked back on its heels. If the administration and the Senate Democrats had any sense, they'd take Judge Vinson's ruling as a gift, not a setback. Because, whether they know it or not, the judge just handed them an opportunity to get health...